How do you Find Side jobs, or decide to go for it?

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Daring/Vaque Question.  I've been welding for years for myself and my work.  For a whoile a friend and I had a side business building traction bars for Hondas/Acuras (we sponsored the first import to make it to the final rounds of Pinks All Out) and had a distributer in Califonia but life got busy and had to back out.I learned to Mig Alum building Trailers, TIG SS building Turbo Manifolds for my friends, Mig for myself, relatives, friends and work.My Training is in Mech. Eng: Design and Analysis.  I works for 2 years designing $100,000+ Horse Trailers, and have been working the past 8yrs as a Machine Technician and pratically Millwright.  I can do basic Machining, 3D CAD, and weld/assemblies.  My life right nowis making it hard to live by a punch clock.  I have 3 kids and a wife that is on odd shifts nursing (aka makes way more then me) so I'm required to take random days off as daycare is expensive and not really available and I think my employer is getting annoyed by it. Plus by my thoughts, friends and others that know my skill/knowledge/abilities, I'm underpayed but I'm too confortable with the flexibility I am currently recieving to go for more.I have a 4x8 CNC Plasma.Airco TIG, 2 Migs in my shop and a Lincoln  255 I can get anyday.Tube Bender, Tube Roller, Etc. Equipment is no problem.I'm not worried about my abilities/quality, and I don't think anyone I have done work for is either.Just afriad to take the plunge and tell work I'm either splitting or cutting back hours big time to casual. (Family Business BTW)How do or did you get started.  How did you find work to gain confidence/experience/ get your name out there?Please save me the riducules. But be honest.Airco Heliweld II AC/DC HomeMade Wire FeederLincoln 255PLincoln HD130Everlast PP804x8 CNC TableWelding helps me build my hobbies and takes up time on the side.
Reply:Do you have so much side work it's interfering with your "real" job? I'm still working on the side and when I do more side work than regular work is when I'm going to drag up and tell work to eat it. It's hard starting out but as time goes on I find I'm having to do less work to find jobs and having more jobs find me
Reply:I see a lot of guys who start their own business fail, not because they can't do the work, it's because they can't run the business. I know the business side of mine is the hardest part for me to handle.To do things right there are a lot of expenses that need to be covered, whether you are bringing in work or not. Things like insurance, business licenses and so on. This doesn't change just because you "dabble" in this part time. In fact many places are really starting to crack down on guys who do side work in this economy. As traditional brick and mortar businesses close up, their tax revenues are falling. At the same time the communities keep demanding more and more services like they were getting when things were booming and the money just never stopped rolling in. Get caught doing work without the proper licenses and so on, declaring taxes etc, and you'll wish you'd taken all your money and tossed it in the paper shredder instead. get sued because someone wants to get something for nothing and it gets even worse since they can likely go after not only what you make, but what your wife brings in as well if you didn't cover your azz with basic liability insurance. ( my basic liability insurance costs me almost $2000 a year. That's a huge amount to soak up in small jobs. You'd have to do one small job about every 3 days,  ( assume 100 small jobs a year) to cut the cost down to say $20 per job.I see a lot of guys who do side jobs for say $50 and think they did well. However when you sit down and start adding up costs, they lost money big time. Did you drive to the job? If so. Lets take $5 out for gas. Did you figure in your cost of wire, rod, mig gas? Lets say $10 to cover all that. How about other consumables like grinding wheels, chopsaw blades and such?, How about we figure $10 for those. What about paint when you were done? $5 there. We still haven't added in insurance and the business license yet, and we already have eaten up at least $30 worth of stuff.  If we use my 100 jobs a year estimate above and figure the insurance cost was $20, guess what, you worked for FREE! It's even worse if something breaks and we need to repair it, buy gas for the generator welder as so on, pick up a tool needed for the job or small parts like nuts and bolts... You ended up paying to do the job for someone. You just lost money.I'm not trying to discourage you. You need to look at this as a business, big or small. Some things like business cards, licenses, insurance, taxes, accounting fees and so on are often the same if you are a small full time operation or just part time. You may be able to ignore some things like rent and electric when you are tiny, but if you start to grow at all, all of a sudden those missing items take a huge chunk out of your profit, or you have to raise your rates. Raise your rates and you might loose those customers you'd been counting on. All it takes is a neighbor who complains and all of a sudden your "free" space is gone and you need to rent a shop you didn't count on, complete with electric, heat, rent, more insurance.....No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWI see a lot of guys who do side jobs for say $50 and think they did well. However when you sit down and start adding up costs, they lost money big time.
