Brainstorming job ideas.

[Falcon2001]

I'm young and naieve, and I'm still at the point in my life where I think I can actually not work at UPS and kill myself, so here's the problem and what I'm going to try to do to accomplish it.

 

Problem: I earn about 600 a month (profit) working part-time at UPS as a loader. My job is currently in jeopardy, and I could be fired at any time because the job is killing me. Seriously, I think I'm dying I pay 350 a month in rent, I'm in a lease, and I pay less than 150 a month in food and about 50-80 in utilities. As you can see, I earn just about enough to survive.

 

Solution: I need to find another way to earn money, preferably something I can do from home that earns between 600-1000 dollars a month that doesn't involve manual labor, and can preferably be done with an afternoon school schedule.

 

Priorities: I need to spend about 3-4 hours a day either at school or working on school work - this is merely an average. I need to eat and sleep, and I need to spend at least an hour a day NOT working to maintain some sort of social interaction and keep from going insane.

 

So if anyone has any ideas, that'd be grand. I'm not just in this to whine and complain about my job - which does suck - but I'm viewing this as more of a problem solving thing. I'm currently looking at work at home opportunities, but most of them seem to be very...uh...scammish - and I don't like scams that much.

 

If this is spamming or whatever, then please move it or delete it - I'm just seeing if any other pennites have any ideas that might help me out

 

Thanks!

[Wyvern]

I'm young and naieve

Wyvern dashes towards the Cabaret Room as fast as his scaley legs can carry him, a large portfolio tucked under one scaly arm and a suitecase brimming with material goods nestled in the other. The overgrown lizard clenches his teeth as he glances at a grandfather clock resting at the end of the hall, then quickly begins picking up his pace...

 

I earn about 600 a month (profit)

Wyvern darts around a corner at dangerously high speeds, losing a few pages from the portfolio he carries as he practically crashes into Jonathan Wolfe, barely avoiding a collision with the recently-promoted Quillbearer as he continues dashing towards the Cabaret Room as fast as he can.

 

I need to find another way to earn money

Wyvern rockets into the Cabaret Room, rudely barging through the small crowd that has gathered around Falcon as his tail swings back and forth uncontrolably. Noticing what appears to be a red streak rapidly approaching his podium, Falcon2001 adjusts the collar of his suit nervously and stammers:

 

"S-so if anyone has any ideas, that would be-"

 

"Faaaallllccccooooon!"

 

Falcon2001 freezes in place as he notices that Wyvern now stands at the head of the crowd, holding a portfolio in one hand and a suitcase in the other.

 

"Uhhh, yeah." mutters Falcon, taking a step back as Wyvern begins making his way onto his podium. "Y'know, all the home ones are scammish. Uhhh, did I mention that I don't like scams that much?"

 

"You may not like'em much now." hisses Wyvern as he catches his breath. "But you'll grow fond of'em after a while!"

 

With that, the overgrown lizard opens his portfolio, and a huge pamphlet lined with spots for signatures rolls out of it onto the floor, swiftly unraveling in the direction of Falcon. Falcon2001 continues to back away as he see's this.

 

"N-now Wyv." mutters Falcon as Wyvern opens up his suitcase and takes out an Almost Dragonic Brand Sure-Fire Buyer Net™. The overgrown lizard begins tossing even more paperwork at Falcon as he slowly approaches him with the net, the lizards grin growing more sinister with each step he takes forward.

 

"Listen Wyv." cries Falcon as he finds himself trapped at a corner and begins getting buried in paperwork. "I said that my job was killing me... but I don't wanna be involved in any suicidal lines of work either!"

 

;-)

[Aardvark]

Become a careers consultant. Get people to psy you to tell em what to do

[Falcon2001]

So here's a quick update on the current ideas floating around in my brain right now. I'm thinking I'm going to run this thread sort of like a blog, where I can toss ideas. Again if anyone has a problem with this I'll be happy to oblige and change it.

 

Idea 1: Buy low, sell high. I'm thinking stopping by the largest swap meet west of the rockies nearby here in seattle and taking a camera phone with me and having a friend at the computer at home. If I find something dirt cheap, I'll take a picture and read off the description and have him search for a price value online. If I can rake in a bit of a profit, I'll pick it up and turn around and sell it on ebay or through classifieds or something. Good solid idea that's been done before - tested out.

 

Idea 2: Import/export. Quite a jump, but same basic premise. Obtain an importer's liscence (not that expensive from what I've heard) and start contacting companies overseas to sell their goods - I'll have a lot of research I need to do before starting this of course, but it looks like a solid idea with a slightly higher startup cost than I'm currently too happy with - possibly start a small business based around it with some other entrepreneurs?

 

Idea 3: Home Computer Repair/Assembly - another neat little idea, I've been meaning to do this for a while. If it works out like I think it can, I'll be taking in enough extra cash to hopefully quit my bloody job.

 

So anyway, tell me what you guys think.

