Thread: what has bellydance/your business done for you?

Have you been able to keep a record of , financially speaking, what your bellydancing/teaching/vending business has done for you or enabled your family to do?

Look back and see what has come of this love of dance..

(fun thread)

I have a few to list but am getting on a plane soon..but a recent order of veils just provided enough funds for me to take a nursing course that will be a huge benefit to the nurse career.

More examples?

I'm hoping belly dance will help pay for my laser resurfacing. I should be able to write some of it off! Yay Belly Dance!!

Well, actually it was mostly the Bollywood dance craze that bought me my brand new pink car a few years ago

And I remember buying a really expensive bikini once when I got a lot of tips at a restaurant.

Basically dancing has enabled me to reduce my office job to 80 % - but on the other hand I needed to do that or I wouldn't have had time to breathe! My dance job is now officially a part of my income (the tax office likes it too!)

MEISSOUN

belly dance has given me the chance to enjoy my free time (daytime) as an unemployed (and seriously lazy) writer. it's my family's second income but i don't really feel like its a job. it's too much fun and i can sleep as late as i want.

my husband's days off vary from week to week and so whenever he has off, we are able to do fun things together even on weekdays when most people are at work. Can you see the nearly empty beaches? ;-)

priceless things!

i get to snorkel first thing in the morning and run off to the bay area ..also get summers off (side for studying for nursing)

it bought me boobs
and a beach condo (crappy one but saved us a lot of money)..l;,

well, let's see. Before belly dancing I was working 40 hours / week, in an office. A job that I liked in the beginning, but after 5 years it was getting old, and I felt unmotivated and in a rut. I was also a single mom with a baby, and my child was at the babysitters all the time.
4 years after taking my first class I was already dancing pro, and my day job cut into my performance opps, so I decided to quit.
By this time I was in school, and I can only thank "belly dancing' for that.

I just wanted to learn Arabic, because I always loved languages and naturally, I wanted to understand the songs. I tried for a year to learn on my own, but it was hard (pronunciation, richness of language - it's not like learning English or German). So in 2005 I decided to take a course at a college, and by next semester I fell in love with school and the learning environment (and the feeling that I could do it) and I became a full time student, then the following semester I quit my day job, to rely only on dancing and financial aid (and some small student loans).

If it wasn't for dancing I could have never gone to school - I would not have thought of it anyways. And I had so much more time to spend with my daughter. When I was dancing she'd still be at the babysitter, but that was just Friday/Saturday night, instead of 45 hours / week.

And because of this I have been in school, and finally earned my BA. To me that is a huge accomplishment, even more so, because English is not my first language, and I actually never studied English in a classroom setting. I learned it on my own, in a country where there were no native English speakers (how weird is that? - according to linguists meaningful native lang. input is crucial for learning - well, I disagree :) )

And because of dancing I am still going to school - and I can also thank you fine ladies for helping me out and buying my costumes I had recently up for sale :)

It has been great. Yes, this life style has its uncertainties, the financial ups and downs, all the drama that comes with it, but you are your own boss, make your own schedule and set your standards, budgets, everything. And I remind myself every day, that it is great to do what you love - how many people can say that they are doing every day that they really enjoy?
I think it also kept me young - people that have known me for a long time (my parents included) say that I look younger than I did 7-10 years ago.

Having said all of that, I am looking for a job to supplement my income because lately it's been getting really hard.
But over all it's been great :) When I get old I will have lots of stories tell to the grand kids.

My event bought me a laptop last year. Not to mention that I have way more write-offs since it's a business.