If you're thinking about going into business for yourself, on a small scale with minimum investment, you're going to need a second source of income.  Make no bones about it.  Any business worth putting all that effort into is going to take you at least 18 months to go into profit and that's a WILDLY optimistic estimate.

So, unless you've got a significant other earning a packet and happy to pay the bills, or the titchiest mortgage on the planet and you don't need to eat, you're going to have carry on with the job you already have if you can.  Alternatively go freelance and work on a contract basis, or dust down those long forgotten skills and accept the fact that you won't be polishing and honing your new business everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.  It's just not feasible.  Time and mortgage repayments wait for no man, or woman.

I still do the odd TV job but my main source of income to cover my domestic bills and living expenses each month is painting and decorating, a job I packed in some 15 years ago.  I've kept it up and it's got me out of a tight spot once in a while but now I'm doing at least a job a month.  And I hate it, but not always for the right reasons. 

The cons are simple.  Decorating takes me away from the business, which is a voracious beast, consuming every bit of effort I throw at it and then some.  Decorating transports me back to a former life, to a world I was thoroughly miserable in and couldn't wait to escape from.

The prose definitely outweigh the cons.  Decorating requires zero effort in the brain department, I've been doing it so long, all the skill is physical - be clean, tidy, reliable and do a good job, it's the easiest thing in the world.  So my mind is free to wander, working away on the business while I paint.  I can stop to make notes, check my email and take phonecalls.  The money's great!  Definitely not minimum wage. 

It just took a while to be comfortable with who I am while I'm doing it (how middle class and up your own bottom is that!?), to give myself a good talking to dispel those negative thoughts: Doing another job does not mean the business is a failure.  Decorating in 2008 will not transport you back to your old life and make you miserable.  But predominantly, have you any idea how lucky you are to possess such a skill?

I could be working for the minimum wage somewhere, having to do far more hours than I do now and being all the more tired for it.

Oh, and I got a lodger.  I'd much rather have the place to myself but beggars can't be choosers and again, I am grateful for the space to do it.

So if you are thinking of going into business then a revisit to your old skills will probably be in order.  Otherwise have a look around this website, it's bursting with good ideas for earning cash doing little jobs that just fit into the nooks and crannies of your busy life.

My priority should be my new year sale.  It is January 16th after all.  I may have even missed the boat but I figure the email will be a surprise to all my subscribers, and will drop into their inbox long after all the other sale emails have been deleted or forgotten. 

But before I can do that there are about 10 jobs that need doing so that my January sale newsletter makes any sense at all.

And they're not little jobs either!

So here I am, working the usual long hours and going into rabbit in headlights mode.  Which is, frankly pretty dodgy territory to be in, because before you know it you're into distraction tactics, surfing the net catching up on YouTube videos, cracking open a beer/eating chocolate (delete as appropriate - or not!)  Because you feel so overwhelmed. 

The only thing to do is stop what you're doing and write a mini list.  A mini list could be seen as the poor relation of the mighty to-do list, but it's what you write down that you can realistically accomplish that day.  It's a good way of getting yourself back on track.  When you've finished that list and gone to bed there's a feeling of relief, a lightness about the whole day.  Instead of a good dose of beating yourself up and self loathing (and a few thousand extra calories in Grolsch and Revels).

I'm halfway through mine and it's only 7.30 at night.  Bargain!  Right, where's the bottle opener.