Side Gigs

[msommers]

Curious what people do for a little extra cash on the side. I was doing real estate photography while in Edmonton but in Calgary the market seems to be totally saturated.

Wasn't really interested in getting a part-time cashier job at Superstore but it's looking that way

Any ideas on skills to develop or niche areas that have flexible hours?

[jwslam]

I looked up this thread a while ago, haven't done anything though.

https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/378...The-Evening?s=

Sometimes I work Promo gigs... like the guy who runs the GMC booth at Stampede etc.

[ercchry]

The amount I’m seeing being charged for corporate headshots... my god, there is room for you to do some serious undercutting there haha

[max_boost]

I train ballers like @Sorath in exchange for free food.

[Asian_defender]

I drive Calgary Transit part time
As a rookie you only have to do weekends (sat, sun) and its $25/hour as a part time shuttle driver

[msommers]

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I looked up this thread a while ago, haven't done anything though.

https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/378...The-Evening?s=

Sometimes I work Promo gigs... like the guy who runs the GMC booth at Stampede etc.

So apparently webcaming...LOL

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The amount I’m seeing being charged for corporate headshots... my god, there is room for you to do some serious undercutting there haha

Defintely thought about it but I'd need a lens and as of right now I work M-F 9-5. Maybe an 85/1.8 and meet people on the weekends downtown

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I drive Calgary Transit part time
As a rookie you only have to do weekends (sat, sun) and its $25/hour as a part time shuttle driver

Hmm that's pretty decent actually

[Mitsu3000gt]

I still do Real Estate photography. The time/money ratio isn't very good but I enjoy it and the extra cash is still nice. I have a couple realtors I work with (they just call me when they have listings) and then just word of mouth for jobs beyond that. I gave up trying to contact realtors with horrible photos on $1M+ properties, 99% of them got super defensive of their Blackberry photos featuring them in every mirror. I do have a full time job so it makes work in the Winter a bit harder with how quickly it gets dark, but it's still OK for twilight shoots which most people want anyway. I do a lot more drone photography now and will be looking into getting a commercial/advanced license when the new regulations come out in June.

I've been asked to teach Photography classes before, I tried it a couple times and they went well but it's just not really my thing and I prefer to help people via forums. I see 1 or 2 guys down at Eau Claire in the summer all the time teaching extreme beginner photography classes, they have around 10-12 people all the time and even if they're getting $50/head that is some pretty decent money if he's out there a couple times a week for a few hours. You'd probably need some positive reviews to get going but once you had a steady steam of client's you'd be golden.

If I was laid off and looking for flexible hour work with good relative pay I would do something like drive for Calgary Transit, hospital Porter, or courier (UPS, Canada Post, etc.) I know people doing all of the above and they are all $20++/hr. After that I would probably try get into a store that catered to my hobbies (camera store, high end home theater store, memory express, etc.)

[ExtraSlow]

The Calgary transit thing is a great job, unless you have school-aged kids, because you'll never see them for the first little while until you get enough seniority to pick your shifts. Suspect the hospital porter thing is the same, since it's a union job. You'll probably do strictly overnight and weekend work for the first two or more years.

Anyone who can get into a teaching kind of gig (like the photography one mentioned above) that's often great $/hr. I still do some of my oil and gas courses, although it's never bloomed into a full time job. even at big $/hr a couple courses a year doesn't add up to much sadly.

I've done a little "micro-consulting" work through GLG. If anyone wants to check that out I can refer you or walk you through it. Again nice $/hr, but very few hours. It's frustrating too because they expect you to respond to the new projects within 2 hours, but you might only get new projects once a month.

[vengie]

If you have the skills or interest, I would look at personal training.

Evenings and weekends, free gym membership, and if you're good you can make some good cash.

BONUS, if you're a hot woman you can know fuck all about fitness and add "fit" to your IG name and also make bank.

