By Paula Fitzsimmons
If you’re a freelance writer specializing in topics like health, finance, and tech, paying markets are relatively easy to locate. If you write about animals or the environment, however, your options start to decrease . . . but not by as much as you may think. Discovering paying markets for your work is easier if you know where to look. The following ideas are designed to help you widen your search.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
Aspiring animal-loving entrepreneurs have more options than ever. Starting a business – any business – used to be more complicated and expensive. The growth of technology, service providers, and funding options have opened doors.
Yet there are some things innovation can’t replace. Business owners still need to possess a strong work ethic, patience, and tenacity. That never changes. Success is often gradual, and despite what the adverts say, doesn’t happen effortlessly or without a learning curve. I speak from experience.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
Find a few clients, offer to walk their dogs, get some exercise, then get paid. If only starting and running a dog walking business were that simple. And that’s what we’re talking about here: a business. An enjoyable and important business perhaps, but still a business – one in which you have to be as concerned with customer service, accounting, marketing, and local ordinances, as you are with providing excellent care to dogs.
That said, even though dog walking is a business, the welfare of the animal should always come before profit.
When starting any new venture, it’s easy to get swept away with the possibilities, that you may overlook the finer details. That’s what I’m here for – to tell you about those important factors that you shouldn’t overlook.
By Paula Fitzsimmons with Angela Grimes
All animal protection and care jobs are important in their own right. Animal caregivers, administrators, veterinary professionals, humane officers, sanctuary operators, and others working in this field all play a vital role. Yet their important work wouldn’t be possible without incoming cash. Animal food, rent, employee salaries, vet services, and administrative costs don’t come cheaply. Yep, it’s similar to running a business.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
If you’re a member of the animal or eco protection movement, you already know about the mountains of problems we face. There are no shortage of them, either – the sixth great extinction, deforestation, climate change, industrial exploitation, companion animal overpopulation, loss of coral reefs, to name a few. It’s disconcerting. . . downright overwhelming when you take time to really think about it.
Which is why news about people working towards solutions gives me a sense of hope. Take the recent Outside magazine article about marine biologist Sylvia Earle, for instance. Dr. Earle and her colleagues have been warning us for decades about the tolls pollution, overfishing, mining, and climate change have taken on marine environments.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
Have you ever seen a darling pair of dachshund earrings, a must-have giraffe tee-shirt, or a hand-crafted cat toy, and thought, I could sell that or I could make that. Selling your wares online may seem straight-forward enough (and in some regards it is once you gain experience) but there’s much more to the process than slapping a few products on a website and hoping for sales.
It’s imperative to know what you’re doing – not just in order to succeed, but to avoid losing your money – or sanity – in the process.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
If your dream of becoming an animal doc is not attainable, don’t feel too badly . . .veterinary medicine is not for everyone. Relatively few are able or willing to commit to years of post-graduate training or take on tuition debt.
Luckily, you have other options.
If you want to help heal animals, don’t let your skills and compassion go to waste. Consider these alternative careers, which require a fraction of the education, training, and tuition expense.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
Think you can’t land a job in animal care or protection with that humanities degree? If your major is in philosophy, English, psychology, or a similar liberal arts discipline, you absolutely do have options. More than you may think.
Remember those thesis papers you had to research, compile, and write in college? They seemed grueling but served you well. You may have not realized it at the time, but I’m betting you became a better communicator and developed stronger critical thinking skills, as a result. These are the types of skills employers seek, including those in the animal world.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
Veterinary medicine has got to be one of the most undervalued professions on the planet. The path to becoming a veterinarian begins with rigorous academic training . . . at great personal financial expense that often leads to debt.
Vets get pooped on and bitten by their patients – no animal in his or her right mind actually looks forward to seeing the vet.
They also regularly deal with a range of human personalities and quirks. For instance, not everyone understands why they actually have to pay more than a few bucks for professional services. As if vets should work for free.
By Paula Fitzsimmons
I love alone time. Having the personal space and time to devour a good book, think, create, and daydream is part of who I am. According to research, including that performed by the mother-daughter team of Katharine Briggs & Isabel Briggs Myers – creators of the MBTI® personality inventory – my temperament leans towards the introverted side.
Introverts tend to be independent spirits. We’d rather be – and are often more productive when – working solo or in smaller groups . . .this is when we’re in our element.
This isn’t a data-backed statement, but I suspect the animal welfare community, as a whole, gravitates to the indie side.