Reply:Thanks so far guys for the input and please keep it coming. To answer your questions so far:I'm not taking on any side work other then the odd free time for a friend or relative that I charge materials for as I don't have on the side time. Hense me thinking of taking time from my day job. For work I charge accordingly and am still on their clock so I'm making double the wages so to say. The business side as far as as expenses and costs will jot be over looked (in fact are being looked into as of now). I have both parents owning their own businesses. 1 a single working property maintenance that has grown beyond ability to keep up and another textile business (my current employer) that is expanding every day/year for the past 5 years with 50+ employees. My older sister is a Certified Account specialized in tax my other older sister is an account manager/lead book keeper at a large tractor parts dealership. So on that side there will be no surprises.Airco Heliweld II AC/DC HomeMade Wire FeederLincoln 255PLincoln HD130Everlast PP804x8 CNC TableWelding helps me build my hobbies and takes up time on the side.
Reply:Just to add a little biography: I'm still young (at least I think).  Just turned 30 last month.  I feel I'm young enough and with trimming (heaven forbid, on my wife's salary) that we can make it till I find new work if I fail. You don't hope for it but you need to plan for it  My father will be retiring (and we have talked about me aquiring his cleints and work which I would be happy doing), my current work will always be needing techs like me (even if I did branch I would probably continue to contract time to them), and my mother maybe looking for a buy out (been talked about too but the company is WAY too in depth with too many other uncles/cousins/family making the sole reason why I hate it there, capital gains and so on!)Airco Heliweld II AC/DC HomeMade Wire FeederLincoln 255PLincoln HD130Everlast PP804x8 CNC TableWelding helps me build my hobbies and takes up time on the side.
Reply:I'm a 4th generation welder and I'm 33. My Dad started doing repairs for logging outfits back in the 80's while working as a millwright full time. I decided about ten years ago that I would build a shop and try making it a full business, at least make it enough to pay the bills and keep going. I'll have to say it ain't easy. The customers I have are almost all ones that my dad started working for back then or over the years with a few new ones that have came on the scene since I started handling things. I would think it would be hard to start from scratch. Look at it like this, I put a sign up at the road in front of my shop and put a big sticker on the back glass of my truck advertising my shop with my phone number. I don't think I've made but about 100.00 from the sign and the sticker. But when I hear things like a friend who talks to someone and they mention they've heard about the welder who built this or fixed that and then they come to have a job done , that's the best advertisement you can have. Always do it right and when someone brings junk that will put somebody's life in danger if it's repaired,you'll have to be the one to make that decision.BTW, I'm my only employee besides the few times that I need my dad to help on big jobs. And this is not my only income. I work for the state as a forest firefighter and am on call most of the time. So this gives me insurance and benefits that I need. And also the time I need to work at the shop. I wish you the best!Miller trailblazer301gLincoln sa200Miller251Miller spectrum 625Victor oxy-acc2002 Chevy duramax 3500 dually 4x4
Reply:I build stuff and put it in high traffic areas ( more than 6 people a day/ here ). Some cool animal cages and bird stands, plant stands, roof racks for cars, kickascz bumpers,folding 3/4 pipe saw horses, good skinning knives.Paint them pink so the macho pu$$ies notice They ask......... "senior- es posible otro colores" (other colors). I leave them in the raw/ospho rubbed. They can do whatever they want.At that point they know you have equipment which gets you inquiries for many things both large and small.Just keep in mind a kickass,high quality patch on a rusted out pizzachit trailer can wind up as a contract for 130 columns for a condo complex . Paint it pink so it gets seen and they'll immediately know whos work it is. If you happen to live in Costa Rica and duplicate me I'll burn your house down and run off with your woman .Last edited by Burpee; 03-27-2014 at 06:57 PM.Bubble gumTooth pixDuct tapeBlack glueGBMF hammerScrew gun --bad battery (see above)