How to set up as a Proffesional Reader?

MagsStardustBlack

By professional I mean readers who read for people and get paid in some way by money or other items (my mum went to a reader she wouldn't take money so my mum gave her wine)

Just wondering in what ways a reader could set herself/himself up to get recognised to work? Do some people do readings from home? And if yes how does that work out and how do you get contacted? Do you have an add in the paper or on a notice bored? Do you set up a website or blog or youtube channel? Do you enjoy and focus on readings online and if so how does this work, such as how do people buy readings from you? Do you do phone readings? How much do you charge and how many do you do a month? Wondering how successful different ways of working are.

I'm really interested to know how you got started and what your first time was like and how you set up as a professional reader. And what you have learned works well and maybe not so well or the positives and negatives of being a known reader?

I'm may consider in the future but I haven't a clue where to start. I thought about a website initially. I can't do them from home, to much distractions.

Thank you

Ace

If you can't work from home, start with finding a space to work in. Then, IMHO, get business cards with your info on it. This is one of the best ways to pass yourself around.

Years ago when I started, I got some business from word of mouth also.

The biggest thing to do is figure out what you will charge (do some research to find out what the going rate is in your area.) and STICK to it. You are a professional, you are not bartering here. People will tell you that you are too expensive. Tough. Stick to your price if you KNOW it is reasonable for the area.

For the rest: be honest and kind and realize it won't come fast. So start very small and build. Don't spend a lot at first, but spend as you make it to make it work. And don't forget to pay your taxes.

Barb

MagsStardustBlack

If you can't work from home, start with finding a space to work in. Then, IMHO, get business cards with your info on it. This is one of the best ways to pass yourself around.

I guess from home is the ideal way isn't it, if i can make it work. I mean i have all my energies here and my crystals and bits and bobs. And i guess this is what seems the done thing, readers read from there houses. I could make it work at the weekend, when my husband is here, he can take the kids out for an hour. Oh how long do readings tend to take, do you make time boundaries? So you don't have someone for hours or do you just go with the flow, or do reading generally take a certain time anyways and run there course. Its just that if i read for friends we spend ages talking and going over the readings, but if it was a paying stranger so to speak, i think boundaries would need to be in place in a way, or am i wrong?

Ok, business cards seem like a great idea, and they are fairly cheap to buy and easily accessible to make.

Do you give yourself a 'name' or use your real name?

Years ago when I started, I got some business from word of mouth also.

The biggest thing to do is figure out what you will charge (do some research to find out what the going rate is in your area.) and STICK to it. You are a professional, you are not bartering here. People will tell you that you are too expensive. Tough. Stick to your price if you KNOW it is reasonable for the area.

I think the general price is £20-£30 around here, i would need to look into that more to be sure.

For the rest: be honest and kind and realize it won't come fast. So start very small and build. Don't spend a lot at first, but spend as you make it to make it work. And don't forget to pay your taxes.

Thank you Barb, for the advice

I imagine my tarot skills would improve by doing readings for people and then the more people that find out the more business will be generated. Taxes? I didn't think of that. I cant imagine i would ever earn enough to have to pay taxes. But who knows, its a good point to remember and investigate farther.

Thank you Barb, i imagine it would be nerve wracking doing my first few to get me started but i imagine confidence will come with experience too.

Mags xx

tarotbear

As far as 'stage names' -

Before you start printing up business cards, flyers, t-shirts, letterhead stationery, and coffee cups ....

Decide FIRST - do you want your REAL name and Phone number out there where everyone and his brother will see it? If YES - then you need to think about HOW they will contact you since you do not want them looking your address up and dropping by. Perhaps all initial contacts should be by email - and you can always create a specific email addy for business purposes.

SECOND - if you decide to go with a 'Stage Name' - be realistic and not 'corney.' If you want people to take you seriously, skip the theatrical and long-winded 'Madame ZaZa Magnifico - Seer of Everything and Anything in the Five Known Universes and Beyond!' Leave that crap for sideshow charlatans and hustlers. Use your middle name or something - create a stage name with that name.

