Okay, deep breath!

I need to supplement my income (single mother with huge mortgage and two kids that would love to have more of everything) without going under in the process. I've been helping my partner out in his business as his Office Manager, working odd hours and weekends. It has helped enormously and I am really grateful to him. However, based on past experience, I know that I can't be in a position where I am dependent on a partner to keep me financially secure. He was wonderful in showing me everything about how his business is managed, and so I have accumulated a lot of recent experience in understanding how superannuation is calculated and paid, getting salaries paid, maintaining company financial records for tax purposes, etc.

I'm an Australian wiith 7 years experience working in Administration at a University and am currently a Centre Administrator. I have a background in Asian Studies and I lived in Japan for seven years.

I enjoy drawing - especially portraits, but apart from one or two drawings that I'm genuinely proud of, I wouldn't consider myself to be good enough yet to sell my work. However, I would love to be doing this one day.

I need some encouragement to get myself started in my own home business. Where do I start?

Support and ideas are most welcome.

Just a few thoughts from me at this point. Do you have any other skills or interests, besides drawing, that you might use to make a living from home? I have a number of small businesses that I run. I do know someone on this site who could give you direction with using your drawing to make a living. That's what she does to make money. I would be glad to introduce you to her, if you would like me to.

There are also ways that you can advertise whatever business that you have on the Internet for free. That is one of the ways that I can help you, besides helping you with ideas for things that you might be able to do from home in order to supplement your income.

Thank you, Clough. I would appreciate being put in contact with your friend.

My interests and things I'm good at, although not expert in by any stretch of the imagination, include: playing a mean game of scrabble, gym, and swimming. Although none of these present any obvious home business opportunities, there could be possibilities to do with scrabble such as designing rotating boards – which is a little remote, given my lack of skills in this area.

I'm good at social research and have an interest in international relations, especially in the area of post-conflict resolution, and in cross-cultural communication. There is a real and growing demand for cross-cultural expertise and training.

Although I haven't done this before, I will soon be setting up a company website. I imagine I would be good at format and design, though not terribly intuitive with IT matters.

Other things I have had an interest in and am good at, include birthing education and looking after new born babies, but that's probably not a practical focus for a home business. However, there could be things around this, such as educating and supporting new mums who are isolated. To be a birthing educator requires some formal training and certification.

I would enjoy breeding cats, but again, not a terribly practical idea.

The ability to remain flexible with the use of my time is a major factor if I were to run a home business.

Any further thoughts or suggestions you might have, would be welcome.

Thank you for your answer! The person that I am going to introduce you to is jrebel7. I have alerted her to your post here.

Would you be able to leave your home for periods in order to conduct your business, but still have it be one where it would be based out of your home? Do you have a degree? And, if you do, what is your degree in, please?

That's great. I'll look forward to hearing from jrebel17.

That's an interesting question. For what periods were you thinking? It would depend on the business and how lucrative it was to justify how much time I spent away from home. I have an 11 year old daughter and that poses a challenge.

I have an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies. I would be up to doing a masters, honors or PhD, but it's a question now for me of priorities and I can't see that further study, unless it led to immediate rewards, is what I am needing right now. But I do have a passion for my subject.

I'll look forward to any further comments from you.

That's great. I'll look forward to hearing from jrebel17.

That's an interesting question. For what periods of time were you thinking? It would depend on the business and how lucrative it was to justify how much time I spent away from home. I have an 11 year old daughter and that poses a challenge.

I have an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies. I would be up to doing a masters, honors or PhD, but it's a question now for me of priorities and I can't see that further study, unless it led to immediate rewards, is what I am needing right now. But I do have a passion for my subject.

I'll look forward to any further comments from you.


Hi there!

Clough got in touch with me regarding your post. Goodness, from all you have shared, the world could be yours in many fields. Clough can definitely be of great help in knowing how to promote a business online.

From your post, I couldn't tell how much passion you have for doing your art work. If there is great passion there and something you would enjoy pursuing, I can give you ideas on how to get started getting your work into the public eye.

What is your preferred medium in which to work? Oil, pastels, pencil, acrylic, etc.

I was Vice-President of a company for a few years. I enjoyed it immensely, yet, my passion is art. I continued doing my art even when working at the company. If you need an income that you can depend on bringing in a substantial amount of money in at the present time, I would be remiss if I didn't suggest that you seek out a home-based business in one of the fields you mentioned while still working on developing your art and getting your name known as an artist. Commission pieces would be ideal if you love doing portraits. Portraits are a very specialized area and not all artists can do them and do them well.

If you feel art is an area you would like to pursue as a way of additional income, get back with me and we can go from there with suggestions. Best to you! :)

Hello :)

And ooohh... I'm not that confident my skills in drawing are nearly good enough yet. However, the potential is definitely there and the passion to develop my skills to the point of one day selling my work is certainly real. I have been working in pencil, charcoal and pastel and would be happy to send you a few examples of what I have done for your comments, if you like. I would like to do a series of portraits some day around the subject of cultural identity... which is just a vague thought at the moment.

