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Expert Answers to Biz Questions
Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.
Ladies with a Plan
Meet Olivia, Jen, and Sabrina. These out-of-work Southern California bartenders are keeping busy during the coronavirus shelter-in-place restrictions, and their positive outlook is uplifting. Olivia is taking advantage of the downtime to work on her photography hobby. Jen is building an online presence for her side hustle, which she hopes to make her full-time hustle one day soon. And Sabrina has accidentally started a career as a mindfulness teacher.
The Basics
Olivia, Photographer: “I have a zoo membership, and I take hundreds of photos at the zoo a month. Partly just for practice, and partially because I’m not that good and I’m hoping it’s a numbers game. I’m hoping one out of a thousand photos will be beautiful. As you can imagine, I’m behind on my photo editing.”
Jen, Social Media Consultant: “I’m in charge of managing the social media accounts at work. I have a few other supervisory responsibilities, so I get a higher hourly rate than the other bartenders. I really love the social media part - probably more than the dealing-with-customers part, and it has been my dream for awhile now to move to doing it full time - as a consultant.”
Sabrina, Mindfulness Teacher: “I’ve been practicing mindfulness on and off for several years now. I’ve occasionally toyed with the idea of teaching it, but I never took myself seriously enough. Once the pandemic started getting really serious, I offered a few of my friends an informal daily video chat meditation. They were very positive with their feedback, and word spread. Now I’ve got close to a hundred people tuning in twice a day. I’m not charging anything, but a few studio owners have reached out to me about teaching a regular class.”
The Specifics
Olivia: “One thing about photo editing is that I am sometimes overwhelmed by how much there is that I don’t know. I just keep chipping away at it. Luckily I have so much free time, and since the zoo and parks are closed, I’m not out taking hundreds of more photos to be stressed about editing. I do go out in my backyard and practice techniques for the different kinds of lighting that happen throughout the day. I’ll shoot butterflies and bees and things like that.”
Jen: “I’ve still been managing the social media account for my work. The owners wanted to help support a good cause, so we’re working with a charity and giving them a daily shout-out. It’s done with humor and love, and I think our followers are really into it, as opposed to a lot of the other things you’ll see on social media right now. I also have been building a website and Twitter account for my consulting business. Wish me luck!”
Sabrina: “I’m lucky in that I was gifted a pretty sweet multimedia setup right before the coronavirus happened. I’m talking about a high definition camera, TV wall mounts… the works. A friend had upgraded. Once I had more than a handful of friends tuning in to my daily classes, I switched to the professional equipment. A friend made me a little website with some of the archived videos. I’m really excited that this could be a whole new career! Of course, I’m still planning to bartend for awhile. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much.”
The Takeaways
Olivia: “I can feel some of my skill sets growing on a daily basis. That is very exciting to me. But I’m also someone who loves being outdoors, and I can’t wait to be out there again with my camera.”
Jen: “I believe that everything happens for a reason. When I was working full-time, I wanted to just relax when I got home from work. I knew that I wanted to build up this side-hustle, but I didn’t have the energy. Now that I have the framework in place, I think it will be a lot easier for me to transition careers. I’m trying to keep a positive spin on a difficult time, but I think I’m doing a good job so far!”
Sabrina: “It’s really starting to seem like when you’re on the right path, things will fall into place. Also: meditation helps deal with the scary uncertainties that are happening in the world right now. I highly recommend it.”
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