Ask HN: How to earn money on the side?

59 points by j_autumn 6 years ago | 20 comments

Hi Hackernews!

I'm a longtime lurker, but i finally managed to register. Just to give some background: I work fulltime for about 5 years now doing as an analyst. So my main job is pretty much wrangling data around, write new (small) tools to help with that, etc.

In my spare time i am learning a lot about web development, both front- and backend. I want to be able to sustain myself, for which i would need ~1500 USD/month.

My problem is, that i have never learned how to earn money, except for trading time for money.

Does someone here know some ressources?

Thanks in advance! J

Edit: fixed format

imhoguy 6 years ago |

Make something people need everyday. Start small...

Reuse your analyst skills and provide some useful data calculations or aggregations with mobile apps. Reuse you new font-end skills with React Native, Apache Cordova etc.

Mobile app stores handle a lot of hassle like distribution and billing. I would avoid complex backend at all cost if you don't want to be on 24/7 devops duty. Maybe periodically updated CVS at basic webhosting would be enough.

Some basic resources https://www.indiehackers.com/post/what-are-the-most-indispen... and IndieHackers community in general.

j_autumn 6 years ago | |

I would prefer something simple too. Solving hard problems is fine, but I tend to prefer simple infrastructure vs „resume driven“ tech.

Mobile apps is something that I thought about too, the ease of distribution seems like a big win, but isn’t it hard to sell on these platform nowadays because they get flooded with x numbers of apps every day?

imhoguy 6 years ago | | |

But it is the same case with web, the SaaS market is flooded. Also payments are tricky, however there is a thing called Merchant of Record which may reduce organizational burden for busy indiewebhacker. Anyway, an user need is what is essential.

imhoguy 6 years ago | |

s/CVS/CSV/

quaquaqua1 6 years ago |

If you start a website that offers some service people need, you can begin charging for that service. Be aware that if you are in the US for example, you would need to file a more complicated "self-employment income" document on your tax return.

Also be aware that you can be sued for pretty much any reason and will need to defend yourself in court. If you remain a sole-proprietor and don't have much to lose, there are legal hotlines that will help defend you for a very low price. If you form an LLC, this service isn't available and life becomes more costly and complicated.

Also be aware that if you are running a successful site, security and performance will be important and costly vectors for you to consider.

Lastly, health insurance is more difficult and expensive to obtain when you are self employed in the USA, compared to a W2 job.

If all of that doesn't scare you, then begin to focus very hard on problems that people need solving and are willing to pay money for. One example would be online tutoring for whatever skills you have :)

Else, there is always stock trading, which comes with risk, but so does everything else in life.

j_autumn 6 years ago | |

Thanks for the input, and the whole „liability issue“ is something that I worry about. Being a sole-proprietor here (EU) means that you are liable with every personal asset, but it’s cheaper to set up and has not as much bureaucracy overhead.

I was also thinking about using something like Stripe Atlas to set up a US company, but I‘m not sure how expensive it is to run it (hire an tax attorney etc) over the year if it doesn’t generate any money.

I mean, I probably just have to try it out without worrying too much

dodoworld1 6 years ago | | |

If you're looking for a less expensive option, check out https://blook.io/stripe-atlas-alternative

babycake 6 years ago | |

I thought LLC was supposed to make life easier? Why does it get more complicated when it comes to defending yourself in court?

benwx3000 6 years ago |

Write an book and self-publish it on Amazon KDP, give it away for free for three days so it has a chance to climb the amazon algorithm ladder.

It can be anything: fiction (romance/thriller/novellas) or nonfiction: how to books on the skills you already have.

j_autumn 6 years ago | |

That is a nice idea! I always wanted to write a fiction book, and I think it could be a nice hobby. Thanks for the input :)

gameofcode 6 years ago |

Wrangling data around is highly sought after - don't undersell it! One idea would be to write about your experiences learning and implementing data transformation in your industry niche, and advertise a consultancy service to help other companies with similar requirements.

You specified you want to earn the money on the side and you allude to not wanting to trade time for money, so it's a perfect arbitrage opportunity to get client work and outsource it, positioning yourself as the manager/architect.

j_autumn 6 years ago | |

Consultancy was something that I thought about too. But I’m not sure if I feel „ready“ for it. Maybe there is a slight imposter syndrome here. I could see myself do consultant work for a week a month or so, never thought about arbitrage something like this. How difficult is the bureaucracy here? Having employees / paying them + their insurance seems like a lot of overhead to me.

Do you have more information how you would tackle that problem?

gameofcode 6 years ago | | |

You are ready - if you stick to your niche, you'll be competing with consultancies who might not even have a niche and don't have a deep understanding of all the nuances with the data that you do.

Re: bureaucracy - it depends a lot on where you're based, how regulated the industry is, and how sensitive the data is. I wasn't really suggesting hiring employees, you can find remote contract workers on freelancing boards as well (just be careful to filter out all the noise).

awinder 6 years ago |

In my opinion your number is $900,000 which is:

1500 / month * 12 months / year * 2 for taxes (this feels genetically safe as a high bar but maybe not) * 25 in order to safely pull 4% yearly forever

Trying to come up with a plan to get a business running that can safely yield 1500 / month (more for taxes) can be dicey and prone to all sorts of risk, and the time horizon is unknown. Just saying, don’t discount leveling up with learning and trying to move upwards, keeping your current lifestyle, and saving your way up.

shoo 6 years ago | |

I assume the meeting of the "number" stated here is an estimate of how much wealth would need to be invested in a stock portfolio to yield 1500/month net of taxes and inflation, without needing to trade time/labour for income.

Pretty reasonable, but without knowing more about OP's situation, advising someone asking how they can earn more income on the side to earn it by having $1m wealth invested in the share market may not be the most immediately actionable advice! A bit catch 22 if the current problem is "not enough surplus income".

j_autumn 6 years ago | | |

I‘m from the EU and don’t earn a lot of money, so no wealth here which I could invest.

But I would love to be able to earn enough to live (simple, I don’t need a luxury life) while saving the rest to become financial independent at some point.

bythckr 6 years ago |

Hi J,

Sorry for deviating from the topic.

Mind telling how you "wrangling data around", the tools you use? I just got a my 5 years bank transactions in a csv. I just looking at the data in excel, wondering how to "analyse the data". Thats when I noticed your post on HN.

Sorry :)

j_autumn 6 years ago | |

No problem!

I mostly use Splunk, since I have to correlate a lot of different data sources.

You can also set up an ELK stack (Elasticsearch / Logstash / Kibana)

My excel skills are not that advanced, but depending on the result you want to achieve it might be sufficient.

bythckr 6 years ago | | |

Thanks. Any material you can recommend that I look at for learning ELK stack & Splunk? Which version of splunk is ideal for me learn the tool - I see too many options?

r8erpx 6 years ago | |

Hi,

I would suggest importing your data into a BI tool like Zoho Analytics first and see if that solves your needs, before advancing to Elastic Search or Splunk