At $50 a piece, and an average of 300 repairs a year I can't complain.
Interesting responses. I was wondering if people's side gigs mirrored what they mainly do for a living or not. I'm also surprised that a lot of them are actually side jobs working for someone else, which is good if you like it and you don't have to deal with the headaches associated with being the boss and dealing with the paperwork and taxes.
I know a lot of my coworkers do security side jobs all the time. A shift of police work is more than enough for me (on slow days). I can't imagine having to sit somewhere for 4-8 more hours doing security work on top of it. I'd go absolutely nuts. I've been building things since I was a little kid and this is the first job I've had that wasn't working with my hands. I spent years at different jobs building things from blueprints, wood working, and doing machining (not a ton). While my job pays the bills, no matter how much I accomplish during a shift I still feel like I wasted my entire day. That's mainly because I measure my day by what I create and why my side hustle is making knives/hatchets/brass knuckles/whatever I think of next.
I have a second side hustle I'm working on getting off the ground. I patented and item for first responders that I came up with several years ago and have been using with good results since then. It's been a long road from finalizing the design, to finding a place to manufacture, and getting the patent. I muddled through all of that not having a clue as to what I was doing (so it took a lot longer than it should have and probably cost more than it could have). Now I'm all caught up with that and have a website, but have to work on marketing... which I also know nothing about. I'm also a complete introvert, so I think the marketing and trying to get the product out there part is going to be that hardest.
My HVAC work is a continuation of the trade that sustained us for the most part. Like you I have been building/making/modifying anything mechanical since I was a wee lad. Started with Bicycles then mini bikes and go carts. Fixing my buddies cars. I was 14 and doing tune ups in the drive way on the juniors and seniors cars. Anything to hustle a dollar. Spent a lot of time racing in IMSA Indy Car NHRA working on the cars and that blossomed into the hot rod side of what we do.
We are pretty fair carpenters but not fast enough to make any money at it.
We are pretty fair carpenters but not fast enough to make any money at it.
Yeah, my brother makes fun of me after he has me come over and work on his toys (four wheelers /side x sides / snowmobiles) because of how particular I am about everything and how slow that makes getting anything done. He always says I'd be the most popular mechanic around, but would never make a dime.
I can get things done rapidly if the pressure is on but chance favors the prepared mind. Take your time. Have a plan.
Make leather holsters. Pretty relaxing and make a few bucks once in awhile.
I'm a mystery shopper. Before it became so easy to get customer feedback through internet connected cell phones, big chains would comp a meal for two to evaluate service, food, and cleanliness of their restaurants. Sometimes you had to order specific things and towards the end of the Applebees gig you were limited to 2 alcoholic drinks. I'm still registered with 4 companies that do this sort of work. I got $35 last week to go count how many 3D glasses our local theater had on hand. A couple months ago I got over $100 to assemble a fairly complicated cardboard display of movie characters so people could stand in it and take their photo with said characters. $14 per store inspect the credit card emblems on the door and near the registers for Discover and Apple Pay (unfortunately only 1 local store for this one).
That’s funny. I also enjoy some carpentry, but like you said, not skilled/quick enough to try and make a buck at it.