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I sell on Etsy. I make crochet things, however obviously I don't make very much . I have a full-time "real" job w/ benefits and all that. Etsy just started as a way to make money to sustain my hobby. I don't market because I don't have time to make a lot of orders. I just do what trickles in. However this past December I did very well and I made about $500 (goes straight into my yarn account, yes I have a separate checking account and debit card just for my yarn expenses).
However, in an effort to make my yarn income more "passive" (I am a mom of two under 4 w/ a full time job), I recently launched a rental business where I rent photo props to moms for newborn photos. It is EXTREMELY new. I'm trying to figure out how to market that since I need high-volume of orders to make any money. I've had two rental orders so far, lol (but my sales have kept me afloat!)
Driving for Uber and Lyft! It's definitely not for everyone, especially depending on location. People have the best results in a big city, especially ones where public transit can be shoddy like in LA.
I buy and sell used washers and dryers, couches, riding mowers, etc. Big items that I offer to deliver to people with my pickup truck, something many people don't have. I can average $1,000 or so a week if I work steady and don't slack I'm saving this capital to start a cleaning business, and maybe some kind of an online product business. Will then invest those profits into rental properties and index funds, then I can sit back and drink my beverage of choice in the mountains or by the sea lol.
Remember that I am in Canada, so my situation is unique to our laws. Things in the US may vary.
I live in the Province of Ontario, where I am a sole proprietor with a Ontario tax number and a HST tax number. That means that I don't pay tax on the things that I buy, that is passed along to the end customer. It also allows me to take a tax deduction on everything that I buy that is used in the course of making a living. Such as maintaining a office in my home, liability insurance, personal disability insurance, accounting and tax preparation services, computer upgrades, telephone services, and office supplies.
I file two tax returns, one for my business, and one for me as a individual. I have to do that as a I am a senior citizen, who receives a number of pensions. One from the Canadian Forces for 30 years of military service. I also receive the Canada Pension, which I paid into from 1964, when it first started, to 2004, it is a combination of employer contribution and a equal personal contribution, each payday, based on what you earned in that pay period. In 2004 I officially retired and started collecting it. I also get the standard Old Age Pension that all Canadians are entitled to get after age 65.
This is a full time business, for about 9 months of the year.
I also own a company that does metal refinishing, using a dry blasting technique, for removing all the paint on a car, before repainting it. It uses crushed glass beads, mixed with water, under high pressure air, to blast the paint off. I employ two men, who I can keep busy year round. We can also do graffiti removal, and boat hull cleaning. It is a non toxic process that uses a recycled product, crushed bottle glass, that is cheap buy at $10 a 50 pound bag. The big expense is the portable air compressor. It has to be a industrial power unit, to deliver the cfm that the blaster requires.
Doing a paint removal on a performance or antique car , costs the customer around one thousand dollars, but it is done in an hour. Compare that to the old fashioned methods, that take days , and don't deliver the results that our system does. It removes all of the paint rust and plastic body filler, right down to the bare metal, them we spray it with a rust stop spray, and it is ready for the primer coat, in about two hours. A 40 foot sail boat takes about 3 days with two machines and two men, for a cost of about $6000 to the customer. For that we remove all of the hull paint .
I pay my employees $25 an hour plus full benefits. Obviously that is a tax deduction for the blasting company, along with the costs of my two trucks and two air compressors, and supplies, vehicle insurance, worker's compensation premiums and liability insurance. And bi weekly tax payments to the Province of Ontario, for my corporate taxes.
It is enough to keep me busy.
JiM B.
Cool man, how's business going for you these days? Was it a rough go at first with these two businesses, or pretty good for you from the start?
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
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Some really interesting ways I would have never thought of posted here. Most who know me know that real estate investing was a side hustle for me. About 5 years ago I started buying cheap houses, fixing, and renting them out. Within a few years I was making enough to not work and live off of it. A few years past that I make more than when I worked so I considered myself retired. A property manager handles everything so I have maybe an hour or two a month in total.
The exception is if I get into a mood to search for an extra rental, but I can stand pat with what I have.
My former business was a photography studio. Now I only do a few jobs for past customers so now that has become my side hustle.
Total flip flop.
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I'm saving this capital to start a cleaning business, and maybe some kind of an online product business. Will then invest those profits into rental properties and index funds, then I can sit back and drink my beverage of choice in the mountains or by the sea lol.
