Supplementing Your Income

Like most of us my life is very busy. I work full time and we have 2 kids heavily involved in sports on top of all the other stuff life throws at us each week. We don't exactly have a ton of spare time on our hands. We could really use a little income to help us get (back) on track and to help pay for all the things that are making life so busy in the first place. I'm having trouble coming up with ideas of what to do though.

For a variety of reasons an additional part-time job with a fixed schedule doesn't really work for either of us. What I'd like to find is something that can be done for a few hours in the evening after the kids have gone to bed or at some other point when the time can be found. It might be 3 hours one week and 12 hours the next week. Has anyone found something that seems like as though it might fit this criteria? Thanks for your ideas.

Uber? Lyft? Gotta have a newer car though...

Since you are here you may have some mechanical ability and an interest in Cars.
Maybe buy non running cars, fix and sell. If you do this, I recommend specializing in a model because then you will get good at recognizing the specific problems.

Another option is car parts. Years back, I did not have room to part out an entire car or keep a rusted hulk in my driveway so I took another approach. My local yard had 7 MR2s, all rusted and wrecked. I was involved in MR2s at the time and has a sense of what was valuable and desirable. My specialty was interior trim and plastic pieces. See, here up north, our exteriors are destroyed by rust but our interiors and plastics are not sun damaged. Most of the parts went south where high mile, rust free cars were still on the road but the interiors were worn out.
I could often turn $100 spent at thethe junkyard or various small parts into $600 viavia eBay or MR2 website after cleaning the parts and doing a good job of marketing them.

Buy & sell items, either auto-related as mentioned above, or rummage sale finds(if you have specific knowledge/interests outside of cars). Offer repair services(minor auto work, handyman work, or something technology related like PC repair, iPhone screen replacement, etc. Mow lawns, rake leaves, etc. Detail cars, clean houses.

Car detailing. If you are of such a persuasion and you have the space in the garage/shop. Even better if the kids are old enough to pitch in.

Shops in Ontario charge about $500/axle to do brakes. I could do a set of front or rear brakes and save the owner $100 while putting the same in my pocket. Win-win.

Rent a husband/handyman. Got sucked into this while helping the in-laws get their house ready to sell. They and the real estate guy made a list of mostly trivial stuff with about 100 items on it ranging from fix a faucet to paint a room. Would have cost a lot of money to farm out while individually none of it was a big deal. Word spread and their friends called. I had to put a stop to it. So, once again, if you are so inclined.

My latest is paid project management for car projects. A lot of people seem to become enamored of restoring a car or building a hot rod who have no idea what they are doing. I have got in on one project before the purchase and one after. It involves a night a week to do a task, make a plan for next week and assign "Homework" for the owner. Maybe I have some research or parts sourcing to do in between. The value proposition you have to sell is that you will be saving the guy money by eliminating dead ends, teaching him stuff they don't know and pitching in with your tools and talents when they run out. Having a good grapevine is also essential. Nor all that lucrative, but I get to meet some good people and interesting projects.

i think that some evening or weekend kitsch craft type production or instruction is key. Think of the bottles and brushes type things where women purchase the event pass on groupon or living social then get drunk while painting a piece that someone walks them through a how-to on painting the piece.

Now modify that to something that you know, enjoy or have some knowledge about. How about "Garage Graffiti. You have large stencils made up, in heavy cardboard or even plastic by a local sign shop, of popular automotive imagery, popular company and model logos, classic poster or event prints. Then you hang up the stencil pieces on the garage, basement or man cave wall and it makes the piece a paint by number mural. Based on the location of the work you'll be producing the owner of the property can opt for spraybomb (which would be cheaper, faster, easier while also allowing for some shadowing and detail work) or latex interior paint (slower, more expensive).

On your business cards mention that you do children's bedrooms as well. The reason being is that your client's swmbo might not appreciate the focus or topic of the piece that you produced, but if she likes the quality of the work and they have young children the ideas will get rolling. Children outgrow themes, so there's repeat business there, and woman talk to each other about home projects and nesting and children have play dates, so there's mouth of referrals and repeat business to be had. You'll likely end up doing more non-man cave related work, but i'd start with that premise as it differentiates you from other painters, and it's a easy market to enter because of the specialization and differentiation.

Freelance writing can be an option and doesn't require regular hours. It can require good time management to prevent deadlines from getting you, though.

Reffing youth sports--soccer, hockey, baseball, softball... I hear football is a little harder to get into.

Start with the little kids. If you're good you move up pretty quickly. Pay varies, but its extra cash, often times actually paid in cash on the spot, fun, and you typically pick your own schedule to a certain extent--you put in for available games and get assigned some out of those.

I highly recommend it.

The caveat to all these schemes is that it only works if you are getting cash payment. Else you might as well get a PT job at McDees.

