Hive Mentality, Activate!

[AlphaFrog]

This is normally something I'd throw out to my Facebook ThinkTank, but since I've got family on my Friend's list that I don't want throwing their $0.02 in (they're not dreamers), I'm coming here. I've recently come into a small inheritance that would allow me to quit the desk job I hate, and take a job doing anything that makes more than your average fast food worker and maintain my current level of living for the next seven years.

I've recently started dabbling in lots of random things: costuming for a Sci-Fi series (http://scienstars.com/), make-up for Scienstars as well as a couple other places, performing with my Renaissance group (www.Facebook.com/FreshGingers)

I've also got a meeting tomorrow with a man who's basically a local celebrity magician. He also travels and gets hired all over the country with his magic and is very successful. The project we're interested in working on is a restaurant/Vaudeville-style dinner theatre. He's got a huge network of acts and potential investors. I've got entertainment as well as Front-of-House restaurant experience. My husband has 10+ years of Back-of-house kitchen experience. Basically, we have legit skills to make this happen.

I can't continue to work a desk job, because I really, really am out of patience for it. ADD + easily bored. I can't do it anymore, I've been doing it for 10 years.

Someone help me decide what I want to be when I grow up!!! Serious and silly answers welcome!

[DrPhil]

Congrats! You are so talented and experienced that I never envisioned you in a desk job that you hated.

Your restaurant idea sounds wonderful.

My first thought is doing a themed restaurant that has a sci-fi/art/graphics/anything store on one side. There's a store where I live that sells home and garden stuff and it is really grassy and gardeny outside. But when you walk inside, they sell awesome jewelry, scarves, paintings, wines, foods, desserts, and home decor. It is paradise. During the warm months they do weekly live music and wine parties, monthly ladies night, and you can rent the beautiful lawn and garden areas for parties and any type of event.

It is a really fun place! You would love to own a place like that. You should. Good luck.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Are you looking to do fun stuff for sevenish years and then go back to the grind, or are you looking to spend the sevenish years building up some kind of business or career that will eventually be livable?

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Are you looking to do fun stuff for sevenish years and then go back to the grind, or are you looking to spend the sevenish years building up some kind of business or career that will eventually be livable?

Ideally I'd use that 7 years to build something "fun" into something liveable. I have a good amount of friends that have build businesses off their "fun" (fairy wing maker, a couple seamstresses, actors, authors etc), but it usually takes awhile of struggling to build a brand/name & client base in your chosen media.

The restaurant appeals to me because I actually loved waitressing, and with it being a performance venue as well, I could perform as well as guiding the direction of the business.

I don't want to blow the money. I want to use it to better my life, however I figure out that shakes out.

[Xidelt]

Are you going to invest the inheritance into the restaurant idea you mentioned? Or will other sources front the money and you would simply be an employee/manager? If you are investing, I would caution you. So many restaurants do not make it and end up closing. I would hate for you to lose this money and then have no other savings or income to fall back on.

[DubaiSis]

Restaurants have something like a 90% failure rate. That's not to say don't do it, but make sure the muscle behind the project actually knows the restaurant business first hand. If it's you (a creative) and a magician (a creative), you better have someone on your team who's able to tell you both no to just about every hair-brained idea, keeping only the most brilliant of hair-brained ideas. And be prepared to 1-work 80 hours a week, 2-have wait staff steal from you, not show up, show up drunk... 3-have zero people appreciate your vision.

If you can make an investment of maybe 1 year's worth of that inheritance and consider it a gift not to be returned, then I say go for it.

But I think a better use of that money would be focusing a few years on your craft, hoofing it to auditions, getting makeup and costuming gigs, etc. My fear is you'd rock on the project of developing the restaurant and want to stab yourself in the face once it's open.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I've done some work in the arts, both with large, established organizations and total start-ups. Generally, moving too quickly to acquire a physical space is seen as the kiss of death by funders, because it's a huge amount of money that isn't really generating income and comes with all kinds of maintenance and financial issues that are really far from the core mission.

[SWTXBelle]

I'd say wait and see what the preliminary commitment to the restaurant would be - in terms of money AND time - before considering that angle. The others, it seems to me, you can take your time and develop while keeping the desk job (maybe for a set time limit - it might be easier to deal with if you know you are getting out in a year or two).

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Also, the best way to get consistent funding is to somehow with kids. Can you develop one of your arts hobbies in a way that you are teaching kids or somehow working with them? For example, I know WAY more people who make money teaching poetry in after school and in-school programs than I do people who make money just writing.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by totaldivaness

Hi AlphFrog,

I don't know how much money you have but if you're looking to do something fun, I'm involved in a musical play with some pretty reputable names and I know they're still looking for funding. Their package includes a pretty decent ROI so since you have the entertainment background, I thought it might be something you'd be interested in. If you want to know more about it, send me an email at: totaldivaness@lycos.com.

What could go wrong?

[SWTXBelle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiryTUCtLNA

I totally called it - here is The Producers-esque quote from totaldivaness (since deleted) "It's hard NOT to make money in musical theater these days."

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiryTUCtLNA

Jinx!

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by totaldivaness

There's a risk in any undertaking when it comes to business. Pretty much in everything that's been mentioned here. Not sure why you singled me out since you don't know me and don't know who's involved with the production but the people who are involved have had several hits on stage. As a matter of fact, unless you really don't know what you're doing, it's hard NOT to make money in musical theater these days. But thanks for the support!

You were singled out because you are essentially a spammer.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

You were singled out because you are essentially a spammer.

Precisely.

But please, totaldivaness, do tell who's involved in the production. I just happen to have quite a bit of money coming from a lovely lady in Nigeria, so I just might be interested.

Originally Posted by totaldivaness

I was giving her an option just like everyone else here. We are all in the businesses we are in. It doesn't make me a spammer just because I told her about the work I'm involved in. Jeese, this is a Career forum, isn't it?

No, not really. This is a forum for fraternity and sorority members, both collegiate and alumni. This a sub-forum dedicated to career discussions. But anyone who appears to register solely for the purpose of selling something or offering a business opportunity is pretty much dismissed as a spammer.

The difference in the "option" you provided and the advice others provided is that the others have known AlphaFrog on this forum, and in some cases in real life, for years. You, on the other hand, appear to have registered for the sole purpose of trying to nab an "investor."

[DrPhil]

I recommend staying away from anything that starts with "I don't know how much money you have but...."

This week there was a Catfish about people who invested a lot of money and time in a fake promoter (party/concert/stage play).

Rant/

Then being asked to contact a person or company with which you are unfamiliar almost always results in a loss of time and money on your part. Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes: investing money with limited or no (provable by a third party) evidence of the investment; investing in and selling makeup, kitchen utensils, jewelry, travel packages, pre-paid legal, etc.

Those aren't true investments and I'm so sick of people saying "my business" and "my business partners" in reference to these schemes. You don't have a business. You have a foolish waste of your money and now you're struggling to earn back your money. You will be lucky if you earn back your money, let alone make a profit.

There are 6 threads, 2 threads within the past 2 years, about these schemes.

/rant