Weekend/after hours business from home

Dhalphir

Hi guys,

Just looking for a bit of advice. I'm spewing this post out as I write, so it might be a bit disjointed and rambling.

I'm thinking hard about setting up a weekend business - something to work on over the quiet weekends, to put 7-8 hours into per week and something that will be a bit rewarding.
I have a successful career during the working week, as does my wife, so it's not an issue of needing to make money - but making money would be one benchmark for success, so obviously that will still be the target goal.

The part that I'm struggling with is that while I have a few interests that I might like to convert into a weekend business, I'm not sure how viable sinking only 7-8 hours per week into them is going to be, even if I keep my expectations and workload low. The skills I had been tossing around for a while are

-web design. I got into this back in highschool but never went anywhere significant with it. This would be the toughest one, I think, because I actually have no significant experience in the last 6-7 years doing anything web-related, and I have to imagine that most of what I did back then is completely obsolete, essentially requiring me to learn web design before I can actually do anything with it. This isn't an obstacle - I could spend the time on the weekends learning, then put it into practise over time.

-freelance writing. This one is a bit weird to me. I've always loved writing, but I was never particularly interested in creating fictional stories and worlds - I always preferred nonfiction writing. What I don't know is - how do you break into such a market as this? I'm sure there is a market, for example, for freelance writers to write advertising copy. I work in sales, so I would have no qualms about picking up the phone and cold-calling potential clients to find writing work, but is that a good way to go about it? Is there a better way?

I guess the main thing I'm looking for with this post is advice from those who are either weekend business operators (of any sort) or professional (fulltime) web designers/freelance writers with specific information about what the field is like. Can I be a successful home web designer, working on one project a month, with 7-8 hours a week? Or will the demands of the work quickly overtake me?

I should stress again - I'm not looking to make a living off this. I would like to make a profit off any expenses, I wouldn't want this to merely be a hobby, but the bar for what I would consider success would be quite low.

Cheers

WildEEP

At 7-8 hours per week, you'll have a long start up time..and by long, I mean years.
You'll be learning a new skill - one that you conceptually enjoy, but have no proficiency at and no experience (professional) in.

As such, you're going to have to raise your proficiency through practice and build a portfolio to demonstrate your skills.

Once the work in your portfolio is impressive enough, you'll use it to convince people (clients) that you should handle their work and get paid for it.

Dhalphir

A long startup time does not particularly bother me. I am in my early 20s, and have plenty of time to build something up. The earlier I start, the less I have to do each week to have a reasonable setup going later in life.

Seguer

Why hallo thar Dhal

By web design do you mean the actual look and feel, or the programming? These are two different things, and I could help you with the programming side if that's what you mean.

I can also critique design, but not really help any.

Dhalphir

Both. The idea would be that my target customer is a small business owner, someone without the technical knowhow to create their own website, someone who is without the funds required for a full design team, who wants a well-crafted and well-built website.

Now, whether I can deliver on that is another matter, but that would be the goal.

bean23

If you have a field of expertise from you day-job, you can try to get a job reading non-fiction for a publisher. They get a ton of entries in their "slush pile" and will often pay people $100-200 to read texts and give constructive criticism to the writer while also telling the publisher whether it is something worthy of greenlighting. I do this for fiction and it's a decent sideline (though I often have to read things that are just terrible). How you get started is to find non-fiction books that are within your field of expertise and then send a letter of inquiry to their publishers with your resume.

Expect to wait forever. Publishers will likely put your resume in a drawer for that field of expertise and then get it out when they have work for you.

EggyToast

As for the overall viability, it's definitely feasible. I think most people spend some time working for themselves to get a gauge for output and timing -- so you know how many wooden ducks you can carve in a month -- and to determine how much money to sink into their project -- to see how much they need to plan to spend.

Many people have hobbies and side projects that are based on their personal interests rather than their professional skills. Perhaps you really enjoy playing drums, but don't have an interest in playing in a band or making your own music. You'd practice through the week and offer your services for sale. Maybe you create webpages, or carve ducks, or maybe you really like driving furniture in your big van.

If you only expect to earn a small amount of money, this would also classify as "hobby income" on your taxes. After you do some testing by yourself to see what your reasonable throughput would be on this endeavor, you'll want to see what the cutoff for hobby income is with the IRS, and if your income goes above that level, you'll want to register as a business.

The Ender

Recommendation:

Make random loot tables (or random 'whatever' tables) and post them on either RPGDriveThru or RPGNow (or both places).


You won't make a total killing or anything, but the amount of cashflow you'll see vs the amount of time you'll spend making the tables is absurd. There's probably a big saturation point for the market around the corner, but for now it's a goldmine.

You can easily do that and only spend 7-8 hours a weekend on it.

-freelance writing. This one is a bit weird to me. I've always loved writing, but I was never particularly interested in creating fictional stories and worlds - I always preferred nonfiction writing. What I don't know is - how do you break into such a market as this? I'm sure there is a market, for example, for freelance writers to write advertising copy. I work in sales, so I would have no qualms about picking up the phone and cold-calling potential clients to find writing work, but is that a good way to go about it? Is there a better way?

There is almost no way you could successfully freelance for only 7-8 hours, and only on weekends, until you've become established & have a magazine that regularly accepts short submissions from you.

The way to break into the industry is easy enough, though: write something, pick a magazine that seems like a good fit, and submit your work. Most magazines don't even require you to submit through an agent.

Just prepare to read through an awful lot of rejection letters (and do read through them - most editors give pretty decent notes) while you look for a publisher that's a good fit for you.

Entriech

Do you have any interest in real estate or the local property market? My understanding is that the testing/licencing to become a realtor is fairly non-demanding, and that's definitely a job that can scale with your available time.

My cousin's a firefighter, and he sidelines as a realtor to have work between shifts. Seems to suit him well.

schuss

What's your day job? Such a small commitment per week requires it to synchronize with your other activities, as you won't be able to master something devoting only 7-8 hours a week. If you're already a programmer, web design may be good.

Dhalphir

schuss wrote: »

What's your day job? Such a small commitment per week requires it to synchronize with your other activities, as you won't be able to master something devoting only 7-8 hours a week. If you're already a programmer, web design may be good.

Business to business sales rep.

So yeah, my only marketable professional skill is being able to convince people to buy something that othrs made.

Its a great career And it would be a useful skill to be able to sell well if I do have a side business, but it doesnt actually help me get any business started.