NOHOME wrote: My latest is paid project management for car projects. A lot of people seem to become enamored of restoring a car or building a hot rod who have no idea what they are doing. I have got in on one project before the purchase and one after. It involves a night a week to do a task, make a plan for next week and assign "Homework" for the owner. Maybe I have some research or parts sourcing to do in between. The value proposition you have to sell is that you will be saving the guy money by eliminating dead ends, teaching him stuff they don't know and pitching in with your tools and talents when they run out. Having a good grapevine is also essential. Nor all that lucrative, but I get to meet some good people and interesting projects.

Ugh, I tried this once. It only works if people listen to you. Hiring someone for their expertise then doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of their instructions doesn't work out well.

slefain wrote:

NOHOME wrote: My latest is paid project management for car projects. A lot of people seem to become enamored of restoring a car or building a hot rod who have no idea what they are doing. I have got in on one project before the purchase and one after. It involves a night a week to do a task, make a plan for next week and assign "Homework" for the owner. Maybe I have some research or parts sourcing to do in between. The value proposition you have to sell is that you will be saving the guy money by eliminating dead ends, teaching him stuff they don't know and pitching in with your tools and talents when they run out. Having a good grapevine is also essential. Nor all that lucrative, but I get to meet some good people and interesting projects.

Ugh, I tried this once. It only works if people listen to you. Hiring someone for their expertise then doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of their instructions doesn't work out well.

Yeah, it can seem that way at times, but so far its been a pretty casual thing. Having one of their friends join the group can be a good or very bad thing also.

As long as we get a productive work session I feel good about the project. Going to someones shop to have a beer and work on his car using his budget is not so bad when you leave with $XX. The reality is that I will probably spend a couple of hours doing research on how the next session is going to play out, so like I said, not really lucrative.

I need something to do when I cash in the real job and what I am finding is that there are no end of jobs for people who can fix stuff and own a collection of tools.

MadScientistMatt wrote: Freelance writing can be an option and doesn't require regular hours. It can require good time management to prevent deadlines from getting you, though.

... but all those WORDS!

I buy stuff from DIY and make cars run better/faster/more. Keeps me racing, or at least feeding the monster that keeps the floor down in my garage.

I do alot of brakes, tune ups and minor repairs for pocket change. Saves people money while making me some during time id waste anyway. The biggest issue is make sure you qoute enough to cover the small stuff. Preferbly deal with people who will atleast cover parts up front. Its a mess trying to get money after its all said and done from some people. You get all kinds of good excuses. I try to never go out of pocket on a job unless im sure ill be paid. Mostly repeat customers or family of said customers.

I used to make extra money by dancing.

MadScientistMatt wrote: Freelance writing can be an option and doesn't require regular hours. It can require good time management to prevent deadlines from getting you, though.

That's what I came here to suggest. But you have to be able to write.

Which brings the obvious point to mind: what's the skill set? You don't want to be working as a handyman if you're Red Green.

I used to flip computers. I don't know how much of a market there is these days. I would by off lease PCs for under $100, clean them, and install Windows. Sell the working machines for $200, and it was a decent little hobby business. The trick was selling to businesses that just needed something pretty basic for their front desk or something. They also won't complain that it won't run the latest games.

In terms of buying them, HP>Lenovo>Dell. That order is completely due to how long it takes to get drivers.

I have started developing motorcycle accessories with a few friends. It has been a huge money suck so far but I am hoping it will actually turn into a money maker next year.

Thanks for all of the input, there are some interesting ideas here. Here are some initial thoughts...

Fix & Sell/Parting-Out cars - This has crossed my mind many times but the logistics of transporting non-running/unlicensed cars is a bit of a drawback. I don't own a dolly or trailer so I would have to rent/borrow. I'd likely jump on the right opportunity.

Buy & Re-sell - This has always intrigued me. Never considered the off-lease computer flipping but that sounds interesting. Does anyone have any experience buying from auctions/garage sales for the sole purpose of re-selling?

Car Repairs - I generally do all my own repairs and have certainly helped others many times but I've always felt nervous about liability when doing someone else's brakes for example. Not sure I want to put myself in that position. It's also not always enjoyable doing car repair jobs here in the winter (I'm in Canada, eh!) as my garage isn't heated.

Handyman - This is something I have done in the past a little. I can se this working. Someone made the comment about everything needs to be cash only. I get that. I have a couple people who would likely have ongoing handyman work for me but both are self employed and would be looking for receipts in order claim the work as a business expense. Not sure I want to get into that.

Car Project Manager - Ironically I am a Project Manager only in the property development world. I never thought about applying that experience to car renovation projects. I need to give this some thought. Thanks for the suggestion...this would never have crossed my mind!

Garage Art - This is a cool idea. I think there is a market for it but I think for me it would require a little too much advertising and marketing at this point in order to make it a viable business.

Freelance Writing - This is really, really appealing to me. I have had the opportunity in the past to write a few articles for a fairly large ATV magazine. I know the owner and he was kind of enough to include a few submissions along with one cover story on buying a used ATV (which is not my area of expertise but with a little research it ended up going well). Payment for those articles however was nothing more than kickbacks from manufacturers passed on to me. I did make a few dollars doing an article once where I interviewed a stock car driver which was an interesting experience. I would love to pursue this but I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to find the opportunities or if there even are any in my area. Any input on how to go about this?

