I just handle computer work on the side and the pay is very good.

I actually co-started a business years ago, and went through many of the pains some of you described above. We made good money (I should get another small quarterly check in two weeks, and that’s from work we completed nine years back!) but it took a long time to get flowing.

But the last business was product-oriented (computer games) and the work I’m considering now is service-oriented — consulting, tutoring, etc.

So the main thing I’m wondering is, can I find enough of these little jobs to bring in a few hundred dollars extra per month? That would be enough to make it worthwhile.

Yes, I know it sounds like a Nike commercial, but it’s true. Most of these side business cost nothing more than time and effort. Starting my blog cost me a total of $10 (for the domain name). It’s costing me time but that’s something I have to spend right now and if I think it’s costing me too much time, I’ll stop.

So stop thinking about it and do it. If you do your research you’ll see that there’s usually very little risk and almost zero upfront investment in one of these side businesses. You lose nothing by trying, you only lose out by sitting back and doing nothing.

GJ

In college, I had a small web design business. Essentially, I worked pro bono for non-profit organizations. Of course, this work helped me land my first real job as a teacher, which indirectly led me to my current job as a web developer.

Getting Started: I was doing independent consulting for a while as a side thing. It was nice side income, but I decided to make the best out of it and decided to incorporate (for many different reasons).

Building The Business: I already had a couple clients before I started it, so the transition wasn’t hard.

Taxes: Yes, being self-employed entitles you to paying more taxes. You will pay 15.3% Self-Employment Tax rate. If you’re an employee, you pay only half of that, the other half is paid by your employer.

Also, I’d add that you should count in time you need for administrative duties. When you’re an employee, all administrative work you have to do is deposit your paycheck in your bank account. It’s completely different thing with running a side business!

From my experiences I can say Trent is right on. To build on his statement “treat every input like it’s golden”: I would not have ended as well as I did had I not done that. In my case I listened and tried every suggestion as to where I could find customers. I also found a few people in the same buisiness (google is great for this) and emailed them for advice. Most of the people I talked to declined to help, but one guy wrote me back what ammounted to a manual on making money in the field. This reply, and later exchanges of email, made the difference between getting out almost even and losing everything.

A few other points folks may wish to consider:

1. Some companies own all employee’s intellectual property unless otherwise noted. You may wish to discuss this with your boss and get a waiver in writing. My boss is pretty cool about stuff like this, as long as I dont compete with my employer he will write up something. It may seem rediculous, but lawyer prevention is usually a good idea.

2. If you are going to try and make money from something you do as a hobby, I’d reccomend thinking about this for a while: If you have a bad experience, or have to do some stuff you consider unpleasant related to this work, will it still be enjoyable for you? This is why I don’t do freelance photography. I think it would ruin my experience. (At least for now).

3. Expect (as in plan on) making nothing at your venture. There are a couple reasons for this. First, any income will be nice and make you excited. Second, experience is gold. All the money you will spend on this venture will at the very least pay off in lessons if you pay attention. The next time, you will know far better how to do this business thing.

Getting Started: I was doing independent consulting for a while as a side thing. It was nice side income, but I decided to make the best out of it and decided to incorporate (for many different reasons).

Building The Business: I already had a couple clients before I started it, so the transition wasn’t hard.

Taxes: Yes, being self-employed entitles you to paying more taxes. Us self-employed pay 15.3% Self-Employment Tax rate. If you’re an employee, you pay only half of that, the other half is paid by your employer.

Also, I’d add that you should count in time you need for administrative duties. When you’re an employee, all admin work you have to do is deposit your paycheck. It’s completely different thing with running a side business!

I started recently a blog for software developers on http://www.ivetic.net .I hope that Trent will post more details on how did he start networking with other bloggers.

The quiet time during a dry start is where a lot of people get discouraged. As long as you keep networking and getting the word out there, you eventually reach a critical mass that ramps up your business very quickly.

Great bit about the art of the side business – I think your admission of not making a dime from your blog the first two months is a particularly valuable tidbit. It’s encouraging to hear that other serious (or semi-serious) bloggers may have a rough start…but still achieve success in the long run.

I highly recommend starting a side business. It’s been nothing but positives for me since I started.

The tips I have for people in that situation is communication is the key and discuss any decisions with the organization. The computer support position I receive jobs via e-mail from them and promptly send them back an e-mail if I can do the job or not. Also as things come up (eg: repair requires second visit), I contact them to keep them in the loop on decisions. These actions have caused them to send me more and more work. (So much so that I’m dropping tutoring because I’m doing 2-3 nights/week of computer repair that pays higher.)