how hard do you work at side work?

[Zoe Girl]

I am not the kind of person to just do one thing, I really do well with many projects going on. It has been wonderful (despite my complaints) to do my job where I can create after school classes for students and adults and just make them happen, but too often I am the person keeping attendance and being the bad guy for after school kiddos who push those limits. So tonight I got to teach an adult to sew for a project. I really had fun, I realize that all things aside I do miss being the person doing the teaching directly.

So my possible side projects are etsy, Hub Pages, and tutoring. I have only made money at tutoring. My one criteria for side work is that it has to be something I really love doing. I however get a little overwhelmed with my ideas and run out of time to really put effort in. I write a Hub every time I get an inspiration but have not made money. I am very slow at creating etsy items right now so I don;t expect much. I figure that when a week is easy then I spend a couple hours on things I would do anyway but have some financial potential. One factor is that in doing my taxes I realized by quitting my former weekend job I had income go down $6k in a year. My mom has helped me out very much and my girls take care of everything for themselves except paying me rent when they live here which is okay, but longterm I have a goal to have some side income without commiting to 7 days a week of work on other people's schedule.

Does anyone else have experience or advice for side projects?

[Tussiemussies]

My husband has a side business in digital art and art for wall art. He started out with th book "The Artists Market" which comes out every year and let's you know what companies are looking for. Eventually my husband got an agent who does the leg work for him now. If you are artistically inclined and good at it, I would say hop in and give it a try. You should have a portfolio you can go over with on an interview on an iPad they all use them in the industry now.

Good luck...hope you find your niche!

[Zoebird]

In terms of making something work, you just have to be consistent. When we talk about "how hard" someone works at something, we're usually talking about how quickly they want specific results.

For example, if you want to make up your $6k income as quickly as possible, you're going to have to work "hard" (say 10+ hrs a week) consistently to establish yourself, and once established, you can spend less time doing whatever it is that you are doing. Unless that means actually making crafts, which takes up a lot of time, and will continue to take up a lot of time -- as opposed to teaching a class which means once you have your market estbalished and systems in place, you basically end up working only the teaching hours plus perhaps an hour or two to keep things moving (in terms of marketing, accounting, etc).

A friend of mine runs an etsy shop, and spends about 4 hrs per day making items for the shop and she also does special orders. She spends another 2 hrs a day with the business of it all (getting things on the site, attending to customers, mailing things out). It's quite a job! She started getting a lot more requests and orders, and all of the sudden it started to jump to being a 6-7 hr creating job (mon-fri), and she just could not keep up.

After some chatting, we discovered that a lot of her art-school friends didn't have the patience to deal with the business side of things or creating and keeping up the etsy site. I suggest she change her idea from a single-person shop to a curated, multi-person etsy shop. This is what she now does. She gets a consignment rate per item that they sell on her site, and that's basically in exchange for doing the business of running a shop.

Now, she spends her 4 hrs creating and 2 hrs shipping again, and she's much happier. Her friends are happy too -- they are getting commissioned pieces through the site, as well as selling what they make on her site as well. And she gets a small bit of each one -- which is a form of passive income.

She doesn't have other work; her husband supports them on his income. But she's quickly building her business, and it's earning a tidy, comfortable sum for her.

[Zoe Girl]

Very good info. I certainly do not have that many hours in my week. I am thinking about some small goals such as writing one article a week and getting 2 items added to etsy a month. It will not be quick and I may not get to my goal anytime soon, however I have seen that building solid and slower is much better than getting over my head and being flaky in the end. The etsy goal was really to have my talented daughters putting their creativity in. They make things ALL the time, So my oldest ordered a lot of beads and has made some wonderful things but never photographed or listed them. I had to decide I am on my own which means it isn't doing much yet.

The good news is that much of the crafting work I do while waiting for my son at guitar lessons or watching a little TV, but I feel that I need to improve the quality which takes more attention now.

[Float On]

Etsy does take a lot of time. I realized that my numbers were not as good this year as last year and then thought "oh yeah, I've been devoting time to 365project.org and not spending as much time on Etsy". So much as I regret it, I'm grounding myself from 365 and investing the time in Etsy again because my budget does depend on my Etsy sales. Last year it was an extra $7000.00.

[Geila]

ZG - I think I remember you saying that you have your Masters. If so, have you considered teaching in a community college? I know several cc professors who make really good money because there are lots of opps to increase pay by teaching extra classes, online classes, and during summer and intersession. They can also teach at more than one college at a time. Something for you to consider.

[kitten]

Wow, I never thought of that - an iPad instead of a traditional portfolio. I've been getting tired of printing stuff out, sending it to companies, including stamped envelope for return, etc. For stuff in town, showing my portfolio digitally would just make so much sense. Thanks for the idea!


My husband has a side business in digital art and art for wall art. He started out with th book "The Artists Market" which comes out every year and let's you know what companies are looking for. Eventually my husband got an agent who does the leg work for him now. If you are artistically inclined and good at it, I would say hop in and give it a try. You should have a portfolio you can go over with on an interview on an iPad they all use them in the industry now.

Good luck...hope you find your niche!

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you all, I think I need to see what I reasonably can do and then stick to it. Well after the bankruptcy at least. That is taking some time.

When I can do some consistent crafting time I will pick your brain Float On, I know there are plent of articles but it helps to know a real person who makes some money. Do you know about how much time you spend on your store? I would like to make as much as I would hourly at a basic job, and since it is flexible and fun.