I was thinking about what we have been doing the past year as we draw near the final few weeks of 2017. Both my wife and I have been fortunate enough to see our part-time hobbies turn into full-time home-based businesses. We have been able to make midlife career changes look easy. I hope that it also sounds like it was as simple when I write about it or discuss the matter.
Naturally there has been a lot of work and effort put into making them appear to be easy. I think that’s where I am a little more than just impressed about the whole thing. Under one roof we have two different home-based businesses. Brenda focuses most of her energy into hers (JamBusters!) and I put most of my energy into mine (Looseink Freelance Ninja). Neither of them have any similarities other than the fact that they are both under the same roof. There is a little bit of overlap, when both of us work together on vending the JamBusters! products and my home-based business will cross over when promoting Brenda’s home-based business but otherwise they are two completely different identities. What makes them even more interesting is that both have distinct territory in our home. JamBusters! is a canning and preserving line of products Brenda produces in our kitchen. Supplies fill the pantry, kitchen and the finished products sit in our walk-in closet. We also have a complete inventory including vending materials stored at a vending site out of town. The upstairs home office is primarily home to my freelance business. I could probably run it with a single laptop computer but I have a couple of desktop models, a printer and assorted other gear that keeps it running. Two different home-based businesses, one on each floor and both under one roof. Then there’s the overlap that tends to occur with our new careers. On vending days JamBusters! becomes a big deal to both of us. It brings us together to work as a team and also to enjoy the rewards of all the hard work leading up to a vending event. Plus, since I spend a great deal of time promoting the JamBusters! products through my freelance business, I have a strong knowledge of the items which makes us both good a selling them. Where all of this really makes a difference to us is that both of our home-based businesses allow us to work from home. This has been the best part of the entire midlife career change that we have experienced as far as I’m concerned. It’s also a lot of fun. It doesn’t really feel like work at all. We actually work at keeping it controlled enough to stay fun and not turn into work. It really is not all that hard to do – to convert something you enjoy as a hobby into a full-time or part-time new career. To find out more about how we created something new at the end of our midlife career changes, check out the eBook, “Surviving Midlife Career Changes,” that I wrote and published on the subject.
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AuthorMy name is George Elliott. I have been in the Media Industry since 1978. I spent 23 years in Broadcasting and worked in a total of six different radio stations located in southern British Columbia Canada during my career. In 2000 I switched gears and moved into the Print Media Industry at a small town, local weekly newspaper. In 2004 I bought the paper and operated it with my wife, Brenda until July 2016 when we closed it. I launched a freelance web content and article writing business from my home in January 2014. Archives
April 2021
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