[Disoblige]

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I've done a little "micro-consulting" work through GLG. If anyone wants to check that out I can refer you or walk you through it. Again nice $/hr, but very few hours. It's frustrating too because they expect you to respond to the new projects within 2 hours, but you might only get new projects once a month.

Not sure what this is, but if you're working already, there won't be conflict of interest?

[ExtraSlow]

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Not sure what this is, but if you're working already, there won't be conflict of interest?

Generally no, and you get to review each gig beforehand to ensure there isn't. Most of the clients that I've dealt with are bankers out of new york, although I did a cool call with a team ion Argentina.

[Asian_defender]

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The Calgary transit thing is a great job, unless you have school-aged kids, because you'll never see them for the first little while until you get enough seniority to pick your shifts. Suspect the hospital porter thing is the same, since it's a union job. You'll probably do strictly overnight and weekend work for the first two or more years.

Anyone who can get into a teaching kind of gig (like the photography one mentioned above) that's often great $/hr. I still do some of my oil and gas courses, although it's never bloomed into a full time job. even at big $/hr a couple courses a year doesn't add up to much sadly.

I've done a little "micro-consulting" work through GLG. If anyone wants to check that out I can refer you or walk you through it. Again nice $/hr, but very few hours. It's frustrating too because they expect you to respond to the new projects within 2 hours, but you might only get new projects once a month.

Its actually not too bad especially if you stay in the shuttle division. If you want to work weekdays you can specify the hours you are available. Weekend is free game but it usually works out to early morning (4-6am starts) after 6-8 months. After a year you should be able to work the hours you want

[RX_EVOLV]

Had a friend that started an online (shopify) store that dropship stuff from Ali Express. Took a while to get going but last year I think he did over $200K USD in revenue. All done part-time after work with his wife.

[ExtraSlow]

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Its actually not too bad especially if you stay in the shuttle division. If you want to work weekdays you can specify the hours you are available. Weekend is free game but it usually works out to early morning (4-6am starts) after 6-8 months. After a year you should be able to work the hours you want

Thanks for the clarification, it's been a while since I checked, and you were the person I checked with, so I trust your opinion more than my imperfect recollections.

[Asian_defender]

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Thanks for the clarification, it's been a while since I checked, and you were the person I checked with, so I trust your opinion more than my imperfect recollections.

It's gotten better since the last time we talked. They revamped a lot of the shifts because turnover was ridiculous and there were a lot of complaints to the union.
20+ hours and you have benefits + the defined benefit pension plan

[vengie]

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Had a friend that started an online (shopify) store that dropship stuff from Ali Express. Took a while to get going but last year I think he did over $200K USD in revenue. All done part-time after work with his wife.

Do you know how he got around the shipping side of things?
I know a lot of those stores take 2 weeks-1 month to ship an item...

[RX_EVOLV]

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Do you know how he got around the shipping side of things?
I know a lot of those stores take 2 weeks-1 month to ship an item...

Only use e-packet, even with the extra cost. Focus on the US and less on Canada. E-packet shipping to US is ~7-10 business days. Some people still complained but not too bad.

[ExtraSlow]

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It's gotten better since the last time we talked. They revamped a lot of the shifts because turnover was ridiculous and there were a lot of complaints to the union.
20+ hours and you have benefits + the defined benefit pension plan

That's awesome. I will reconsider it.

[schurchill39]

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I've done a little "micro-consulting" work through GLG. If anyone wants to check that out I can refer you or walk you through it. Again nice $/hr, but very few hours. It's frustrating too because they expect you to respond to the new projects within 2 hours, but you might only get new projects once a month.

This is pretty interesting stuff! Do you just just your areas of expertise and you get put on some sort of contact list?

[spikerS]

I used to do a LOT of reno/fencing/decking jobs. I still do the occasional one or two, but things for me started getting out of hand and getting too busy and I made the choice to scale it way back and had to turn down a bunch of jobs. I was just getting stretched too thin to the point that time lines were getting missed and I had a hard time saying no to helping people.