What’s the WORST Job You Ever Took to Support Your Kids?

Well, all you single parents that have made it to my blog have more than likely been looking for ways to make extra money. I am a FIRM believer that you can actually do just as well for yourself without a real job or running a side business as you can working full time someplace you hate.  I have been thinking of some of the things I have done in the past to support myself and my daughter (and posting them here for you to think about too!) Not all of them have been fun or fabulous by any means. In this post, I suggested things like cleaning houses. There is a thriving business near me that two ladies started pretty recently. They added a new twist and were able to charge a little more for their service by going green. So, they are using environmentally safe, natural cleaning solutions, (many of which they mix up themselves) and started seeing the green roll in! Not a glamorous business, but, they are happy, doing well financially, and working a schedule that suits them.

Anyway, on to my most horrible job ever…when my daughter was six weeks old, I called my job to find out what day they had scheduled for me to come back to work. Uh-Oh. I hadn’t been employed there quite long enough to be covered by the FMLA, and while I was on maternity leave, they had been “forced” to hire somebody to fill in for me. Which meant they were fully staffed without me. Ouch. On top of that, I had just kicked out my junkie ex the week before.

I about LOST it. New baby, no dad in the picture, and now no job? I seriously just went home and cried. It was just too much for me to deal with. Well, I finally realized crying was not going to help with anything, got off my butt, and started to take some action. A friend told me about a fabulous, easy job with a 9 to 5 schedule that paid a little more than minimum wage.She put in a good word with the owner, and I was no longer unemployed. Whew!

Until I started working there. The work couldn’t have been easier. All I had to do was tape 2 inch long pairs of wires together. All day long. Over and over and over again. And then some more. When I filled up my box, I got to trade it for an empty box, then got to tape together even more wires. Ugh. This was made even worse by the fact you couldn’t talk to anybody, although there were eight of us at a table. If you talked, the boss man clocked you out and sent you away for your break. Then, you came back, clocked in, and taped together more wires (very quietly). Double ugh!  Oh, and lunch was eaten in shifts, so you only got to eat with 1 other person. I made it through a few days by thinking of my beautiful new baby that I now had to support all on my own. You better believe that the first time a temp service called, I took that job and went on my way!

So, if you find yourself in a spot, try thinking of it this way; if you start running a little business on the side, you have an already established stream of income to at least keep you and your kids eating! (Without taping wires together all day long.) And, if you start your own business, it can realistically be more secure than a full time job. When you work full time for one company, it takes ONE person to decide you are out of work, and you have no say in the matter. If you work for yourself, it takes several people deciding not to use your service for you to be out of business, and there is always an endless supply of new customers. So which do you prefer?

If you suddenly find yourself without a job, be creative about finding a way to tide yourself over. You can charge more to clean a house, one evening or Saturday a week, than you can make working for minimum wage someplace. Or, if you are computer literate, take advantage of that. A plus with computer literacy: you may be able to do something as simple as typing and proofreading, that you could do after hours without even leaving your house. Advertise someplace like craigslist, or drop some fliers off with local businesses. Creative? Dan Miller mentions some fantastic business ideas on “Turning Passions into Profits“. He mentions one creative lady who even had her kids help her custom design candy bar wrappers for special events. I love that too; if you can get your kids involved, I think that makes everything even better! This is also a great cd just for getting you thinking about other creative ways to make money.

One other point I just can not make enough: talk to everybody! Whether you know them or not, give them a card or a flier or something. Anything to let them know what you do. Worst case? They say no, they don’t need you. Best case: they can use your service immediately. And, they could always potentially refer you to somebody else. Are you a little shy? Get over it! I mean, if I gave you a stack of business cards, and told you I would pay you $50 for each and every one that you passed out and got a name, phone number, or email address you got in return, what would you do? I’m betting that whole stack would be gone. Really fast. If you are still too shy, let me, know, and I will pay you to pass out mine.