Tarot card reading goes in and out of favor with the public on a regular basis. When it’s hot, you can make a lot of money – perhaps even enough to live on. When readings are not the rage, as with any freelance career, you’ll need to keep your day job.
Either way, if you’re good at:
1. reading the cards
2. relating to people
3. marketing yourself
you can be assured of earning money.
How to Be a Popular Card Reader
The first thing to remember about reading cards professionally, is that your client can tell if you’re sincere or not. You’ve got to be sincere. You’ve got to truly want the best for your client.
Secondly, you must always reassure your client that whatever comes up in the cards is not written in stone. Tell her that she alone determines her own fate. Remind her that the cards are simply reflecting patterns. They don’t dictate what will happen to her.
If you get a “bad” card, for instance, don’t just tell the client the “bad news.” Tell her that she has an opportunity now to overcome a problem. Frame your card interpretations in a way that encourages her to find solutions to her life problems. You want to energize your client, fill her with hope and ambition, no matter what cards come up. Check out the Tarot section of the Psychic Tea Shoppe – all the readings, even the “reverse” cards, are hopeful.
Getting Work
You can go at this from many angles.
1. Get yourself hired by a telephone-based or Internet-based company. The company gets the clients and forwards them to you.
When you work for a phone-based company, you must have a dedicated phone line with no add-on’s like call waiting. Log in to the company’s computer when you want to work, and sit by the phone with your cards during the time you are logged in.
2. Go freelance. Like any professional, you’ll need business cards and a website. You can take out ads in local periodicals if you’ll be reading for people face to face. If your clients will come to you via phone or the web, you might consider Internet advertising.
3. Join a networking group – either a local in-person group, or an Internet group.
Freelance Tarot card reading opportunities include:
- Reading at parties
- Renting a booth at “psychic” or “new age” conventions and doing readings and promotion from there
- Arranging for a table at a restaurant or bookstore, sometimes paying the establishment a percentage of your earnings and other times letting the bookstore use your services to draw in more store customers
- Setting up an Internet reading site (requires getting a merchant credit card account and Paypal)
- Setting up your own telephone Tarot reading business (again, you must get a credit card/Paypal account)
- Reading the Tarot cards in person from a storefront. You can arrange for your storefront to be a part of an existing store, and pay rent. (For security reasons, don’t read for clients out of your home, and don’t go to anyone else’s home – unless it’s for a well-populated party.)
Legalities
There are many laws, ordinances, restrictions and town rules on the books, no matter where you read your Tarot cards. If you’re reading for money, you absolutely must do the legal research first.
Keep records and pay taxes. I would suggest a computer-based bookkeeping program. And make back-ups every night! Keep the back-ups off-site in case of fire or theft, or purchase storage space on the Internet.
You’re in a business that is not mainstream, and without excellent record keeping and impeccable tax returns, you’re going to create problems for yourself.
And finally, I would suggest purchasing an inexpensive insurance liability policy.
Reading People
Being a professional Tarot card reader is an awesome opportunity to observe others, to get out of your own problems and needs, and to make your clients feel good about themselves. Observe them as they come in, sit down, make small talk. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or let them talk out a problem. Catch their eye, make a connection. You’ll get a better card reading.
The flip side is this: Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of. When people start talking, they often can’t stop. Set a timer when the client sits down. You’re going to get many types of people as clients. Some will have big issues. Don’t take it personally if someone becomes angry with you. And do usher the client out if they are rude or disrespectful.
Be good at reading the cards. Be intuitive about people. You’ll make a fabulous Tarot reader.
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by Suzann Kale