THIRD - yes, people do have bizarre expectations of a reader - how they should dress and how they should speak. If you want to be taken seriously you have to remember to underplay it. The more the environment screams 'FAKEFAKEFAKE' at them the more they will expect you to be a fake.

tarotbear

RE: Business cards

Nothing is as silly as having 1,000 business cards ... sitting at home! Get some inexpensive business card holders (you always want to hand someone a crisp, clean card - not dirty, wrinkled, or dog-eared) and have them with you at all times - especially while out shopping! Have an extra stash in a plastic box in your car - just in case! Going to a bunch of holiday parties? Have cards with you. Stuck in line on Black Friday? Have cards and a mini deck with you and do a free 1-card reading for the shoppers stuck in line with you - and hand them a business card. Tuck one in every Christmas card you send! Any place that has a community bulletin board - stick up a card! Think coffee shops, Chinese take-away restaurants, diners, bakeries, book stores - tuck one in every Tarot book on the shelf! .... if you don't tell people you are there no one will know you're there ... and 1,000 business cards sitting under your monitor at home is not going to get the word out.

"A Business With No Sign is a Sign of No Business".

MagsStardustBlack

As far as 'stage names' -

Before you start printing up business cards, flyers, t-shirts, letterhead stationery, and coffee cups ....

Decide FIRST - do you want your REAL name and Phone number out there where everyone and his brother will see it? If YES - then you need to think about HOW they will contact you since you do not want them looking your address up and dropping by. Perhaps all initial contacts should be by email - and you can always create a specific email addy for business purposes.

Oh yes, it is so important to be safe and i think the idea of an email contact is great.

SECOND - if you decide to go with a 'Stage Name' - be realistic and not 'corney.' If you want people to take you seriously, skip the theatrical and long-winded 'Madame ZaZa Magnifico - Seer of Everything and Anything in the Five Known Universes and Beyond!' Leave that crap for sideshow charlatans and hustlers. Use your middle name or something - create a stage name with that name.

You are hilarious, how did you think up such a wonderful name, i'l use it thank you very much..... lol I can tell you secretly like the sound of that name

Yes i totally get your point on a more serious note. I didn't like the thought of my own full name, its too exposed, its good to maintain a little bit of privacy with names but i understand to keep it real, and a middle name is perfect, thankfully i have one

THIRD - yes, people do have bizarre expectations of a reader - how they should dress and how they should speak. If you want to be taken seriously you have to remember to underplay it. The more the environment screams 'FAKEFAKEFAKE' at them the more they will expect you to be a fake.

I wasn't planning of any theatrics. Just little old me and maybe a candle and crystals or something nice atmospheric. But i agree people have high expectations of could do.

I went to an expensive well known reader one time a long time ago and sadly she was terrible at reading my cards, i felt like she had been doing it so long, or reached such notoriety, that she thought why bother really connecting, she was late and had been for a 'lunch' and a little tipple. I had expectations, but she didn't live up to any of them at all. So i understand that people do have expectations. All i would like to achieve is the expectation of being present for the client, and connecting with them, you know, being congruent.

Thank you Tarot Bear, much to think about

MagsStardustBlack

"A Business With No Sign is a Sign of No Business".

Yes, great point, you are so right. thank you

So a business card with a sensible name, with 'Tarot Reader' or something and an email address. Get a whole bunch and keep them clean and give them out at every opportunity possible

tarotbear

tarotbear said:
"A Business With No Sign is a Sign of No Business".

I don't know where I first found that quote - but let me give you some background:

Many years ago in a galaxy far away I was a quilter, and at some large quilt show looking at some vendors and this one woman there either knew me from my quilting, lectures, or articles I wrote for quilt magazines at the time. She said 'You need to come visit my shop.' No business card. No sign on her booth. ZIP! She told me an address ... turns out she was a few towns over. This was in the days before GPS and even before personal computers, so no MapQuest or Google Maps (I told you this was a long time ago!) :bugeyed:

I looked at a bunch of maps and guessed where I had to head to. She was in a very swanky town with lots of money and people who had their noses in the air. I drove and drove and drove (Did you know I write children's stories?). I realize that I am not in the town at all, but in a swanky neighborhood ... not exactly 'commercially zoned.' I keep driving - no signs, no name on a mailbox, nothing. I drove some more expecting to see something - anything - that said 'shop' to me. Lots of houses ... no shops. I finally gave up and turned around to go home.

