EMPLOYMENT: Mum sets herself £1m mission to buy dream home (From Oxford Mail)

EMPLOYMENT: Mum sets herself £1m mission to buy dream home

6:20am Thursday 17th September 2009 in

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LIKE many of us, Chrissi Sharkey dreams of owning a £1m home – but jobs that pay a big enough wage to foot the bill are not that common.

For most of us in the current economic climate it seems a dream too far, but one woman from Littlemore, in Oxford, is determined to acheive her goal.

Married mother-of-two Mrs Sharkey, 29, has started her own business – aMillionJobstoDo – where people can ask her to do anything within reason in return for an agreed price.

Her ambitious project started when she saw her dream home in Kennington.

The only problem was the £1m price tag and, although she had a job teaching textiles to GCSE and A-level pupils at Matthew Arnold School, in Cumnor Hill, it was never going to bring in the money.

“I don’t have a £1m skill, but I often do jobs for friends and family and have always been creative and done things a little differently,” she said “When I had children, I organised themed birthday parties and people would then ask me to do things like a cake for them.”

People contact her through the website and can suggest tasks they need doing and how much they are prepared to pay.

This could ranges from sewing on a button for £1 or sending a large mail-out for a higher fee.

A recent job has been running a petition for retired architect Nigel Cowell as he battled to save a bungalow he had built in his Marston back garden without planning permission.

Ms Sharkey said: “I designed and distributed leaflets and collected feedback in a ballot box, which went to the high court as part of the appeal process.”

Despite only starting up less than three months ago, the business has generated more than £5,000 and the website has had thousands of hits.

By using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, word has spread far and wide and Mrs Sharkey has had orders from as far afield as Switzerland.

Now the former Peers School pupil is roping in friends and family to help her as she juggles the growing business, her teaching career and being a mum to daughter Deluca, three, and 18-month-old son Rocco.

Her husband Jason is an electrician and handyman so his skills are being offered online, although he is also having to increase his childcare duties whe his wife is working. Mrs Sharkey joked: “He sent me an email the other day offering £25 to clean the house.”

Her accountant mother Mary Chick and stepfather Bob Chick, an engineer, are also lending a hand.

Mrs Sharkey said she was enjoying the variety of work and had not had too many silly requests or been forced to turn jobs down.

As for reaching her long-term goal, it remains a dream for now.

But she added: “At the level the business has started, it’s providing an amazing second income.”

business@oxfordmail.co.uk For more details of Mrs Sharkey’s business, see amillionjobstodo.com