Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with money and Work

Nerd seeks Leigh Steinberg

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:25:01 -0800

I'm a veteran software engineer / technical lead working for an internet company. I think I've got an opportunity to really cash in at my job, and need guidance on how best to do this. For the past two years I have been working on a product that is about to make my company some serious revenue.

Right now, I feel pretty irreplaceable. Because of some organizational turmoil and chronic understaffing, I have enormous development, management, and operational responsibilities. I have no backup for any of these roles. I have a good reputation in the company, as far as I know, and have done well-received presentations for our executives. I also have offers from other companies as a security blanket.

There will be a short window of opportunity for me to cash in, between the time when the deal to sell the product is signed and the time when I can train up whatever new staff comes along. Our product is a B2B thing with significant professional service opportunities. It's not turnkey. During this window, the sale will live and die on my efforts.

I would like to capitalize on that in a career-defining way. Exactly how I'll do that, I'm not sure. I have some ideas, but I need help with them.

So: I would like to hire someone who can give me a reality check, who can help me hone my pitch and define my requirements, and who has a background in business, negotiation, and contract law. I want this person to help me look like I know exactly what I'm doing. I don't think I want to hire someone to do the actual negotiating; I want more of an advisor. Can anyone suggest where to find such a person? I am in Seattle so if you have a recommendation in this area, that'd be especially cool.

Online career change exercises wanted

reenum — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:22:57 -0800

Are there any websites or online resources for people considering a career change? I've been thinking of changing careers for a while, and after some recent events at the office, it's time to get up and start figuring some things out.

I'm going to get "What Color Is Your Parachute" and a few other recommended texts from other threads, but I'm wondering if there are any websites or other online resources (preferably free), that have exercises and other things I can use to try and evaluate what it is I truly want to do.

I have a lot of free time at work. For obvious reasons, I don't want to show up here with career change books.

Thanks!

the blues......

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:25:06 -0800

Help! I need creative ideas on how a professional Jazz musician can pay the bills in Brooklyn, NYC. Recent Jazz guitarist (with masters) transplant, trying to survive in the Big Apple. Do not have many 'biz' connections here as yet. Pretty open to any kind of work as running dangerously low in funds. I have used all the "usual" resources. Such as: advertising as a guitar teacher on CL, posting guitar lesson posters allover the city (even 1st lesson free!).....applying for every teaching job with no success. Even Starbucks does not seem to be hiring. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

What metrics are sales professionals guided by?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:27:00 -0800

What metrics are sales professionals guided by? Working with my sales manager to help redefine how inside and outside salespeople should be compensated and reviewed.

Everything from leadership to new accounts to call metrics to closed business... how does your business (or your competitors) judge the success of your sales force?

[Also, if you have any articles of interest or website recommendations, it would be just as valuable.]

If you had the opportunity to start over, what would you do?

helios410 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:34:55 -0800

If you had the opportunity to start over, what would you do? I can't afford to live in Manhattan anymore. After five years of attempting to gain a steady career, it's time for me to throw in the towel.

I am 27 years old. I have a bachelor's degree. And I have freelanced for a handful of television networks for the past 5 years, mostly doing creative editorial (read: post-production) for on-air and web promos. Frankly, I can't tell if it's the fact that it's so difficult to keep a steady flow of work, or I am just generally unimpressed with the job itself, but I am burnt out. Furthermore, financially I am not making ends meet because I only get 1-2 gigs a week (which usually last a day).

What I am looking for is steady work, but my feeling is I have been working in such a niche field that my skills are not portable to other industries. I do consider going back to school for an MBA, but my undergrad GPA is a feeble 2.4 as I was battling depression during college (and still am to this day). Frankly, I am not sure if business school is the way to go. But in today's economy the lingering feeling is an MBA is one of the few masters degrees that usually pays for itself.

Considering I am split between trying to find new work in a budding or stable industry and going back to school, I have two questions:

1) What resources are available to find out where job growth is occurring? Note: I am not limiting myself to the US. If you tell me China, I ask how do I get hired there.

