Side Gigs

[PeterGTiR]

Y'all think restoring furniture would be profitable? You could buy old furniture on Kijiji, restore it to new and then sell it from your garage.

[jwslam]

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Y'all think restoring furniture would be profitable? You could buy old furniture on Kijiji, restore it to new and then sell it from your garage.

If you're looking for $/hr, probably dirt low. Plus you have to deal with Kijidiots.
But if you enjoy it as a hobby, then at least it's a semi-profitable hobby.

[R-Audi]

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Y'all think restoring furniture would be profitable? You could buy old furniture on Kijiji, restore it to new and then sell it from your garage.

I know a few people that do this... it can be super competitive, and you need to specialize in the product and know exactly what you are looking for. You are not only competing with other collectors, but also stores. If anything is priced reasonably, you have to be the first person to respond and pick the item up asap.

I have recently started collecting Mid Century Modern furniture, and its certainly not easy or cheap to get into!

If you wanted to look at something to re-sell, Id look for something smaller that you can ship to the States. It opens up a huge market and you instantly gain 20% on exchange.

[SkiBum5.0]

^ living in Houston has allowed my wife to cash in on this. She bought three dining sets from a combined estate sale in a nice part of Houston. All 1970's era Oak furniture. I was able to salvage 6 chairs out of all of them, then refinished one set for our family. Sold the other two tables separately after refinishing.


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[R-Audi]

If she is out there looking, Id say the bigger money is in Danish 1950s to 1960s Mid Century Modern items!

[schurchill39]

Every time my wife comes home from a craft fair and I see the trinkety shit she buys to decorate the house, then find out what she paid, it really makes me want to get into making shit for middle age white women. Huge margins, low time spent building/creating, the only downside is dealing with the selling aspect of it.

I've got about 50 lbs of bees wax at home I am in the middle of refining to see how that fairs and I'll use it as a test for the sales portion of things.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Every time my wife comes home from a craft fair and I see the trinkety shit she buys to decorate the house, then find out what she paid, it really makes me want to get into making shit for middle age white women. Huge margins, low time spent building/creating, the only downside is dealing with the selling aspect of it.

I've got about 50 lbs of bees wax at home I am in the middle of refining to see how that fairs and I'll use it as a test for the sales portion of things.

Haha crafts are the worlds biggest rip-off. If you've ever been in a Michaels, I suspect the average markup in there is well over 1,000%. As you say though, sitting at a crappy trade show all day selling your homemade goods to hipsters is a pretty major downside.

Lots of people like beeswax stuff and it's at almost every farmers market / craft fair - food wraps, chapstick, candles, etc. Not sure how hard it is to turn into products though haha.

[Lex350]

I had a side gig for years doing Architectural renders with a focus on rendering for furniture firms and architectural firms in Chicago, New York, Grand Rapids and other locations out east. I had more more than I could handle but I let it go for two reasons:

1) Even though the extra money was good $30k-$60K on top of my day gig, I could see the industry changing. In my time you worked with programs like Lightscape or 3D Studio. It took both technical as well as creative skills to set you apart. But technology advancements started to change that to the point that there are many programs that can give you a decent render which the push of a button. (well almost) I could see companies investing in the technology rather than outsourcing it so it was time place more focus on my career. That, or they outsourced to either India or Mexico for cheaper renders.

2) Rendering can be very isolating. Long hours not seeing people being in a dark room took its toll.

The one benefit I still enjoy is that I have contacts throughout Canada and the US. This is going to come in handy when I make my permanent move to the US.

[msommers]

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Haha crafts are the worlds biggest rip-off. If you've ever been in a Michaels, I suspect the average markup in there is well over 1,000%. As you say though, sitting at a crappy trade show all day selling your homemade goods to hipsters is a pretty major downside.

Lots of people like beeswax stuff and it's at almost every farmers market / craft fair - food wraps, chapstick, candles, etc. Not sure how hard it is to turn into products though haha.

Not to mention you can advertise as "Locally hand-worked sculptures using ancient artisanal craftmanship techniques using locally sourced produces free of GMO, gluten, soy, dairy, egg, and carefully finished using the finest children's tears."

Maybe I should get into marketing for the next ice cream company to open up.

[gpomp]

I polish cars on the side. Almost have enough for that 600LT

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Not to mention you can advertise as "Locally hand-worked sculptures using ancient artisanal craftmanship techniques using locally sourced produces free of GMO, gluten, soy, dairy, egg, and carefully finished using the finest children's tears."