I'd be interested to see some examples of your work, and to hear more about your successes in selling your art, and how you got there.

Also looking forward to hearing further from Clough on other home business ideas.

Thanks for your interest in this... it's much appreciated..

hello :)

and ooohh... I'm not that confident my skills in drawing are nearly good enough yet. However, the potential is definitely there and the passion to develop my skills to the point of one day selling my work is certainly real. I have been working in pencil, charcoal and pastel and would be happy to send you a few examples of what I have done for your comments, if you like. I would like to do a series of portraits some day around the subject of cultural identity... which is just a vague thought at the moment.

I'd be interested to see some examples of your work, and and to hear more about your successes in selling your art, and how you got there.

Also looking forward to hearing further from Clough on other home business ideas.

Thanks for your interest in this... it's much appreciated .. !

I would love for you to post examples of your work. That would be fantastic. I love the idea of the portraits regarding the subject of cultural identity... that vague thought you speak of may grow into reality quicker than you realize. Very exciting prospect.

Some of my work is posted on the art thread called "The Artist In You". If you have not viewed it, it may be a little overwhelming. The posts can go to 1500 and we are at 1493 so it is a huge thread but has some amazing art work posted. Very warm, welcoming people are on that thread. My web site is Pencils And Paint (http://www.pencilsandpaint.com) if you wish to view more of my work. Just click on the Gallery. I don't have my color work on the site yet and not all of my pencils are posted but most of them. The site is not complete but viewable.

I do mainly commission work the last few years. I was doing several art shows per year but am only doing one a year now because my mother is in a Nursing Home and I go there almost every night to help her with dinner and get her ready for bed. My sis-n-law has cancer and is going through treatments so I have time constraints as far as doing shows. The shows are a great way to get your name as an artist out to the public. I won't go into a lot of detail right now but just to suggest something I think is really important. Find a printer that does Giclee prints. He/She will scan your original work, burn a CD for you, then make prints for you as needed, or greeting cards or book marks from your work. Always use a sealer on your originals before having them scanned and spray all prints. The Giclee prints are the closest to the original work I have ever seen.

Keep in touch. I will be happy to answer any question to the best of my ability. :)

Your work is really beautiful and exceptional. It must feel good to see your work on exhibition.

I'll post some of my on 'The Artist in You' thread you mentioned, so hope you get to see them and hope to follow through our conversation there :)

Umm, I tried to attach my drawings on the other thread, but the file exceeded the download limit. Hmm...

umm, I tried to attach my drawings on the other thread, but the file exceeded the download limit. hmm...


Hi there. I just hopped on here real quick. I have a dr. appt. and then prior commitment for the day but you probably just need to resize your image. Go to any of the photo imaging programs and pull up your image. Choose 'image' or 'edit' depending on your program. Go to 'resize'. Make sure you choose pixels and then choose the largest diminsion, eihter height or width, and type in any thing from 750 or 650 or 450 and then "save as: (rename file as the name of your image and then resized)... i.e. Old wooden bridge resized.jpg which original might have just said Old wooden bridge.

That way you have the original scan plus the resized image. Best to keep the origianl scan for clairty for other uses later.

Hope this helps. I don't have contacts in so fogive type-o's. Just in a hurry this morning. Glad to hear back from you and will look forward to seeing images of our work this evening when I get back home. Best to you! :)

Thank you for your kinds words regarding my work. :)

I am sure that jrebel7 would be able to help you with the posting of images. She really knows how to do that! I know how to do it some, but not like she does.

You might also want to consider posting on another art thread when a new one opens. The Artist in You! Thread is about two posts away from closing as it has just about reached the alloted post limit for a thread. I will be returning to this site later tonight. Hopefully, we will connect then or sometime in the near future... :)

I've been trying to resize the images... with no luck. I'll have to look in to it a bit further :)

Thanks Clough, I look forward to any suggestions you might have. I would like to earn between $20 - $30K per year on top of my regular income. Is that possible, do you think?

I am sure that jrebel7 can help you with the image stuff. Much better than I could!

20 to 30k is a lot of money to make doing something part time. At least it would be around where I live. Where do you live, please? Maybe that much money wouldn't be all that much for doing something part-time around where you live.

Here is a link where jrebel7 helped someone to post images on this site.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/collectibles/old-xalam-176199.html

Hi Clough

If you don't mind, I'll send you a private message to answer your questions.

Hi, frangipanis!

It would be best to keep questions and answers on the thread in order to help others who might have similar questions. We are discouraged from answering questions in private messages on this site. Doing so defeats the purpose of this site. Thank you!

Hi Clough, where I live is like a small town and although the chances of someone stumbling on to our discussion is highly remote and what I have to say could be considered of little interest to anyone else, I'm cautious not to be too explicit so as to protect the business interests of people I know. So I will need to keep some information fairly general.

