Do you have a side hustle to fund projects?

GRMers with a side hustle, what is it? 

In my 20s, I did side mechanic and handy man work for cash to fund car projects and pay for toys, like snowboards and TVs. The mechanic work was mostly routine maintenance, with a few bigger jobs on occasion. The handy man work included roofing houses, building decks, landscaping, residential electrical, appliance repairs, RV repairs and customization. 

Now that I'm a father of three and work two jobs to pay bills, I find I don't have the time or energy to do what I used to, but I still want a side hustle of some sort. Extra money to do whatever I want with. 

I've toyed with the idea of freelance writing, but that market is incredibly oversaturated and hard to even figure out where to start. I used to play with ForEx and crypto, but slowly got away from it.  

Not necessarily looking for tips, more curious to see what you all do for spare coins

I wrote a few books that financed some interesting cars, including one car that was the subject of the next book. Wrote a few magazine articles as well but that's sort of a one and done thing. I'm still getting royalties on a book I wrote 18 years ago. Not a lot, but it's a nice treat a couple of times a year. 

No real side hustle these days. Have a publisher that really wants me to bang out another one, but I value my time more than any income it might bring in at this point. It's a full-time job to do well. 

Turn other peoples projects into the side hustle.

I referee ice hockey. Started as a job in college. Now I'm in my 13th season, it pays for our vacations and entertainment. 

I'm a drone pilot. That money funds my drone hobby, and a few others. 

I have a stump grinder, but I'll be honest my side hustle energy isn't what it used to be.

I'm sure I could but typically my side hustle helping people out with various things that need fixed or installed I do just to help them out.

I part out a specific make/model car. That is my side hustle. I usually pocket a 2.5-3 grand over 3 to 4 months because I'm so busy with day to day life that it takes me forever to strip down a car.

Sometimes it's really not worth it between flakes and people who demand mint condition parts. 

Every side hustle I get into is volunteering. It's taking more time, and usually ends up costing me money. Maybe I am doing it wrong.

In reply to tuna55 :

Obviously you are getting something that you value out of the experience. $$$ is not everything.

Think of it as getting paid in Canadian Dollars. 

I taught some college courses to pay for my track time when I was doing that. It only worked because the business college paid real money for adjunct courses - most adjunct work isn't very profitable.

I used to restore wheels, made a fortune in the late 90's early 00's with BBS and parted VW Rabbits as well. Now, I don't really have the energy to do more than my 70 hours of real work.

I used to do wheel alignments out of the house for a years, and I had visions of doing a whole lot of cool custom fabrication stuff for people.

At this point in my life, I need the escape of my hobby (building my vehicles); I do not have the energy/drive/desire/interest/need to do a side hustle. I stopped doing alignments a few years ago.

And, truthfully, with the current state of humanity, I want as little interaction with people as possible (grin).

We have a small farm/homestead.  At this point it's pretty much break-even, but enjoyable.  It's probably the only hobby I've ever had that didn't cost me money, but it's also way more work/sacrifice.

I've thought about doing some welding or inspection on the side, but I can't imagine being able to make schedules work out.

Scotty Con Queso said:

Sometimes it's really not worth it between flakes and people who demand mint condition parts. 

I used to buy Datsun rust bombs and part the bigger crap on Craigslist.   It annoyed the wife cause guys would show up and want to talk "Datsun" for 45 minutes.  

In reply to DrBoost :

Care to elaborate?

I just passed my part 107 in may and have been throwing around the idea of doing something like this.

In reply to NBraun :

I've done some (well, a lot) solar site inspection work for an energy company (pre installation, during the engineering phase), roof inspections for insurance companies, totally legit but incredibly shady feeling surveillance work for unknown (to me) clients. I had to show up remote to the site, fly over to the site, take specific pics and get out. I was told to not be in the pics, to not be spotted by anyone, and get out when I was done. Lots of commercial and residential real estate. 
Most of my stuff isn't interesting to anyone but the customer, but here's a quick video I made for a real estate client early in my side-gig.  

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jw39nL4iQts" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Embed doesn't seem to work.  Here's a link

https://youtu.be/Jw39nL4iQts

NOHOME said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Obviously you are getting something that you value out of the experience. $$$ is not everything.

 

Think of it as getting paid in Canadian Dollars. 

Nah it's really all giving. Diaconal duties and Trail Life leadership are helping God's people and our community. With the latter I get the opportunity to pay a lot of money for a silly looking uniform.

I machined parts in my garage for RC cars and high power rockets for about 10 years. I also did some contract product design.

This is one of the first products I designed:

https://shop.fruitychutes.com/products/hawk-co2-system-kit-16-to-45-gram?_pos=1&_sid=35135a0b5&_ss=r

Here is another: This one has a provisional patent. We submitted revisions to the patent and we expect to have the full patent soon.

https://shop.fruitychutes.com/collections/harrier-56mm-drone-parachute

The side business paid for all of my tools, RC, Rocketry, Photography, real car upgrades, kitchen and bathrooms tiled, and a gas insert for the house. I'm making a lot more at the real job now than when I started the business and finally decided to close up shop this year. I just don't have the energy to do it anymore. 

kptuned.com I have varied my business model but now just import/sell some hard parts and do some very specific wiring/tuning of standalone systems. Probably about 20-30hrs a week of not back breaking work. Pays for my racing pretty easily but couldn't live on it.

I'm a theater Tech Director.  My side hustle is doing more Tech Directing.

I work for a non-profit theater, so my pay is somewhere between Ramen noodles and ketchup.  Some of the local high schools have reached out to me about being the TD for their spring musicals.  My first thought was that I have no way of fitting anything in on top of my 60 hours a week it takes for my primary job.  Then one of the schools approached me like...

School: Hey, you want to be our TD?
Me:  I really don't have the time...
School: You would only be managing the build team 15 hours a week for three months
Me:  I can't even spare 15 hou...
School:  We can pay you this many dump trucks of of money
Me:  Does tomorrow work for you?

I donate plasma after work a few times a month.