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Side Hustles June 2014 Edition

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So far this month there really isn’t much to say on the Side Hustle front. But I did want to go into detail over a few details.  

$257.26 First Check from Contract.  This was for eight hours of work and Mileage.  There were a few hiccups with this project, the first being that I agreed to a bigger area of coverage.  I didn’t account for some of the locations to be over a hour to get to (Which I do not get paid for.)  So that eats away at the profit.  

I could look it as in the eyes of an employee, who doesn’t get paid to commute to and from work. But I always look at the amount per hour that I make, so I can average it out, so I won’t look at it from that prospective.  

Second thing, I am not getting paid between locations.  No matter what company I have contracted with they have always paid between locations during the same day.  I have worked with this company numerous times and this is the first that this has happened.  I had to reach out to my point of contact and she is asking around, for this shouldn’t be.  

Another thing to note that this company doesn’t pay the maximum amount per mile to a location, I will be able to deduct the difference on my taxes.

$117 Tips From Clients.  This amount is a little higher than normal and I am not sure the reason.  I am believing it to be that this month is the half way mark of the year, so people are tipping me accordingly.  

Usually I only count the cash tips I receive from Clients, simply because if they used their credit/debit cards to pay that amount doesn’t come directly to me that day, I get it in my monthly check the following month.  These card tips usually evens out my supplies expense.  

$137.30 Amazon Profits.  This was a great month so far with the cereal I placed in Amazon.  I made a post in the middle of last month, that I did a Reevaluation and decided to keep Amazon in the arsenal.  Turns out it was a good decision and bad.

Amazon Orders June 2014

Unfortunately being so new to this, I made a few mistakes this month.  The biggest is that I bought around 500 cans of Chef Boyardee to send into Amazon on the cheap. Everything was looking great, it had a great sales rank (meaning it was selling well), I would be getting about 150% ROI on the product.  After all fees were taken out, I would make about $16 for a pack of 24.  

What I did not take into account was the weight of these cans.  Since you can only send 50 pounds per box into Amazon, I would go through a lot of supplies to ship them, plus the shipping fee would eat away a good amount of profit.  So I decided to sit on these products.  I will be probably going to some Farmer’s Markets to sell some of my coupon overstock.  Plus I might bring some used stuff.  Seems like a good way to spend a few days.  I will probably make about 80% ROI selling them through this venue, which is still good, but I definitely would have made more through Amazon.  

Another thing is that I decided to forgo the Pro Seller account, which costs $40 per month.  From what I read is that once you start selling 40 items a month is when you should go Pro.  The biggest benefit being that they don’t charge the $1 per order fulfillment fee.  So basically if you sell 40 items or more a month, this is a no brainer.  

For the month prior I had the free trial of the Pro Selling Plan.  Well now that I am on the Individual Selling Plan, Amazon reserves money from orders confirmed as shipped during the 14 days immediately preceding each settlement date (the day they pay the merchants.)  So now I have to wait for all my money to be disbursed throughout the month.  

Today I received $5.94 out of this amount.  Then I will receive $51.51 on July 1st.  It kinda sucks, maybe I should pay the $40 a month?  It probably will motivate me more to sell 40 items each month don’t you think?

Well there is still six days left in the month, wish me luck!

Misconceptions

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This post is in response to some of the comments I have received last week and other weeks.

It seems that a lot of people here have a misconception about me.  That I absolutely refuse to work.  I can see where you might get that idea with some of my comments.  But I got to say that this is the further from the truth.  I work most of the day, granted it isn’t going as well as I would like.  If you believe anything in the Pareto Principal (80/20 rule), I would go as far as saying that currently 80% of my income comes from 20% of my efforts.  

Why do I work 10-12 hours a day on something that is bringing in minimum results?  There are many reasons, the main reason is that I believe in myself and what I am doing.  I totally believe that someday in the near future, this is play out for me.  What I do for a living isn’t easy and not many people understand it, but if it was easy many more people would be doing it.

I also want to note that I am also very receptive to outside work, as long as it meets the perimeters I have set in place.  Pays $15 or more per hour with minimum 2 hours and that I can fit in my schedule. 

Currently I bring in more gross/net revenue than I did when I left the restaurant industry.  It is because of this that is allowing me to continue on my entrepreneur dreams.  What many of you don’t understand is the geographic location I live in.  The main source of income for people are factory jobs.  The medium income for a household in the city was $30,137, and $41,124 for a family, according to the census of 2000.  

Ending Note:  I made a deadline for myself, that if I can not bring in an extra $1000 a month by December 31, 2015 I will go back to being a full time employee.  

Onto another misconception.  A few people spoke about how I buck any authority.  If I did so, would I have lasted close to 8 years in the Army as a NCO?  Even currently I have people to report to.  Granted at the end of the day, the only person I really actually have to report to is myself.  But if I didn’t report to my clients, I probably wouldn’t have them as clients for much longer.  

Now I also see where you might get this idea as well.  But don’t take me standing up for my beliefs as someone who can’t handle authority.  Yes, I believe my time is worth a certain price and I don’t cave on this amount too often.  But if are one to believe that you should just work anything, then so be it.  Who am I to judge?  

Having my beliefs are what made me the person I am today, and for those that don’t like it here is two final things I want to end with.

“Love Me, Hate Me, Just Don’t Be Indifferent”  – Libbie Fudim

I first heard this quote from Erika Napoletano’s TEDx Talk “Rethinking Unpopular”.  I searched for who actually said this, since I heard it many times since.  Funny side note do a google search for Libbie Fudim.  

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some many see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”  – Steve Jobs