Flexible work that pays well - full timing

[travelrider73]

As Stan points out - you must broaden your scope. At $25/hr you need 40 billable hours per week - week after week just to put yourself where you were 15 years ago. Difficult when you have to do your own Sales & Marketing. Best to find some clients in the $75-$100/hr category to free up time for that inevitable Sales & Marketing.

 

Definitely agree. In the corporate world, I am used to the $50+/hr range plus benefits and vacation. Of course, they think they own you at those rates. And it really wasn't hourly. It was salary, so every hour of OT was an hour the company was making money and I wasn't. Funny they bill you out at an hourly rate and want to give their employees a flat salary.

 

I need to put my entrepreneurial hat on and really think about what to do on the road.

 

I like the idea of becoming a sales rep for campground systems. I could also become a sales rep for other products that justify a traveling sales person.

 

Keep the thoughts coming! Thanks for everything so far.

[Jack Mayer]

WRT installing wifi.

 

• POE to drive the APs.
• Tap electrical pedestals with a separate breaker box (a mini breaker box) on the back or side of the main box. DO NOT add a breaker to a customer-access box. It will get turned off. Put the POE inside the site box and power it from the breaker you added.
• High quality reliable APs can be had in the $100 range. They work as a repeater or directly wired to a router, depending on how you set them. You can do wireless management once they are functional.
• Make SURE to properly ground the AP, and the POE.
• If you want you can put in Mesh units that will self configure, but my experience with them in the past has not been good. The reason is that campgrounds typically only have a single backhaul, and a mesh system works best with multiple backhauls.
• Most parks are pretty simple to wire, but heavily treed parks require more equipment and more experience on your part to make it work right. So you have to charge more.
• You can easily charge $500-1000 for a design, and $500/day to install. Plus equipment. But you better know what you are doing and give them their dollars worth. Normally you would be comped your site and utilities. I usually plan on one day per AP. That covers power issues. You should know all that before quoting.
• ALWAYS train someone on site to handle simple issues. Do not take a job where that is not part of it. And if using consumer routers leave a spare configured as a hot standby. Also a spare AP preconfigured with only minor updates needed to mount. You won't regret that. And written documentation on how to mount and configure.
• I prefer a "heartbeat" power supply for the router and all the fixed equipment. If the Internet heartbeat is not seen in a defined time the equipment is automatically rebooted.
• If using a real tower then you have to put tower work into the quote. It can be pretty complex dealing with a tower. Also don't forget lift equipment.

That covers a rough outline. The money can be good IF you know what you are doing and manage your time well. The "rub" is support.

[skp51443]

You can minimize the cat6 by pulling fiber and get better speeds (which you don't need) or go to a wireless connection, a mesh as Jack mentioned or run it at 5 gHz and use multiple channels if you need it to get the speed you need. Cat6 is probably going to win when you get done counting beans and grief.

[hanaharv]

You stated in your first post that your wife would make enough income. If that is the case, you might want to consider volunteering as Kirk suggested. Local School Districts (Contact the county office, volunteer coordinator) might need your help with tutoring or possibly even staff training. Also, many senior centers and veteran organizations need help, either teaching classes or helping with individual needs.

Two BIG plusses with volunteer work:

1. You decide how much and when you want to work.

 

2. You may not fill your wallet, but the satisfaction of volunteering, giving back and helping out those less fortunate then you is priceless!!

 

If you have the time and resources, volunteering in your community(wherever that may be) is part of being a good citizen!

[bthibert]

Does your wife expect you to work? Maybe she would prefer you to be the house husband

 

My hubby "retired" at the age of 49 three years ago. I'm 10 years younger so I planned to work a few additional years to increase our investments before we start the extensive traveling phase of our life. Since we can live and save off my earnings (and I like to work) I'm happy for my husband to be home taking care of the furkids, working on domestic projects, volunteering, doing laundry, and whatever else he finds to entertain himself. He's much happier too because he never liked to work. It works for us, maybe it will work for you too.

[Jack Mayer]

You can minimize the cat6 by pulling fiber and get better speeds (which you don't need) or go to a wireless connection, a mesh as Jack mentioned or run it at 5 gHz and use multiple channels if you need it to get the speed you need. Cat6 is probably going to win when you get done counting beans and grief.

If you can run fiber and have the wherewithal to do your own fiber ends - or the lead time to order pre-terminated cable - then fiber is the way to support access points, instead of a wireless backhaul. You can also backhaul within your network at 5gHz and take on 2.4 gHz clients with dual purpose (dual radio) devices. Or, if you are in heavy trees you can run a 900 internal network and put in 2.4gHz for clients. The 900 stuff busts trees better, especially with horizontal polarized panel antennas. But it is more expensive....so you have to make rational trade offs in design. If you need more speed you can also run a wider band back - 40 instead of 20 - but you can not take on clients with 40.

