In
this case, raising the bridge means to increase your income, even if it is only
by a little bit or temporary. The
following are some examples of ways to do this.
Not all of these will work for everyone.
We hope that this listing will help prompt you to think of ways you can
earn a little extra money.
Mystery Shopping: We mention this one first because it really worked for
us. However, there are a lot of scams
out there, so you have to be very careful about what you do. To start with, no one is going to send you a
check up front for any job you are asked to do.
NO ONE.
One
really big scam out there works like this:
A person is asked to send some basic, benign information like phone
number, address, etc., and then the person is sent a check to cash. The check looks and seems legitimate. It is usually drawn on a company that the
person has heard of.
The
person is asked to cash the check, and then keep a certain amount to be their
fee. They are asked to go to a particular
Western Union or Moneygram location and send the money to a particular person.
Supposedly,
they are mystery shopping the Western Union or Moneygram location. Soon the check is discovered to be
bogus. The person who cashed the check
will be faced with overdraft fees as well as having to replace the money they
sent to the person on the other end of the Western Union or Moneygram. By then, the receiver is untraceable.
The
person who cashed the check might actually get arrested, as was the case for one
person we ran into. Remember, if it
sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
There
is a variation of this where the person is offered money to have their vehicle
wrapped with the logo of a well-known company and then they will be paid
mileage for driving around.
Usually
there is a sense of urgency because the company wants to have the vehicle
wrapped before some upcoming sporting or other event, like a regional gun show.
The
person will be sent a check for a large amount and asked to cash it and then
send it via Western Union or Moneygram to the graphic design team who will come
out in a few days and wrap the vehicle.
There
are scores of legitimate companies out there.
You can find a great many of these through MSPA
(Mystery Shopping Providers Association).
You
can find legitimate mystery shopping jobs through them. You can also pay a small fee to become
certified through them.
Don’t
expect to get rich. However, if you only
accept jobs that pay you enough to make it worth your while, you can make
money. For instance, we were given a
route of banks to mystery shop at $25-50 each.
This took us through several small towns. Along the way, we mystery shopped several
restaurants. If we had only conducted
the mystery shops at the restaurants, we could not have afforded the gas we
spent for the trip.
Since
we were going to be in that area of the restaurant anyway, it really cost us
nothing to mystery shop the restaurants, other than our time. And, we got reimbursed for the money we spent
on the food.
Merchandising: Kind of related to mystery
shopping is merchandising. Companies who
need to have small jobs performed that would be too costly or time consuming,
or even just too expensive for them to conduct themselves will hire a
merchandising company like Spar to have individuals go into
stores where their merchandise is displayed and service it.
Many
retail stores have countless lines from multiple manufactures. There is only so much time in a day that
store employees can spend on any one product line. Therefore the manufactures will hire a
merchandising company go into the stores and work their displays.
We
worked for numerous prepaid phone companies who wanted to have their phone
displays updated. They would hire a
merchandising company to go in and work their displays. The merchandising company would hire
individuals at a flat rate. We would go
into the stores, work their displays and take a picture showing the before and
after of our work.
Notary Public: This one worked well for us, too. We paid a fee to the state to become a notary
We
bought two magnetic signs for our car and had business cards printed. We visited several mom-and-pop stores in our
area and let them know about our service.
When
someone asked the store owner about a notary, they would call us and we would
drive to the store, notarize the documents, and collect our fee. Some owners wanted a cut of the fee, but most
only wanted to help their customers.
Errands: We never tried this one. However, some people make money by running
errands for people. Things like picking
up packages at the post office, or running to pay a bill for someone are
examples of this service.
Personal
Shopper: Some people love to shop. Others hate it. For those that hate it, many are willing to
pay someone else to do it. This kind of
shopping can include going to the local big box store and picking up
groceries. It can also include such
things as going to the higher end stores and picking up clothing. Some people hate to try to pick out a gift
for someone and are more than happy to pay someone else to do it.
Some
busy people are willing to pay a little extra to avoid having to go to the
store themselves. In some cases, a
person who has a discount card with a particular store will shop for the items,
use coupons, loyalty cards sales, and rebates. They will then charge a service fee and
provide the item at its regular price.
Gift Baskets: Some people have found that they can custom
assemble gift baskets. They take small
items that they pay a little for, put them in a well-designed basket arrangement,
and sell the basket at a profit. Some
people make baskets for a neighborhood welcoming committee where they take
coupons and small promotional items and place them in a gift basket.
CheckPoints, ShopKick: These two apps, and we are sure there will be more like them
soon, pay you to use your smartphone to scan items in your local store. The app will give you a list of items that
they need to verify are actually in that store.
Sometimes you are given points for walking in the store.
