43 Work from Home - Side GIG Ideas

Let me ask you, “What good is your health if you have no wealth? And what good is your wealth if you have poor health?” I’m not alone when it comes to that sentiment. And I think it is most apparent this time of year because of the New Years resolutions that folks make.

Personal health always tops the list for both men and women. Starting an exercise routine, losing weight, eating healthier, are top of mind for millions right now especially after a long holiday break filled with food and fun. 

I’ve spent nearly 30 years as a pharmacist helping folks improve their health and reduce their need for prescription medications by making sure folks get the proper nutrients in their diets. If you are concerned about the health and wellbeing of yourself or your family members I have a couple free reports to share with you. Just visit http://CampaignForNutrition.com

Concerns about personal finances also have a negative effect on folks health and well-being which brings me to the second most popular resolution, improving personal finances.

Today I want to address the financial half of the equation for living a long and prosperous life. Whether we are trying to get out of debt, build up an emergency fund, save for our kid’s college education, or save for our own retirement, one of the quickest ways to get there is through generating extra capital by creating some sort of side gig income.

What is a Side Gig income?

It's generating income outside of your primary employment. When you look at the state of our economy over the last few years, you see so many folks that are just not able to really find the well paid jobs that they want. I mean it doesn't even matter whether they went to college or not, folks just aren't finding the jobs they really want and have to settle for what they can get. Because of that many folks have turned to side gigs to make ends meet.

I'm very familiar with the idea of side gig income. Even though until recently I had never heard that phrase, I have been earning side gig income most of my life.

As a kid I found ways to generate more income beyond my allowance by finding creative ways to bring in income. Saturday mornings in the summer you could find me riding my bike down the side of the nearby highway, collecting pop and bear bottles that folks threw out their car windows the night before. I would turn them in at the local convenience store making 3 to 5 cents per bottle. Most weekends I would pick up 3 to 4 dollars’ worth of bottles along the highway.

As I got older I began to cut grass and shovel snow for extra cash. Even when I got my first real part time job I kept up with the grass cutting and snow shoveling and by the time I turned 16 I had saved up enough money to pay cash for my first car.

Later when I went to college I had a part time job working in a pharmacy. Even though I worked a part time job, I earned extra cash from side gigs. Doing telemarketing selling cable, lawn care and magazines. I also earned side gig cash working on an inventory team doing inventory for retailers and grocers. 

Eventually I came across Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University. He was telling folks to find side gig work to get out of debt faster, even if it was to deliver pizza to generate extra income to pay off that debt. He would tell folks to get gazelle intense, and that was something I could relate too.

When I started working through my baby steps to have financial peace, it was a no-brainer for me to find side gig to work so we could pay more toward our debt snowball. While I worked my full time pharmacist position, in order to pay off our debts faster, I did side gigs. I worked 2 days per week in a hospital and one or two weekends a month I worked on call for a home infusion pharmacy. We were able to pay off our cars, credit cards and over 100K in student loans by working those side gigs.

Today it’s more and more common to see folks with side gig incomes. Unfortunately many folks need more than one job just to make ends meet.

Before you go out and get a side gig you need to get a better handle on the income that you do have coming in. Dave talks about making the income you have coming in to work smarter for you so you can use it to work on your debt snowball. He talks about how it’s possible to free up some extra cash by cutting expenses and selling stuff you don’t really want or need. Think about it, how much is going out the door for that gym membership you don't use or those pricey coffee drinks you have every day?

I'm not going to go into detail here on how to free up extra cash in your budget. If you want to learn more go to my podcast https://anchor.fm/prosperityrx.

Before you start considering side gig income you need to set up a spending plan so you know where every dollar goes. I have a free class on how to do that, just go to http://SpendingPlanClass.com. It will walk you through setting up a budget so you have a better idea of where all your money goes and what you need to do to get the debt snowball paid off faster.

Once you have a handle on your income then you need to look at some possible ways to generate that side gig income.

1.     Dave always mentions getting a job as a pizza delivery driver. It can generate some good revenue for you but in today’s digital world there are so many other possibilities.

2.     Going along the same theme as Dave, one of the most widely-available ways for making money is to drive for Uber or Lyft. The sharing economy is quite literally exploding, and both Uber and Lyft are at the forefront. The best part? You can turn on and off your availability through these networks with the simple click of a button, effectively allowing you to make money no matter what time of day or night it is. And Uber and Lyft aren’t the only possibilities.

