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Updates about me!
No job. Not even any calls. :( I've been applying to a lot of places but getting no response. Which is unusual, because when I was looking earlier this year I got several calls, and my resume looks even better now. So I decided, maybe that means I need another direction. I looked at some out-of-state listings, wondering if I was supposed to move somewhere else, but I didn't see anything that just looked perfect and all I could think about was what a pain moving would be, so I think that's not the direction I should be going now. So, I'll keep truckin' here then. I decided yesterday to start putting more effort into my online sales; they have been sparse since I've had full-time work, but now I have all the time in the world, so why not? My mom donated a bunch of stuff she was going to get rid of so I could sell it on eBay. Yesterday I took pictures and listed the shoes she gave me, plus some of mine (like the knee boots that don't fit around my newly muscular calves), because shoes are where the money is when it comes to selling on eBay. My dad's also helping me out because he has a bunch of copies of the previous version of his software (and book), and he's letting me have them for $2 a pop so I can resell them on eBay. He'd just be throwing them away anyway, since they're an older version, but there are plenty of people out there who'd happily take the previous version of software if it was a lot cheaper. Plus he's going to mention it when he sends out his newsletter to his customers next week, so I may get a lot of orders there. So that will be sweet, hopefully. If they sell like he thinks they will, it may make enough for me to live for a while longer with no job.
I've been trying to think if there's a way to make Armada Anime a full-time job. They called me when I filed for unemployment, and they asked if there was potential for it to become a full-time thing, and I said no - because I've tried. There's not enough market. But really, if I can come up with two or three more "killer" items like my hats...they sell really well, and they've been selling well for years with no reduction in demand as far as I can see. If I could find three more things like that, especially ones that weren't seasonal (hat sales die immensely during the summer, since, well, they're fleece winter hats), I maybe could turn it into a real thing.
I mean, I've got motivation, which is vital - I'm pretty good at being my own boss and getting things done. I've got skills, to some degree (in certain areas). What I need is something like the hats, something simple, that doesn't take long and can be reproduced with a pattern (so I can mass-produce them without having to spend time measuring or customizing them), that can be made in a variety of colors or styles so that 1) people would potentially buy more than one, and 2) I won't go crazy making literally the exact same thing over and over. And they can be small variations, of course - the hats don't have that many different styles, but I can play with new color combos all day.
So that's what I'm putting my mind against lately. I'm trying to think of something to do entirely (or at least mostly) with stuff I already have, since I have tons of fabric in weird varieties from back when I was making costumes. There's got to be some sort of small, pointless accessory or other fun thing in my piles of raw materials; now, to spend the time organizing and refreshing my memory as to what I actually have so I can start piecing something together.
No job. Not even any calls. :( I've been applying to a lot of places but getting no response. Which is unusual, because when I was looking earlier this year I got several calls, and my resume looks even better now. So I decided, maybe that means I need another direction. I looked at some out-of-state listings, wondering if I was supposed to move somewhere else, but I didn't see anything that just looked perfect and all I could think about was what a pain moving would be, so I think that's not the direction I should be going now. So, I'll keep truckin' here then. I decided yesterday to start putting more effort into my online sales; they have been sparse since I've had full-time work, but now I have all the time in the world, so why not? My mom donated a bunch of stuff she was going to get rid of so I could sell it on eBay. Yesterday I took pictures and listed the shoes she gave me, plus some of mine (like the knee boots that don't fit around my newly muscular calves), because shoes are where the money is when it comes to selling on eBay. My dad's also helping me out because he has a bunch of copies of the previous version of his software (and book), and he's letting me have them for $2 a pop so I can resell them on eBay. He'd just be throwing them away anyway, since they're an older version, but there are plenty of people out there who'd happily take the previous version of software if it was a lot cheaper. Plus he's going to mention it when he sends out his newsletter to his customers next week, so I may get a lot of orders there. So that will be sweet, hopefully. If they sell like he thinks they will, it may make enough for me to live for a while longer with no job.
I've been trying to think if there's a way to make Armada Anime a full-time job. They called me when I filed for unemployment, and they asked if there was potential for it to become a full-time thing, and I said no - because I've tried. There's not enough market. But really, if I can come up with two or three more "killer" items like my hats...they sell really well, and they've been selling well for years with no reduction in demand as far as I can see. If I could find three more things like that, especially ones that weren't seasonal (hat sales die immensely during the summer, since, well, they're fleece winter hats), I maybe could turn it into a real thing.
I mean, I've got motivation, which is vital - I'm pretty good at being my own boss and getting things done. I've got skills, to some degree (in certain areas). What I need is something like the hats, something simple, that doesn't take long and can be reproduced with a pattern (so I can mass-produce them without having to spend time measuring or customizing them), that can be made in a variety of colors or styles so that 1) people would potentially buy more than one, and 2) I won't go crazy making literally the exact same thing over and over. And they can be small variations, of course - the hats don't have that many different styles, but I can play with new color combos all day.
So that's what I'm putting my mind against lately. I'm trying to think of something to do entirely (or at least mostly) with stuff I already have, since I have tons of fabric in weird varieties from back when I was making costumes. There's got to be some sort of small, pointless accessory or other fun thing in my piles of raw materials; now, to spend the time organizing and refreshing my memory as to what I actually have so I can start piecing something together.