Side Income
Gig work economics after costs
Headline earnings figures rarely account for vehicle costs, waiting time and the hours that are not paid.
Kenji Morioka
Contributing writer, Payday Stories
Kenji covers freelancing and side income, including the hours that never appear on an invoice.
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14 articles
Negotiation
What a salary band is, and how it decides your offer before you speak
Most structured employers price a role into a range before anyone meets you, and the range does most of the work.
Negotiation
The person negotiating with you usually cannot say yes
Understanding who holds the authority changes what you ask for and how long you wait.
Negotiation
Promoted without the pay: why the title arrives first
Titles are cheap and immediate, pay sits in a budget cycle, and the gap between them is where people lose money.
Side Income
When a hobby becomes income the tax authority notices
The line between selling occasionally and trading is drawn by behaviour, not by the amount involved.
Side Income
Seasonal work and the income that arrives in lumps
Concentrated earning periods create predictable dry months, and the predictability is what makes them survivable.
Side Income
Invoicing, terms and the mechanics of getting paid on time
Late payment is a process problem more often than a client problem, and most of the process is yours.
Side Income
Deposits, retainers and staged payments as cashflow tools
How a fee is structured decides when you get paid, which for small suppliers matters as much as the total.
Side Income
Selling online: where casual becomes commercial
Platform reporting has changed what counts as invisible, and the costs of selling are larger than the fee schedule suggests.
Negotiation
The budget calendar decides when a rise is even possible
A well-argued case put at the wrong point in the financial year loses to a weak one put at the right point. The calendar is not a…
Side Income
Hourly, daily or fixed price: what each pricing model hides
The same work can be sold three ways, and each one moves a different risk onto you. Choosing the model matters as much as choosing…
Side Income
Unpaid work before the work: quotes, pitches and samples
Winning a job takes hours that nobody pays for. Whether that is a reasonable cost of business or an unpaid shift depends on how…
Side Income
Keeping business money separate from your own
Mixing a side income with household spending makes the business unmeasurable and the tax position harder to prove. Separation costs…
Side Income
Scope creep and the hours nobody quoted for
No single extra request is worth arguing about. Twenty of them turn a profitable job into an expensive lesson about saying yes.