Switching careers

[Trekker]

MJ's book, "The Millionaire Fastlane ", was a great inspiration to me in building my graphic design business. In the space of about 10 years, my business grew from occasional freelance assignments (and fears of losing my house) to steady work (with help from employees) for some of the top financial and healthcare corporations in the world (Fortune 10). We had so much work, we did not need to advertise and purposely kept a low profile. I was not among the most talented of designers, but I had a good work ethic... the kind of basics MJ talks about, like professionalism, always showing up for work, and leveraging my employee assets to multiply earnings. For example, when I (art director), my assistant designers, and my proofreader were all working billable hours simultaneously, the hourly income was great. Thank you, MJ!

I had originally gone to college to learn to be a fine artist. I wasn't particularly interested in amassing a lot of money, just wanted to be comfortable. So when we thought we had saved enough from our jobs, my husband and I decided to retire in 2016. Unfortunately, health issues and the stock market have not been kind, and I am starting to work again now. I was pretty burned out from graphic design in the past and plan to make and sell artwork this time. There is some scalability to this because I have a giclee printer and can make and sell prints of my original works. Also, an awesome gallerist already likes my work and asked me to send him samples; I am preparing them now. If I can get into a good gallery, they would typically expect me to produce one or more new paintings per month. I don't really know for sure, but I think it could be possible to earn about $40K in the first year and go up from there. This would be a good retirement lifestyle kind of job for me and help me stay healthier by not sitting in front of a computer all day and night, as I did for design. Your thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[Trekker]

MJ's book, "The Millionaire Fastlane ", was a great inspiration to me in building my graphic design business. In the space of about 10 years, my business grew from occasional freelance assignments (and fears of losing my house) to steady work (with help from employees) for some of the top financial and healthcare corporations in the world (Fortune 10). We had so much work, we did not need to advertise and purposely kept a low profile. I was not among the most talented of designers, but I had a good work ethic... the kind of basics MJ talks about, like professionalism, always showing up for work, and leveraging my employee assets to multiply earnings. For example, when I (art director), my assistant designers, and my proofreader were all working billable hours simultaneously, the hourly income was great. Thank you, MJ!

I had originally gone to college to learn to be a fine artist. I wasn't particularly interested in amassing a lot of money, just wanted to be comfortable. So when we thought we had saved enough from our jobs, my husband and I decided to retire in 2016. Unfortunately, health issues and the stock market have not been kind, and I am starting to work again now. I was pretty burned out from graphic design in the past and plan to make and sell artwork this time. There is some scalability to this because I have a giclee printer and can make and sell prints of my original works. Also, an awesome gallerist already likes my work and asked me to send him samples; I am preparing them now. If I can get into a good gallery, they would typically expect me to produce one or more new paintings per month. I don't really know for sure, but I think it could be possible to earn about $40K in the first year and go up from there. This would be a good retirement lifestyle kind of job for me and help me stay healthier by not sitting in front of a computer all day and night, as I did for design. Your thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

August, 2024
My plan to get into a good gallery and make sales has not worked so far, mostly because of more health problems, but it looks like I am finally on the mend. One thing is for sure, I am not going back into graphic design. Yes, it was lucrative, but the long hours at my desk were unhealthy and my health comes first now.

 

[Trekker]

August, 2024
My plan to get into a good gallery and make sales has not worked so far, mostly because of more health problems, but it looks like I am finally on the mend. One thing is for sure, I am not going back into graphic design. Yes, it was lucrative, but the long hours at my desk were unhealthy and my health comes first now.

For two years after I graduated from college, I worked full time as a high school art teacher in Boston. After that, I taught part-time in many different cities and towns in adult education, after school programs, private schools, and also gave private art lessons in my studio and at students' houses. It was a good way to pick up some extra cash, but I gave it up when my graphic design business became very busy. Since retiring from graphic design in 2016, I did a little teaching at a private school and my home studio, but it was very hard finding students to come to my studio and I felt stuck. The teaching ended for me with the pandemic.

Last winter, I was inspired by an old classmate to try to teach remotely from my home studio. I cleaned out my office and set up a remote teaching studio with webcam and all. I tried to attract students on TakeLessons.com, but interactions with them were very difficult and I didn't trust them. They had been recently bought by a large corporation and the business model was unkind to both the artists and clients. Next, I applied to teach Drawing at a local arts collaborative. They seemed to like my ideas—and I liked them—but they were very slow getting back to me.

After a few months not hearing from the collaborative, I applied to teach Drawing at an art school in another local town and got an interview. I came in hard, with plans in hand for several different courses and some workshops, and a strong portfolio of my own work. Again, I didn't hear back for a long time.

With little hope, I filled out an application to give a workshop in Drawing at the collaborative. They agreed! The workshop was fun for both me and the students, and a few of them asked me to come back and teach a course there. Fatigue from recent surgeries gave me pause, but I thought I should be able to teach two hours per week, along with some lesson preparation. I offered a 10-week course and it filled! (The course ended last week and it was a success. More than half the students told me they will sign up for the fall session.) While I was teaching that class, the school in the other town wrote and asked me to offer four workshops, beginning this September. I prepared the syllabuses and they are currently posted on the school website events page.

Two days ago, I got a recruiting email from a national online arts platform that handles some marketing and the registration for art classes and workshops for museums, arts organizations, and private artists. (They had found my artist website on FASO.) It is run by artists and the fees are extremely low. They are also interested in handling remote teaching of classes and workshops. The earnings potential for me is high, especially with the remote teaching to groups of people. (For example, if each student pays $40 for a 1 - 2 hour demonstration and 30 or more students signed up, that would have a good payday, and I could set up any number of workshops/demonstrations like that.) I already have a Zoom account for remote teaching, but I need to learn more about teaching remotely. I am also committed to teaching the four fall workshops if they fill and must continue working on the lesson plans for those, so that will keep me occupied for a while, but it's all doable. Once the first instance of a course or workshop is designed, planned, and has run, subsequent occurrences are much easier.

If anyone is reading this , what do you think? Does this—teaching 2-4 hours per week in person and a few more hours remotely—sound like a pretty good lifestyle job with good earning potential? Any suggestions?