What's your side-hustle?

Haven't done it in years but maybe as a suggestion to anyone looking for a side gig.   When in the military a buddy and I would go to hardware stores and buy up peepholes for doors in bulk.  Then we'd hit up new housing developments, especially townhouses (population density is good) and go door to door installing a $1.99 peephole for $20.   Customer service was key as short women loved that we would install at a height they were comfortable with.   Buddy was also a locksmith so he'd upsell lockset changes and re-keying when the opportunity presented. 

We could easily go out on a saturday and clear $500 before lunch.

Slightly shady part was we had on workers aprons which may or may not have had the logo of the development builder on them but we never directly represented ourselves as employess of the developer :)

John Welsh said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Infimity!??  

I've seen your art.  An Etsy page is what you need. 

Yeah, I need to put that together. 

I just got back from my "route" doing this.  Very easy work and almost no barrier to entry.  Over time you get better at differentiating this service from landscapers (which is my only true headache with the business).  I'm getting close to taking my son out on runs to work while I sell him more properties to clean.

Watch surplus auctions for interesting items and flip them to interesting people.  I paid $300 for 650 library bookshelves at a university auction and sold them for between $20-$35 each.  Many went in a large chunk to a municipal library out of state and they sent a check in advance.  I hired college kids to dismantle and palletize the load.  Learned about uShip and rented a cool telescoping forklift to stuff somebody's trailer.  The buyer was thrilled and wanted more but I haven't been able to replicate that deal.

I also subscribe to used medical equipment dealers' buying lists.  Reverse engineer the auctions.  Low volume but high gross.

Honey, anyone?

EricM said:

Letscampsmore.com

 

I am an it manager during the week, professional camper by weekend. 

This is amazing.  Very cool, I'll be revisiting this page next time we go camping.  I guess I forgot that you can actually earn $$ from traditional website advertising.  Everything seems to lead towards youtube/tik tok these days. 

bentwrench said:

Honey, anyone?

Depends. Do you do mail order?

John Welsh said:

Pre-covid, I was dabbling in buy/sell of salvage cars.  The real key to this was I had a flexible schedule and I could break away from business, on occasion, during the hours of 8-4.  The ability to bid and pick up the cars (as well as parts) during "business hours" is required.  

I made some money but more than that it became a replacement for "car time."  Maybe like yourself, I need a certain amount of "car-fun-time."  Rather than loosing money on things like racing, I was actually making some money in the car hobby.  But, hobby was the best way to describe it.  Sure, my target was $50 to $100 per hour of effort I had into the cars and that sounds great but only one car per month and maybe $750 cleared doesn't make it a real job in itself but a hobby that "makes" rather than "takes."  

I detailed many examples on GRM

Ford Focus ZX5

Pontiac Vibe

Three cars including the loss

Admittedly, there is an element of "gambling" to the whole thing.  That gamble does bring some rush.  Out of 13 cars I only lost money on one.  It wasn't a lot of money, but I lost.  Post covid, what was a $3k retail car, bought for $1.2k then became a $5k retail car bought for $3.5k.  This just meant that the stakes of the gamble grew.  And, they grew to a level that I was not comfortable with.  I was also a very conservative "gambler" being sure to see, touch, smell the cars before bidding on them.  Many people buy sight-unseen off just the pictures.  Too much gamble for me.  

I no longer have the schedule flexibility

I've thought about doing this.  If I could do this with cars that I'd actually like to own it might work out.  Fix, drive for a month, sell it.  THe time committment is the main concern.  The only issue is you probably need to be ready with a trailer to go and pick up something at the drop of a hat when a good deal is posted.

BoxheadTim said:

bentwrench said:

Honey, anyone?

Depends. Do you do mail order?

USPS flat rate. rickb794-gmail.com

bentwrench said:

BoxheadTim said:

bentwrench said:

Honey, anyone?

Depends. Do you do mail order?

USPS flat rate. rickb794-gmail.com

Emailed.