 

My experience with fiber is that most places it is too much expense to put in. In the market I was referring to these are limited budget clients. Also, for the limited bandwidth that most places have for their Internet connections I generally stay away from Cat6 - it is a pain to terminate and takes much longer if building your own cables. Of course, that decision is part of the design - if you need it, then you do it. I also generally recommend a physical separation of the office network from the public network. There are ways to share the same backhaul safely and isolate the public network (the park wifi), but in most cases I find it well worth the extra money to have a separate DSL or cable connection JUST for the office. It solves a whole lot of issues and reduces complexity. Again - it is part of the design process - and in some cases is not going to happen.

 

There are all kinds of issues - big and small - in doing this work. In some cases the hardest part of the job is the non-technical parts....

[DuffMan]

Sounds like Travelrider73 should be the remote sales/installation and Jack the home office design and work on a profit share basis or let Travelrider73 act as prime and Jack as sub.

 

Heck Jack could do that with any number of remote sales/installation personnel that don't have the expertise to design/spec but don't mind the sales & installation effort.

[travelrider73]

Does your wife expect you to work? Maybe she would prefer you to be the house husband

 

My hubby "retired" at the age of 49 three years ago. I'm 10 years younger so I planned to work a few additional years to increase our investments before we start the extensive traveling phase of our life. Since we can live and save off my earnings (and I like to work) I'm happy for my husband to be home taking care of the furkids, working on domestic projects, volunteering, doing laundry, and whatever else he finds to entertain himself. He's much happier too because he never liked to work. It works for us, maybe it will work for you too.

 

Haha. I'll run this by the DW. She doesn't pressure me to work, but I want to. We will have enough money to do the basics and eat steak with just her income, but I'd like to earn enough to be able to play a little more (park the rig and disappear to New Zealand and Australia for a month or two is on our bucket list, for instance.

 

Volunteering can also be satisfying and I'm sure I'll do some of that as well.

[travelrider73]

If you can run fiber and have the wherewithal to do your own fiber ends - or the lead time to order pre-terminated cable - then fiber is the way to support access points, instead of a wireless backhaul. You can also backhaul within your network at 5gHz and take on 2.4 gHz clients with dual purpose (dual radio) devices. Or, if you are in heavy trees you can run a 900 internal network and put in 2.4gHz for clients. The 900 stuff busts trees better, especially with horizontal polarized panel antennas. But it is more expensive....so you have to make rational trade offs in design. If you need more speed you can also run a wider band back - 40 instead of 20 - but you can not take on clients with 40.

 

My experience with fiber is that most places it is too much expense to put in. In the market I was referring to these are limited budget clients. Also, for the limited bandwidth that most places have for their Internet connections I generally stay away from Cat6 - it is a pain to terminate and takes much longer if building your own cables. Of course, that decision is part of the design - if you need it, then you do it. I also generally recommend a physical separation of the office network from the public network. There are ways to share the same backhaul safely and isolate the public network (the park wifi), but in most cases I find it well worth the extra money to have a separate DSL or cable connection JUST for the office. It solves a whole lot of issues and reduces complexity. Again - it is part of the design process - and in some cases is not going to happen.

 

There are all kinds of issues - big and small - in doing this work. In some cases the hardest part of the job is the non-technical parts....

 

So, your preference if money is no object is fiber backhaul, but I think I'm hearing you say that you do wireless backhaul in most parks due to budget. Am I reading this right?

Seems like running any kind of wire in an existing campground that's all built out would be quite difficult - physically, that is. Piggy back on poles? Go underground? If I got a job that required running a bunch of wire, I'd probably want to hire some local laborers to help out. I like connecting and configuring equipment, but digging holes isn't on my list of favorite activities.

[Jack Mayer]

So, your preference if money is no object is fiber backhaul, but I think I'm hearing you say that you do wireless backhaul in most parks due to budget. Am I reading this right?

Yes, you are reading it right. A wired backhaul for your local network is always preferred, and never available. Well, unless you have a single AP - which many do. Very small parks with out trees can be shot with a single AP. In that case you just connect directly to the router and you are there.

 

Running fiber entails a lot of work. Typically you use a cable laying machine...a trencher. That is not the issue - the issue is hard surfaces and existing utilities. It is easier to go wireless and you really do not lose that much speed if done right. Remember - the speed is throttled by the slowest connection - which is always the backhaul to the Internet. DSL is not exactly speedy, compared to what you can push on a local network.

