GREAT 52 IDEA: Work Part Time to Support Your Business

Cori Giacomazzi works in a brothel to support her vintage clothing shop in Skagway, Alaska. Well, actually, she's a part-time curator at the brothel museum inside the Red Onion Saloon. The Saloon is a major tourist attraction in this funky, isolated Gold Rush–era mining town. (We visited Skagway during a fantastic Alaskan cruise my family embarked on to celebrate my father, Marty's 80th birthday.)

I was wandering around town, when I stopped in to check out Wandering Wardrobe, a tiny shop on a side street. There, I met Giacomazzi, a skilled seamstress and fashion designer. To supplement her income, she restores and repairs the antique corsets and gaudy dresses worn by prostitutes who worked at the saloon in the 1800s. The original dresses are on display, but she creates replicas of the colorful “saloon girl” dresses for the women who give tours of the museum. She also makes costumes for the funny live show depicting the colorful history of Skagway.

“I love what I do at the museum, but here in my shop I can create what I want,” said Giacomazzi, who has a degree in textile design from the University of Alberta. She opened the vintage and designer clothing shop about five years ago, squeezing racks of clothing and mannequins into the 180-square-foot space. (It's so small it doesn't have a bathroom, so she uses a neighbor's.)

Giacomazzi is one of many small business owners who work another job to keep the lights on.

Across the country in Enfield, New Hampshire, Steve Fulton works as a freelance mechanical engineer to supplement income from his Blue Ox organic farm. “I'm still doing engineering projects and enjoying it, but I prefer being outside,” said Fulton, who holds six patents on a variety of machines. “There is a lot more immediate gratification and feedback from farming compared with engineering projects.”

He grows about 30 different vegetables on 10 acres, including lettuce, squash, tomatoes, and eggplant. Fulton sells everything he grows to local grocery stores. In 2002, he started cultivating soybeans, which became his first cash crop.

Although he is a successful farmer, he still can't support himself by farming alone.

“Last year, I made some money farming, but it's definitely not paying all the bills,” said Fulton. “I wish I had known how slim the (profit) margins would be. Still, selling vegetables does cover the farm expenses.”

Unlike engineering, which is detailed and precise, farming is totally unpredictable. “The weather is a huge factor,” said Fulton. “Most of my land is pretty wet, so rain is a bad thing.”

Working hard outdoors isn't a problem. He has a few part-time helpers during the busy summer season. However, his biggest challenge is keeping up with all the paperwork associated with running a small business. “You get into farming because you want to be outside growing things—not filling out paperwork.”

Hollywood actor Mark Cross teaches cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) between acting jobs and voice-over gigs.

“It works because I'm an actor who wants to inspire and educate people,” said Cross, who teaches classes at many small businesses. “Most business owners don't know that if you have 10 or more employees, OSHA (the federal occupational health and safety agency) requires at least 10 percent of your staff to be trained in CPR.”

Cross, who has taught CPR to about 2,000 people, charges $525 for up to a dozen employees to attend a four-and-a-half-hour class. He said his biggest challenge is to overcome students' fears about getting sick if they help someone who is unconscious.

“I talk about the Good Samaritan law, which protects people trying to save a life from being sued,” said Cross. “I also tell them to wear gloves and safety glasses to avoid blood spurting into their eyes.”

Teaching CPR all around southern California provides Cross with the flexible schedule he needs to attend auditions and rehearsals and perform in the evenings at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, among other venues. “There's a little bit of juggling back and forth between my teaching and my acting, but it works.”