Nothing makes a hipster's pants tighter than seeing those buzzwords on products. It might be surprisingly lucrative.

[D'z Nutz]

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craftmanship

Hey, fuck you white devil and your oppressive slave trade. That's craftpersonship. I only purchase my crafts from non-binary artisans.

[AndyL]

I've taken to 3d printing as a side income (working on development as primary) mostly pegboard stuff at the moment...

Got the whole Nerf line built, working on home office and craftroom, and garage stuff atm. Stumbled across anything #bossbabe related gets way too much attention from the Lululemon SAHM types lol

[Sugarphreak]

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[HiTempguy1]

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These days if I need extra cash I just see if there is some overtime I can work, or I try to help out other departments.

Side jobs are not meant to replace income. As a person has probably sunk an extraordinary amount of time into their chosen field of work/career, usually the benefits are highest to work as many extra hours as possible. When working OT, I get paid three figures per hour, no brainer.

Many people don't have that as an option if they are salary, to work extra hours to earn extra $$$. That's where the sidejob comes in.

Also, things that don't make good sidejobs are jobs that someone who gets paid $20/h do, unless there is massive overhead requirements that a typical employee wouldn't see cash from but a company does (automotive work).

You also have to have reasonable expectations, and $/hr is a poor measurement of sidejobs. $$ relative to the ease of work is more important, because you are trading your free time for more money. At some point, the answer is "fuck it" I'd rather sit on the couch (which was basically your response).

If you get paid $100 cash for 3 hours of design work, that is not bad at all. 30 hours in a month is $1k straight cash in your pocket, for something that has you in a comfy home office doing your own thing, that you get to decide where, when, and what the job entails. No, its probably not your normal wage, but that same person could probably go online and get some east Indian to do it for $25 (same situation I ran into with my company logo, all the people in Alberta were terrible to deal with, wanted insane amounts of money. So I went online, paid $100, and my logo is perfect, exactly what I wanted).

Fixing a car, for instance, requires massive infrastructure requirements (place to do it, couple grand in tools, etc) plus the knowledge/education. So its a good way to make $$$ if you already have access to that infrastructure (your house has a garage, you work on cars already, etc).

[Sugarphreak]

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[HiTempguy1]

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The problem is that it takes more than 3 hours for a professional to mock up a company logo, and most don't want to do it for 2.50 an hour unless they are in India (and let's be honest, you probably got a copy-paste design for that price).

Ditto for design work... people want 20 hours of work for 100$ including printing or overhead costs. They just downplay it as being 3 hours. This applies across the board, anything worth doing well takes longer than people think.

Or you're just slow. Either way, if you aren't making money offering your services, it isn't the customers fault. You have a poor business model that people aren't willing to pay for.

I've noticed this attitude from a lot of people who only work for others and are used to wasting ridiculous amounts of money on projects. There are lots of people who do the things you listed and earn money doing it, so I guess you just suck at those things Sorry if the truth hurts. Edit - The argument is very similiar to the one made about automotive work justifying $150/hr shop rates "that's how much it costs!". No its not, thats how much stupid people are willing to pay, many places earn lots of money at way lower rates. Your lacking of creativity in a business model doesn't make it unprofitable.

[ExtraSlow]

I'd say if your "side gig is something that can be easily outsourced to India, then you'd better be doing it for love, because you won't be able to do it for money for long.

I guess my training business is a side gig at this point. The dollars per hour are amazing, the hours are very few though.

[AndyL]

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The problem is that it takes more than 3 hours for a professional to mock up a company logo, and most don't want to do it for 2.50 an hour unless they are in India (and let's be honest, you probably got a copy-paste design for that price).

Ditto for design work... people want 20 hours of work for 100$ including printing or overhead costs. They just downplay it as being 3 hours. This applies across the board, anything worth doing well takes longer than people think.

Side gigs are usually shit unless you have a very good niche, access to company resources under the table, or some impressive skills. That or doing something illegal like selling drugs or stolen goods.

Depends on the gig, would I hand you cash to design me a logo? Yup. 100$ would be a lovely price - do I expect perfect kerning a custom font etc etc etc? No that's when you're seeking a 10,000k logo. Small businesses are the biggest market and are willing to pay just not thousands.

So that's when you pull out the "good enough" card, it might not be the work you wish to put out, but to the average Joe it's good enough. Designers would rip it apart likely - but unless you're selling to that audience - does it matter?

And I started slinging doors on the side having nothing but time after work and a boss that said sure but expect us to throw you some work too.

[Sugarphreak]

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