Ask HN: How do i pay my bills?

[bluedog]

Hey, I'm a silent follower of the hacker news community.

I have been working in tech space since 4-5 years and have significantly developed my skills as a techie.

I started two startups in my college but failed.

After that worked with a startup offering me good salary, while at job i started working on an idea and build a prototype around it. When i market-tested the prototype it seemed like a good idea to be profitable. So in excitement i left my well paying job. Only to realize that i never made a single $ from it in next 3-4 months and realized that i need to spend few thousand dollars to make it properly execute (from prototype to full product).

I then came up with an interesting problem to be solved by hardware/machine which i'm designing, prototyping since last 2 months.

But i realized that there is no money left in my bank to pay my bills (rent, electricity, internet, hardware purchases) and i can't ask my parents simply because they themselves are going through financial crunch. I have some full-time job offers but i want to focus on my hardware research for at-least next 6 months.

What i'm looking is for: I need to find ways to make ~$1000 a month to be able to meet my costs.

As a developer i'm very good in following:

- Python, Golang, JavaScript - REST APIs - Designing/Building MVPs - Testing Products (as user and even writing test frameworks) - Advising people to choose best tech-stack according to their needs.

And I've in-build capability to pick-up/learn things/concepts quickly.

But i'm not able to find a way to make money using my skills without doing a full-time job.

Is it possible that i spend working 1 week (remotely) for someone and make around ~$1000 and then stay focused to my work OR may be spend some hours every week (let's say 1 or 2 day) through-out month doing client's work.

How do i start? What are the options? Can i earn ~$1000 a month working for limited no. of hours?

Please advice or help.

[danso]

You really ought to consider doing a full-time job, or consistent free-lance, for long enough so that you can earn a reliable stream of part-time jobs in order to fund your main passion. Your software skills, as you've described them, are in high demand...but freelance/part-time requires additional effort to keep the pipeline of paying-jobs consistent.

Having not much experience in hardware, I'm just going to assume the stories are true, that hardware has generally a longer, more troubled slog toward viability than software. In that case, it seems very optimistic for you to think that you'd only need a few thousand dollars, and a few months, to execute properly. It may take much longer, and unless your idea has a short shelf-life, wouldn't it be more efficient to get the personal income issue settled so that you're more prepared for a longer development time for your hardware product?

[jpgvm]

I am working approximately 4 hours a day, earning around $1500 a week. Which is much more than you are looking for (about 4x more...) but is only about 2.5 days a week total time invested. So it's definitely possible to achieve $250-300/wk if that is all your expenses are.

However, I already worked full time for this company for 18 months remotely before I negotiated this arrangement. So YMMV but I think if you can afford to put things on hold for 3ish months and prove your worth you can probably get something similar which would provide you with time to do what you want.

I find alot of companies (startups especially) are happy to cater to these arrangements if you are sufficiently skilled.

[quaffapint]

I assume you live some place with a high cost of living (like San Fran)? Making $1500/week for 4 hours a day (heck, even 8 hours a day) is very high for non-San Fran like areas.

[kohanz]

4 hrs * 5 days per week = 20 hrs. $1500 / 20 hrs = $75 per hour. It's a decent rate, but it's hardly something you need to be in SF to find (where you more often hear of contractors charging $100+).

I currently have a similar arrangement, where I work about 20 hours a week as a contractor (although that is not a quota, but more of a choice) at nearly the same rate. I live in a mid-sized Canadian city (comparable to a smaller American city) with relatively low cost of living (to the big cities).

[jpgvm]

Precisely.

I could make more/hr but my current arrangement affords me more job security.

[serf]

What do you do? What are your skillsets? How long have you been a part of your field?

More importantly : How did you find your job, and how did you prove your worth?

[jpgvm]

I'm a systems engineer. I have a pretty broad skillset but it's mostly centered around automation and orchestration of large server environments.

I have been doing the same sort of thing for about 6-7 years now.

I found this job after choosing to move on from a startup in the same space. Proving my worth is a harder question. I just did what I do best, which is working hard and thinking deeply about what to do and when. People value me for my judgement over most other things so I have focussed a lot on how I can hone that.

[swat535]

this is the amount of money i make every 2 weeks as a full time rails developer in montreal.. sigh..

[bluedog]

can you get me in touch with some of companies. mail withmypc [at] gmail

[deviousanon]

Not to be a jackass, but how much sleep are you getting? 6hours+?

I've had many great ideas be kept on the back burner for years, while I worked to pay bills. I kept two day jobs to pay rent and eat, barely. I worked on the computer at night.

When I was in college I worked a day job, and I went to fullsail. Yeah.. The 24/7 school. Class on sunday at 4am.

In my first job I worked side contracts and consulted. I shared my knowledge. I also explored the new technologies and learned more. Don't ever stop your education.

Nothing ever turned fruitful, except my failures. Every failure I learned something from and moved on. I was fired from that first job on Christmas day because I wasn't working and my boss overwrote a production file before she got my changes. Thought I didn't do the work. You're lucky. You have GIT.

I worked from myself and taught myself project management and the skills to run my own business. I also started a family and added more bills. You have to play the waiting game and most importantly you have to try. Do not expect things to be easy. Do not assume people are on your side. Do not be afraid to lose sleep and work all night to prove your worth.

[bluedog]

thanks... you're words are a boost to me.

[staunch]

Although you should be willing to work very hard it's actually a mistake to skimp on sleep. Proper sleep is probably the biggest element in consistent productivity.

[osmala]

I've seen that working part time is enormous reduction in efficiency of personal projects and commute and task switch takes equal amount of time anyway, and for some its almost equal of not doing the other project at all. So one recommendation is try to get a 1-3 month full time project, with good enough salary to save your living expenses for entire year since humans always underestimate the time it takes to finish their project, and you are a human too.

[sp332]

This doesn't directly answer your question, but there is a post here every month that asks "Who is hiring" and another, "Who wants to be hired". Browsing those might give you a better idea of what people are actively looking to give you money for :) https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring

[MalcolmDiggs]

In all seriousness, drive for Lyft / Uber. I've met a number of people doing this recently, and it really seems like the perfect side gig. The main reason is that it fits around your schedule (no matter what your schedule is).

But yeah, you could always pick up some contracts instead. But sometimes having a little diversity/variety in your income stream is nice.

[randomflavor]

where are you located? how can i contact you?

[bluedog]

withmypc [at] gmail