Ask Lemmy

You overestimate how much most people are willing to DIY. I have done a lot of handyman and tech support work for friends and family, I've told them I'm just going to type their problem into YouTube and do what it says. They still act like it's a magic trick when I fix something.

You can usually get licensed and bonded pretty cheaply and some states have specific statutes that allow for handyman type work.

I had a good friend who was a window washer. All he used was his little truck, dawn soap, a bucket, and squeegees (some with extendable poles for high places). He had a ladder as well but rarely used it unless it had windows on the top like a partial sunroom.

He showed me the technique and you could do a window in less than a minute once you got good at it. He generally did commercial buildings so all he would do is the outside of the windows.

Ok, so you think it could be possible, just not for you?

1. Not nearly as dismal as you portray though admittedly it is turning that way. Even so 3rd party repairs for cars are far more legally protected than tech shit. And the dealership software is often leaked. Again while it’s admittedly becoming far more difficult to be independent repair shop there’s still time to push back here

2. you can’t do it so it’s not viable? Weird. Making programming a viable entrepreneurship endeavor is far more about having a novel idea than execution (assuming you have capital). Honestly these days even if you don’t have capital you still just need the idea, if the ideas good you could likely build a proof of concept with an llm and generate capital. And a “novel idea” doesn’t even have to be groundbreaking, often it’s just “here’s this thing that’s been done before, but slightly better”

3. repair of electronics can be viable but it is increasingly dismal (and worse than cars, though interestingly in some ways getting significantly better. Iphone repair, which was a fools game 5 years ago, is suddenly viable again). I spent years repairing electronics through college and grad school and made pretty healthy cash tbh; if I’d done it full time I’d easily have been able to comfortably support myself. Your issue here is that you want to limit yourself to niche shit. While retro consoles and crts are popular in many ways their popularity pales in comparison to something like a phone, which literally everyone has. Despite this it is fully possible to make a ton of money modding and repairing retro consoles. It’s not “fuck you” money but definitely enough to live. I know someone who does it and they have many competitors. The hardest part for them seems to be sourcing consoles for a reasonable price. They are constantly behind on stock though.

4. art has always been a total crapshoot for earning money and honestly making a viable career in art has basically always been more about nepotism and “networking” than talent. Even then it still almost always takes a significant amount of talent and dedication. The people I know working in art or music production don’t necessarily have glamorous jobs and frankly aren’t even the greatest artists of our friend group. But they have serious work ethic and are willing to create like AI. You want an ominous score for a shitty tv show? They’ll make it, even though their preferred expression is weird esoteric bullshit. And they’ll have it done in a day.

5. see above

Wrt woodworking/carpentry: you have to work at it and train? No one is just “good” at this. Like any skill it must be developed through education and experience. At the end of the road there are tens of thousands of licensed electricians, plumbers, hvac, etc people who own their business and work independently (sometimes hiring contractors for bigger jobs) but all of them had to work for others first to learn to not kill people with shitty work (though tbf some didn’t do so well at this part)

Wrt inventing: same as software. Devil is coming up with the thing, though don’t discount being able to bring it to market. Almost every stupid plastic bullshit thing had to have someone with cad experience and the knowledge to contract with manufacturers

Wrt cnc: there are plenty of machinist shops that are independently owned out there. If anything your issue here is startup costs, as a $2000 diy cnc isn’t going to cut it for pro use unless your company is targeting making fancy signs at flea markets. But again this is also a trade that is generally learned and expanded on. You work for a machinist and actually learn to do shit, then you maybe buy a used mill and pick up some jobs on your own, then buy more equipment, more jobs, etc

It seems like maybe you’re in the part of life where you’re realizing that your interests don’t necessarily line up with your skills. That’s okay and it does kind of suck but it means that you maybe need to try more shit, or maybe look at why it’s a challenge for you to stick with developing a skill set outside of art

Why aren't you thinking about experience? Whatever you do, and however much you succeed or fail, the point is to enjoy yourself and learn from your mistakes. Life takes a long ass fucking time, you will suffer, you will succeed, there will be pain and happiness. You will feel like you wasted your life and you will feel like you're on top of the world. Just try to be true to yourself.

And ripping people off is only done through lying and deceiving. If you give your customers the space to say no, and a fair time to compare your prices to others, you can ask whatever you want. That has nothing to do with ripping people off. Market value is market value. Which is just as high as people are willing to pay. It's up to you to find a good balance between the amount of time you have and the market value. There is nothing wrong with undercharging or overcharging. It all depends on how much time you have.

You're not going to be a millionaire, you're not going to make it big, your life is going to be a boring struggle like everyone else's. There is no 'American dream', it's all fake, stop clinging to it. Do things you enjoy, you have ambition to get good at, find out what motivates you, stay humble, stay human.

Not US

Public liability insurance, workers compensation insurance professional indemnity insurance and machine repair insurance.

Don't get me wrong, I don't make lots of money and work harder then I used too but my work all goes to benefiting me rather then paying some ceo's next holiday