# Did you take "cheap" jobs in the beginning.



## antonioooooooo (Mar 8, 2010)

Yup, serious question.

Right now I'm taking "cheap" jobs, or in other words, anything that I can make more than wages on.

I'm not working hourly at them, I only give a price. After working like a dog, I come in at about $75-130 hourly. Most companies could probably not do it for that price, with employees. 

I guess the point behind doing it for that money is proving the quality of work I can perform.. basically to get some referrals or more work, and eventually build up to decent size jobs with employees, and at that point, I would be able to leave my current hourly job. 

Not really sure how else to go about it. I have to keep my income steady during the 40 hour week. I was thinking printing up business cards and dropping them off at construction sites. (Cheap and easy)

Suggestions.....


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

antonioooooooo said:


> Yup, serious question.
> 
> Right now I'm taking "cheap" jobs, or in other words, anything that I can make more than wages on.
> 
> ...


When I first started I took anything I could get my hands on, money was tight I couldn't afford not to work.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

If you are making 75 to 130 bucks an hour for 40 hours a week, I think you are doing fine. I must be misunderstanding. Those are very good prices. Now if you are only working 10 hours a week, maybe not.


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## antonioooooooo (Mar 8, 2010)

VinylHanger said:


> If you are making 75 to 130 bucks an hour for 40 hours a week, I think you are doing fine. I must be misunderstanding. Those are very good prices. Now if you are only working 10 hours a week, maybe not.


I had it worded a little confusing. What I meant was that I am tackling side jobs AFTER already working for a contractor hourly, 40 hours a week. I don't have enough side jobs to terminate working hourly for him, and in order to obtain these side jobs, they have to be completed after 4pm. Ive been doing great at these side jobs, just not steady.

Realistically, I need steady work to be coming in, to leave the hourly gig. I cant figure out how to get established.


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## 91782 (Sep 6, 2012)

antonioooooooo said:


> I had it worded a little confusing. What I meant was that I am tackling side jobs AFTER already working for a contractor hourly, 40 hours a week.


Yeah, I did that. Started hanging grid after hours got good small jobs, in-out.



> I don't have enough side jobs to terminate working hourly for him, and in order to obtain these side jobs, they have to be completed after 4pm. Ive been doing great at these side jobs, just not steady.


Yeah, so decks were just becoming popular, so I started doing those on the weekends.



> Realistically, I need steady work to be coming in, to leave the hourly gig. I cant figure out how to get established.


Yeah, so I became good buds with a couple of remodelers - we helped each other out - best employees we ever had I reckon.

Can't figure out why you'd want to drop business cards off at const sites - you just wanting to do hourly for more companies?


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## BRShomerepair (Jun 28, 2015)

Sounds like you need to start marketing. Do you have a website?


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## antonioooooooo (Mar 8, 2010)

Definitely not.

The thinking behind this strategy is that in a tenant improvement, they would need a guy to put up some demising walls, some boarding, etc.

There are still a lot of contractors that get these gigs, that have no idea what to do!


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## antonioooooooo (Mar 8, 2010)

BRShomerepair said:


> Sounds like you need to start marketing. Do you have a website?


No website. Not entirely sure what that would accomplish!


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## Calidecks (Nov 19, 2011)

antonioooooooo said:


> No website. Not entirely sure what that would accomplish!


How could you not know what a website accomplishes?


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## SprayFinish (Aug 16, 2015)

I started out taking small jobs during the day while I worked a full time job at night. Really kicked my ass at times when I would have to bust my ass doing side work during the day and then running home to shower and go do an 8 hour shift at night. During this time in my career I got all the legal aspects worked out for my own side business, meaning license, insurance, website, business cards, and all that good stuff just to start working towards a trusted image. Looks better to see a company that is licensed and insured than some guy who can come in and do cheap side work. 

I put up a decent investment from my hourly job to cover business expenses for my side business. In the beginning it sucks and jobs come in slowly, not making as much as I would like, but it eventually picked up. I made a price list which was fair and accurate and I didn't budge from that. If someone wouldn't pay the price I was asking for my time and work then I would just let them go find someone else. All profit I made from my first few jobs went straight into an account for the business just to cover any other expenses in the future. This is what I did and it worked for me. It's a slow process and it took a good year to build up steady work, but worth it in the end. I believe all the jobs I got in the beginning came from craigslist ads and the yellow pages. I passed my cards out to realtors and designers who dealt with people interested in flipping houses to get business. Worked well and it got my name out there.
Best of luck.


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## BamBamm5144 (Jul 12, 2008)

antonioooooooo said:


> No website. Not entirely sure what that would accomplish!


This post tells me you aren't ready to go out on your own but if you want to get established, then you need to quit your 40hr a week job and figure it out.


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## heavy_d (Dec 4, 2012)

Gotta be a troll if his "cheap jobs starting out" are netting him >100 bucks an hour... come on..


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## pappagor (Jan 29, 2008)

you never know what a job will bring you until you have done it. 
i was ask to look at a microwave filter in 2010 as it turned out i have did over $150000 of work every year for them to date and have a friendship that is up there with the best of them.now they own a local landmark home and a bakery. the work just keeps rolling in.no i did not charge them to replace the filter on the microwave the best $8.95 and one hour of my time that i ever gave away.


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## Defenestrate (Aug 13, 2015)

heavy_d said:


> Gotta be a troll if his "cheap jobs starting out" are netting him >100 bucks an hour... come on..


Maybe, maybe not. If I charge a flat $200 to fix a poorly hung door and I can fix it in an hour with 30 minutes of driving on each end, then I've made $100 an hour. Similarly, and I doubt this is what the OP means, if I work for 15 minutes and make $25, I'm still at $100 an hour.

I like @sprayfinish and his approach to getting started slow and legit. It's a mountain of costs that aren't really being offset by income, but I think it pays in the end.


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## aptpupil (Jun 12, 2010)

Who is your market? Contractors or homeowners? Answer that and then you can decide how to get steady work.
Either way it comes down to bring good at what you do and knowing lots of (or the right) people, at least to start.


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## FrankSmith (Feb 21, 2013)

I did by accident.


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## TaylorMadeAB (Nov 11, 2014)

You have to just jump in. You'll never get enough work if you are marketing yourself as a part timer.


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## Tom M (Jan 3, 2007)

I was roofing afternoons on work study program. I made fliers with a message about water/ice damage from clogged gutters. I cherry picked nice neighborhoods $100 a house to clean gutters which I did on Saturdays. It always lead to other miscellaneous stuff. I made some great money for an teenager. That was in the 80's


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## antonioooooooo (Mar 8, 2010)

Not trolling.. The reason that it worked out to $100 an hour is that I bid it accordingly. I figured I needed to make $100 an hour on a best case scenario. The other reason I'm saying Its considered cheap, is that the contractor was looking for the best price, and it's very unlikely for 2 "employees" to accomplish what I did in x amount of days, therefore a company would actually have to bid it higher.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

Was that for two guys? If not, you want to make good money, but you also don't want to price yourself out of work. Not too many contractors, or homeowners if any will go for 100 bucks an hour labor on a week long or month long job. There is a difference between a quick two evening, got to get it done gig and drawn out remodels.

I can technically make 100 bucks an hour on some small repairs, however, I can't get enough of those to stay steady.

If you can find 100 dollar an hour full time work, I think you will be fine.


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