3.     If you are concerned about having strangers in your car or the liability that comes with that another option for earning a side income is to deliver for PostMates or GrubHub. Similar to working for Uber and Lyft, you can work whenever you want. While the pay might not be enormous, you do have the ability to earn tips. If you're in a highly-trafficked area such as Los Angeles or New York City, this is a great way to earn some cash and you don't even need a car.

4.     Also in many markets there is Amazon Flex where you can make money delivering packages for the internet behemoth.

5.   If you don't drive or don't have reliable transportation then one of the surest ways you can make cash if you're in a bind is to sell items on-line, Gazelle, SellShark.com, Decluttr, BuyBack World, Buyback Boss, Glyde,  EBay, Craigslist, or Facebook Virtual Yard-sale. Any used items like furniture, household appliances, collectibles or anything else that you're just not using or is collecting dust, can be sold online to make some money. If you're serious about this, you can even do it professionally for others and collect a small commission for each sale. Take quality photos and write a good description and you'll be in great shape. Gary Vanerchuk says to go yard selling then turn around and sell your yard sale finds on-line.

6.   Sell your follicles:  Some people will sell their hair for a good chunk of change.  The hair can be used to make wigs, hair extensions or used in artwork via sites like TheHairTrader.com.   Some people routinely make between $300-900.

7.     If you are creative use Etsy to sell crafts or other home-made items. Etsy is one of the largest resources for selling handmade goods on the internet. You could also sell digital items such as digital posters that can be printed out.

8.     CafePress allows you to sell items that feature a digital design. If you're a great graphic designer, you could create a number of designs that would fit different formats such as shirts, hats and cups, and earn a commission when they sell.Also check out Zazzle.com

9.     Another option if you are good at graphic arts is to design logos on 99Designs. If you're graphically inclined and you have a program like Photoshop and Illustrator, you could potentially compete for design work on 99Designs. However, you won't get paid unless your design is chosen as the winning design, meaning you need to be a very good designer to make income that's worthwhile here.

10. If you have a skill you can also sell your services on Fiverr. Fiverr helped give birth to the Gig Economy. Although services start out at $5, some Fiverr sellers are earning six-figure-plus revenues annually. You can sell just about anything on this platform, but to succeed and become a Super Seller, you need to deliver massive amounts of value, even at those lower price-points.

11. Another platform for professionals is Upwork. Upwork provides a platform for accountants, lawyers and other professionals to earn money. Keep in mind that you're competing with thousands of other service providers so getting this off the ground will take you some time.

12. Maybe you are an expert in a particular field. You can get paid for answering questions on JustAnswer. Websites like JustAnswer pay you to answer professional questions. If you have a high-level skill such as in the law or medicine or information technology, you could get paid to help others navigate certain topics or areas of contention that they might be faced with in life.

13. TaskRabbit links you up with people that are looking to complete specific tasks in your area. Tasks include things like lifting heavy furniture, assembling furniture and so on. You'll need to register and get vetted but it's a simple way you can make a bit of extra income. Sites like Zaarly.com make it easy to post a job you're willing to do online, and then have someone hire you to do it.

14. Are you a good cook? You could become a personal chef and prepare meals for other people. You could easily market your services on social media or even go all out and build yourself a website. There are also plenty of websites you can use to market your services such as HireAChef.

15. Scrapbooking:  I was reading about how one lady turned her love of scrapbooking into a side income.  Clients tell her a page they'd like her themes to create for their scrapbook, and she'll put one together for a cost.

16. Anyone can walk dogs. Well, almost anyone. If you live in a dog-filled neighborhood, create a few flyers on your computer and slip them into mailboxes. Identify yourself as a dog walker and pitch your price. Build up a steady stream of clients and your dog-walking service will grow over time. Try Rover.com

17. If you need to make some quick cash, you could always partake in babysitting or even become a part-time nanny. You use a variety of sites to do this like Care.com or SitterCity or even post your services on social media sites. You'll get vetted and rated for your services, so be sure to provide a top-notch experience.

18. Housekeeping is always an option. There are loads of private families and home owners that are renting out their homes on a short-term basis that need housekeeping or house cleaning services. You can list your services on a site like HouseKeeper.com and many others to promote yourself.

19. Virtual assistants are in high demand, but it only makes sense from an income standpoint if you have lots of free time and you're very organized. It also doesn't hurt to live in an area with a lower cost of living.