2) Besides US News & Reports, what resources can I use to learn about business school programs, and learn whether an MBA from an average school is worth the cost? Especially those schools who, assuming I managed to pull a kick ass GMAT score, would consider an individual with a less than stellar undergrad GPA like myself.

I have no direction, but I know I need a serious change, because the fact is relying on parents for financially support is taking its toll on how I value myself. Thanks for reading this longish post.

I hate my job, and I don't know what to switch to... how screwed am I?

SansPoint — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:48:09 -0800

I need a new job, and I need one by the end of the year, because I'm very close to walking out of the one I have now. Help me, hive mind, as I'm at my wits end. What the hell can I do that's in Philadelphia, doesn't require a car, isn't sales, and pays around $30k? If you check my previous questions, you'll see that I've asked this thing before. At this point, though, it's getting dire. My needs are pretty damn specific, w/r/t pay, too, as I have student loans and other debt out the wazoo, as well as a $750/mo lease. I don't want to recap the ways my current job makes me hate myself and my life. I just want something else.

This is my résumé. I don't have a lot of skills. I've worked in tele-sales in some form or another for my entire professional life, and I hate it. I loathe it, I despise it. I hate cold-calling, I hate trying to convince people to buy something, give money, or accept a call from someone else, at least over the phone. I hate interrupting people, I hate being hung-up on, and I hate being brushed off. I need something else to maintain my sanity.

Thing is, I've officially run out of ideas as to what to search for. I thought I could move to a career in development for non-profits or performing arts, which Philly has no shortage of, but I can't even get an interview. I suspect this is because tele-fundraising has as much to do with proper development as LOGO has to do with programming in Assembler.

I'm barely making enough money. I tried going back to my second job doing tele-fundraising, but I lasted a week before illness sidelined me. I'm barely well enough to do my day job, and that's not paying enough because I'm not making my goal.

Please, please, PLEASE do not suggest volunteering, unpaid internships, or anything that will reduce my already poor income. Ways I can get better at my current, shitty job would be useful, but I don't want to do sales any more. I never wanted to.

So, I'm officially at my wit's end. Help me, Metafilter, as I'm totally out of ideas.

Are PhD students responsible for a lot of general lab work (4 out of 5 days of work)?

mallow005 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:09:00 -0800

My girlfriend is a PhD student and is wondering how much general lab work (not related to research) is normal for a student (not a lab employee). Her PI does not pay her anything, all her income (stipend, lab expenses) come from other sources like grants. She is not paid extra for doing the general lab work. Her stipend is about half of the cheapest employee her PI can hire, the entire lab is made up of employees (she is the only student).

Is this a normal situation for PhD students in a lab setting?

The work is cutting into her research, which may delay her graduation. Should she risk confrontation with her PI or just deal with it? Her PI is known for being difficult to talk to and deal with.

A little extra cash each month

little_c — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:35:14 -0800

What would you do with an extra $600 a month? I'm about to move into a new position where I work, one that comes with more responsibility and more money.

I'm 26 years old with no kids and no mortgage. I've thought about paying down my student loans more, but not sure if that's the best idea in the short run (either it takes me 20 years to pay them off, or 15.. does it really matter?). I don't really know anything about investing (I have a 403b portfolio through work), or saving for that matter! I've thought about opening an ING savings account...

But I'm rambling.

What would YOU do with that extra money each month?

Need Instant Good Money, Who Doesn't?

VC Drake — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:39:22 -0800

Is there anything similar to Mechanical Turk on the Internet? When I say similar I am referring to being instant work and not like the freelance sites where you have to bid for work and wait around to see if you got accepted or someone else did.

Also, it would be nice if there was a site with instant work that was better-paying too.

Any other options out there, folks?

When is that tiny paycheck worth it?

