Money Making Ideas - after work or as a part-time occupationWe're all looking for money making ideas. Whether we're in a tight spot now, would like to build up some cash reserves, or we're really trying to sock money away for a special purchase, an idea of two for making extra income wouldn't hurt one bit. As part of my frugal living philosophy, I always focus on making more money and couple that with being more conservative with what I make. That's the best way that I know to accumulate wealth and get to a place where peace of mind comes easily. I've got a bunch of money making ideas for you to consider. These ideas center on extra income after work - outside your regular employment. They are not work from home opportunities. Nor are they associated with starting your own full time enterprise. Let's look at the ideas and see if there are a few that might be appealing to you, given your interests, skills and time available. Generally, after work money making ideas will fit into one of several categories:
Let's look at these to see how each one of these money making ideas might suit your personal situation. A Second JobWell, this is relatively self-explanatory; you get yourself another job. Okay, that's easy enough, but there are other considerations. You need to think about:
Let's discuss these considerations to see how they might influence your planning and thinking about a second job as one of the preferred money making ideas. Will you have time for the second job? If your regular employment holds you over occasionally, that might interfere with another job that begins soon thereafter. Do you have enough energy for a second job? After cutting lawns all day long, will you really be up for more physical labor at job #2? Will the unique requirements of one job clash with the other? How about scheduling conflicts? Does one involve travel such that a second job "after work" won't be possible because you'll be elsewhere on a travel assignment? It might be embarrassing to explain to your boss that you can't travel because you have another job to fulfill. Most places of employment assume that they are your regular job. Are there conflicts of interest associated with your regular job that might interfere with your second job? Let's say you're a plumbing inspector for the city, and you're also a plumber. Will you have to take "out of city" jobs to avoid a conflict of interest where your work might have to be inspected by you or your peers in the building department? You might want to get a second job that has opposite demands on you, just for a change of pace. If you're doing physical labor during the day, perhaps a job where you work on the phone or a computer might be a better second job to have. Work with your mind on job #2 and give your body a rest. You might focus on a job that is complimentary with respect to skills and experience. Let's say you work the night shift doing mechanical repairs on vehicles. Perhaps your second job could be at an auto parts store where your knowledge of vehicles could be put to good use. How about location of that second job? It sure would be nice if it was in proximity to your regular job. Who wants to fight traffic across town to get to their employment? Not me. Okay, so a second job as one of the money making ideas isn't exactly as easy as just signing up for one. You'll have to do some thinking about it. It's got to fit. I know several people "in town" that deliver newspapers as a second job. This is an example of one of the money making ideas that is a second job and part-time work. You deliver papers early in the morning before going to your regular job. The newspaper is always looking for people to deliver their words of wisdom, and for many folks, a delivery route can fit right in there with respect to time, energy, proximity, change of pace and other considerations. Part-time JobsAnother of the money making ideas is a part-time job. It's a second job, but perhaps you only do this on the weekends or a few nights each week. A common term for this is moonlighting. I suppose the term came from people working at night to supplement their normal day job. You can often find opportunities for moonlighting in certain areas of work during certain times of the year. Here are examples of jobs that require extra help, and when they need the extra help:
Sometimes the need for extra help isn't just seasonal, but it's related to economic cycles. Here are examples: In Cheyenne, there have been an increase in restaurants over the last year or so, but insufficient help to staff the businesses. Workers have been bussed in from Colorado to fill the need. With the demand for energy, the oil and gas fields around the State of Wyoming have been hopping, and it's easy to get a job if you have the right skills. Welders, pipe fitters, fabricators and mechanics are in big demand and paying high wages. Some businesses are happy to get help, even if it's just part-time. One of the money making ideas is to stand on a street corner and wave signs at traffic that goes by. In the summer, it might be advertising a real estate opportunity. After the first of the year it's usually a tax preparation service. Curious about this part-time job opportunity, I called one of the tax preparation services, and they offer 2 to 4 hours of work each day for $7 per hour to start. It's a tough way to make money since you're standing in the cold weather and you're constantly in the fumes of passing cars. But, it's an excellent opportunity to get out there and show your enthusiasm for paying taxes! Perhaps other money making ideas would be a better place to start. Neighborhood WorkSometimes the money making ideas come from places close to home. One of the advantages is that you can keep your finger on the pulse much better than you can if you're searching city wide or across the county. Some of the easiest and cheapest of the money making ideas is to provide a service. This is what most of your neighborhood work will consist of. Think of when you were a kid. Many of us did odd jobs around the neighborhood to make money. These odd jobs were probably done for older members of the community that couldn't do them because of the limits that often accompany age. When you start thinking from the perspective of the customer, you can probably imagine any number of potential jobs that you (as the customer) would like others to do for you. This should get you thinking about serving people who are:
Older people need help with things that are heavy, tiring, risky, representative of new technology, and related to companionship. How about offering services such as lawn and garden care, visiting shut-ins, cleaning out a garage, shoveling snow or running errands. A lot of busy people need help with things that are time consuming, urgent, and conflict with their busy schedules. How about offering services such as running errands, preparing meals, baby sitting, lawn and garden service, painting the house or yard cleanup. People that find themselves overwhelmed will need help with organization, time management, prioritization and competing demands. They might be interested in garage or basement cleaning, house cleaning, child care, event planning or running errands. The unskilled among us will need help with things that require experience, skill and knowledge. Their interests for help might include minor home repairs, understanding how to use a computer, painting or pruning fruit trees. Inexperienced people are unfamiliar with certain things and may need help with new technology, unforeseen problems, and challenging situations. Help for these people could take the form of setting up a computer, fixing a leaking faucet, cleaning out rain gutters or minor home repairs and improvements. Disabled people need help with tasks requiring vision, hearing, dexterity, agility, mobility and companionship. They might need a companion, someone to run errands, assistance with a house party, help reorganizing furniture and a hand with house cleaning or yard work. People that live alone need help with painting, moving, heavy yard work and other tasks that generally require two people. Sometimes, just having a helper is a great motivator to get things done. Working alone on some projects sometimes isn't fun at all. Those accustomed to being served could use help with just about everything under the sun. They might be game for just about any kind of service that offers them convenience and quality at a reasonable price. It should be clear that money making ideas must match up with what your customer wants and needs, not what you like to offer. Therefore, think about your potential customers and try to put yourself in their shoes to figure out what services to offer. Limited EnterprisesAnother of the money making ideas centers on limited enterprises. What I mean by this is an enterprise that isn't full-time, but nonetheless, it's an enterprise with a particular product or service offering. Let's look at a few. Backhoe or heavy equipment service. If you have some special equipment, you can use it to make more money on the side. Even just a pickup truck will enable you to do some hauling for others that perhaps don't have a truck, or don't care to take a trip to the dump. Car detailing is a very portable service that can be done part-time and requires little up front investment. The skills are basic, and many of us have these skills from when we were taking good care of our "pride and joy" vehicles. Pool cleaning is another service that should be relatively easy to do and requires only a basic level of skill and experience to do properly. Heavily populated places like large cities in California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona are bound to have plenty of pools to take care of. How about creating works of art for people. This is one of the money making ideas that is both a service and a product. Whether it's a painting, a sculpture, a carving or other art form, if you're talented, you could have a long list of people waiting to own some of your artwork. Another easy limited enterprise is photography. With digital cameras and such, it's much easier to create quality images and collections of photos for people to enjoy. Again, if you can show your talent, you can attract a following. Reselling is another of the money making ideas that constitutes a limited enterprise. A friend of mine buys shop and yard equipment at garage sales, auctions and even the junk yard, and reworks the electrical and mechanical portions of the equipment to bring them back to good operating condition. He then places ads in the local trading paper and sells the results of his work to people who are in search of good lawn mowers, snow blowers, band saws, table saw, edgers, garden tractors, gas generators and so forth. Any type of reselling like this requires storage space for the items for sale, and a reasonably good size shop for tear-downs and rebuilds. You also need a supply of materials and tools suited for the work at hand. One Time or Occasional ActivitiesMoney making ideas also include those that occur only once, or perhaps only once in a while. Here are some examples. Garage sales are something that you might have only once, or perhaps only once every few years. After all, if you're buying things for yourself and then you sell them a few years later, that generally is a money losing proposition. Few if any people at a garage sale are going to pay more than retail price for what you have, so you'll generally have to settle for pricing things attractively. The higher your prices, the lower volume of sales and vice versa. Let's call this last example a garage resale. Here you might buy out an abandoned storage unit, sight unseen, and then sort through the stuff and hold a yard sale. Storage units typically contain household goods like kitchen gadgets, furniture, out of season power equipment and surplus things that others didn't want to get rid of. The person renting the unit has failed to pay the rent, so the owner of the storage units sells the contents to pay for the back rent owed. To minimize the hassle of selling specific items, the entire unit is put up for auction. The rules of the storage unit auction usually go like this:
There's no telling what you might find inside the unit, and there could be just about anything in there - sometimes junk, sometimes treasures, and most of the time a little of both. Never Enough Money Making IdeasFor those of us in search of money making ideas, there will never seem to be enough. Not every approach will suit style or need for extra cash. If your plan for frugal living has you focused on making more so you can save more, then you'll need to use your imagination with respect to the many ways to make extra income. I hope that this discussion has given you a good place to start. Good fortune to you as you strive to make more money to meet your wants, needs, wishes and desires. Done with Money Making Ideas, take me back to Managing Money |