Is answering surveys a reliable home business opportunity, do you think? I see this sort of opportunity advertised frequently.

I'm sorry. But, I haven't had much time to get on here and concentrate on things here in the last couple of days do to personal things that are happening with my family and business things. But, I will return to enjoy discussing with you the possibilities as to what to do.

Hi Clough, it's frangipanis here. I somehow lost my previous profile (?? ) so have re-entered the thread as aerolites.

I look forward to following through on this discussion when you have some spare time. And best wishes re family and business things. As I often get swept up in these things myself, I know what it's like. I'm still hoping to soon put aside some time to focus on downloading some of my drawings... I'll get there, eventually :)

There's no real urgency by the way, so having the chance to talk through some ideas at leisure is appreciated.

I see that your profile as frangipanis is still on the following link.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/members/frangipanis.html

Hi Clough, yes, I can still access frangipanis from my home computer, but not from work. I'd like to retrieve it somehow... as it's a bit awkward having two identities on here.

Yes, I agree. It would certainly be awkward as well as confusing to others if you use two identities here. I don't know that anything could be done about making the posts that already have be under just one identity.

Concerning your access problems for one identity or other when you are at work, I haven't a clue as to what may be causing the problem. Except that, and pardon me for saying this because I have no ideas of the policies where you work are concerning workers doing things on their computers while at work. Maybe there is some sort of program on the computers where you work that prevents the workers from going to sites other than those that need to be used in the course of their work? Just a thought... I don't want you to get in trouble at work. Many places use a central monitoring system when all of computers are Intraneted where someone monitors what people are doing on their computers at all times.

For the time being anyway, I would stick with the new identity that you are using here, and truly just stick to it. If you do use both identities, then doing that can constitute something called alias abuse here. I also don't want you to get in trouble on this site. Please only use one or the other identity. My suggestion is that any new thread that you post from now on be done only under your new identity. I have now been witness to many things here that can happen because of someone using more than one identity.

The bottom line for me would be to not be using a site like this from work. But again, I don't know the policies about computer usage where you work.

I appreciate what you're saying and I'll contact admin here to try to solve the two identity issue. However, I'm quite comfortable dabbling in visiting this site from work - it's not something we're meant to do, but it can be a healthy diversion at times.

I have found an alternative way to gain financial independence that feels much better.

I discovered there is affordable housing in a city that is close to the ocean which I love and where I know I can secure full time work. I could sell the house I own at the moment enabling me to repurchase a smaller home in this other city, that I could practically have paid off and so be much more financially secure and comfortable. Should my boyfriend and I decide to stay together for the long haul, we would purchase a large family home together, but if it doesn't work out, I won't be at a total loss as I was anxious might happen.

Gosh that feels better... :)

So, what is it that you are now doing to make a living, frangipanis and, how are things going for you? Inquiring minds need to know, you know! :)

'ello Clough :)

Still plodding along... terribly lazy, you know. I'm gaining a lot of good experience in small business management through my boyfriend. So much so, I think I could probably live without him lol... not really, I need him for other things. Truth is though, I could possibly start a small business one day in bookkeeping and office management for small businesses - or, as I mentioned earlier, fall back on my own resources and rearrange my life to fit my circumstances. It's good to have options.

How about you? Hope you're keeping well as usual.

Thanks, frangipanis!

I still keep busy with the various private businesses that I have: piano tuning and repair, furniture refinishing, house painting, giving private music lessons, performing professionally as a musician, handyman work, etc. Please read my profile for more about that. Am presently refinishing all of the brass and hardware for a home in northern Iowa (about three hours from here.) Going to make an estimate on a rocking chair tomorrow to refinish. Will direct the rehearsal of the men's barbershop chorus chapter on this side of the river tonight that I direct. We had a concert in a local park a couple of weeks ago that went really well!

Am thinking about getting out of the Yellow Pages of the local phone book because my ads and other things that I have started on the Internet get much more results than what I post in the Yellow Pages. My ads in the Yellow Pages cost me about $60.00 a month. Don't really get that many results with them - so, probably really not worth it. Am thinking about cutting it down to just piano tuning/repair or furniture refinishing for the Yellow Pages.

Another thing that I'm getting into advertising that I do in order to make money, is Internet advertising and cover letter/resume formatting and creation for people.

Are there Yellow Pages for business advertising in the phone books where you are located?

Wow, that's an enormous amount of creativity and applied know-how, Clough. Your family background sounds interesting, to say the least.

It's actually very satisfying and rewarding to be involved in my partner's business growth from the ground up, especially today since we're about to launch his website; it's taken much longer than we anticipated. Having a website is much more important for his business than being listed in the yellow pages, which I tend to use when searching for hairdressers, restaurants, home repair services, dentists... that type of thing.

I can imagine the internet would be a better way for you to get your business activities known, since you would have a lot to say about your services and who you are.