The B&N thread and Para's comment about opening a used bookstore made me think about my own fantasy side business, which is a bakery/live straight-ahead jazz venue. Every time I get halfway serious about it, I confront the numbers, and those numbers tell me that breaking even would be a challenge and that I would only do it as a vanity project, unless I want to charge $9.99 for a basic croissant, and the market around here simply can't bear that. I've known people (outside of academe) who have opened bars for the sole purpose of being a live venue for music that they like, and they are fine with losing money on the endeavor.
What's your fantasy side business?
Running a bed and breakfast. I know I don't really want to run a B&B, but I wish I could plan menus for a B&B. I'm obsessed with breakfast recipes.
I have given this a lot of thought, and while I don't believe it would be sustainable, I'd want to run a fiber arts craft co-op, where people can come and purchase new supplies and could also bring unused or gently used supplies (think patterns or no-longer needed kits, canvases or fibers) to sell on consignment. There would also be classes and clubs. Maybe a bar.
Welder. If I hadn't gotten into grad school I was going to find a trade. Welding always seemed really cool to me. I still think it is cool.
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on December 27, 2022, 11:32:19 AM
Welder. If I hadn't gotten into grad school I was going to find a trade. Welding always seemed really cool to me. I still think it is cool.
Pyro is fun.
Run a short-line railroad. If I couldn't be CEO, I could always be train driver.
Doing program evaluation for grant funded NGO's who need to send reports back to their funding agencies.
Either that or chief of secret police. I got some people whose door I want to knock on in the middle of the night. Just gotta get a black bag and I'm ready to go.
My deepest fantasy, however, is to be a rock star in a band like Led Zeppelin or Queen that does a lots of cross-over stuff.
Lately, I've wanted to start a plant business and maybe have apiaries. Or, I could be a spy...
I'd love to be a voiceover artist.
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on December 27, 2022, 11:32:19 AM
Welder. If I hadn't gotten into grad school I was going to find a trade. Welding always seemed really cool to me. I still think it is cool.
I also want to learn welding and keep eyeing classes at the local community college!
AR.
Quote from: AvidReader on December 27, 2022, 07:57:22 PM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on December 27, 2022, 11:32:19 AM
Welder. If I hadn't gotten into grad school I was going to find a trade. Welding always seemed really cool to me. I still think it is cool.
I also want to learn welding and keep eyeing classes at the local community college!
AR.
SO did an intro to welding class a couple years ago. After a couple introductory lessons, they each welded two kits, so we have a T-Rex and Pterodactyl in our garden.
Quote from: Morden on December 28, 2022, 08:09:54 AM
SO did an intro to welding class a couple years ago. After a couple introductory lessons, they each welded two kits, so we have a T-Rex and Pterodactyl in our garden.
That sounds amazing. Maybe I'll bite the bullet this year!
AR.
High priced free lance writer.
Library consultant
i already am a high priced free lance writer. Unfortunately, only pne person pays the price, and its me.
I would also love to be:
- a highly paid freelance writer
- a highly paid cultural consultant (in my niche culture/s) for TV shows or movies or fiction writers, so that they don't make egregious boo boos when writing about my niche culture/s which happens much more often than one would think
- an actor in character parts, commercials, or as the dead body, preferably highly paid
- a published short story writer or screen/script writer
Life gets in the way too much, alas, and I am rapidly aging.
Run a gymnastics/martial arts/rock-climbing/dance facility with an attached microbrewery.
No parents on the floor, but hockey glass covered observation lounges overlooking from the brewery side.
Quote from: Ruralguy on December 28, 2022, 03:39:55 PM
i already am a high priced free lance writer. Unfortunately, only pne person pays the price, and its me.
Ha! As a long-time artist who is now in academia in a different field entirely, my fantasy is that I could make the pieces I care about for real money. I've been saddened to see many of the wonderful galleries in my city close (both Covid and the internet did them in). Every three years or so I block off time to do a series, but I wish I could do more.
Jewelry designer. I have no training in this whatsoever, but I love looking at the kinds of pieces that take my breath away. Coming up with such designs would be great fun.
Calligrapher. Unfortunately, from what I can tell the most common way to make money as a callligrapher is to do wedding invitations, and I really, really hate addressing envelopes.
I'd like to have a food truck. But where I could change the menu when I wanted based on what's available. And where I wasn't really required to break even.
Kind of like bringing filet au poivre to the masses. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Until I ran out. Or it was nap time.
If some sugar daddy benefactor gave me a boatload of bucks, I would open up an adult-ed style Christian study center/ retreat center type place, similar to L'Abri (Francis Schaeffer's Swiss one).
Seriously, I'd rather write (and not much academic stuff, definitely more popularly oriented) close to full time and maybe teach a course here and there.
