Career Ideas

[billycraig]

Hi everyone,

 

Am recently diagnosed (monday) but had self diagnosed since about Sept 2010 when I sat listening to an Asperger's lecture at University. Basically I've had lots of problems with work in the past and have ended up being pushed out after periods of alienation. After being forced out of my last job (2006) I fell into studying at University where I've reveled in being able to study online and limit actual lecture time to 1-2 hours a week. I never realised I was doing this however and my problems only came to light when I tried to transfer to a Physio degree which was 5 days a week 8am till 4pm, I pretty much cracked up under the stress of it. This led me back to a final year at my old university which I did mainly from home with the odd lecture (psychology in which I became suspicious about AS).

 

My problem is that I'm coming to the end of this now and my options are continue and do a master degree (maybe just avoiding change) or get a job. My current work is seeing clients at my home to work on their diet, health, massage and rehab them. I'm obsessed with the topic and will happily spend all day talking about it or researching things. Sadly I lack the ability to get out there and promote myself which is what people seem to need in order to sign up. I've done lots of marketing classes, hired a business coach etc but just freeze that the thought of it. I just about make enough cash to survive despite my clients loving my passion and what I do for them and need to earn a more stable amount as I'm fed up of just getting by (and at times not getting by).

 

So I decided to get a normal job so I could earn more money, applied for lots of jobs and not getting a lot of response back. From time to time I've been physically sick with worry at the thought of having to fit into someone else's work routine (the reason I found my physio degree impossible to continue). I want and need to work but it has to be something that doesn't make me ill.

 

Have identified that I'm happy working on my own (i.e at home) but am comfortable with clients coming (as long as they are booked in). What I'm after are career ideas that can meet this? I have a few thoughts:

 

1. Continue as I am and pay someone to get me clients (worries me that they'll just say anything to sell to them though and I don't like that)

 

2. Work as a tattoo artist from home seeing clients on appointments only (not with an actual shop where people can walk in). With this one I feel I wouldn't have to talk about anything I don't want to (all the tattooists I know are pretty abrupt and say what they mean so I can get away with being straight talking). Can work when I want to like I do now so its my own routine. My eye for detail would be a plus. I think its easier to advertise online (facebook etc) and get business. Having watched from afar people seem to pay for tattoos no matter what their financial status (I've seen people paying for a tattoo with rent money) yet health and exercise is the first thing people dump when times are hard.

 

Has anyone got any opinions on if number 2 would be doable for me, or any other ideas where I can work alone on my own terms.

[lee2010]

Hi everyone,

 

Am recently diagnosed (monday) but had self diagnosed since about Sept 2010 when I sat listening to an Asperger's lecture at University. Basically I've had lots of problems with work in the past and have ended up being pushed out after periods of alienation. After being forced out of my last job (2006) I fell into studying at University where I've reveled in being able to study online and limit actual lecture time to 1-2 hours a week. I never realised I was doing this however and my problems only came to light when I tried to transfer to a Physio degree which was 5 days a week 8am till 4pm, I pretty much cracked up under the stress of it. This led me back to a final year at my old university which I did mainly from home with the odd lecture (psychology in which I became suspicious about AS).

 

My problem is that I'm coming to the end of this now and my options are continue and do a master degree (maybe just avoiding change) or get a job. My current work is seeing clients at my home to work on their diet, health, massage and rehab them. I'm obsessed with the topic and will happily spend all day talking about it or researching things. Sadly I lack the ability to get out there and promote myself which is what people seem to need in order to sign up. I've done lots of marketing classes, hired a business coach etc but just freeze that the thought of it. I just about make enough cash to survive despite my clients loving my passion and what I do for them and need to earn a more stable amount as I'm fed up of just getting by (and at times not getting by).

 

So I decided to get a normal job so I could earn more money, applied for lots of jobs and not getting a lot of response back. From time to time I've been physically sick with worry at the thought of having to fit into someone else's work routine (the reason I found my physio degree impossible to continue). I want and need to work but it has to be something that doesn't make me ill.

 

Have identified that I'm happy working on my own (i.e at home) but am comfortable with clients coming (as long as they are booked in). What I'm after are career ideas that can meet this? I have a few thoughts:

 

1. Continue as I am and pay someone to get me clients (worries me that they'll just say anything to sell to them though and I don't like that)

 

2. Work as a tattoo artist from home seeing clients on appointments only (not with an actual shop where people can walk in). With this one I feel I wouldn't have to talk about anything I don't want to (all the tattooists I know are pretty abrupt and say what they mean so I can get away with being straight talking). Can work when I want to like I do now so its my own routine. My eye for detail would be a plus. I think its easier to advertise online (facebook etc) and get business. Having watched from afar people seem to pay for tattoos no matter what their financial status (I've seen people paying for a tattoo with rent money) yet health and exercise is the first thing people dump when times are hard.

