I love decorating cookies.  I have so many "heros" that I follow on Facebook and Flickr who I adore their work, to name a few (in no particular order), there is My Little Bakery, Sweet Sugar Belle, Polka Dot Zebra, Cookie Crazy, Ali Bee's Bake Shop, so many more I could go on and on.  I learn from these ladies all the time, new techniques, designs, and even what it means to be supportive in a virtual environment.

I started my cookie business with the goal of it becoming my Dream Job, one day being able to give up my regular job of medical transcription to work my own custom cookie business.  I follow Marie Forelo and through her emails I learned about Ramit Sethi and his Dream Job system.    I signed up for it, thinking I would find a way to grow my cookie business into the vision of a Dream Job I had in my mind.  LOL...too funny looking back now.  After 3 weeks in the Dream Job program I realized I was not the target market Ramit was looking for when he designed the program.  He was looking to help those in high level positions to earn more money and position themselves to advance their careers.  And while I do want to increase my earning potential, I do not have a high level position, nor do I feel that a high level position at any medical transcription company would be my dream job.

Through the research Ramit has you do in the Dream Job program, I realized that I already have my Dream Job, the cookie business, and after researching what bakers earn, and small business bakery owners I realized that I'm not going to make a substantially large amount of money as a cookie decorator.  The research I did showed most bakers make between $8 and $14 (with 20 years' experience) working for large bakeries or grocery store chains, that independent bakery owners actually make less because of the amount of hours they put in to keep their businesses going.

That information actually knocked me back on my seat.  I literally felt depressed for about a day.  Then I thought about it, this is my Dream Job, no one ever said your dream job would make your rich, just that it would make you happy.  And it does make me happy to decorate cookies and be at home with my daughters. I also make pretty decent money as a medical transcriptionist, between $15 and $22 an hour when I focus like I should.  I realized I have nothing to be depressed about, and I actually found myself happier than before I entered that Dream Job program.