When
you scan the bar code on the correct item, points are added to your account. Once you accumulate enough points to qualify
for a payout from these apps, you can request the payout.
These
apps payout with gift cards to Amazon, Walmart, Paypal, or other places. The gift card choices vary, so check the app.
By using these
links and/or referral codes, we get points towards our next reward.
Direct
Sales: Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, and other companies like them have
traditionally sold their products door-to-door, or as some people call it,
belly-to-belly. The idea is that some
people prefer to shop face-to-face in the comfort of their own home. A
representative will drop off a catalog and the person can choose what they like
and order it from the representative.
We
sold Avon for a while and found that placing magnetic signs on the car and
keeping plenty of brochures on hand were the key. Recently, the company has been through some
corporate changes and they are having a problem keeping items in stock. Hopefully things will get back to normal.
Programs
like Tupperware can work that way, but have been traditionally sold through the
party concept. A person will host a party
with the expectation that sales from their party will earn them free gifts.
When
we were back in South Carolina, this worked well for us because we could pick
up the product at the local distribution center. Once we moved to Texas, the area was starving
for a Tupperware representative. However, we could not make a profit because
the shipping charges were too steep.
Your results may be different.
Multi-level
Marketing: Supposedly, multi-level marketing is similar to direct sales. The idea is that you are recruiting others to
sell your product, or are you? We sold Amway for a while and did well as far as
selling the product goes. The idea is
that you will be a good business person and buy from yourself. Then, you will recruit others who will buy
from themselves and sell to friends and relatives.
These
recruits will then want to recruit more people who will buy from themselves and
sell to friends and relatives. We think you get the point.
Although
there is money to be had in the sale of the product, most people focus on the
recruiting aspect instead of sales. We
sold Amway for a while and did quite well with the sale of the actual
product. We found that many people were
interested in the products.
The
only reason we stopped was a change of jobs and that Suzanne got pregnant. We
could no longer service our customers with the level of quality we expected
from ourselves.
Amway ($62 to $99.99) amway.com
Enrich
Unicity enriching lives.com ($40 in USA)
Newspaper Route: Many years ago, we bought a
small, very fuel efficient car. It was
great on gas.
The
great part of the job was that we are normally night people and the hours were
perfect. The routes were great and most of our customers were wonderful. They even gave tips and gifts at Christmas.
We
increased our profits by providing outstanding customer service. We also put Avon and Tupperware books in the
newspapers along our route. We only had
one complaint about this.
We
did so well with this we were hired by the newspaper as a district manager and
a telemarketer. The paper fired us the
day they found out Suzanne was pregnant.
Blogging/YouTube: For us the jury is still out
on this. However, there are countless
people who make large sums of money by blogging, vlogging, and making YouTube
videos. The key to this is to find a
proper niche in which you have some type of expertise. Then, get advertisements. There are countless books on the
subject. Also, there are tutorials on
YouTube about how to do this.
The
way to monetize your blogs and YouTube videos is to create content that people
want to see or read. Then, you need to
get these same people to actually watch the advertisements that are played just
before your video. Or, they need to be
interested enough in a banner or text ad to click on that advertisement and
make a purchase.
Get Paid to Search: Sites like Swagbucks and
Bing will give you points for searching the web using their search engine. You can also earn points on Swagbucks by
watching videos and taking surveys.
Points can be converted into gift cards with places like Amazon and
Walmart. Sometimes you can earn PayPal credits as well.
Get Paid to Take Surveys: I think everyone of us has been sucked into
the vortex that comes from clicking on those advertisements that say “Get Paid
to Take Surveys” then, you keep taking them and taking them with no
payout. However, there are legitimate
places where you can earn a few cents, up to a few dollars, just for taking
surveys. Amazon mTurk gives you the
security of a top company like Amazon that makes sure you get paid for your
efforts.
The
pay isn’t great, just a few cents or so for five minutes of your time. But, it does add up. We earned enough from mTurk one month to pay
the light bill.
Write ebooks: We have seen the claims
about how one can make thousands of dollars by writing ebooks. We have also read countless ebooks about how
to produce one or two ebooks per day by paying writers in other places like the
Philippines to write books for you.
For
most of these ebooks, the quality is very low.
But, for many, the price is low, too, so those making the purchase have
not lost much. Amazon does have a refund policy that makes risking the 99¢ or
so much more palatable.
If
you have a great book idea, you can write it and try to find a publisher. You then may have to suffer through rejection
letter after rejection letter. Or, you
can self-publish at no cost. Zig Ziglar
took the chance on his first book, See You at the Top, and it became a best
seller. Then, publishers were beating a
path to his door.
Create courses for uDemy: This is something we are
currently working on. Chances are very
good that you are reading this through uDemy.