 

Has anyone got any opinions on if number 2 would be doable for me, or any other ideas where I can work alone on my own terms.

 

 

 

Interesting as i feel the only way i could work is from home as it is the only place i feel comfortable and ease, im not sure what jobs you can actually do from home especially ones which would pay enough to live on lol

[Boy]

I'm not sure if you mentioned this anywhere, but are you a trained tattoo artist?

[billycraig]

I'm not sure if you mentioned this anywhere, but are you a trained tattoo artist?

 

I've done a lot of practice from home and am good at replication. I have a contact that will let me practice at his shop to get me up to speed. I just don't want to go down that avenue if its not something I can handle.

[Tally]

It's great you have made this contact and he is obviously satisfied you are good enough to practice in his shop. That is a very positive sign about your compitence! I think it would be a shame to turn down this opportunity. Even if you discover that it's not for you, then that's an important lesson learned from the experience.

[Boy]

I've done a lot of practice from home and am good at replication. I have a contact that will let me practice at his shop to get me up to speed. I just don't want to go down that avenue if its not something I can handle.

This is obviously only my own experience/opinion on the subject...

 

Most tattooists I know look down on people who tattoo from home without having had training. There's a negative stigma attached to it. I've known people to tattoo from home, without formal training, and although they did improve with practise, a lot of their initial work was quite poor. This doesn't, of course, necessarily apply to you. I also know people who have used poor professional tattooists, who work from shops but don't appear to know basic 'rules' of tattooing, so their work looks poor. So working in a shop obviously isn't the be all and end all.

 

Which beings me to...

 

If you have an oppurtunity to train with someone, and build up a decent reputation/professional contacts (which I feel would be easier to do if you at least have some respected contacts at shops) then you'd have more chance of making a good go of it (anyone can get a machine off ebay and tattoo people, so you need to be able to make sure you're seen as the real deal). So that's a good oppurtunity there.

 

So in your situation you have the positives of being able to train in a shop before working from home, which would mean you could build up a decent portfolio, too.

 

Obviously the negatives would be that unless you can somehow network (which might not be too difficult, as there's always online, and perhaps your contact would even recommend you or help to advertise for you, or might even employ you and allow you to work from home (not sure how most people would feel about this, but if he knows your reasons behind it and trusts your hygiene, etc. then he might be cool with it) you might find it hard to find clients. My friend tattooed from home and because she had no training I refused to let her tattoo me, and chose to find someone who works in a shop I like, and favours a style I like. She eventually gave up altogether because she couldn't get enough clients to turn it into fulltime work, so it wasn't worth doing. Her clients were all friends and friends-of-friends, and people who weren't particularly into tattoo art itself, but just wanted a tattoo (so the tattoos tended to be one offs and there were no larger pieces, and that sort of work would obviously fill up more of your time and pay more money). So having some contacts will do you a lot of favours in that regard, and get you taken more seriously as a tattooist.

 

Also, if you have a preferred style, you ideally want to appeal to people who'll want tattoos in that style, whereas if you hated tribal but only had people asking you for tribal it could get very boring.

 

With a portfolio, your work will also speak for itself anyway. But I think the oppurtunity to do some training and build that up will also be a big help if you decide to pursue it. As mentioned, my friend has done some amazing tattoos but I wouldn't have trusted her to tattoo me because I'd also seen the poorer earlier work and had no proof that general quality would be of a good standard.

[Boy]

Sorry for double posts, but other thoughts (hopefully being able to consider lots of different things will help you decide what you want to do)...

 

Bearing in mind I'm only going by your posts, so I don't mean any offence if I say something that's inaccurate to your situation (for example, you said you are good at replication, which might not mean that you can't draw up custom tattoos yourself but I'm answering 'just in case'). Replication isn't really enough to be a serious tattoo artist. Lots of people want custom work, so you have to be good at all manners of art to be able to meet demand.

 

There'll be costs as well as income, so you have to be able to work out if it's worth it and your costs will be covered with enough profit for it to be a plausible profession. And, working from home, you'll have to do your own taxes or pay someone else to.

