How to make a living in Tyne Valley.

Frustration and self doubt mired me down in my effort to make my PC repair business work in Tyne Valley in 2002. I leased a well locsated storefront for six months and ordered too many parts in stock (against my accounting lessons, yet I did it anyway). In the end I guess it was just the lack of customers that did me in. How I took it was entirely a reflection of me. I learned I could actually make a profit by shedding the storefront and the inventory and just bill my PC repair skills out by the hour from my house. Which I do still with the two or three seasonal customers I still have. I get a few hours billed every month, enough to pay a few utility bills, but it is clear money (no rent, just gas expense) and it gets me in circulation. It's all about networking, working a network of contacts, juggling a variety of jobs. For example, I get a few hours pay doing sound at the Jubilee theatre. Once in a while I either get a grant for film making, or am involved in helping someone who has a grant. Oh yeah, and I leave to work half the year in America where I earn some real money.

So to succeed in rural PEI, you really need to be clear of any mortgages or high monthly payments of any kind. You have to be able to Benjamin Franklin your way through the soup & bread times when income is lean - not to outlive your competition, but to survive the seasons when local PEI markets close for the winter.

There is no trade robust enough (save politics or government jobs) that allows itself your sole attention - you must be a jack of all trades since there are big markets for none.

Except for the three months I spent on a home-based project for Nortel. Those were the days, having cake, eating cake, ahhh the cake! Will I find you again!