 

You can do it lots of different ways depending on the topography. Having your backhaul within the park on separate radios running a different frequency without interference is great - but the tradeoff is more complexity, more things to go wrong, and unnecessary complication in many cases. Over designing can get you in big trouble fast.

 

Depending on the park you may have to use local labor anyway - unless you have an electrical license for that state. It also depends on YOUR insurance carrier. You WOULD get insurance, right? In those cases it is simple to tell the park owner where you require power and how you want it done....how they get it there is not your problem.

[skp51443]

Anytime you bury a wire or fiber you run the risk of someone damaging it, tent stake, awning tie-down or the like so you need to have a plan for the park owner to fix that while you are far away. Overhead is safer if you can get it high enough but think 12 foot motorhome with a forgotten 3 foot TV antenna sticking up at a minimum. It really depends on the individual situation, sometimes a mix of wired and wireless works well, some places running wire overhead is going to be easy and some places wireless is your only option. On a really bad day you might need to run the router to ISP link wireless too. As an example, Cox cable wants a small fortune to extend cable service (charged per foot) and folks just outside the service area are putting their modem and a wireless link where the cable reaches and then using whatever they need in the way of antennas to connect to the house. If they have right of way they run Ethernet if possible but most end up wireless and paying a neighbor rent and power to give the cable modem and router a home.

 

On the slow ISP issue there are several things that can be done, the most trouble-free is adding a second or more ISP drop and using a router that does traffic balancing, not too complicated but it bumps your monthly cost up. Not as expensive but more complex and becoming somewhat less effective as everyone moves to HTTPS is a local proxy/cache that stores common website information so it only needs fetched once from the ISP.

 

Blocking some servers can give you a hand in cutting congestion but it will anger the customers, a trade-off that the owner needs to decide on but you need to give them the numbers to make that decision. For example "You can block Netflix or spend this much more money to keep it from swamping things" same for things like torrents and other net hogs. If you have multiple feeds it may work to not block these but send them all down one feed keeping the other(s) free for less demanding users.

 

It is interesting to do and there are a lot of possibilities but it isn't a cookbook operation once you go beyond the very basic designs. The biggest fear I have is that I'd do a system that the local talent couldn't maintain and I'd be driving cross country to support something on an emergency basis and I used that as a reason not to try this myself except as a hobby for no charge and promising no support beyond e-mail.

[Jack Mayer]

It is interesting to do and there are a lot of possibilities but it isn't a cookbook operation once you go beyond the very basic designs. The biggest fear I have is that I'd do a system that the local talent couldn't maintain and I'd be driving cross country to support something on an emergency basis and I used that as a reason not to try this myself except as a hobby for no charge and promising no support beyond e-mail.

Which is the reason I do not do this anymore. Or at least I try not to.

 

Running hardwired through a park that does not already have wire laid is a non-starter. It is easy to do it wireless and I can maintain a 100+ MBPS wireless almost trivially (for internal backhaul - not for direct client connection) as long as there is good LOS. There is no reason to go out on a limb and try to run wired.

 

I agree with you about aggregated backhauls - that is why I like the Cisco ISA - I can aggregate 2 DSL lines, do load balancing, push video and stuff like that to one of the lines if I choose, run security on traffic, manage VLANS and a bunch of other things for under $1000. I can also totally block Netflix, and put that on a splash screen. It is pretty bulletproof, but I still put it on a heartbeat. I've had these guys run for YEARS without a blip, though. If only the DSL would do as good

 

As you said, it is not rocket science, but it CAN get complex in all but the simplest designs. And you do have to know what works well and what not to do or you will have a REALLY bad network. The simplest things can screw you up. Like not taping up the AP antenna connection properly.

[langfanatic]

I'm looking at offering bookkeeping services remotely, any ideas on how to market that?

[JEEPOHOLIC]

there are many of us out there working as best of full time as we can, most of us in my trade call ourselves "tramps" we go from town to town, powerhouse to powerhouse, the work is hard and the hours are long, sometimes 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, on those kind of jobs we bring home $2500 to $3500 a week, we are Union Electricians, and we are very proud of what we do, my wife travels with me, I couldn't do it without her, she makes great sacrifices to travel with me, she never sees me till the job is over, then we try to do some sight seeing of the area before we move on, yes its a gypsy's lifestyle and we love it

 

 

[Agyoung]

I want to thank you for solving my quadry about supporting my road costs. IT has been my field since forever and setting up and maintaing wireless systems is my cup of cocoa.

 

Any suggestions on advertising and cards?