20. Want to shop for others? You could effectively become a personal shopper. If you live in an urban metropolis with concentrated wealth, then personal shopping services are in high demand in your area. Scour the web and other online resources such as ThumbTack to find people looking for personal shoppers.

21. Write songs for people:  Post an ad on Craigslist or Fiverr.com offering to write songs for people. Write on request, record and send over an .MP3

22. Are you a great driver? Why not get licensed as a driving instructor? You can advertise your services both online and offline, or use a site like Indeed.com to search for part-time driving instructor jobs.

23. Become a professional house sitter and watch homes for people that go on vacation or have a second home and don't spend much time there. HouseSitter.com and Care.com both offer house-sitting jobs.

24. How about personal training. Find clients that you can help out to achieve their weight loss or fitness goals. Create meal plans or construct workout routines and you could make an admirable income for your efforts.
25. Be a referee:  Everybody knows that refs are blind, but you can still make some decent dough reffing on the side!
26. Be on a virtual jury. You can sign up to be on a virtual jury for attorneys looking to try out different defenses for a case – to see how it will play.  Check out sites like ejury.com or virtualjury.com for details.
27. Be a movie extra: Sign up with an agency to be a movie extra when films come to your area.  It may not pay much but you'll at least get a free lunch and a small check!
28. Take surveys: There are sites like Survey Savvy, Survey Spot, Opinion Outpost, PineCone Research, Harris Poll, Nielsen Digital Voice, Permission Research, Vindale Research, YouGuv and more where you can take surveys and get paid in cash or gift cards for your participation.
29. Hunting for lost golf balls:  Get permission to find stray golf balls in course water hazards and near local courses.  Re-sell the balls for a profit.
30. Shovel walks or plow driveways in the winter: Shovel walks or plow driveways if you have the strong back and the equipment.
31. Garbage day scrap metal detective: Some people will make extra money by cruising through alleys on garbage day searching for all kinds of scrap metal that they can turn in for cash.
32. Okay, so maybe you need some cash and you already have a full-time job and you're just not comfortable making money online or trying to hustle with some web-based project. You could get a part-time job. You can kiss your social life goodbye, but it's certainly a more guaranteed additional stream of income.

I just mentioned 32 different ways to make some extra side gig cash. The one thing in common with all of these scenarios is you are trading your time for money. To make more money would require you to trade even more time and I don't know about you but I only have 24 hours in a day so there is a limit on how much side gig income I could make by trading time for dollars.

In the early 2000's I came across Robert Kiosaki and he changed my view on side gig income. Between his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad and the Cash Flow Quadrant I realized that I had been looking at generating extra income completely wrong. I realized that what I needed to do was to find a way to generate a residual income. That's an income that comes in month after month regardless if I came in to "work" that day.

Think about folks like Steven Spielberg or J K Rowling. Steve Spielberg produces a movie one time then keeps getting paid royalties each time that movie is sold or rented. J K Rowling wrote Harry Potter once and now she keeps getting paid every time someone buys her book or watches the movies made from the books.

After reading Robert Kiosaki's books I began a quest to find some ways to generate residual income. Of course one of his favorite ways is to generate rental income through real estate. I've had members of my own family that have made a good passive income doing this as well. The problem with most of us is that it takes some cash to get started and a good amount of time in the form of blood, sweat and tears to rehab properties in order to get a good rate of return. For me I was already working 60 to 70 hours per week in pharmacy so I certainly didn't have the time to commit to it and for those of us on the debt snowball journey the funds needed to pull this off need to be applied to the debt snowball first.

Here are 10 ways to make residual income:

1. Rent out a room:  Make some extra coin by renting out an extra room to a college student or friend from church. Make sure you know the laws surrounding this in your area.
2. Rent your parking spot: Have a parking spot near a popular attraction or sporting event?  Rent it out by the day and make some money.  I know some people near Churchill Downs that make hundreds of dollars every year allowing people to park on their lawns and driveways during the Kentucky Derby.
3. Make money by renting things out: We have all heard of people making money renting rooms out on Airbnb, but for those of us who lack the spare space there are still ways to take a slice of the sharing economy. A peer-to-peer rental platform, Fat Lama, has taken the model of Airbnb and gone one step further – making it possible for you to list almost any item you have lying about for rental in the local area. By renting them out to local people (fully insured) you can turn your otherwise useless clutter into a passive income.
4. You can utilize the social media to generate residual checks. These are much lower cost but still take some time especially in the beginning while you build an audience to offer your products or services to. I recommend a book by Gary Vanerchuk called Jab Jab Jab Right Hook. He lays out a good strategy on how to build an audience by providing value that you can then offer products and services to at a later time. I also recommend Sunny Lenarduzzi's YouTube channel, she has a lot of good information about building an audience.
5. Affiliate marketing is an extremely alluring industry. However, many affiliate marketers don't make much money. If you have the skills it takes to succeed in this arena, you could quite literally make a small fortune. But be careful not to get drawn into pie-in-the-sky hopes or dreams of making money without putting in much effort to build an audience first.
6. Once you have an audience built e-Mail marketing can be a profitable form of marketing online. However, attracting subscribers and making a personal connection with them takes a good deal of work. Use platforms like LeadPages, Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp and ConvertKit to get things off the ground.
7. Like Steven Spielberg and J K Rowling but probably on a much smaller scale you can write an eBook. I've been drawn to the passive income available by creating an eBook and selling it on Amazon Kindle. It is even possible today to have a book published through print-on-demand paperback by using CreateSpace, by Amazon, you can easily create and sell an eBook on Kindle that costs nothing to produce, and a paperback that earns you money only when it sells, removing much of the prior friction it took to get published.
8. Another possibility is to produce an audiobook using a platform like ACX to create and sell audiobooks on Audible and iTunes. If you have a great idea for a non-fiction audiobook where you can teach a difficult skill like stock trading, foreign currency investing, accounting, online marketing or others, you can easily create a five-figure monthly income with the right volume of audiobooks.
9. Something that I have also done and my son has done as well in the past is to create YouTube tutorials. Although this isn't the quickest way you can make money with a side income, creating YouTube tutorials can help you earn a respectable amount of income from ads strategically placed on your video by Google as long as what you deliver is engaging and keeps people interested for long enough. You could also use free tutorials to up-sell viewers on products and services you might be offering like creating an online course.
10. Create an online course with a platform like Udemy or Teachable and leverage some of your skills to create a healthy income. Depending upon how much time you invest in your course, you could make a substantial side revenue stream by creating courses that deliver tremendous amounts of value.

So you can exchange time for money by working use side gigs to create some extra cash. You can build residual income through creating original content of your own. Is there a way to create extra income by leveraging the work of others?

J Paul Getty was an American industrialist. In 1957, Fortune magazine named him the richest living American. In 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $9.3 billion in 2018). He would probably be someone that you would want to take advice from. When talking about leveraged income he once said, "I'd rather earn 1% off of the effort of 100 men rather than 100% of my own effort."

I'm not sure now where I heard that Getty quote originally but in Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiosaki emphasized the need to leverage your income to create wealth.I learned from him that as a sole proprietor business owner, the income is great but, just like an employee, if I stopped working the income went away. I was still trading time for money.

Time for money. If I stopped working, I stopped receiving income. If I wanted to make more, I put in more hours. If I stopped doing any of the 32 side gigs, I stop earning that extra income. Time for money.

I needed to find a way to build a business where I not only earned off of my own effort but where I also earned an income off of the efforts of others as well so if I took some time off, the income would continue to come in. Ideally a business that generated residual income as well as leveraged income.

That started me on a five year quest to find the best company and product line that would allow me to build a business for myself that would generate income no matter if I worked at it that day or not. After looking at many companies I narrowed the list down to about 3 dozen companies, I actually joined 13 or 14 of them to get a better understanding of their products and business systems then finally in 2012 I found a company that met all my criteria. I knew its founder professionally and my family and I had already been using his products for several years so I knew of the quality first hand. I went on to build an organization that generated over $750,000 in sales, I earned a car bonus in my first year using it to pay cash for my Cadillac CTS. Two of my top associates also earned the car bonus as well.

Since then a few things have changed and I have modified my criteria just a little bit. One of the problems that I found is that some of the folks that wanted to start just didn't have the cash on hand to cover the startup costs. Many put those cost on credit cards but as a graduate of Financial Peace University and someone that no longer used credit cards, I was never comfortable with folks going into debt to get started.

Another thing that happened is the pharmacy I worked for in my full time job was bought out by a national conglomerate. One of the first things that they did is have me sign a non-compete agreement that basically said that I couldn't work anywhere outside of my job that was in direct competition with any of their business units and as a national conglomerate they are in a lot of businesses. That basically ended all of my side gig income coming from the various pharmacy companies that I occasionally worked for and it ended my side gig income coming from my own business because it was also in the wellness space.

