> So keep an eye out for a neighbor who has an electrician doing work and maybe see how much to just move the cable
That reminds of an idea I had for an app and/or website. I'm never going to get the time to actually try to make this, so if anyone wants to feel free.
I've had small tasks I wanted done that would only take someone with the right skills and equipment a few minutes that I didn't want to DIY either because I lack the skills or I'd need to buy some equipment I don't have and would not get enough future use out of to justify the cost, but I also didn't want to pay for the minimum of 30 minutes or 1 hour of labor that many contractors and companies charge.
A good example is that there was a security light mounted on a pole on top of my garage. I wanted to remove the bulb, but it was screwed in tight enough that using one of those light bulb removers on a pole I could not get it to budge. I'm not agile enough to be willing to try to climb onto my garage roof.
The idea is that I'd list this task on the app, with how much I'd pay (probably $20 cash) and my neighborhood. Then handymen, roofers, electricians, etc., could check the app or site when they are out on a job site and it would show them such tasks that are near them.
So say some roofers are doing something for a neighbor. They could check the app, see that it's a quick $20 cash for one of them on their way home or on their lunch break to come over and spend a minute or two doing my task. I was in no hurry to remove the light bulb, so I would have no problem waiting until someone with a ladder and a few minutes to spare happened to be working in the area and be willing to make a quick easy $20.
Gosh, I cannot imagine what would be unappealing about the opportunity for a tradesman to devalue the price of their labor and experience the small-but-inherent risk of catastrophic injury any time a ladder is involved in exchange for the chance to pick up a spare tenner…
(Beyond that, even if they’re already in the area, by the time they pull up the truck, load and unload the ladder and actually do the job, the per-minute rate is probably already a fair bit worse than what they would earn from real customers - it may seem to you like you’re offering an easy job at $10/minute, but it’s probably a tenth of that all in from their perspective.)
Considering that you can make > $20/hr flipping burgers in Seattle I'd say you are off by an order of magnitude. No reasonable skilled tradesman (or even unskilled handyman) is doing anything for $20. It's borderline insulting.
They have expenses, fuel, insurance. Most charge $100 as a trip fee.
> Considering that you can make > $20/hr flipping burgers in Seattle I'd say you are off by an order of magnitude. No reasonable skilled tradesman (or even unskilled handyman) is doing anything for $20. It's borderline insulting.
> They have expenses, fuel, insurance.
I think you missed important details in their post:
>> tasks I wanted done that would only take someone with the right skills and equipment a few minutes
>> tasks that are near them
The idea is, you're someone handy with equipment, and someone down the block wants lights installed. So you walk there with a couple tools on your hand, spend 5 minutes doing it, and earn (say) $20. Instead of just sitting at home and watching TV when you're bored. If you don't feel like it then you just don't take the offer up.
This is not meant to be an alternative to your day job. It's just intended to be something extra you can do when you're home anyway. If transportation and fuel and other costs would factor in then you just wouldn't do it.
It's in no way insulting, it's an opportunity for anyone that wants it. I'm not a handyman but I'd definitely do this from time to time if (say) my neighbors needed computer or coding help for a few minutes.
You shouldn’t do electrical work on someone else’s house. If it burns down and electrical is the cause as an unlicensed uninsured electrician you are going to regret that $20 you made.
Coding a web page for a neighbour is different since there are often no ramifications in the physical world if it doesn’t load or look exactly as desired
It’s not a realistic hourly rate given the overheads tradespeople have for things like insurance. Where I live a plumber is $135 for the first half hour and then $135 for every hour after that. Canadian dollars. When the phone rings off the hook at that rate who is going to bother with a $20 job.
For a 10-minute job, $20 is equivalent to $120/hr. If you feel that's too small then pretend they said $40 instead, making it $240/hr. But you're setting up strawmen here. Not every single handyman job needs >$100 insurance for a 10-minute job, and nobody is claiming this is good for plumbing or electrical jobs in particular.
Haha, I had the very same idea when I needed a similar job to be done. There are many concerns though, as quick $20 could become an evening job (i.e. 3 hours instead of 5 minutes), as some extra info may arise, and you being not qualified enough may think is ‘quick and easy.’
Although in an ideal scenario that’s a really great idea, as quite many people (I believe) may be in need of such services.
The problem is that work involves job acquisition, analysis, communication, travel and of course risk to self and risk to property. It's also not repeatable so its basically impossible to earn a living 20 here and there.
It's probably not worth it for anyone you might actually want to hire and doubly so for anything to which substantial chance of liability attaches. It might make more sense as a list of things your friends/neighbors/family could use help with playing up altruism angle and minimizing emphasise on liability. You know more like neighbor helping neighbor. You could also hopefully integrate positive things like sharing things that may still have value eg you upgraded your washing and dryer but the old set are still workable or things to do that others might want to share in so its not all a distributed version of your grandma's chore list.
Incidentally a have a great domain used for a fairly half-assed implementation of a not entirely different idea.
Pretty similar, but seems like you want the pool of people restricted to those with the tools, skills, and experience to not want to bother for that rate.
(ignoring all the other comments in this thread who are legitimately calling out these are professional services you want and your suggested price is insulting)
So keep an eye out for a neighbor who has an electrician doing work and maybe see how much to just move the cable.
Drones is overthinking it.