Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Loving the Hustle: My new idea.


So when I first found myself unemployed last December (Merry Christmas we are closing the company) I did what I always do and I went to the library. I started reading everything I could about searching for a job. Some was good advice some was not. Some was useful and some was dated but without a doubt the best book I read (actually listened to in this case) was 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller.

He talks about options you could consider other than traditional 9-5. I would love something other than traditional 9-5. Not meaning I want to work less just meaning I want to work different. I just had no idea what I would do. I wanted to avoid anything remotely MLM related. I just couldn't think of anything. He said "Has the loss of your job caused you to be an accidental entrepreneur?" But I was at a loss. What skills could I offer other than sales (I do NOT want to be in sales again).

So months passed and I found a job. Awesome. I have been dreaming big about stain glass art and hustling monthly on getting healthy and everything is rolling ... rolling like a river.

And then .... today I was driving to work.

I  kept thinking about what Dan Miller said. I thought about Jon Acuff hiring his Virtual Assistant, then I thought about a couple of people in the 30 Days group who are working as virtual assistants and I thought that would be awesome. I would love to be a virtual assistant but I don't have the experience for that. My Microsoft office is passably good but aside from that I don't really have those skills.

I was thinking what a shame it is that I didn't have the skills to do something like that at home. I mean really what skills could I use? In my last job I managed 165 employees. You can't do that from home. I mean other than that the only thing I know is Real Estate (I sold real estate for 7 years). Then it hit me...

I could offer my services as a Virtual Real Estate Assistant. I could do all the busy work that agents use as an excuse to not do what they really should be doing.  I can create newsletters, ghost write blogs (is that ethical?), update social media, hand write notes, call FSBOs, manage contact data bases, prepare mailings,  update web pages, create flyers, create virtual tours, and on and on. I am no longer licensed, as I have no interest in selling real estate, but I do all those things listed really well.

Ideally, I would like to offer my services to numerous agents in small time blocks so it is affordable for them and then the smaller, newer agents could afford some help. I have no idea how I will get clients or how I will decided what to charge. I am working on that part. But I am loving the idea of using what I did for 7 years and turning it into something I would enjoy doing.

However, I would like to say that I wish my brain could work on my schedule. It would have been great if I had of thought of this while I was still home instead of having to learn a new job while this idea is trying to dominate my thoughts!

Now for those who know about my Stain Glass studio on some land with my chickens and goats dream have no fear. That is still my big dream. This idea is an idea of how I could use my life experience to bring in steady income what I work on my big dream.


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