Needing Advice on Decisions
October 11th, 2009 | 
Author: Today is one of those days where I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place. I know I need to make some decisions about my work, but I can’t seem to figure out an answer.
Over two years ago, I started Skala Creative LLC to generate some extra income for my family. Since the work is freelance, it’s always been a sporadic income. Now with the husband gone, I need a more dependable, consistent income.
Besides my freelance business, I’ve been selling advertising for Two Lane Livin’ (you can read more about that job here). And in late August, I started working 3 hours a day in a small, home-based internet business office. With this office job, I keep gas in the car, purchase necessities, and pay for about 50% of my bills.
I’ve also continued tutoring for Tutor.com, but I’m usually so drained by the evening that it’s hard for me to put in the hours I need.
Right now I feel like I’m a gerbil running in one of those wheels that never goes anywhere. I wonder how much longer I’ll have the energy to keep doing these 4 jobs and if I’ll be able to make ends meet. At this point, I’m still not able to make ends meet entirely, mainly because of my mortgage payment. So here are the options I’m looking at. Give me your opinion …
A. Close up my freelance business and concentrate on tutoring. Tutoring is a reliable, decent income, but during school holiday times, it’s not enough to sustain me. In other words, December and January income will be noticeably lower than other months. The summer months are even lower than December and January. And the majority of this work is in the evening which makes it hard to have a social life.
B. Keep my freelance business, stop tutoring, and potentially give up the office job once I generate more freelance income. This is the option I’m leaning towards but I don’t know how feasible it is. I need the income now, but it may be months before I start generating enough from the freelance work to allow me to stop tutoring. However, I need to stop tutoring so I have the time needed to build the freelance business. Does that make sense? LOL
C. Give up all the little jobs and find a 40-hour / week office job somewhere. The problem with this is 90% of the possibilities for this work would require a 100+ mile round trip each day. By the time gas costs and travel time are deducted from my income, I wouldn’t be too much better off than what I am now staying close to home. And with winter coming, I’d prefer to stay closer to home.
I’m really thinking option B is my favorite choice, but option C makes the most sense as the solution right now. So, would you pray with me that …
1. I’ll know which option to work towards
2. If option C is the best choice, that something local would open up so that I wouldn’t have to drive far for work.
3. And that I’d keep my sanity through all this. LOL Seriously, I feel like I’m being pulled in a million different directions trying to balance 4 jobs, car shopping, divorce stuff, and the regular everyday things of life.
I know I don’t say this very often, but thank you for stopping by and reading my little blog. I know my blogging has suffered over the past months, and some of you have hung on as faithful readers. If you’re reading this, leave me a comment so I know who is still out there! 
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Hey Kara!
I will be praying for you- for God to make your job path clear. My opinion- being very entreprenuerial is for you to free-lance full time. But you have to find a way for that to pay your bills. Market, market, market!
.-= Cyndi L.´s last blog ..Book Review: When Love Blooms =-.
I’m so glad God protected you in that accident and made it work out for good. I will pray that God makes it very clear to know what direction to take.
.-= Dianne´s last blog ..G Tube Surgery =-.
I’m still here, and I’m praying for you! I’m kind of stuck between what to do with my freelance business, too, so I totally understand!
.-= Katie´s last blog ..The Steps of a Good Man (or a Little Girl) =-.
Hi Kara, I hate that you have to make this decision. I cant say I have any answers. Are you a Tutor 1, 2, or 3? Its nice that they increased our hours now. Is it the scheduling that keeps you from getting better hours? I tutor some in the morning (usually pretty slow = not as much pay) and some in the early afternoon (steady stream of students = more pay). IF (that’s “if”) you keep tutoring, could you schedule all your hours consecutively on 1 or 2 days of the week and leave the rest of the week for freelance or whatever?
I dont know your schedule or how set your freelance hours are. Maybe you could freelance all morning, and if you’re a tutor 2/3, schedule the tutoring from like noon to 6 on three days of the week (one of them on saturday?) and see if you can do the office job 3 days a week for 5 hours a day instead of 3. Then you could do a little more freelance in the evening if you wanted to.
Another thought…do you make more money per hour with the office job or with tutoring? You work 15 hours a week in the office…would it be more pay to tutor the scheduled 18 hours and then float on top of that? I know the problem of seasonal tutor, though. That and they could drop our hours at any time.
It’s hard to know what to do, and with the economy like it is, you may have to bite the bullet and do what it takes to survive for the next several months to a year. Can you sell your home and get something more affordable? I know you’re already frugal.
Also check out some of the freelancing websites (email me if you want specific ones) and do some freelancing that way as well.
((hugs))
.-= Sunny´s last blog ..Pearl Girls Tour =-.
Another thought is that during the tutoring down time in December is when retail is looking for more part time help…could help in a pinch.
So if you drop everything but freelance and tutoring (and do the holiday retailing)…you said you’d need several months to get the freelance going, so maybe it’d be going better by summer when tutoring slows down again?
.-= Sunny´s last blog ..Pearl Girls Tour =-.
I have no idea what to tell you, but I wanted to make sure you know about Mom Masterminds group. It’s an awesome group of ladies that support themselves with online work. There are freelancers, VAs, direct sales, info marketers, affiliates. It’s so nice to have support.
It is a paid site. My affiliate link is jendisjournal.com/mm. There is a 30 day free trial to check it out.
.-= Jendi´s last blog ..Do You Have a Blog For Your Vlog? =-.