Using skills people didn't know you had

Most people think that you have one specific skill set, and they take advantage of that. However, if you spent your childhood baking like me, and that is something you love to do, then why not make use of that skill when most people think you are just a whiz with a computer? Just because you make a living (or just barely one!) doing something you're good at, doesn't mean you have to give up something else you're good at! Let's go back to the baking example, shall we? Let's say, someone is really good at baking and can make a killer batch of Soft Molasses Cookies. However, in their everyday life, they work as an online promotions manager and no one really knows they can bake, because they spend all of their time online promoting a brand or company for their paycheck. They could easily do that for X amount of time, then when they get off work, they can go into the kitchen and make two or three batches of cookies, and each batch produces, say six dozen cookies. Now it's easy to remember that a dozen is 12, so you look at 12 times 6, the answer is 72. Each batch produces 72 cookies (approximately). Now you do two batches, and you come out with 144 cookies per day. Now multiply that by say 5 days per week and how many cookies come out of that week? The answer would be 720 per week assuming none got burned or eaten. If that person then wanted to price those cookies I would suggest visiting this article on how to price homemade cookies. But let's say they price them at $10 per dozen. They made how many dozen? Well, I never did that part, but if there were 144 cookies per day, that's 12 dozen. But we want to know how many dozen were made that WEEK. that's easy. Take the final number of cookies (720) and divide that by one dozen (12). That will give you an answer of 60 dozen cookies. Now, 60 dozen at $10 per dozen, (assuming that every dozen got sold) that is an extra $600 dollars per week. Now if they wanted to sell the cookies without having to deal with the health department kitchen codes, they would either sell them at a farmers market, a craft day, or some other function that won't connect with a restaurant. If this person were to open a bakery, on the other hand, they would have to jump through all of the health department codes. If you want to find out more about the kitchen regulations in your state, you can check them out here. Needless to say, that is all just a bunch of math. Essentially, that is what a majority of jobs need you to be able to do at least a little bit. Construction, you need it to figure how much lumber you need, how many sacks of cement mix, or how much water needs to be added to the cement mix. Baking, you need to have a basic mathematical knowledge to multiply the amount of the ingredients. Demolition, you need it to figure out how much you have to pay at the transfer station to dump your load!

All of that to say you can make use of your talents! If you work in an office and can bake or cook, don't be afraid to bring something for your coworkers! If you don't really know what you are good at,  you can read about it here. Stay savvy! Tabby.