r2i forum

Dear all

Would like to invite inputs from experienced folks living in India ''based on self experience'' - what additional avenues have you explored for generating additional income streams while doing a full time IT job, may be with help of spouse?

Below 2 are the easiest ones:
residential property rental
commercial property rental

Does anyone have experience of getting stuff from China and selling on ebay/ Amazon India as that seems to be catching trend in India also!
Does anyone have experience of running a franchise?
Anything else?

I will be grateful if you can advise your experiences?

Just thought of sharing my story on extra income generating streams. I was in consulting job and job was neither stressful nor hectic.

Tried day trading and derivates trading. Tried small for few days and gradually escalated. Consulting works more often either flood or dry. During the days of flood, I had to handover the trading to my wife. On the days I made losses, used to feel terrible and vice versa. 3 months into the trading, my losses started going up and that had an impact on my job as well. Luck had it, I got an overseas stint and forgotten about the trading & losses.


After I came back, again bug hit me. I started the franchise. Lot of set up costs but sales did not pick up as expected. Funny part is as a owner, you are tied up with franchise rules and receive pressure to increase sales. You have to do additional marketing with your own cost but can't give discount on products and services to get more customers. 2 hours of commute up & down plus 8 hours of regular job, it would be very difficult to manage the franchise in the evenings. Employees/family might stay during day time, but not up to 9 pm. Extra hours, upfront investment amount, less customers to begin with and pressure to grow the business from franchise corporate would take toll. Again main job suffers. Another blow for us was rental increase and with hands tied to huge capital to interiors, no franchise would dare to move in first 3 years.


Then I tried part time jobs in my consulting. I could able to get one but was coming to home at 11:00 pm. My kids could barely see me. Again it had negative impact on my main job. Quit part time within a month.


Few pointers :
Day job gets prime of individuals energy and focus. It would be very difficult to devout time after it. Even if someone has lot of free time on day job and want to internet based work (trading or ecommerce), on the key moments of your business opportunity, you would have to attend meetings, events or boss would bother you some urgent stuff in day job depriving that rare chance.


One would see many fancy ads over internet- part-time, few hours, weekend but truth is none are easy. You would loose money or peace of mind.


I would prefer to get in full time for any business that I want to do else I would not touch it. Depending on family members & friends without equity or entrusting to employees without your presence would not ensure business survive longer.

Thanks Krivan1 - you speak gold.

Do you mind sharing what is the current status of your franchise?

Personally - I believe in long term wealth generation and hence don't fancy trades unless I am investing for very long horizons with a specific goal. Also I would never want to run a business from rented floor unless my business has a secret formula/ knowledge that I can easily take anywhere with me without a dependency on that specific shop/location!

Pls excuse my tongue - have you given up on the quest for parallel income generation and now fully focussed on day job alone?

krivan1;659207Just thought of sharing my story on extra income generating streams. I was in consulting job and job was neither stressful nor hectic.

Tried day trading and derivates trading. Tried small for few days and gradually escalated. Consulting works more often either flood or dry. During the days of flood, I had to handover the trading to my wife. On the days I made losses, used to feel terrible and vice versa. 3 months into the trading, my losses started going up and that had an impact on my job as well. Luck had it, I got an overseas stint and forgotten about the trading & losses.


After I came back, again bug hit me. I started the franchise. Lot of set up costs but sales did not pick up as expected. Funny part is as a owner, you are tied up with franchise rules and receive pressure to increase sales. You have to do additional marketing with your own cost but can't give discount on products and services to get more customers. 2 hours of commute up & down plus 8 hours of regular job, it would be very difficult to manage the franchise in the evenings. Employees/family might stay during day time, but not up to 9 pm. Extra hours, upfront investment amount, less customers to begin with and pressure to grow the business from franchise corporate would take toll. Again main job suffers. Another blow for us was rental increase and with hands tied to huge capital to interiors, no franchise would dare to move in first 3 years.


Then I tried part time jobs in my consulting. I could able to get one but was coming to home at 11:00 pm. My kids could barely see me. Again it had negative impact on my main job. Quit part time within a month.


Few pointers :
Day job gets prime of individuals energy and focus. It would be very difficult to devout time after it. Even if someone has lot of free time on day job and want to internet based work (trading or ecommerce), on the key moments of your business opportunity, you would have to attend meetings, events or boss would bother you some urgent stuff in day job depriving that rare chance.


One would see many fancy ads over internet- part-time, few hours, weekend but truth is none are easy. You would loose money or peace of mind.


I would prefer to get in full time for any business that I want to do else I would not touch it. Depending on family members & friends without equity or entrusting to employees without your presence would not ensure business survive longer.

Krivan has raised a very very valid point:

''I would prefer to get in full time for any business that I want to do else I would not touch it''