This guide outlines several business ideas you can dive into as ways to make extra money and increase your income.
They say if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime, and this is especially true if you teach a person a skill, like accounting for example. However, we are fortunate to live in a time where you can teach a person a skill, and not only can they fish and eat every night, they can make enough money to eventually open up their own fish farm and make millions of dollars every year. Today, it is not as much about what you know as much as it is about how well you are able to make money from that skill.
Ways to make extra money
Here are a few simple side businesses that you can do as ways to make extra money, earn passive income, enhance your current income, or even replace your day job.
Tutoring
You don’t have to visit people who need help with their studies, nor do you need to be an employee of a school. You can be a fantastic, high-earning tutor from the comfort of your home with students all over the world. There are a number of websites that specialize in bringing together teachers and students through the internet. You can teach anything from math to digital music production to cooking to even gardening. For every skill under the sun, there is someone who is willing to pay you to learn it.
Driving
If you have a car and a few extra hours after your job, you can use this asset to make a lot of money. Whether you drive for a larger company, or you employ yourself and drive for your own business, it’s your choice. Depending on the car you have, you could make a lot of money just driving people for one of the big share-ride apps.
The busier your area is and the higher the demand for your kind of vehicle, the more money you can make. In fact, some people have even invested in a second car just for this purpose. This way they can still use their own car and they don’t have to do the driving themselves. They hire a driver who operates the vehicle and works full-time on the taxi service, and at the end of the month, they share the profits.
Selling online courses
If you know something really well, or even moderately well, but you don’t want to spend hours a day teaching people, then sell it as a course. While it might not be in everyone’s capacity to write a book on a subject, you can write a course. There are multiple options for online courses, it doesn’t just have to be a boring text-based course.
You can record information in the form of a video, you can have interactive sessions, or you could have a podcast. The point is that you want to get the information across in a way that the students enjoy. Courses can make you millions in a month if it really picks up traction.
Freelancing
While it might not be possible for you to do two separate jobs due to your lifestyle, you can still earn more with the same skill set. You can be a freelancer. This is a person who sells their services to other businesses, individuals, or anyone who requires that service. In the past, these were physical jobs, but today they can be done digitally very easily.
Selling garments
Selling garments has never been easier with solutions like drop shipping. You have to invest a bit of time and money in setting up your business website and then you can source products from manufacturers and sell them on your site. This way you earn a commission on each sale without ever having to do anything yourself. More importantly, this can be applied to any range of products but garments tend to be an easier product to sell and they have a high-profit margin.
Media
Why not use yourself and make some money out of it. For some people that are making music, for others, it is writing stories, while some want to make hilarious prank videos. Whatever kind of media you want to create, there is a way to monetize it. It might take some time to gain an audience, but eventually, you can make a lot of money from it.
Produce and sell sweets and snacks
Making and selling delicacies for events such as birthdays can be a great option as one of the ways to make extra money! Do you know how to make that delicious brigadeiro or an unmissable coxinha? Start accepting orders or produce for sale somewhere. Who knows, any establishment in your region does not want to form a partnership and resell their delights?
Sell your other used items
Besides clothes, how about letting go of other items you no longer need? It can be a piece of furniture, a decoration item, an electronic or even a car. This is a way of practicing what we call conscious consumption . Reflecting on what you really need and thus letting go or not buying new things can guarantee you some extra cash in the end as one of the ways to make extra money.
Rent your belongings
Are your toolbox, pressure washer, or treadmill gathering dust at home because they aren’t used often? The collaborative economy proposes exchanging, borrowing and renting items that can be easily shared among several people. Why does everyone need to have a drill at home, for example?
Create content for blogs
Do you like to write? Take advantage of this ability to write content for blogs for companies as a copywriter or ghost writer . It is common for them to look for freelancers. Determine your price per written word or hour worked and advertise on freelance sites as one of the ways to make extra money.
Create websites
Do you have skills with website development and design ? Help people to create websites and blogs, whether on the WordPress platform or another. This service is in high demand as every business needs to be online and create content to attract more customers.
Test apps and websites
Before launching apps or websites, many companies want to test their products with different users. And you can take advantage of this to earn your extra income. All you need to do is fulfill the prerequisites requested by each site to be able to register and be an official tester as one of the ways to make extra money.
Be a Virtual Assistant
Have you ever thought about being a virtual assistant to carry out tasks for people and companies? On freelancer platforms like 99Freelas and Workana you can find opportunities to attend digital chats, for example.
Work with social media
The social media management field is increasing, so it is an opportunity to earn extra income. With the rise of social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, you can work with publications, post calendar, user response and metrics analysis.
Translate texts
Are you fluent in another language? If you have a command of vocabulary and can easily translate texts, this can be valuable as one of the ways to make extra money. On freelance sites you can find requests for translations of blogs, books, academic papers and even creating subtitles for videos.
Answer online surveys
Companies are paying people to do online surveys about their products and services. Your extra income from paid surveys can be made using sites like Survey Pronto and LifePoints as one of the ways to make extra money.
Sell miles
Accumulated points on your credit card? Transfer them to a frequent flyer program, if you haven’t already, and sell them on specialized sites as one of the ways to make extra money.
Conclusion
In the past, it was about how proficient you are in the skillset you have. Today it is more about how proficient you are in using technology to capitalize on the knowledge that you have for ways to make extra money. Thanks to technology, there are many more ways of earning an income these days. More importantly, a lot of these sources can be passive sources of income. You put in the work once, in creating the business, and it continues to earn money as long as the business is in operation and people are interacting with that medium.