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:57:02 -0800

My yearly take-home income at my day job is about 17K. I'm starting to reevaluate exactly how long I can live on something like that, and I'd like some advice. Is it foolish to leave a steady paycheck in a bad economy, even if that paycheck is peanuts, for a "possibly" more lucrative option? For those of you who have left a job you were unhappy with when times were rough, do you regret it? I'll try to keep this concise.

I'm a 26-year-old woman, unmarried, no children. I'm in Ohio where the cost of living is low, but I still make very little money compared to people with similar experience. I got a bachelors degree in my chosen profession and have been working in it for several years at different companies and for different people. I'm pretty good with money--my only debt is my student loans and I rarely use credit cards. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot saved up. I pay for health insurance through this job and contribute to a 401(k).

I've been at this current job in my field for about 2 and a half years, where I work part-time, 32 hours a week. When I took this job, I didn't think working part-time would be a big deal, but now I'm getting worried that I won't be able to meet any of my long-term financial goals (buying a house, getting a better car) on the income I have now. I do freelance every once in a while, and when I do it, I make more in two hours than I do in an entire week at my day job, but I currently do not freelance enough to have it support me fully.

I've talked to the higher-ups about being a full time employee. They've basically told me that I could not get a promotion based on my own merits--I'd have to wait for one of my colleagues to quit (when the hell would that happen?! This isn't a job with a high turnover rate). When my immediate boss quit his job and they decided not to replace him, I asked again if I could be made full time and they said no.

I don't love this job. I enjoy my colleagues and every once in a while I have fun, exciting days, but out of all the jobs I've had in my field, this one is the worst. I don't want to change careers completely--I'm just looking for a workable solution so I can continue doing what I love in a better environment. I realize that building up a freelance business while I work probably makes the most sense, but my job requires me to work on Saturdays which cuts into a lot of freelance opportunities. (Perhaps I'm just making excuses.)

As time goes on, I get more and more depressed about this job because I don't see a future here. My ideal solution would be to quit this job and freelance full time, but part of me is scared to do that. All conventional wisdom says quitting a job, any job, in this economy is madness, especially when you don't have anything steady lined up waiting for you, and that it's getting harder and harder to freelance anyway. I'm told I should be grateful that I even have a job, but that doesn't make me feel any better. But I'm also not receiving any indication from my company that things will improve with the economy, and I keep asking myself how long I should wait for an improvement in the first place?

I'm having trouble coping with it all and I'm looking for info/anecdotes/advice for others who have been through this. Thank you.

I miss recess

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:29:08 -0800

I'm fresh out of college, I have a job I love, and everything's going great. But it would be awesome if I could have more time off, because of a few reasons, and I can afford it... but does anyone do that? I'm making 'A' a month and spending almost a thousand bucks less than that paycheck. As odd as it is, at this point I could afford to support myself for a few months, maybe a year even, with savings, since I rarely spend and always work.

Everything's great, except I'm in a long-distance relationship (about 100 mile distance, with bus/car/train transportation in between) with an amazing girl who is leaving the country for three months, and then going to be in school for a year. So, going down for weekends is great, and I will do that as much as humanly possible, but I'd like weeks. I get 15 days of vacation time (how does that compare to other jobs in the web-field?), which I'm going to split between a few days before and a week or two during her trip to the other side of the world, in which I'm going to fly there too.

So, my situation is: I'd like to just say, could I take, say, another 10 days off of work, unpaid? I know this is a personal thing, but I'm wondering if it's so nonstandard and possibly annoying for the company that I shouldn't even bring it up? Has anyone does this and how does it work out?

More time would be so great, if I could take off fall/spring break or something, that would be so incredibly golden, and seriously, I could do it financially.

I guess this is related to the question 'why don't people work less when they earn more?,' which I also wonder about...

How much is it worth to be worth less?

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:04:22 -0800

Have you left a high-paying but bad-fitting job? How and when did you decide to go? Context: For the last year I've been working in a permanent post as a managerial corporate drone and despite having great pay and benefits it's a bad fit. I want to go back to my former creative, contract-based field. I won't be leaving the job without another lined up and am poised to start hitting my network for leads - but I'm scared that if something comes up I'll regret leaving the salary behind. My former work paid well, just not as well and I can't get any perspective on how much that matters.

