In July 2018, myself and two others bought a bar/restaurant together. One person put up the capital and made a career switch from investment banker to cook, another person was the bartender/in charge of the vendors, I was in charge of the music/sound, social media, marketing, events, etc. I spent the next six months turning the basement into a recording studio for local musicians to come in and make music, I handled the recording, mixing, mastering, etc. While we weren't turning a profit yet, we were able to make enough to cover our food and alcohol vendors cost.
Then the pandemic hit. Things have been rough, we tried to make do with takeout and delivery but it's simply not enough. I know this isn't a unique problem, everyone in the restaurant industry is struggling. We aren't ready to give up the business because we're hoping things will pick up next Spring, but we're looking for separate ventures until then. My business partners have found their ventures, but I'm still struggling with mine.
I'm hoping by listing my skills below, someone here might have ideas or advice on what I could do for some additional income. I do have one podcast client who I've been recording and editing, but that only brings in spending money (I'm currently living at the restaurant due to unforeseen circumstances brought on by COVID-19)
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Music - As you can tell, music is a huge part of my life. I've been making music as both a musician (Guitar, bass, drums, keys, piano, etc) and an engineer (Started with Pro Tools and Ableton Live, then switched over to Bitwig and Reaper) for the last 20+ years. Have experience with everything from editing, mixing, mastering to FOH mixing and live sound reinforcement.
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Digital Marketing - For five years prior to owning the bar, I was working at a digital marketing consultancy doing everything from SEO, Social Media, Wordpress Administration, Shopify/eCommerce, video production, data scraping with Python, wrangling Digital Ocean servers, etc. I would go back to this type of work, but I don't have portfolio anymore and the consultancy I use to work for has shut down (owner sold off his client list and moved to another country). I'm also not entirely up to date on the industry.
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Programming - Started off learning Ruby on Rails in 2014 for an internal tool, picked up some JavaScript along the way. Quickly taught myself Python to do some data scraping. In November 2019, I was learning React/React Native to create an app where users could see what the daily menu was, check out the bands that were playing, book a time in the studio and order food for pickup. I haven't finished the project, but might in the future. I've also built a crypto trading bot and currently working on a crypto portfolio balance tool. None of these projects are public, mostly because I'm ashamed of how the code looks compared to professional programmers.
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Creative Arts - Like music, I've been drawing and making art for the last 20+ years. Mostly traditional art, but I picked up an ipad a few years ago and have been working with Procreate to create digital illustrations.
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Linux - I've been a Linux user since Windows 8 was released. Started with Ubuntu, moved to Fedora and settled with Arch.
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Cryptocurrency - my newest obsession. I've bought in on Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, XMR, and ADA. I consider myself of above average knowledge of the crypto world and I'm planning on taking the crash Blockchain course once I get my financials figured out.
So, if you had my above skills and a lot of time, what would you do? I'm working on a personal website/blog this week, but other than that my time is filled with watching Netflix shows and I've mindlessly growing more bored by the day.
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