 

Working from home would benefit you in the sense that you're in a familliar environment and could perhaps discriminate over who you agree to tattoo and thus have in your house... But that could also potentially cause problems if you are uncomfortable having to sit with someone for hours at a time tattooing them, or have people hanging around to chat afterwards when you'd rather they leave (or having people turn up early when you're not fully prepared). You could just tell them you need/want them to leave, of course, as it's your house, but if you did get a reputation as having a poor reputation you could put people off coming to you. So it might actually be more difficult for you doing a job that requires your clients spending time in your house, potentially using your glasses or using your bathroom if they need to use the toilet or need a drink of water (and assuming someone could potentially become unwell whilst being tattooed, having to deal with someone who is moaning and in pain or throwing up or passing out). And if you are turning away lots of people because you wouldn't feel comfortable having them in your house, this could affect your reputation/amount of work you end up doing.

 

If you're good with phones and stuff then you'd be okay with people contacting you, but it might get annoying if you did have lots of people calling to speak to you, and also having people possibly wasting your time if you have no way of asking them for a deposit (because people would have to come to your house to pay a deposit). So you could find that people get you to draw things up for them, or book your time, but then don't show up (whereas with a deposit at least you get something for your time even if they don't show, and they're more likely to stick to the plan if they've already paid towards it). So it might be a good idea to work out how you would approach all the different elements and see if you think it's doable.

 

Good luck with it. If it's something you'd really like to do I hope you can make it possible.

[billycraig]

Sorry for double posts, but other thoughts (hopefully being able to consider lots of different things will help you decide what you want to do)...

 

Bearing in mind I'm only going by your posts, so I don't mean any offence if I say something that's inaccurate to your situation (for example, you said you are good at replication, which might not mean that you can't draw up custom tattoos yourself but I'm answering 'just in case'). Replication isn't really enough to be a serious tattoo artist. Lots of people want custom work, so you have to be good at all manners of art to be able to meet demand.

 

There'll be costs as well as income, so you have to be able to work out if it's worth it and your costs will be covered with enough profit for it to be a plausible profession. And, working from home, you'll have to do your own taxes or pay someone else to.

 

Working from home would benefit you in the sense that you're in a familliar environment and could perhaps discriminate over who you agree to tattoo and thus have in your house... But that could also potentially cause problems if you are uncomfortable having to sit with someone for hours at a time tattooing them, or have people hanging around to chat afterwards when you'd rather they leave (or having people turn up early when you're not fully prepared). You could just tell them you need/want them to leave, of course, as it's your house, but if you did get a reputation as having a poor reputation you could put people off coming to you. So it might actually be more difficult for you doing a job that requires your clients spending time in your house, potentially using your glasses or using your bathroom if they need to use the toilet or need a drink of water (and assuming someone could potentially become unwell whilst being tattooed, having to deal with someone who is moaning and in pain or throwing up or passing out). And if you are turning away lots of people because you wouldn't feel comfortable having them in your house, this could affect your reputation/amount of work you end up doing.

 

If you're good with phones and stuff then you'd be okay with people contacting you, but it might get annoying if you did have lots of people calling to speak to you, and also having people possibly wasting your time if you have no way of asking them for a deposit (because people would have to come to your house to pay a deposit). So you could find that people get you to draw things up for them, or book your time, but then don't show up (whereas with a deposit at least you get something for your time even if they don't show, and they're more likely to stick to the plan if they've already paid towards it). So it might be a good idea to work out how you would approach all the different elements and see if you think it's doable.

 

Good luck with it. If it's something you'd really like to do I hope you can make it possible.

 

Thanks for that, some good points for me to think over. I've been mulling it over for about a year now. I work from home currently in my studio and when I get going on the topic of nutrition I can be here with a client for quite a few hours so I have no problem being here 1 on 1. I get people moaning and in pain now as I work rehabbing people etc.

 

I don't need to be working 8 hour days 6 days a week. 4 or 5 clients a week would be suffice and I'd also keep up my current work. My main issue is whether I'd be able to promote myself online and not via any other method. My current work really needs someone out there saying why I'm better than all the rest but I just baulk at it.

 

The guy whose offered to train me is pretty understanding and did my tattoos, he's happy to have me in his studio once a week and has people willing to be tattooed by me. I'd never hack it in there long term which is why I'd practice a day a week until I was happy on my own.

 

Just can't think of anything else I can do that doesn't require the hard sell but allows me to work on my own. Thanks for the thoughts.

[Boy]

It might turn out quite easy to promote, because you could use online but also by being in the shop once a week you can also promote somewhat in person (not hard sell but just through talking to people or people seeing you at work and liking what you're doing) or through your contacts recommending you. And on top of that, the people you tattoo will spread the word, too. I think word of mouth can be quite powerful, and if your clients are letting everyone know where to find your portfolio online it could generate a lot of interest. Whilst in the shop you could be booking appointments for at your home (and that might be brilliant for some people if they're working and would rather come after work, for example).

 

If you're keeping up your current work you don't have much to lose. I think it would be well worth giving it a go. It sounds a great oppurtunity.