I took this job because I thought it would be better to opt for security and a 25% pay rise with the economy about to tank, and at first the pay made a big difference so far. I've saved all of the extra and now have a pension, along with liquid funds of six and a half months living expenses, but the cost in other areas has been pretty high - I don't like the work, or myself very much and have become depressed to the point where I'm bored, frustrated and dissappointed (in myself) a lot of the time. I have hobbies and outside interests but this casts a shadow over everything, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to stay professional. Most days I want to hand in my notice, but some part of me is saying "Dammit! Don't pass up the chance to actually accrue some real wealth for once". I come from a pretty poor background and that voice is strong.

Question: So I know I should leave but how much longer should I stay before then? A month, a year, til the recession is over? Til I'm fired?! Or do I just need to (wo)man up and stay put? If you've been in a similar situation what made you decide to stay or split? Any regrets either way? I'm 33, without debt, kids or a mortgage for the foreseable future (I rent). I'm in the UK, if that matters. Throwaway mail here if need be: wageworry@googlemail.com. Thanks!

How would I go about asking for a salary increase in my yearly review?

decrescendo — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:39:46 -0800

How would I go about asking for a salary increase in my yearly review? I came in to this job as the #2 guy on a 2-person contract and then the #1 guy (my supervisor and project manager) quit. I'm now project manager and the only one on site. I feel like I should receive some sort of corresponding raise with this increase in responsibility. I've been working for a small employee-owned defense contractor since I graduated from college with an aerospace engineering degree in May of 2007. I worked in a different area of the country with this same company until I decided that I wanted to move to DC. I told my company I was going to look for a job in DC and they surprisingly ended up offering me a position in DC that I considered to be out of my league at the time. This position made me the "2nd string guy" out of 2 guys working on-site at a very large, high-visibility Department of Defense program office. I'm honestly in a little over my head due to the scale of this program and the type of working I'm doing but I feel like I'm doing a great job given my age and experience.

The old #1 guy on this project (my supervisor and the project manager) was a retired Marine Corp officer who was old enough to be my dad. He ended up leaving 6 months after I started working there, leaving me to be the only person on our contract in this program office. I did not feel like I knew enough at the time to be project manager but I feel like I've been doing a great job. My company's CEO often tells me how great of a job I'm doing given my age. He's apparently pleasantly surprised.

I had to fight for a salary increase when I came to this job. It sort of bothered me that my company thought I'd be able to get by in this part of the country on the salary I had when I was living in the middle of nowhere. I get the impression my company is very stingy about salary increases.

Now that I've been automatically moved up to project manager on our contract here, I feel like there should be some sort of salary increase since my responsibilities have most definitely increased. I have a yearly review coming up in early July and I want to attempt to ask for a raise. I feel that I deserve one not only due to my performance, but also by my move up to the project manager slot.

Not only am I not totally sure how to approach this, but I wish I had some sort of salary data available to me for reference. I really have no idea where I stand salary-wise. I know there are websites that are used to compare salaries, but I don't feel like this job will be one easily found online.

Do any of you have any recommendations on how to approach this? I'd really appreciate it. I've found some sites about this subject that are listed below, but I'd really like to hear some feedback directly tailored to my issue. Thanks!

Pages I've found so far:
Lifehacker
Lifehack
Lifehacker
Lifehacker
Get Rich Slowly

Unsure as to how I should proceed.

Anonymous — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:14:31 -0800

The place I work may be going under. What should I do? I work as an attorney and the managing partner had all of us attorneys in a meeting yesterday. He told us that the firm is basically out of money and that he's worried about making payroll next week. We have 10 attorneys and 2 partners here, so it's a small firm.

I like the work environment here, and the partners are generous (to a fault, it seems). The main partner is a bit oafish and I think he may be putting his head in the sand as to how bad things really are. The other partner is bad about collecting his accounts receivable, which is probably the main reason the firm is in this mess.