[Vigil StarGazer]

Falcon... there's so many wrongs in your post that i don't even know where to start.... but let's begin anyways.

 

1) I've told you... yes I've told you so... USP is all manuel labour... the job sucks and you won't be able to hand it because of the graveyard shift... and trust me those ppl in the morning and afternoon shift are l33t!!! they can do things twice as fast as the ppl in the midnight shift.. that's why they are in the day shift =)

 

but don't despair.. you are not about to get fired... remember you are in a Union... they need three warning before they can fire you.. and by warning they bring you to an office, hand a little chit chat with you ALONG WITH A UNION REPRESENTATIVE in order to get you fired. It's all in the documentations...

now ofcourse quitting is another thing all together, but man even wimps like me lasted through probation and evne got a job promotion... you should have lasted longer then that. Trust me I know how you feel, I've been through that shit too, and right now it's call the after-honeymoon season. All jobs have that period where you realized how sucky the job is... and that comes to the second point...

 

2) ALL job sucks.... the illusion of having a job where you do jack shit is well... a fairy tale. no jobs has their pros and cons... surely UPS sucks because of the schedule but on the other hand it's no brain work and you can't really screw up.

Pretty soon you'll just get with the program and get used to it... and trust me that work from home thing won't fly. You need the ins and outs in the first two jobs and if you aren't an insider.. you aren't gonna get work... the third... that's excately like starting a business... you are taking some risks... it might fly if you got friends on campus that needs computers.... so... Falcon = Michael Dell #2 ? remember... what you can build.. the stores can offer stuff cheaper... mass production has its advantages.

 

3) Third, you tackle the problem all wrong... A good steady job beats anything.. because you'll always have a steady income and the tools are all set up for you. Besides there's lots of jobs that you can work after school hours. THis work is own by corporate america man, and you are no exception. Get a real job, not some pansy dancy excuse so you can sit at home and do nothing.

 

My conclusion? If you have a resume ready, just send it to random places and give it a shot... currently you are way above your head with those ideas you posted, but I'm sure there's quite a few cool jobs out there.... have you tried being a store clerk.... at Electronic Brotique? Selling video games all day and talking to gamers? really good job... you can even try fast food joint for a change... low pay but at least no graveyard shift... You'll have to sacrifice saturday and sunday thou... or better.. have you look at your own campus for work? great place to work in your own school.

 

Good Luck,

Edited September 23, 2004 by Vigil StarGazer

[Ayshela]

*hugs Vigil*

[lumpenproletariat]

can I cast my vote for science guinea pig? Little to no effort involved on your part

[Falcon2001]

First off, I'm not in a union yet. You don't actually join the union until your 70th day, when you finish your training. I know this because I talked to our union representative two nights ago.

 

Second off, I realize that there is no such thing as an 'easy' job. Jobs will suck, but at least some jobs won't actually leave me sore and miserable physically all the time for a lousy paycheck.

 

Thirdly, I happen to come from a family where my mom raised me by working from home, and we know plenty of other people that own their own businesses. It's completely feasible that this could work, and age has very little to do with starting a business nowadays. An 18 year old business student may have more knowledge about starting and maintaining a business than a 38-year old cook, and for me that's just twenty more years of profit.

 

A statement such as "You can't really screw up" Is pretty unbased there, man. It's UPS, you have to read the label, scan the label and load the package, all in 8 seconds to meet the target speed. Not only have I gotten multiple missorts because my mind wanders momentarily, but even pushing myself harder than I've done before, I'm only reaching 230-250 boxes an hour. I don't think that I'll be able to have this job right now and maintain a satisfactory performance in school - I spend way too much time exhausted and just zoned out or in pain. The other day I got trapped against a wall by a 78 lbs box. I could not move out of the way, and was jammed there for a good minute and a half before the other loader in my trailer was able to come in and give me a hand. I'm covered in bruises, cuts, scrapes, and dirt, even after showering, and I'm completely miserable.

 

Also, I don't really appreciate it when I ask for help and I recieve a response along the lines of 'Oh, you don't know what the hell you're talking about, stop being a whiny baby, life sucks get over it, blah blah blah' If I wanted a response along those lines, I would have posted at a different forum. I posted this at The Pen because we're a community of intelligent, resourceful individuals who might have a way of helping me brainstorm ideas. This might not work out - in fact there's a large chance it probably won't. BUT if you go into anything thinking you'll fail, you're screwed from the start.

 

Also, my school schedule is between 1-6 PM (not every day, it varies from day to day) but that's the general times. I CANNOT get a normal sales job, or I would be working at EB already. I had an interview there and they can't hire someone for that few hours during the week, and I don't want to work 8 hour shifts all weekend. On top of that, I don't currently have a car, and with my current paycheck, I can't even afford to save up for one, nonetheless pay for gas/insurance. I have an average of 10 dollars a paycheck I don't have to spend on bills/food/rent. The only reason I currently work at UPS is because I have several friends that work there as well. Coincidentally, two of those friends have been injured in the last month, one of which has been placed on workers compensation for five weeks.

