I work with a guy that worked with a temporary hiring agency a couple of years ago. I’m pretty sure he didn’t do it because he needed the money but because his wife got a job & I guess he got tired if sitting around the house by himself. Or maybe he did it to see what it was like to work 9-5, 5 days a week like all the normal saps. He had a couple interesting stories about his adventures & different land jobs but I didn’t pry into why he did it. He never mentioned it again after that one trip so I guess he got the curiosity out of his system.
How much?
Here are some ideas of side hustles. https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/be-your-own-boss-37-side-hustle-ideas/
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For a couple of months, I worked as an engineer on my “time off” on a treasure hunt, er, marine archaeology expedition. The main vessel was a Bollinger utility boat, and we were searching an area in the Bahamas, working out of both Dania Beach and the port of Miami. Truly an interesting experience. . .
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One of the tug captains in New York did local port deliveries with a road tractor from Port Elizabeth/Newark.
One would need a CDL-A, Medical Card (similar to Merchant Mariner Medical), and tandem axle road tractor with bobtail insurance
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Back when we had a sizable fleet, one of the cooks did grocery deliveries in our main port on his time off… Did a nice job and knew what we needed. Got a decent fee, but a prick HR person fucked it up for him when he told him he couldn’t keep the “Green Stamps” from the purchases. Such is life.
I made one trip as second captain making deliveries out of Galveston to the lightering area so the company could comply with duty hours. The regular captain went ballistic when he woke from his nap and found out I’d had the audacity to talk on the radio to the waiting tanker. He refused to speak to me the rest of the trip.
It would have been a nice part-time side gig but I didn’t care to be a victim of the company captain’s insecurity.
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There are some serious insecurities and egos in the maritime business but the US GOM is a study case in those afflictions.
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Couldn’t agree more.
I build furniture, put a nautical spin on it, and sell it. People who move to my touristy-beach area eat it up. By no means is it a real way to make a living, but I get some beer money and it keeps me busy with my time off.
Tie some bowlines, square knots, monkeys fist, and a star knot and people think you’re a magician. Put said knots on a piece of wood or behind glass and you’re a master craftsman.
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Though, you need to be careful being employed part time or doing contracting with another company, if you are currently employed by someone. You also should report your LLC to your HR, to make sure there is no conflict of interest.
I would never do that. If a person gets hurt doing construction work on an investment property or on any other side gig I can easy imagine some HR lawyer types trying to weasel out of paying your insurance or short/long term disability if you were injured making money else where. After my foot hits the ground under the bottom of the gang plank I’m not reporting anything to my office unless it is beneficial to me or my shipmates on board.
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Some years ago we were visiting my mother in law in a gated community in LA. She complained that the second garage she had didn’t have a garage door opener. I managed to round up a few basic tools and purchased a kit set from a big box store and installed it.
While I was doing so I received enough requests to have kept me in business for weeks if we had been there long enough.
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I went to a local Ace Hardware on the beach store about 30 some years ago and took measurements of their awesome treated wood lawn furniture and porch swings Most were 17.5 and 90 degree cuts. Easy to do in my mini-shop. Made jigs to duplicate the cuts I needed. I couldn’t make them as cheap as they could. Made quite a few that were donated to the charity I was associated with at the time. My extended family enjoyed them as gifts that are still standing today. That was my profit to visit them and my shit held up better than Ace.
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If you are a Union guy, than things are different, but if you enter into an At Will contract with an employer, they have stipulations, if you don’t disclose your LLC, you may be terminated from your job.
Starting out after getting my license, was sailing as an AB with my primary employer and worked for another local company to get wheel time and experience on my time off. They were both in the same union. Never had a problem.
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I have been both & always kept my business to myself. I didn’t trust my union nor the HR departments in the union & nonunion shops. I’m not volunteering any information about my off time to them. I have no Facebook or other types of social media accounts where they can check in on me.
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Yeah I’m pretty talented with legos
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You just have to make sure your employment contract is written in a way that allows certain items. Especially if it has to do with a non-compete or has to do with any innovations an employee has developed while on the job or while using company resources will belong to the employer, so this is an important thing to keep in mind if your new side business involves the use of such a new invention. Being up front can be good or bad, just like hiding it. You have to do your due diligence to cover yourself.
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