Refereeing - Both my boys play hockey and I'm the trainer for my oldest son's team. I've transitioned into that role well but I'm not sure I have enough knowledge or expertise to be an official.

Motorcycle Parts - As a motorcyclist the thought of working in that industry is definitely appealing. As I mentioned before though, I'm not really looking to spend all my effort and time building a business, generating a little cash flow is the goal. Flipping bikes has always been appealing and they certainly take up less space. I'm wondering whether there are opportunities to flip dirt-bikes, quads and even snowmobiles more easily than road bikes.

Sorry for being so long-winded. I really appreciate everyone's input though and would be interested in hearing more.

Oh ya, I forgot about the male dancer thing. I'm pretty sure the only money I'll ever make from dancing is from someone paying me to stop!

Have you ever seen the HBO series Hung?

I part cars. It has been great for my sanity and my family's finances. We've basically gone from $7k in credit cards to zero in a year. I spend limited time doing this. Like you I'm crazy busy.

Another option is bust your ass type grunt work, but you seem to busy. Weed eating, chopping wood, other landscaping. If I didn't part cars I would do this on Saturdays.

Regarding where to buy off-lease computers: I got a bunch from a local college for $50/ea. Google search: (local college name) surplus. When I needed more, and on demand though I went with epcusa.com. They have ebay sales and an online store, but I found it best to call and deal with a sales rep.

Another good one if you own a pickup truck of a trailer is junk removal or small moving jobs. I grow a junk pile in the back corner of my lot and every two years I pay a guy $200 to make it go away. Takes him an hour or so to load it up. As with the home repair gig, it takes a while for word of mouth to get you going, but this stuff does snowball.

Then again, now that you mention you are in Canada, and Mr Trudeau has recently been elected...might I suggest gardening?

Riley_88 wrote: Buy & Re-sell - This has always intrigued me. Never considered the off-lease computer flipping but that sounds interesting. Does anyone have any experience buying from auctions/garage sales for the sole purpose of re-selling?

I did it in college with guitars and golf clubs, because those were things that I knew well. I also have done it with items at garage sales that were sold for a dollar or less that I knew was worth more; I'd put them on Ebay or craigslist. Frankly, it was good in college, but now with a real paycheck the juice isn't worth the squeeze. The exception to this is books--I'll go and find hardcover books, especially any textbooks, and buy them as cheap as I can and take them to Half Price Books or Amazon. There is an app for it, but I've never used it.

One thing about my experience with guitars that I found was that the best deals for me were the guitars that were on the very bottom end new, maybe worth $150 new retail, and usually had a broken string. I'd buy them for $30-$50, clean them, polish them, new strings, then take it to a pawn shop. I'd usually make about $25 to $50 on them. I probably could have made more, but didn't want to put in the effort--the pawn shop was the easy sell.

Riley_88 wrote: Refereeing - Both my boys play hockey and I'm the trainer for my oldest son's team. I've transitioned into that role well but I'm not sure I have enough knowledge or expertise to be an official.

Well, if you haven’t played ever, you probably don’t have the expertise. If you’re a decent skater (can move out of the way, stop, start, turn, all without falling over) you’d be able to learn—watching 2 boys play hockey does teach you more than you think—but you probably don’t have the time to put into it to get to the point where you can be reffing the late night mens league games.

But what you can and should do is ask around the rink if they need any extra help. Some rinks will pay you to sit in the penalty box and run the clock—for mens games, it is always difficult to find volunteers to do it since no one actually watches that hockey. Mindless money, and if you can listen for a whistle you could still do stuff online while working.

I'm going to sound possibly too much like mr money mustache here, but what about cutting costs? You can often make your time much more valuable by doing things for yourself instead of paying to do them.

examples:

• cable TV? drop that crap for a free $100/month income bump. That's like getting a $1500-$2k raise in a salary position (AND think of all the free time you will get back into your life...)
• stop paying people to cook/serve your food and drinks (I know, groceries and cooking are time consuming, but the cost savings is INCREDIBLE)
• take a look at all your regular bills. the recurring bills are the most expensive things you buy (like cable above, most people spend more on cable for one year than the TV they watch it on). I spent about 4 hours last winter to file the official paperwork with my city to re-evaluate my property tax assessed value. I dropped the assessed value of our house by 18%, which turns into about $800 in savings EVERY SINGLE YEAR for us. Even if they re-assess us each year and I have to do it once a year it is still 4 hours of work for $800 which is a pretty solid hourly wage.
• everything else you pay someone to do is eligible - pay someone $20 to mow your lawn? if it only takes 30 minutes, you earn $40/hr doing it yourself. pay someone $20 to cut your hair? that could be more like $80/hr to do yourself. taxes? daycare? car/house maintenance? etc
• do you have car payments? you can sell those cars and get into beaters for $150/$200 per month savings.