I'm already looking for another job, but what do I do if this place does actually go under? There is work to be done and clients whose problems won't go away.

Do I stay on in the hopes I may get paid down the line, or do I just jump ship and leave all the work for others to do?

What do you do, aside from your regular day job, to bring in extra streams of revenue?

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:25:28 -0800

What do you do, aside from your regular day job, to bring in extra streams of revenue? It's my goal to eventually have enough streams of income coming through so that the money from my full-time job is irrelevant. I work from home, which doesn't necessarily mean I have a ton of free time, but does mean that I do have more breathing room than I would if had an office job. Therefore, these streams of income would most likely require time to initially setup -- which is fine -- but would not require mass amounts of time to maintain. "Get a second job," is not what I'm looking for here.

So, hivemind, what are you doing to bring in money outside of your main day job?

Passive income stream which covers your mortgage

lilyflower — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:23:43 -0800

What would you do if you had a passive income stream which covered your mortgage? I would like people to consider the following situation and give us their opinions on what they would do. We would like to hear how MeFi's out there would respond to having a similar financial position to the one I am going to describe below. This is one that my husband and I are currently entering and although we have our own ideas on how we would like to proceed, we were wondering how different people would approach the same circumstance.

My husband has developed a passive income stream which has consistently brought in enough money to cover our mortgage (approximately $2200 per month). We both work and prior to this passive income stream we still had enough money to cover all of our monthly expenses and save. We have an idea of how we would like our life to pan out, but we are really interested to know how other people might behave given our situation.

Would people turbo charge their pensions, pay off their mortgage faster, rent out their house while they move to different countries and work while they travel, have a child and one spouse no longer works, go part time and earn enough to cover the remaining bills?

I would like to clarify that this question does not concern the long term viability of the passive income stream. I will be happy to clarify my question further but please remember this is more about what you would do with your life given this income stream.

how can i get paid to type?

austere — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:08:57 -0800

i believe myself to be quite gifted when it comes to typing. can this be parlayed into an income somehow? i have only a GED and have never been to college. i'm twenty four and have a slightly spotty work history. i am very personable and highly intelligent however. i don't really have any marketable skills and the only jobs i've excelled at tend to be administrative. when it comes to dull office jobs, i'm a superstar, but i absolutely hate that kind of work. the only real marketable skills that i have are my advanced computer proficiency and my extremely fast and accurate typing.

when it comes to typing, people tend to be blown away -- it's kind of funny because anyone can type, and most people do it well, more or less. however, anytime someone happens to see or hear me typing, a comment almost always ensues. it seems like data entry work tends to be 'bottom of the barrel' in terms of pay and regard. but i feel like there are probably teams/departments in certain businesses who do strictly this, and while admittedly half-joking, i could probably replace several above-average typists with my skill.

my mom has always suggested that i go to school to be a court reporter, but i lack motivation and follow-through with such a random idea as that, though i'm not entirely disinterested.

so i guess my question is whether or not it's possible or in any way realistic to hope for an opportunity to make decent money from typing. i am very dependable with most any sort of administrative work, even if somehow advanced, but i guess i just have a hunch that no one really pays people well to type, because in the end it's still 'just typing'. but as far as the work itself goes, i've got to be about as good as it gets.

i had a job once that required entering orders of athletic jerseys into a database prior to shipping them, and after a few weeks of being hired (this was in a warehouse that paid shit and had no interest in retaining employees - i made $5.50), i had developed this sort of rythm with the software we used and i would just fly through every order. it was funny to even me, as i would just kind of get into 'the zone' and would be entering the information faster than i could think about it. on a few occassions, management emerged from their air-conditioned offices with a stopwatch and would just stand there and watch me work, amazed at my proficiency. there were a few others who would do the same thing as me, and i must have had ten times the output. but in the end nobody ever acknowledged this as a valuable skill. i'm sure there are other companies who would have been more perceptive, but still.

so as data entry tends to be peon work for the most part, i'm sure the turnover tends to be high. so is there any way to subvert that notion and to get real recognition for this skill?

thanks mefi!

any ideas? thanks mefi.

