Makeup Artist in New Orleans?? (Atlanta: sales, insurance, how much)

[Emily89]

Hello everyone!

I know a lot of people have posted about how much they adore New Orleans and can't when they start thinking of places they would love to live NOLA is always at the top of the list. Well, I'm no different. My only issue is I am an aspiring makeup artist (I do makeup very well and have a small business doing it here in Indiana). I will have a degree in Theatre Design and a minor in History in a year, and after that I want to get out of here! I would LOVE to move to NOLA because it has called out to me since I was a tiny little girl (I've been visiting regularly since I was 4).

I have considered moving to NYC because while I do love New York, I'm not in love with it the way I am NOLA. However, I do think NYC would give me more opportunity as far as my degree and makeup goes. It's such a dilemma because whenever I think about New Orleans I get this tingly, butterfly feeling that no other place gives me. Most of the time I feel like life is too short to not move there and live in the place I love so much. But then other times I think maybe I could just retire there or something. It's hard!

Any advice would be much appreciated. (Sorry this rambled on so long).

[thepointykitty]

I would think you could find some sort of steady part-time gig and freelance the rest of the time. Start your own business and do makeup for parties, festivals and football/basketball games, as well as theatre.

We did the part-time "job"/ freelance thing with our costume business before we left Atlanta, and now that we're here we have plenty of work and no need for a "real job". A lot of people will tell you that it's hard to "break into" most businesses here, but we've felt very welcome and now routinely turn down business because we're so busy.

Start getting contacts now and get some savings together and you can TOTALLY do this!

Do you do horror/ special effects makeup? We're actually going to need a makeup artist for a few hours a week on a regular basis starting around September/early October, so you could make a couple hundred dollars a month just from us. Put a few deals like that together and you've got "income". It's really not hard and if you feel like you belong here you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

ETA: I just realized you said "in a year". I missed that the first time. That gives you lots more time to make contacts. I recommend planning a visit to scope out potential opportunities!

PM me and I'll be happy to tell you about everything we did, from getting our LLC status, liability insurance and state sales tax number, to our free website and gorgeous, cheap business cards. It's really not hard. Also, I'd love to see some examples of your work. I don't know a lot of people here, yet, but most of the ones I know are in the arts, so it couldn't hurt to start spreading the word ;-)

[Emily89]

Wow thank you so much! I am very fortunate to have a really good savings account and I have visited the city around 8 times so the next time I go I will definitely be looking at it from a resident perspective instead of a visitor. I do halloween/light fx makeup so that would be wonderful! I'll definitely get in touch with you but right now I have to run so I don't have time to sit down and PM. Thanks so much for your help! Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!