I love all the suggestions but a different thought. If you are under 50 then upgrading your skills for better pay at work is the best option. It makes it easier for you to move around and go after better paying work. Long term much better investment. 
 

having said that I used to do hard money loans, pawn and flip cars. Now I help people, specifically non Americans negotiate and buy cars here in the states. Mostly teaching them how to do it themselves and handing them off to dealerships that I know are honest. I have likely helped 100 people at one Toyota dealership alone. I can pocket an extra 30k a year in the side with that and some light pawn and flipping of watches. About double that if I really push. Keeps the car collection going and pays for all the maintenance. 

Bumping this back up to the top.  SWMBO's reselling "business" isn't showing results. That's a whole story for another thread...too much to unpack here.

I've sold off a bunch of sporting goods at a fair profit recently (mountain bikes, surfboards, spare outdoor gear).  They were all things I bought to use, but I also got them all for a good price...at least a 2x profit.  Unfortunately, now I don't have any more mountain bikes (sad face).  I've picked up & fixed a few used surfboards to resell...but it's tough to really scale buying & selling sports gear.

I'm working some pretty crazy hours at my day job (spreadsheets, zoom calls, occasional travel).  The sad reality is, the amount of time I spend & what I accomplish won't result in any different pay, advancement, bonus etc.  Big companies can be very frustrating.

I submitted my details for Uber driving this AM.  I may start w/just focusing on driving for a bit on the evenings and when there are concerts at the local amphitheater.  If any you have any tips on Uber, please let me know.   If I can make a few bucks driving around instead of sitting on the couch.

Next project I do on my wagon (headline?) I'll plan to make a video.  Video editing is a PITA...but maybe worthwhile.

Anyhow, any other ideas/recommendations...fire away.

My side gig is doing my day job for other clients. They don't cross over with my day job clientele and my day job knows about it, so it's no issue. My day job deals with large companies, my side gig is doing work for individuals. But that means that the projects are much more condensed, and as a result it's a little more fun. I also get payed better at an hourly rate than my regular salaried position. If you have work skills you can leverage without running into conflict with your actual job it's a nice way to go.

Now would be a good time to learn autocad. Massive industry shortages. One single group at my current employer said they'd hire 50 cad technicians on the spot without interviews if they could find them. They can't be found. 
 

Moonlighting as a cad tech could be very lucrative. 

I'm still parting cars became a side gig that's 100% behind a screen has zero appeal to me. 

Scotty Con Queso said:

Now would be a good time to learn autocad. Massive industry shortages. One single group at my current employer said they'd hire 50 cad technicians on the spot without interviews if they could find them. They can't be found. 
 

Moonlighting as a cad tech could be very lucrative. 

I'm still parting cars became a side gig that's 100% behind a screen has zero appeal to me. 

Scotty....learn me autocad moonlighting.  Is this something that would typically be done onsite at a CNC shop?  Or, done on a project-basis at home?  

wearymicrobe said:

I love all the suggestions but a different thought. If you are under 50 then upgrading your skills for better pay at work is the best option. It makes it easier for you to move around and go after better paying work. Long term much better investment. 

It depends what you are after.  I dont disagree with your statement, but "better pay" may not be the primary factor here.

A side hustle interests me because its potentially a creative outlet (and a different kind vs. what I do daily) and I have control.  I have a great day job where I could easily climb the ladder a rung or two and make more $$, but I truly enjoy what I do and have no desire to climb my way into a E36 M3ty job.

In reply to Hoondavan :

This may be an isolated incident but small airports seem to have a good gig. I flew into Buffalo 2 nights (one morning) ago at 1:00 am. Opened the Uber app, take me to the hotel, $18. All good, guy gets there, I tip him $5 as soon as I sit in the car, he drives me to my hotel which was literally on the other side of the parking lot. I would say it was a good 4 minutes for him. I was happy too because it was cold as hell and windy and snowing and the hotel was across a 4 lane road. 

Hot sauces and Mustards 

Still a work in progress, but I bet I have sold more than 150 bottles @ $10/ea just at work.

I repair and make lithium batteries. 

I think my side hustle just became flipping houses. 
 

