New life, new job?

Now that we have a list of possible places to live, and had a look at all the lovely properties, we now have to think about how we will pay for it all. And that means jobs, or other creative ways to earn an income…

The problem is that actual job opportunities seem to be really limited in that part of the country, and also, do we really want to just recreate our lives in a new place? That wouldn’t really change anything and is unlikely to be a better deal than what we’ve got now…

The hubster in particular has big dreams of having our own business. He’d love a campsite or a small-holding. We have no experience of either, except for having kept some chickens before and an allotment… But we have plenty of creative ideas to make a hybrid business of the two, with some other elements thrown in. We can learn how to run a business I suppose, and how to take care of animals, or grow crops, or maintain a campsite.

Of course, if we do any of the above, it would really mess up our vanlife. So that won’t really work. Animals won’t look after themselves, and I don’t think we should take a donkey, 2 goats, 5 sheep and 3 pigs in the van with us, as well as the dog and a beehive.

Other business ideas could be a shop, or a B&B or a cafe. Or we could make things, like arts and crafts to sell, but we are possibly a little limited in skills. And I’m being nice about our creative skills here. My 5-year old niece is more artistic than us.

I could change my career to do something on a freelance basis, or go into consulting or contracting, but I think that would be quite a lot of stress. I could also retrain and learn web design/development, SEO optimisation and digital marketing, which I could do from home.

Finally, I could do something around coaching, mentoring and training. That’s my favourite option, but I think it’ll be hard to build a reputation and a business. But I would absolutely love this; helping people achieve goals, reach their potential and help them see what amazing things they’re capable of.

In the mean time, the van stays parked up on what is a super foggy morning. I’m not sure we will get away this weekend, which will be 2 weekends in a row, but we might take it for a drive at least. Maybe a brainstorming session in the van, in a field while watching a stunning sunset will inspire us! Until then, we continue to buy lottery tickets and live in hope…