Ways to insulate oneself from the economic downturn?

mintchip — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:38:21 -0800

Ways to make extra cash during the economic downturn? The thing about this economic downturn is that it's harder to do the usual things people used to do when they were worried about finances. In the past, maybe you'd get a part-time job in addition to your regular job...but many of these are in short supply. Maybe you'd sell things on Ebay...but who's buying nowadays?

I'm wondering if you guys would be willing to share all of your money-making ideas for the economic downturn--creative way to make extra cash on a part-time basis. Things that people may not have thought of.

How does accepting Section 8 affect the future marketability of a two-family rental property?

fishthefly — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:10:13 -0800

How does accepting Section 8 affect the future marketability of a two-family rental property? I know someone who owns a rental property and has had very few applicants over the last 12 months or so. They are losing money on the property and need to find renters quickly. They are also interested in selling the property but the Real Estate market is really struggling here. Currently, they do not accept Section 8 applicants.

my time is worth more than this!

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:13:46 -0800

Lots of work for little reward: How do I ask for a raise? Working for a non-profit that is not doing so hot....more inside, possibly whiny (?) I am posting this anon because i know that several of my coworkers (and higher ups) read this!

i have been working for the same non-profit for almost 2 years. recently (<6 months) got a promotion. get a raise, get a sweet title, feel happy inside. (mind you, this raise still keeps me at the barely-getting-by non-profit salary category.)

Economy starts to fail. small non-profit arts org. takes a nose dive. I get assigned LOTS of extra work-- now i do work for the sales, marketing, and PR dept. I do not get a raise. My coworkers do not either, but they are not given 3x more work.

I feel like i am whining, but is it completely unfair that i should be expected to do 3x the work while they sit and do nothing all day? I know some of them get paid more than me to do 3x LESS work than me.

I feel bad asking for a raise because, as a non profit,we are already struggling to stay afloat. But at the same time, i feel like i deserve it.

How do i (gently) go about asking for a raise? I am comfortable enough to ask MY boss, my bosses boss, etc. I am a valued member of this small team and i know they would not want to lose me. A

ll i really want is $2000 more per year. Should i write a letter first? talk to my boss about how i think the work distribution is unfair? I feel like re-distributing duties would be hard, as i am the only person who knows how to (and is trusted to!) complete a lot of tasks. Please, please, help.

How to be a working nomad?

bodywithoutorgans — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:20:33 -0800

I am a recent college graduate and I also suffer a good deal of wanderlust. There is the inevitable problem of combining work and play. At my university, the only career advice I received was graduate school or working the traditional 9-5 job. I'm wondering if it's possible to travel and earn money? I'm not really interested in teaching English abroad, being an au-pair, and I've read this post. I'm more interested in the nebulous world of telecommuting and freelancing. I've seen this guy's page, but it sounds a little vague. I'd like to make money in a country where cost of living is low with a unique culture (Thailand, Guatemala, Kenya) but at the same time has access to steady internet so I can work.
Some specifics:
1) How does one break into the freelancing/telecommuting world? I know some webdesign (PHP/MySQL) and programming but often geared at an academic level for university classes. I don't have the faintest clue how to make money out of this! I have some down time right now where I'm picking up skills and making a portfolio. Any advice?
2) Will the stability of the internet connection be a factor? Will I need to have access to an internet cafe every day?
3) How are taxes worked out? Are there any books/information for people who are US citizens but live/work globally?
4) How does health insurance work out?

Thanks a lot MeFi!

How do I best arm myself for an upcoming salary/bonus review in this economic climate?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:46:18 -0800

How do I best arm myself for an upcoming salary/bonus review in this economic climate? I guess I'm what you might call "upper-management" at a small tech company. Like many others, our company is looking to cut costs and we will likely have a few layoffs later this month. I, and others, have already been informed that any raise in our base salary is off the table for now. However it has also been noted that pre-existing bonus clauses (such as the one I have) are still available.