 

I'm not saying I won't work at UPS. It's a job, and I have to pay my bills, and I don't plan on quitting my day job (night job?) until I have a guaranteed way of making enough income to cover costs and expenses. 600 bucks is not much to ask for income nowadays, especially in businesses where it's mostly stay at home moms who need to pay for their kids and a mortgage.

 

Also, as a parting note, you should ask Gyrfalcon if it's 'impossible' to earn money assembling and selling computers for a living. I think he'd know, working at a computer store and all.

 

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them - this is merely a brainstorming thread.

[Mynx]

*hugs Falcon*

I can't think of anything at the moment I'm afraid.

Like you, I'm a student, but my part time job is in retail and I am lucky enough with the pay (and that my folks are relatively well off and haven't kicked me out yet) that I only have to work one day a week.

The best advice I can offer right now is simply this: look at what you enjoy and investigate potential job prospects for such a thing.

For example, I have a friend at my work who is trying to get himself known as a writer and he is at the moment looking at opening his own publishing company to help himself and other aspiring writers like him to get on their feet and known in the world.

It's not easy to start off, but just think about what you'd love to do. Talk to people, research, find out what you can do with certain ideas.

Everything will make sense eventually.

 

Trust me. I'm a Mynx. I know these things.

[Orlan]

If you pull down 600 a month profit then you'll be sitting at about 800 dollars a month total. 800 a month total equates to about twenty-five hours at 8 bucks an hour. Now assume you do fifteen of those on the week end you have 10 more hours left to deal with during the week which is not as difficult as some would think. You could pull that down with an average job at a grocery store or , like you had tried, EB. Alot of bigger places (bigger than EB anyway) will cater to those with seperate hours. If you don't mind 3rd shifting and meeting new and interesting freaks and junkies the overnight shifts at Grocery stores are always interesting. Or at least they were 8 years ago when I last did them

 

Other options:

 

Bartending. I forget how old you are, or where you are, or what restrictions on age there are for those who bartend where you are, but bartending is pretty good for a buck, and also for those who are limited to working later at night. I live with a guy who works 9-2 most nights at a bar and he makes enough for twice your rent, a greater lifestyle and a hoochie momma. Though he has been doing it for a while so I think he might be a bit better than a beginner, but it's still a viable option. But I warn you, working in a bar is difficult.

 

Swap meet idea is not bad, but don't expect to get lucky. Roommate sells alot on ebay, but it's not exactly a lucrative business unless you can devote a LARGE percentage of time to it. My uncle owns an antiques store, and does things on eBay, and he's traveling all the time to different shows, and the phone thing might work a few times, but not that long. You'd be better set spending time elsewhere.

 

Import/Export. No idea. Sounds terrible though

 

Home Computer Repair/Assembly. To make 600 bucks a month you would have to sell approximately 12 computers each month. (or one high powered server) My landlord owns this kind of business and can make good money when he has customers. That's when he has customers. The problem with this is Dell, HP/Compaq and Gateway. The main pepole who would want a machine built for them are people who know wnough how to build it themselves, and from there the people who are left most often would rather buy from somewhere there's a 24/7 support network they can call when they have problems. Trust me, he gets weird calls from time to time, and he mainly supplies to businesses. He is happy to say that you can make a living for it, you just need to be able to make those quotas each month to have your money. If you want to do this you need to be working at the same time you do this because in the begining, you will not make 600 a month at it. His is a sole-proprieship so it's just something that shows up on his taxes. No encorporation fees, woohoo!

 

A couple other things to look into:

 

Snow Plow driver/DOT worker. Probably along the same lines as a UPS worker, but it's not constant work.

 

Bus driver. I know they have later bus routes. Though you need to have a public trasportation in the works where you are, which I forget.

 

Some job at school. You're there anyway. I know I made enough to get along with a lab attendent job at school.

 

Nothing else comes to mind, but if you're really in the need to get out of UPS, you're going to have to do 8 hour shifts on the weekends. It sucks but when it's the lesser of two evils...

[Katzaniel]

If money is one of your primary worries, then starting your own business is only really plausible if is has little/no start-up cost, because if it fails you're screwed even if you didn't quit your other job.

 

As for a well-paying job, perhaps babysitting? Due to your schedule you'd be working with a very small number of people (as far as I can think, only kindergarten kids have 1/2 a day hours) but you'd be paid about mininum wage, per kid or per family or whatever, so you might be able to make enough. You'd probably have to advertise in school newsletters or something. (Or, if you've got some time yet, posters in pre-schools). Or petsitting..

 

Maybe a restaurant that specializes in breakfasts?

 

Another thing to consider is not raising your income, but lowering expenses. Maybe find another roommate? Or an apartment that includes utilities in its rent? I'm not really sure what your situation is, but $350 US + utilities seems to me like it could be improved upon.

 

Edit: Or be a TA, teach a lab, mark assignments etc for a professor.

Edited September 24, 2004 by Katzaniel