Options Other than Gig Work to Supplement Your Income

Many of us are looking to make extra money.

Chances are good that the first thing we think of is gig work such as driving for Lyft/Uber, working as a DoorDash/Grubhub delivery person, signing on with TaskRabbit to land one-off errand-running tasks, or creating a profile on Fiverr to land some quick writing, video making, graphic artist work.

Stop!

Suppose you have professional, high-level skills in IT, tech, law, management, marketing, business or data analysis, finance/banking/operations, UX design, project management, security analysis, full-stack engineering, and more. In that case, we can help you find part-time –even remote – contract work that pays extremely well, will genuinely engage your brain and abilities, and provide you with a lot more income than gig work could.

(Take a look at some of our current contract assignments.)

Gig work could well cost you more than you’ll earn.

Here’s why.

Let’s move step-by-step in calculating some of the income/costs you’d earn/incur as a gig worker.

1. Gig work can be inconsistent.

You don’t know how many people you’ll pick up in a shift; how many tasks you’ll do; how far a client will want to go; how long it will take you to write a blog post for $40, and so on.

2. The cost of getting to an assignment is on YOUR dime.

Let’s break down your costs a bit:

You’ll drive to pick up your fare. You’re not making any income doing that, yet you’re spending considerable money driving there: The IRS allows people in 2023 to deduct 65.5 cents per mile in using their car for business purposes.  (You CAN deduct this amount from your taxes, so there is some remuneration for driving to your fare pickup because you’re driving the car to your fare; you’re running your business.)

But let’s say it’s just five miles to pick up the fare: you’ve just “spent” $3.275 to get to your fare. Let’s also say you drive your fare 20 miles. That cost you $13.10.

If you make $25 off the fare, you actually only “earned” $8.625.

Is that really worth it?

The average Uber driver makes $11/hour, after taking out all expenses.

Is THAT really worth it, especially considering the wear and tear on your car?

(Note: We believe you should take all of these expenses mentioned above for such gig work as working for TaskRabbit, DoorDash/Grubhub, etc., if you’re using your car.)

“But, what about gig assignments on such online spaces as Upwork, Fiverr, etc.?” you may be asking. “These don’t require that I use my car. I merely work at home and complete the writing, social media, and graphic design work at home.”

Writing for clients on Fiverr/Upwork and other websites that help writers/graphic designers/social media experts find clients definitely can pay you more. After all, the average salary for someone offering services on Upwork in 2023 is $62,492 per year. That’s definitely not nothing.

Upwork salaries in 2023 range from $29K/year in the bottom 10^th percentile to $130K/year in the top 90^th percentile.

Yet…you’re competing with thousands of others offering the same services. Landing your first client can take anywhere from a few hours to several months.

(Note: Upworkers and those who use similar sites who have highly sought-after skills such as machine learning, automation, data analytics, virtual reality, mobile application development, etc. often can find work within hours or a few days due to the fact that most people – whether freelancers or not – have these high-level skills.)

What’s more, most freelancing assignments on platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr are one-offs: the client needs you to complete one thing/one project. Once you’re done, so is your income from that client.

And time to start marketing your services. Again.

And again. 

Contract work is long-term and pays exceedingly well for our associates.

Contract work with Dexian means you know exactly how much you’ll be working each week…and exactly how much you’ll earn.

Your contract will be weeks or even months long. In addition, as we chat with our client – the company with which you’re on assignment – and learn when your assignment will end, we can start looking for your next assignment. (This means you may never need to “look” for a contract assignment on your own again!)

Yes, many of our assignments are full-time. Yet if you’re looking for some work to make a bit extra money, take a look at our current contract opportunities.

Questions? Reach out to us.