1) Child daycare. Each child you care for should amount to about $200 per week in income depending on where you live. In Washington we can care for up to 6 kids at a time--$1200 a week is nothing to sneeze at!
2) Doggy Daycare & Walking. Here in Seattle, people pay nearly as much to drop off their dogs for the day as they do their kids. What's really weird tho is that childcare workers make minimum wage-$7.75 per hour. Doggy Daycare workers and dog walkers make $15.00 per hour! Another facet of this idea came to my attention: Sick pet care--a lot people have pets that have been sick or had surgery and need to be watched during the day. Most pets really hate being left at the vet so pet owners are willing to pay $50-$75 a day to drop off a pet with someone who will take care of them through the day in a quiet & private setting. Toss an old blanket over the sofa for a comfortable spot and walk as needed. Sanitize everything between visitors. Advertise the service with all your local vet's offices.
3) Sewing and mending services. People pay $5-7.00 to replace a jeans zipper and $6-10.00 to hem a pair of pants. A custom prom dress runs $200 and up.
4) Have bake sales. Cook up a bunch of goodies and then have a combo garage and bake sale. I always make more money on the baked goods than I do on the garage sale but people will not stop to look unless I call it a "Garage Sale." A dozen homemade cookies is $5.00 or more. I have also sold dozens of homemade cook books for $3-$10 apiece!
5) Grow plants and have periodic plant sales. I recently purchased 1 very over grown spider plant at a store and split it up into over 100 small plants. In the spring these will sell for around $2-5 apiece!(Update: I listed these on eBay about a month later and sold all of them to a florist shop for $100+shipping(taking care of 100 houseplants was more work than I planned and I was glad to ship them out!)
6) I do eBay but in a rather unique way. All of the stuff I sell on eBay I get for FREE. Examples are woodland ferns, native plants, Ivy, driftwood, etc. Take a walk with the kids and make it a treasure hunt. Stuff that are weeds and junk to me are exotic to people in New York! I once sold a seal skull(found on the beach) on eBay that stunk so bad I had it buried in the yard during the time of the auction! It sold for $75+ shipping and I wrapped it in 5 layers of garbage bags to mail it!
7) Make jewelry out of beads and wire and put them on consignment at spas and jewelry stores. Copper jewelry is always popular and the materials can be purchased at the recycling center for a couple of bucks a pound. A copper bracelet will sell for $5.00--I can make 20 of them per hour.
8) Learn a skill like desktop publishing or transcription or web design. The more flexible and knowledgeable you get the more jobs you will get.
9) Schedule appointments for a local builder. Many companies need phone people to set up appointments for inspections, construction estimates, etc.
10) Figure out what you love to do and then work out a way to get paid for it. If you love soap operas, find someone to pay you to write about them. If you love crafts, make them and sell them!
Bonus: Look around for a place that can host classes and teach what you are best at. I have taught classes on sewing, home canning, dog grooming, and once taught a class on how to detail your car if you want to sell it.
Good luck!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)