Dad earns up to £7,000 in just a few weeks after having to sleep in his car between jobs
A father-of-three has revealed how he went from juggling jobs and sleeping in his car to becoming his own boss, where he once made £7,000 in the space of three weeks.
Taj Singh, 27, who lives in London, used to work 15 to 16 hours a day, working in the construction trade as his main job, then as a civil engineer on the railways at night. He recalls how he would sleep in his car between jobs, which meant he had little time to see his children and wife.
This was when he decided to chase his dream of becoming is own boss by joining Airtasker, which is an online services marketplace where people list jobs that they need doing. Taj first had the idea of making extra money when he was 16 and he had a job delivering flatpack furniture.
One day someone asked him to build the furniture for them, and he started making some extra cash. He joined Airtasker in 2018, where he started by taking on handyperson jobs and decorating tasks - and has now built up his profile enough so it is his main source of income.
Taj Singh
Taj has completed over 140 tasks with a string of five star reviews, having gone full-time on the website in late 2020. He said: “It varies day to day. I could be doing a plumbing job, which requires unblocking a toilet, other days it could be fitting kitchen worktops, or doing repairs to walls, or painting and decorating.
“I bring in £1,000 to £1,500 a week, on average, and last week, I took on 16 jobs. I’ve got more team members that have joined now, so I have six people that work with me. I did not imagine I could ever work for myself, and I thought it would take much longer compared to how quickly it's grown.”
He added: “I have three kids under five years old - it’s very important to me to be present as a dad and husband. Before, I wasn’t getting that, and it wasn’t as much money as I’m earning now. I was out 15 to 16 hours a day, then sleeping in my car, and I still wasn’t earning the desired amount of what I wanted to make.”
Taj Singh
His first ever Airtasker job saw Taj make £7,000 in the space of just three weeks. Taj was paid £2,200 to paint a six bedroom house in Chelmsford, Essex, and the owners were so pleased with his work, they gave him a £300 tip and then let hired him to decorate two other properties they own.
Taj said: “That was all the boost that you could ever require. I didn’t have much experience painting, but I knew how to use a spray gun, so we had the original job done in four days. They then let me decorate two other properties they owned, and they accumulated to £7,000 in total. It was exactly what I needed.”
Taj now has big plans to move his family to Australia next year, and says becoming self-employed is helping him to achieve his dreams. He said: “The biggest hurdle is starting. It's all about ‘what if this happens’ but you’ve got to start thinking ‘what if it does work’ and look at what you could get back, then you’ll feel much more optimistic.”
The money Taj makes through Airtasker is not taxed, which means he has to declare it to HMRC through self-assessment tax returns. Under current UK rules, the trading allowance is £1,000. Airtasker also charges a service fee of between 10% and 30% on jobs.