Maybe that's what Phase 1 of my retirement will be like.
Crochet pattern designer.
I travel around the American West in a small camper van, making short films and social media posts about historic sites and bicycle trails.
Running an artist residency somewhere where I really wanted to live.
I would also love to run a little bake shop with an art gallery attached. Just three or four items done really well, I make a killer spicy brownie and a chocolate chunk cookie with smoked salt, for example.
Being a taste tester for meals and snacks at all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean.
Making and selling heirloom quality crocheted goods--afghans, baby goods, and such.
Building and running a small greenhouse to raise and sell bedding plants in spring (vegetables, herbs, and annual flowers), perennials, and houseplants. Also having a small truck garden to sell produce in the summer. (I really need to put that botany degree to use beyond my own yard.)
Ice road trucker. Or perhaps train engineer. Although my tendency to fall asleep at inopportune times might be a disadvantage.
I'd like to be a published novelist. I've written several works that I believe have reached the point of being publishable. But I don't know that there's a commercially-viable market for them. And I don't have much idea how to go about self-publishing online as a last resort to get my work out there.
Quote from: apl68 on January 03, 2023, 08:24:35 AM
I'd like to be a published novelist. I've written several works that I believe have reached the point of being publishable. But I don't know that there's a commercially-viable market for them. And I don't have much idea how to go about self-publishing online as a last resort to get my work out there.
I also have this fantasy. I have written 10 or so novels. I spoke to an agent but he said my work is unlikely to be "commercially-viable" as you style it. I cannot stop writing them so if you come up with a solution let me know. Maybe mine can be used by companies instead of ipsum lorem or instead of random patterns for birdcage liners. Nonetheless, it remains a pleasant fantasy.
Quote from: little bongo on January 03, 2023, 08:11:47 AM
Ice road trucker. Or perhaps train engineer. Although my tendency to fall asleep at inopportune times might be a disadvantage.
No worries: Railway locomotives are equipped with a so-called "dead man's switch". If you are incapacitated and can't activate the switch every so-and-so many seconds, the locomotive is automatically brought to a stop.
Falling asleep, therefore, is only a career breaker once! :-)
Quote from: Funastrum on January 03, 2023, 11:43:12 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 03, 2023, 08:24:35 AM
I'd like to be a published novelist. I've written several works that I believe have reached the point of being publishable. But I don't know that there's a commercially-viable market for them. And I don't have much idea how to go about self-publishing online as a last resort to get my work out there.
I also have this fantasy. I have written 10 or so novels. I spoke to an agent but he said my work is unlikely to be "commercially-viable" as you style it. I cannot stop writing them so if you come up with a solution let me know. Maybe mine can be used by companies instead of ipsum lorem or instead of random patterns for birdcage liners. Nonetheless, it remains a pleasant fantasy.
Can't you self-publish with Amazon Kindle?
Regarding trains, I have met two train engineers and both of them had been in accidents.
My fantasy is to have multiple revenue streams with activities like online retailing, tutoring, AirBnB and gardening.
Quote from: Anselm on January 04, 2023, 10:52:30 AM
Quote from: Funastrum on January 03, 2023, 11:43:12 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 03, 2023, 08:24:35 AM
I'd like to be a published novelist. I've written several works that I believe have reached the point of being publishable. But I don't know that there's a commercially-viable market for them. And I don't have much idea how to go about self-publishing online as a last resort to get my work out there.
I also have this fantasy. I have written 10 or so novels. I spoke to an agent but he said my work is unlikely to be "commercially-viable" as you style it. I cannot stop writing them so if you come up with a solution let me know. Maybe mine can be used by companies instead of ipsum lorem or instead of random patterns for birdcage liners. Nonetheless, it remains a pleasant fantasy.
Can't you self-publish with Amazon Kindle?
Regarding trains, I have met two train engineers and both of them had been in accidents.
My fantasy is to have multiple revenue streams with activities like online retailing, tutoring, AirBnB and gardening.
Self-publishing is going through a renaissance. I am considering skipping the whole agent hunt myself.
And remember that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone went through something like 50 agents before breaking all book sales records since Lord of the Rings.
The average book can probably make more money via self publishing. But that's because the average book just doesn't sell much at all. However, I'd be surprised if you could break 1,000 copies a year through self publishing, and that would be a nice clip! Maybe it has more promise, but I kind of doubt it.
Alternate fantasy side business: writing LGBTQ-themed Hallmark movie scripts.
Quote from: paultuttle on January 05, 2023, 01:17:47 PM
Alternate fantasy side business: writing LGBTQ-themed Hallmark movie scripts.
I would watch that Hallmark movie!
Fixing and building guitar amplifiers.
This fantasy side line brought to you by a need for a valve amp repair and no repair shops in a 100 mile radius.