Second job?

I would like to pick up a second job to pad the car fund a little. However I have a problem. My FT job has a wildly unpredictable schedule. I leave the house at 6 and never know when I'm going to be home, could be 5 could be midnight. Frequently work weekends with only a day's notice. And sometimes have to go out of town for a few weeks at a time. Example, I was scheduled to go to Birmingham all next week but found out today I have to go to Nashville for three weeks instead.

Kinda makes it hard to deliver pizzas or some of the other obvious part time gigs.

Is there anything out there that I'm over looking or am I just SOL?

Flipping stuff. I don't do it actively, but when I see a guitar I think I can clean up, I'll buy it, put new strings and 30-90 minutes of elbow grease into it, and then put it back on craigslist or take it to a pawn shop. I usually make $15-$45 doing it. I could do better, but it is just something that I'll do when it is available.

yeah, your gonna have to do something from home.

Or find some landlord/carnut that needs houses/cars scraped and painted and doesnt care when you do it...(hint hint)

I buy/sell junk/antiques/whatever I think I can make a buck on, and/or catches my eye. I also do computer repair on the side for home users & a couple small businesses.

Definitely spend the money to incorporate, it's well worth the expense when you see how much of a tax refund you get.

In reply to jhaas:

PM'd.

If you have a good picknpull nearby, there is money to be made pulling easy to pull rare/in demand stuff and ebay it. Window switches, select ECUs, the little coin tray/fusebox doors on Japanese cars, limited slip differentials, etc.

In reply to jhaas:

Got my message kicked back to me. Try to PM me?

I guess I need to brush up on what stuff is worth. I've never really tried to flip anything and have no real concept of how to spot a deal. I fear I'd pay way to much for junk and get burned.

One tip I heard in the past is to become an expert on one specific model and generation.

Or go with an early morning job. Like say delivering newspapers.

Miata.

I know a guy who learned how to scratch build repro parts for a niche hobby group (antique engine rebuilders). He went from newb to more demand than he could manufacture in under a year. The niche group is small, but theyre demand is not met by the market, so hes capitalizing on it, and between he and his dad are swimming in profit.

I also remember a similar story I read somewhere about a small tuning shop who specialized in S2k's - they constantly saw cars come through with some mount in the rear that was cracked or busted completely. They at one point were making as much selling these aftermarket replacement parts online as they were making on tuning in their shop.

• Find a niche whose needs arent being met by the market
• figure out a way to meet it
• profit

Might not work with your schedule but painting fire hydrants was a decent money maker for a guy I use to work with.

The home business thing seems to be the trick. My g/f has a tried a few things in the hopes that one of them will work out well enough that she can quit engineering... doll house furniture, tire bags, embroidery, and most recently: quilting. The tire bags have been most consistent - mainly for MINIs and Smarts. Although it doesn't bring in enough business to live off, it adds a bit to the coffers without being too much trouble. She's just started the quilting thing, so we'll see how that works out.

After the house renovation is finished, she plans to turn one of the rooms into a sewing room which will allow for a larger layout table and she may invest in a long-arm quilting machine, which may be profitable in its own right since it seems a lot of folks enjoy the design and assembly of a quilt, but don't have the time or space to do the actual quilting (the ornate stitching pattern over the whole thing). And nobody wants to spend years doing it by hand anymore.

drainoil wrote: Might not work with your schedule but painting fire hydrants was a decent money maker for a guy I use to work with.

if you have a neighbor you don't like, paint a fire hydrant on their front door. nobody likes to walk through dog piss.

meth lab

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm going to have to look into the meth lab thing.

Sounds promising.

Nick, sorry buddy, i dont know how the PM's work.

jonhaas@bell south dot knet

nicksta43 wrote: Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to have to look into the meth lab thing. Sounds promising.

It's a headache. You'll have to buy a car wash afterwards, so now that's three jobs.

Seriously, though..good luck. Seems like there's more of us in that boat every day.

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

Great, now I want to watch some Breaking Bad.

that buy a lotta race car

How the heck do you get a job painting fire hydrants? I looked on our local city fire department page and there was nada. Is this one of those things where you have to know somebody?!

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Pro-boner work naturally........

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