If you have a skill that can be taught, you may be able to turn it into
a marketable course via uDemy.
Baby Sit: We live in a world where it
is almost impossible to find reliable childcare. When parents can find a place that will work
for them, chances are good that the center is full and booked well ahead into
the future.
There
are many people who make a little extra money by watching other people’s
children after school, when they are too sick to go to school or daycare, or
when the parent cannot get the child into daycare due to scheduling or heavy
enrollment levels.
Take in a boarder
(roommate): This
one might not be for everyone. And, it
is one that involves certain risks. If
you have young children that might be exposed to a boarder or roommate, there
are risks. Also, there may be extra
insurance costs and government regulations that are involved, but it might work
for you.
There
are services like AirBnB that allow potential
landlords or hosts to link up with paying customers.
Ebay: Many people start with Ebay by selling an unwanted
item or two. Soon, they are scouring the
local thrift stores, second hand shops, and yard sales searching for items to
sell on Ebay. There are countless books
available on how to sell on Ebay.
Sellers
pay a small fee for each item listed.
When it sells, if it sells, the seller will also pay a small commission
on the sale.
Some
people make a good living using Ebay and/or selling local using Craigslist and
other similar services. Be careful with
meeting anyone face-to-face or giving anyone on the internet your address. It works well for some.
Etsy: Etsy started out as a place
where someone who handmade items could sell to people who wanted to have
handmade items, but didn’t have the skill, the time, or just plain didn’t want
to do it. However, recently they have
allowed items that have been manufactured commercially to be sold via their
service.
Sellers
pay a small listing fee for each item listed.
When the item sells, the seller pays a small commission on the sale as
well.
Hobbies such as photography,
pottery, and gardening can all be turned into money-making activities. If you have a hobby, chances are good there
is someone out there willing to pay for what you produce. Suzanne is a professional photographer. There are numerous websites out there
dedicated to selling digital photographs as stock images.
If
you can start plants from seeds or cuttings, you may be able to start plants
and sell them to nurseries and greenhouses in your area that cannot keep up with
the demand.
Tax Preparation: Big name tax prep services
like H & R Block and Jackson Hewitt offer classes each year in tax
preparation. They hire some of their
students. Other students will work for
other tax services or hang out their own shingles and prepare taxes. With today’s modern software, it isn’t that
difficult to prepare someone else’s taxes.
It just may be a bit time consuming and nerve wracking.
Bookkeeping: There are numerous small businesses out there
that need someone to take the receipts they accumulate during the year and put
them in a form that can be used by their accountant or tax preparer. If you are
comfortable with spreadsheet programs, this may be a choice for you.
Lawn Care/Landscaping: If you have a lawnmower and
a few basic tools, you can start a little side job mowing other people’s grass
and performing basic yard care services.
If you have even greater skills, you may add landscaping and gardening
to the mix. Print you a few business
cards and pass them out.
In a
small town, mowing a yard might fetch $50+.
In a more upscale area, even a small yard could bring in $200 or
more. You just need to know what the
market will bear.
There
are new ways to make money every day.
Just be sure that whatever you do, you keep yourself and your loved ones
safe. There are services like Uber where
you can drive people to their desired destination during your spare time when
it works out for you. However, you must
keep yourself safe.
You
never know if the person on the other side of the transaction is on the up and
up or not. Even if the person’s profile
checks out, it is always possible that the profile was hacked and you now have
some type of serial killer in the back seat.
Stay safe! No amount of money is
worth your life or the life of someone you love.
Sarah Titus was once living in a
women’s shelter. She was able to get out
of that situation and into a place of her own by working every angle she
could. One angle was finding discarded
items, reconditioning them, and selling them.
She also shopped yard sales and listings where people were selling items
before they moved. She would resell
these items at a profit.
The
blog Financial Panther tells of a young lawyer who fought hard to pay off
his student loan debt in two and a half years.
He did this by living frugally and working several side hustles, as he
called them. One of these side hustles
was to work as a bike messenger when he wasn’t working as a lawyer.
Don’t
overlook the idea of having a yard or garage sale where you sell items that
have been given to you by friends and relatives. You may be able to have one
every few months, depending on the laws in your area.
You
may also find odd jobs housesitting and pet sitting.
We
have attempted here to provide some ideas of ways to earn a few additional
dollars. Most of the ones mentioned can
be started for a small investment or even no money. Hopefully, we have given you some ideas that
will work for you.
You
can use that extra money to balance your budget, pay off some bills, and
hopefully restore order to your life.
An interesting
article we read about making a little extra money at home can be found at:
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Always consult a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this course.
Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney, accountant, and/or other professionals with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
