First of all, as you may have noticed, lots of employers aren't hiring, so you're going to have to find other people to hire you. Also, your skill set may not really match the requirements of too many employers, so you might have to create your own profession. You may have really strong knitting skills and you might be able to sing the entire second side of Led Zepplin II (with air guitar solos), but you may not feel quite as comfortable with payroll accounting software. You're going to have to use some creativity to figure out how to take something unique that you can do well and convince people to pay you to do it. Look, just a few years ago we didn't have "Home Stagers" and "organizers", and now those people get paid to come rearrange your furniture and tell you what you should throw out, so who's to say there aren't people out there who are interested in having you come put together outfits for them (I actually know someone who does that) or put together musical playlists for them ?
First you must inventory your personal skills, including all kinds of life experience and things you may not think qualify to make the list (i.e. "I have exceptionally good penmanship", "I have an uncanny ability to amuse cats", "I can recite every word of the movie Airplane by heart", "I can text very quickly while walking"). Then, look at the list and start composing ideas of services you might be able to offer.
Ok, now eliminate the ones no one will pay you for.
You must think outside the box. How can you apply your skills in an usual way to create something different? Lots of people paint on canvas, but not that many paint art on cakes, and I'm sure lots of people would enjoy a more interesting cake. And perhaps you can combine your exceptional penmanship and encyclopedic knowledge of the movie Airplane to write beautiful, but inappropriate Airplane quotes on the walls of flight schools. And don't let that degree in Performance Art go to waste! Capitalize on the fears of every dinner party host by offering to provide puppet shows to stave off any awkward mealtime silences. Or perhaps you are very tactful, and can offer a service for delivering bad news to people. And maybe you can deliver that news with a keepsake, comforting, hand-knit scarf. Or some pajamas. And a bottle of scotch.
Ok, I'm going to stop giving away all my best ideas, you'll have to hire me for my business-inventing business to get more.
I also know someone with a business-naming business, by the way, and you can hire him to create a catchy name for what you do.
But you can't just create a cool service and then wait for the phone to ring. You'll have to do some marketing to make people aware of their need for your unusual service. How will people know they need a personal, in-home sourdough bread making coach if you don't use your tweeting skills to tell them? And when they do become aware of your services, these potential clients need to find convincing evidence on the internet, like maybe blogs that your friends have written about how their bread making is now completely transformed because of you, or articles you've written for other blogs on the intricacies of flour choice, in order to establish your professional cred.
Another advantage of creating your profession is that if you are the only sourdough coach, no one can really dispute the notion that you are the best sourdough coach, see what I mean? And I can say all this with great confidence because I have unusually strong problem solving skills, which I have used to become one of the world's foremost Business Imaginators. In fact, I'm thinking of offering a certification program, which you can soon register to take (for a small fee).
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