Extra cash/second job??

Thought TE would be a good place to ask this question. I have a good job, that doesnt pay too badly. Hours are from 8.30 to 5, no weekends. But I really need a second job to make some more money, I have a mortgage to pay off and all that.

So what do you do or suggest to do to make some more. I dont know any programming languages, but I have some basic to intermediate HTML/JavaScript skills. No disrepect to folks who do it, but I dont want to flip burgers or wait on people.

Please provide some input.

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Comments

dynamik

Why don't you improve you current skill set and find a better paying job (or move to a better position at your current employer)?

Seems like that would have a better ROI than messing around with side-jobs.

crrussell3

You can try Guru.com ? Find Freelancers for Hire. Get Your Project Done. to pick up side jobs. Can't vouch for the site, but I know a few who use it and like it.

msteinhilber

I tried the whole second part time job thing back when my once 40 hour a week job cut salaries and hours. It simply did not work out for me. In my area at least, most part time jobs that are available outside of my regular work hours are not really the best paying jobs. I'm sure there are some options out there that are better paying and more desirable for evening part time jobs, but by me the majority of them are retail, food service, call center environment, etc.

What I do instead is keep in touch with some of my former customers when I was managing a retail computer sales/service shop who prefer me over the current management as well as cater my services to co-workers. The later of the two works out very well for me. My employer has no issues with it, and a good majority of my co-workers usually call the IT department if they are having issues with a home computer so it's an easy outlet for me.

Working a part time job making around $15 hourly for about 20 hours a week (all that was really feasible for me with a family and school at the time) would bring in $300 before taxes. I can fix a couple computers a week and bring that same amount of money home for maybe 3-5 hours work. It starts slow as side-jobs, but you treat people well enough and people start to drop your name to friends/family and soon you have a good stream of work.

Essendon

I have had friends try out this computer repair gig, but the problem is the competition in this sector. There is a computer repair shop at just about any corner and the yellow pages too are crammed-full of such companies. I might give this a go if nothing else works.

Any other ideas at all?

msteinhilber

Essendon wrote: »

I have had friends try out this computer repair gig, but the problem is the competition in this sector. There is a computer repair shop at just about any corner and the yellow pages too are crammed-full of such companies. I might give this a go if nothing else works.

Too many people look at the amount of competition or the willingness of the competition to always undercut one another. While any business, be it side jobs or full fledged operation, should keep an awareness of the competition one should never rule out anything based solely on competition.

My primary client-base is in a city where just in the main city I can locate 4 pages in the yellow pages offering some form of computer repair and that's just the city I'm in not counting the cities that make up the greater metropolitan area. I have zero problems with prices I charge or the competition.

Here is the primary rule I follow. I set my prices and I stick to it without exceptions (unless I screwed up). You through whatever means earn the trust of potential clients, once you earn their trust - the availability of competition even if they well undercut you really becomes a non-issue (for me anyways, maybe it varies by region).

Your customers might be able to get the same repair at a couple dozen other places if they desired, but there seems to be a good amount of people willing to pay a premium for quality customer service.

Paul Boz

Just whore yourself out for spare change. It's worked for me for years

In all seriousness though, please take Dynamik's advice and either improve your skillset and get more $$$ at your current employer or quit and get a better paying job. In my experience, trying to balance your fulltime job with a part time job will make you hate your life because you will never have down time and more than likely your performance at your normal job will drop.

mikedisd2

Check with recruiters to see if there are any IT related weekend jobs going. Recently here, there were part-time vacancies for a rollout occurring every weekend until Christmas.

I used to get the occasional day job on the docks, shifting frozen slabs of fish from a deep sea-fishing vessel. Hard work but it's there. Check out Centrelink for any one-off labour jobs going.

Being a second job though means it's taxed at 49%; hardly worthwhile as a supplementary income. Sure, you get it back at taxtime but it won't seem worthwhile in the mean-time.

How about lowering your expenses. I stopped buying lunches ($10 p/day), gave up drinking ($60+ p/week), learnt to repair my car, stopped bank fees, get my wife to cut my hair etc... Now my 19yr mortgage is down to 10yrs. Easy to cut back if you really want to.