So the thing is, for the last year I have been as busy as ever (actually more so), mainly because I have a skillset that only a few others have, and as a result I've been extremely busy and IMO was a huge part of helping to land a contract with a Fortune 10 company that was worth a lot of money for the company.

So, my bonus isn't particularly huge by any standards, it's capped at $5k. However, I know from past experience that my bosses treat all of these situations as bargaining sessions. So last year I walked out of the review with a $3k bonus. However, this year, based on the revenue I feel I helped bring in, plus other criteria such as hitting or beating project deadlines, I feel I deserve the entire bonus.(Especially since there will be no change in my base salary).

So I need strategies for this upcoming session. There have already been comments such as "Well, we're all lucky we even have jobs" and other signs that this will not go my way. In addition to this not quite being rooted in reality, I have realized my bonus structure is not based on objective facts, but is incredibly subjective. This was a mistake on my part when I arranged the terms of my employment, however this is my situation.

How does one convert idleness into currency, sans boss?

AAAA — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:37:54 -0800

What are some interesting ways people have used to make money, without having a job, per se? (Legally, I mean.) I'm a student in an urban area. I'm relatively broke right now and the thought of asking Mom and Dad for (more) money is really getting me down.

I could go bus tables or wash dishes, but I don't want to. I need some way of selling my time that will make me proud. Experience has taught me that being elbow-deep in suds and other people's food scraps is generally bad for my spirit.

I'm applying for jobs that are more to my liking, but it's looking like it might be a little while before I'm able to land one. Now I'm thinking, as a survival strategy for the next little while, it might be best to make up my own job, and just hire myself.

Has anybody ever successfully made money using nothing but their wits? What, specifically, did you do? How much did it make you?

I have the following assets:

-I can write PRETTY well, though I might not be a good enough copy editor to do the I-will-edit-your-essay-for-$$$ thing.

-I can perform repetitive work for a few hours at a stretch, quickly.

-I have a house located centrally in my city and a bike to get around on, though I am definitely not cut out for bike-messengerhood.

-I have 20 to 30 hours per week to devote.

Fun and money required

djgh — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:04:42 -0800

Eight months out - how to have fun and earn money - preferably abroad? I'm based in the UK, and from about July I should have around eight months out to do my own thing.

Where can I go, and what can I do whereby I can have fun and earn money at the same time? For example, in the winter months I could work in a ski resort in North America or Europe, so ski and earn.

What reputable websites etc. have tons of good info on this - I've Googled, but with a ton of options I'd like a recommendation as to a good site.

What should I be looking to do in the next few months to prepare? (e.g. visas, brush up on language skills etc.)

Any other thoughts? I'd really like to make this time as awesome and varied as possible, and I'm not looking to make huge amounts of cash - essentially enough to live and to save for my next ticket somewhere.

Help me start my own ecommerce website.

scottschulthess — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:38:33 -0800

I have an idea for a ecommerce web site. I am currently a web application developer, and I ran an ecommerce site for a few years so I have a great concept of the nuts and bolts. I just wanted to ask for help because I am likely to be weak on the business end and design end of things - I have no clue how to start a business or design an entire website from scratch - let alone do in part-time on top of a full-time job. A) I have no clue how to design a website from scratch, really. I'm not a designer at all.
B) I have no clue how to start my own business or how I should do it
C) I want to get this started outside my fulltime job, so I want to do it quick and dirty.

My website concept has to do with recipes and cooking. It will probably be a subscription pay service for about 5$/month. I currently have a good working knowledge of html, css, asp.net, C#, and some experience with javascript and photoshop.

My main hangups will probably be all the business-end of things, setting up the credit card processing, as well as coming up with a good design in photoshop and then actually implementing them. I already have a couple hundred dollars in web-hosting to blow - and though I would love to do the website in something like PHP, my experience is all ASP.NET so I think I will stick with that.