I know that doesn't sound like a "side hustle"... it's too big. But I still have my day job AND I've bought 2 lake houses to flip (so it may technically be a side hustle)

Its my first step into retirement.  It offers me creative outlet, independence, and I have control over every choice and decision in the process. 
 

It also enables me to be perpetually sleep deprived.  It won't be long before I quit my day job and just do a couple houses a year.

My day job is apartment maintenance. I have an LLC, insurance, etc for my side jobs doing handyman services for mainly individuals and a couple small businesses. I also work PT at a large orange place that sells stuff that people like me use on the job. I kind of hate my job/industry but I'm also kinda stuck here for now. Going on 12 years in this field but am sick of being on call to deal with everyone else's screw-ups due to their stupidity/incompetence/ignorance/etc.

I've made my side gig repairing Prius Hybrids &  refurbishing the high voltage batteries. 

Flipping cars. My day job pays me to network with dealers so my contacts list is massive.

Died off pretty hard during COVID as they were keeping even the sleds, but prior to that I was easily doing 3-4 a year

Also if anyone needs a Carflax pulled cheap, definitely don't PM me.

Yesterday I spent 4 hours driving to/from soccer games & home in between.  When all that was finally done I cracked a beer (Cigar City Jai Alai) and sat down on the couch.  SWMBO put on some terrible reality TV show.  The kid was doing his own thing.  I put the glass of beer back in the fridge & opened the Uber App.  I drove from about 9:45 until a little after midnight.  6 rides.

I drove for about 2.5 hours and cleared just over $100 for 50 miles of driving.  Gas was probably <$10.  Zero depreciation in my eyes since the E91 has 194k miles.

I was pleasantly surprised by the people who did tip well.  The drinkers were the most fun, engaging and friendly (of course).  One couple tipped $10 in cash and another $4 in the app for their 15 minute ride, they were my first customers.  I picked up a very drunk couple from a concert at the amplitheatre.  They were late, messy drunk, and disorganized...but apologetic and nice.  I was friendly & helped them pick a new destination when they decided they needed kareoke.  They handed me a tip for $20 in cash for a 5 minute drive (in addition to the fare). 

I've worked in the service industry.  While tipping for "service" has gotten pretty broad recently, I'd never ride in a cab or Uber without tipping the driver. 

The most disappointing thing was the people who didn't tip.  My two longest rides didn't tip...one 20-something made me spend 5 minutes getting called into a gated community to drop her off.  [EDIT:  The gated community ride, also the longest, just added a $6 tip (20%)]. 20 something hipster dude who requested mary j blige (i played it) didn't tip.  WTF.  1/2 women riding to/from work tipped. Both short rides where I only made $5. 

I think $20/hr before gas is easy on a saturday night.  Here's the rub:  in order to be considered a Gold driver you have to accept 80% or the rides they "match" you with.  I accepted <10%.  There were a lot of $5 rides where pickup was 20 minutes away,  20 miles away, or longer rides.  There were also a few long rides (2 hours 1-way) paying only $60.

I avoided downtown last night until i decides to pick up a ride on my way home.  That's where the drinkers are...so I'll probably try and see if the traffic is manageable.  In hindsight, it's probably OK after 10pm.  It's probably worth staying up till 1 or so for bar drop-off.

My office is an hour from home.  On days I drive in, I and see if I can pick up a fare.  I could probably get airport fares, but I'd have to do that early in order to still get to work at a reasonable hour.

Currently driving my e91 with manual transmission.  It's decent on gas (mid-20s around down).  My son's minivan would qualify for XL if I can find a seat cushion for the jump seat...so i may try to get some higher fares for concerts.

I'm guessing uber pays drivers less than 1/2 of what they charge.

That beer did taste pretty good after I finally sat down to drink it.

I'm currently in an online course where I'm learning appointment setting. The online coaching industry is growing fast and I'm trying to tap into that... 

I like the idea of litter pick up at commercial properties (posted above) vs Uber. I'd think you'd could get a pretty good route set up within 60 days and have a steady, known, side check. Hell, take SWMBO with you, vs watching crap tv.