-- Rita Davenport, motivational speaker and Arbonne International president
Money has been on my mind lately. Being married to a financial adviser, I have someone else to take care of the day-to-day fiscal operations of our family, and I like it that way, for the most part. But every so often, something that takes a lot of money bombs its way into my consciousness and I'm consumed by the particular financial conundrum it presents.
The latest is my discovery of a program I think would be very beneficial for Abby, my 6-year-old who has a mild form of autism. I'd love to have her take part, and am in the process of completing applications for participation and financial aid. But even if we were awarded some scholarship money for her to go, chances are we'd still need to come up with a few thousand dollars on our own.
I've been brainstorming ideas for coming up with some cash. Here's what I've thought of so far:
- Writing until my fingers bleed. This was my initial plan, until I figured out that no amount of newspaper articles would create the kind of income I need to generate in the time frame. So that made me think (again) of...
- Magazines. A couple of weeks ago I wrote in this space that I would be writing a query letter, and then got sidetracked. But after a big nudge from a colleague today, I'm proud to say I did send off an article proposal to one magazine and am in the process of fine-tuning a query to another. Magazines pay more than newspapers, but I'm a pretty new freelancer, and it's a competitive world out there. Still, it doesn't hurt to try.
- Cake sales and yard sales. These ideas are courtesy of Diana, my hairdresser. I don't think I could rely on them to pay for the program entirely, but they might rake in a couple hundred bucks. Particularly if I baked for a week and then hauled all the possessions we no longer need out into the yard and ALSO had the goodies set up for purchase. But this sounds like an awful lot of work for the potential return.
- A benefit concert (benefiting me, of course, so I can pay for this program for Abby.) It's been seven years since I've given a voice recital, and I know so many more people now that I might be able to pull in a decent crowd and make some money, even after expenses. Of course, the kind of program I'd like to do wouldn't necessarily be a crowd-pleaser (an evening with Richard Strauss, anyone?) but if I did some of my favorite repertoire and some lighter stuff, like musical theater, it could work. Maybe. Can I realistically set aside the time to prepare for this, musically? If I'm also trying to pitch magazines and keep up with my other writing assignments?
- Putting ads on my blog. I need to check out other blogs to see how it looks, but this might be a painless way to generate a little money, too. Very little, I'm sure, but every dollar helps, right?
If anyone out there has any brainwaves on this subject, drop me a line. I'm open to suggestions.
3 comments:
Ooh Julie,
Wish I had a magic wand ... Lottery tickets?
I once heard the lottery described as "a tax on people who are bad at math." Since I fall squarely in that category, I never buy a ticket, which makes it hard to win anything!
I've been pondering this but hesitant to respond for fear of appearing self-serving. So with the appropriate-sized grain of salt, take this:
I think a musical event could be very successful and satisfying for you. I remember the size of audience you pulled in for our joint recital and your own recital. That number will presumably be even larger now that you've done Elijah, close to home.
Your concern about a full program being too much to do justice to is what leads me to the potentially self-serving part. Why not do a joint thing? (Not necessarily with me. Really.) I can see a Mother's Day tie-in making a good hook for a benefit -- and a mother doing it to raise money to help her child is a pretty compelling draw. Ask a pianist who is a mother and another couple of soloists who are mothers and you've got the mother of all benefit recitals. Or at least the mother of invention.
Honestly, I'm not angling for you to ask me, but I think the general notion could be one that you could make work to your advantage.
For what it's worth. Add salt to taste.
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