 

Al

[Kevin H]

Check with the HR department at the hospital where your wife is working. They are already familiar with the traveling nurse and short term contract concept. They may have something you could do with the IT department or whatever.

[Kirk W]

I'm going to dog and cat grooming school, with the intention of offering my services at rv parks, and maybe operate a mobile unit from my summer camp during the summer season.

While I would think that this will be a business that is very compatible with the RV life, you do need to ask in the parks where you travel before you open for business there. Most state and federal parks prohibit the operation of a business inside of the parks so you need to keep a low profile when in them and to check with park management in commercial parks when you arrive.

[TCW]

I'm going to dog and cat grooming school, with the intention of offering my services at rv parks, and maybe operate a mobile unit from my summer camp during the summer season.

I've also got an idea for a product which should appeal to rvers and truckers, I hope to get that off the ground this summer.

We shall see!

At least some states require licensing/certification of pet groomers. Local communities may require business licenses. A few states require collection of sales tax on services and many require collection of sales tax on products. If you are going to be in a number of different locations, compliance may become a headache. Are you planning on carrying liability insurance for your pet grooming business?

...Most state and federal parks prohibit the operation of a business inside of the parks so you need to keep a low profile when in them...

You may want to consider the potential penalties like in this case before offering services on federal property without the proper permit.

[DuffMan]

$3000 for 20 years of business - Just another cost to be factored in and used in the decision process.

[RVRoadie]

My kids are selling Advocare products, a nutritional supplement company. My wife and I started using their energy drink about six months ago and about six weeks ago started their weight management program. We like the products and are happy with the results. We are both down about 10 lbs, and it is very easy program to live with. The diet and exercise components are sensible, and the nutritional supplements make it all tolerable.

 

It could fit in pretty good with the RV lifestyle and you have a ready audience of people who may be looking to lose weight. Take a look at their 24 Day Challenge weight loss plan, then pm me if you would like more information. It is only $79 to set up a distributor account and start selling, or just buy product wholesale if you want to try it yourself.

[skp51443]

We tried to get a Chapter 39 Quartzsite rally held on BLM land a catered dinner, the paperwork on our side was more than we cared to face and the guy with the smoker operation in town had no interest in trying it after he called the BLM. Trying to sneak by may sound like a good plan but consider the costs if it goes wrong. Aside from the lawyer you'll be needing are they going to keep your RV too?

[wa_desert_rat]

Unless you're in construction or an electrician with experience on very high voltage systems you are not likely to find a career working out of your RV on the road. Even though we are not exactly snowbirding yet (only a month this season) I just look for opportunities to make a few tanks full of fuel.

 

I have a website devoted to bicycling in general and mountain bicycles from big box stores in particular with ads from Google. It brings in about one full tank (100 gallons) of diesel every 4 months. It's a forum and the best part of a forum is that the "content" is mostly generated by members and contributors; not just me. The downside to a forum is that people reading forums are not generally "shopping" and so ad revenue is limited. Even so, two or three full tanks of diesel per year is well worth the small effort put into a project I'm interested in anyway.

 

I have given some thought to making the forum part of a more inclusive sales or marketing site but that seems to me to be more complicated (servicing sales).

 

A larger revenue for us is generated by software I wrote over a decade ago that has been leased to two different title companies. This generates about two full tanks a month. I do have to maintain the database, however, and that requires a good Internet connection twice a week and 3 or 4 hours of work.

 

One reason we plan to snowbird and not full-time is that the DW has a hot dog cart and a spot at a local farmer's market between April and October of every year. During the week we buy fresh supplies and on every Saturday she has her cart in position from 7am til 2pm. This generates about 10 full tanks a year in net profit and still lets us have at least 5 days a week to RV during the summer. Plus we get to avoid the crowded RV park weekends. We do have a "home base" with free RV parking and hookups and secure storage for the hot dog cart.

 

So, all-in-all about 37 full tanks of diesel per year, social security, a tiny retirement income and some income from investments. Don't expect to be handed income opportunities. In general, I think you have to be creative, you have to find more than just one income niche and you have to expect to give up free time and/or curtail some RV playtime.

 

WDR

 

 

[DuffMan]

Saw this [Craigslist Ad] aimed at RV'rs offering work on the road.

[TheDuke]

The rate I used when fixing software things on a computer was $25 and hour and a max of $100. That is if they brought their computer to me. If I had to go to them, my rate was $50 with no max. The logic of this was that if I was at home, I could do other things while waiting or something to finish on the computer.

The other thing I would do is to tell them if the problem wasn't worth it to fix and to buy something new.

 

Giving free help is a way to lose friends either because they afterwords blame anything that goes wrong to you, or you will feel they are taking advantage of you.