Eventually I realized that one house I had passed had an open door. In the vestibule was a chair - with a quilt draped over it. I have always assumed that THAT was the woman's house/shop, but I never bothered to go back to check it out. I also never saw her again at any quilt shows. Presumably, she could not put up any advertising (Horrors!!

) on her house, door, or windows due to 'ordinances' from towns for people with their noses in the air. If she really had a business - she certainly lost mine.

"A Business With No Sign is a Sign of No Business".

nisaba

MagsStardustBlack said:
Do some people do readings from home?

Some people do. In fact, some of us do. Me, my home is my retreat from the world - I don't invite the world back into it.

Do you enjoy and focus on readings online and if so how does this work, such as how do people buy readings from you?

I do some online readings, but I don't go looking for them. People email me, generally. I set a price and tell them how I work. If they're happy with that, I give them my paypal details and once the payment is made I'll read for them and scan the cards that I used and email them back. They often refer other people to me or come back for repeat readings, so I take that as a sign of satisfaction.

Do you do phone readings?

No. I've done one phone reading once, and while the client was happy enough, I was extremely uncomfortable and have no wish to repeat the experience.

How much do you charge

The same as most professionals in this area: $50 Australian. Any less than that, and you are destroying competition and other people's livelihoods. Any more than that and people won't come back.

(It equates to about the cost of a moderate evening meal in a not-very-expensive restaurant)

and how many do you do a month?

Sometimes zero. Sometimes many. You can't *make* customers come to you. Likewise, dress shops will have times when they sell nothing, and times when they sell thousands because, again, they can't force customers to walk in.

Wondering how successful different ways of working are.

Well, phone readings are not successful - for me. Of course, my client at the time felt he got value, and went away pleased, not disappointed. But I made a note at the time that phone readings weren't my thing, any more than water-skiing is. Not everyone water-skis - some people go mountain climbing instead. And I don't do phone readings, I don't believe it's my thing. I think it's different for everyone.

I'm really interested to know how you got started and what your first time was like

Well, my "first time" was before I got started. I worked in the financial sector at the time, and a client there mentioned an unrelated issue they had. So I suggested a reading outside of working hours, which happened. I never mentioned payment, but she was so impressed that back then (in 1981, when wages were so much less) she insisted that I take nearly twice my current 2014 rate. It was half a week's pay. I suddenly realised that I was *good* at this.

and how you set up as a professional reader.

A few years later, I turned up at a new age shop which had a reader's cubicle, and asked for a shift. They gave it to me. I've been working out of new age shops and cafes ever since.

And what you have learned works well

Being professional and keeping yourself and your prejudices, beliefs etc strictly out of the reading.

and maybe not so well

<grin> Phone readings. Not a good feeling at all.

or the positives and negatives of being a known reader?

Well, the negative is that when you go to buy your groceries, some obnoxious old woman that you did a reading for ages ago lines up at the till with you, and because you've done a reading for her, she thinks she has the right to pick through your groceries and comment on every single item and brand-choice, making judgements about health and wasting money, and pick them up and rearrange them, all the time thinking she's doing you some kind of favour. And when you ask her politely to let you shop in peace, she snaps shrewishly that you've changed and she won't be recommending you any more. That's pretty much the negative of being a known reader - people intrude into your life ALL the time.

MagsStardustBlack

(Did you know I write children's stories?)

Thank you for sharing your story TarotBear and yes it does illustrate well your quote.

No I didn't know that, you write children's books? Where are they have you a website? That's brilliant, what a lovely career to have you must be incredibly creative. I had a feeling you did something from the grapevine but wasn't sure what

Mags

How to set up as a Proffesional Reader?

MagsStardustBlack

Ace

MagsStardustBlack

tarotbear

tarotbear

MagsStardustBlack

MagsStardustBlack

tarotbear

nisaba

MagsStardustBlack