Needless to say I needed to modify my criteria for the next company that I could work with to build a leveraged income. This time I looked for the following:

• No cost or enrollment fees, franchise fees, licensing fees so there is no barrier to joining for folks living the Financial Peace lifestyle of Dave Ramsey
• No pyramid that requires a monthly auto-shipment
• No selling of lotions, or potions or pills, or quick magic diet aids that melt away inches in minutes or other such scam promotions
• Potential to earn a residual income that comes in month after month
• Potential to leverage the work of others and earn a leveraged income off their efforts as well.
• A business that wouldn't interfere with what I was already doing with my full time job.
• A business with significant tax advantages
• A business with the corporate staff with many years of documented success in their industry
• A business with the financial backing of a publicly traded company so their financials are available to the public
• A business with a simple system as well as the training and tools needed for personal success.

That wellness company that I joined in 2012 to build my side gig income started a brand new division that met all of the criteria of a company to work with. In this new division there's no selling lotions and potions and pills to your friends and family. No magic juice made from a rare mushroom picked by nomes on the second full moon of the Sagittarian cycle. No magic diet aid that you use and watch 12 inches fall of your waist in seconds.

With mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, new technologies, and the switch to a workforce of part time employment it is getting more and more difficult for folks to get ahead so with this new division we help folks build the type of leveraged income I talked about before. Remember the J Paul Getty quote from earlier  "I'd rather earn 1% off of the effort of 100 men rather than 100% of my own effort." The pay structure is set up so you can earn anywhere from 5 to 8% off the efforts of others, creating true leveraged income.  

I believe strongly in the Dave Ramsey principle of achieving financial peace and I'm distraught over the number of folks struggling to make ends meet. I am making it my mission to help folks achieve financial peace.

You've probably dreamt of having your own business before. I know I always did. The idea of business ownership is for you to have financial freedom. To be debt free and to go beyond that, to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle without worrying about your income. To have time freedom. To be able to take time off when you want. If you don't feel like going in you don't go in. To have that vacation home or to be able to travel.

Or Maybe you just want mom to be able to stay home with the kids.

You know we all have those dreams but yet most people in America aren't business owners today.

Why not?

Well for most of us it's because we don't have the money to invest in a business. Many of us are struggling just to make ends meet.

On top of that most of us don't have an idea for a product or service to offer.

We also just don't want to take the risk or maybe we just can't afford to quit our job to start that business because we need the money every month to live on that our jobs provide for us.

I get it folks.

But what if you really could start a business today that literally could give you all the upside potential of business ownership.

A business that could give you that freedom that that financial peace of mind.

The time freedom of being your own boss. Working your own hours.

But you didn't have to risk anything to get started.

If that were possible wouldn't it be cool?

A business that you can get started right now.

Part time.

So you don't have to quit your job. Keep making that income and work this business in your spare time creating that side gig income. That's number one.

Number two, there's no investment required to get started so you can start on your journey to debt freedom quicker.

Next, you don't have to buy products to sell and convince people your products are better than others. Like I said before, no lotions or potions or pills, no magical juice, no instant weight loss products.

You can be positioned in the center of some of the fastest growing services where you're saving consumers and business owners money on services they're already using?

Or maybe you're introducing new services to them that brings new value or better quality to their life?

That's what we're doing now.

Let's go one more step further, if we can offer you this business and couple it with the startup mentality, the sizzle, the frenzy, the fun, the passion of being part of a new purpose and being a crusader to help this new business expand throughout North America.

Wouldn't that be cool?

To have that passion?

You may be thinking, but doesn't it come with risks, the risks of working with a start-up?

What if you could have all that passion and excitement of a new start up yet it was being launched as a new division of an established company.

A company already in business over 20 years. A company already doing over a hundred and fifty million dollars per year in sales. A company already publicly traded on the NASDAQ so you can peer into their finances and learn everything about them.

An opportunity you can start without investing money, start part time, yet has the upside potential of real business ownership. Start your own business inside of our business right now.

I want to help you. We have the track record and experience and the financial backing.

I've got a presentation to show you more information. We're looking for people who want to take leadership roles and help us lead and develop the expansion of this new division.

Established?

Yes

Sizzle of a startup?

Yes

No risk for you?

Yes

Upside potential

You bet.

Come see our presentation at http://RecordedVideo.com and see if it's for you.