
Broke, in debt, lots of skills. Need your advice - tomkha
Hi guys, I need an advice.<p>I’m long time lurker. I was working for the last 10 years on my own startups, every one of them failed miserably and I’m broke with huge debt (more than 100k). Of course I’m depressed and lonely and all that stuff and of course It’s awesome that I learned lots of stuff and I still want to start something new and that after lots of struggle I found my &quot;real purpose in life&quot; (= what I want to do for rest of my life and what makes me happy) but right know I’m realist.<p>I really need to fix all of my money issues and start from zero, debt is catching me. I can’t and don’t want to borrow money, I don’t have family to back me up. For know, I need to start making money as quickly as possible. I have my own family (and we have a 6yo child).<p>I have tons of experiences with PHP&#x2F;MySQL&#x2F;CSS&#x2F;jQuery+Bootstrap, I can do rapid prototype of any website&#x2F;business model, I can do frontend or backend, and even though I failed with all of my startups, I can do consulting of idea, business model or website (the reasons I failed was, you guess it, money management and stupid, stupid, stupid way of “poker&quot; thinking - “Ok, I failed, I’m in some debt, but now i will double down on next company and it will be OK). I have many lean startup skills (programming, coding, marketing, bootstrapping, designing, UI&#x2F;UX, idea development, idea brainstorming, etc). I’m completely aware of my strengths and weaknesses. I don’t have any portfolio of my work I can present, I was working for the last 3 years on huge startup which failed, our investor now owns it and we have NDA and everything i was working before starting that company is gone.<p>I need your advice guys, your opinion. What’s the best way to start making money in my situation quickly? By quickly I mean to be paid in next weeks, not months.<p>if I can help you with something, If you want to use my skills or knowledge, PM me, please.<p>Thank you, guys!<p>Tom
======
mooreds
Tough situation! Sorry to hear it!

The quickest way to make money in my mind is to take one of two paths.

If you live in a low cost of living area, I would look to see if you can get a
service job (retail, restaurant, etc). They will hire pretty quickly and you
can get some money coming in (low hourly rate though it may be).

Alternatively, reach out to your network, of people you have worked with in
the past decade and let them know you are looking for work. The phrase I like
to use is "do you know anyone looking for an extra pair of hands". I suggest
invoicing weekly to help with your cash flow, and aiming for small or midsize
companies. This will be hit or miss, but if you throw the net wide enough
you'll find someone who will want you to start contracting pretty quickly,
because you are a known quantity. LinkedIn can be a great place to start
building this list, depending on how up to date you have kept your network.

The second method takes more work and you'll have some risk, but should have a
better hourly rate.

~~~
tomkha
Second method is more suitable because in our country we have really small
hourly rates for service jobs. It's the only one option i can see for now, to
start freelancing. Deal breaker is no portfolio, so I need to hack it somehow.
Thank you very much for your support!

~~~
zoobab
"in our country we have really small hourly rates for service jobs"

Which country is it?

------
fpereiro
Hi there!

Despite the tough situation, it is great that you're facing it head on.

mooreds suggestions are great, I would start with those.

If you want to work as a dev, the thing that best worked for me is to open a
github account and put some code of my own there. It doesn't have to be
revolutionary or state of the art code, but if you have even a simple web site
there, it will probably help you get either freelance gigs or a full-time job.

In your case, you might consider putting there a simple site (front and
backend). If later down the road you pick a skill (like say, React) you can
then tweak your project and include it.

Also, I suggest having a spreadsheet to track your assets/liabilities at the
beginning and at the end of each month. It might be tough doing it at first,
but knowing exactly how much you owe is the first step to get out of debt.

Best of luck!!

~~~
tomkha
Yes, I putting all my assets/liabilities to the spreadsheet, I need control
over my budget, it's my weakness to manage money. Thank you for your ideas!

------
StreakyCobra
Hi,

Reading your situation, my first thought was to consider the "Personal
bankruptcy" [1]. I don't know what this would imply for you, if your country
has such a system, or even if it is a good idea in general to go for this.
Probably any other solution to get money would be better, but if you don't
succeed or get into an even more difficult situation, this may be an option to
consider.

Good luck!

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_bankruptcy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_bankruptcy)

~~~
tomkha
I have heard about that, it has negative long-term consequences, but I will
check it. I always prefer "clean" way, I don't like cheating or sacrificing
future for todays relieve. But as a last hope it's suitable.

------
brudgers
Since depression and loneliness were mentioned, it might make sense to
consider talking with a professional mental health clinician.

Good luck.

~~~
tomkha
Already doing it regularly, haha. Every entrepreneur must have some unresolved
issues from the past and bunch of new problems from present, I think. I'm
working on myself daily. Starting from daily rituals to meditation,
nootropics, reading tons of stuff (psychology, entrepreneurship,
motivation/self-help), you name it.

I really appreciate you mentioned mental health. Thank you!

