Side Job Ideas

If you have a flair for putting things in their place and have everyone asking for your help in de-cluttering their house or office, then starting an organizing business might be for you.  You’ll be working with hoarders, pack rats, busy moms, busy executives, seniors, and many others so they can find their stuff more easily.  The benefit of your services will be saving people time and money while reducing their stress levels.

Services can revolve around arranging papers on up to organizing professional responsibilities or long distance moves, giving advice on what to keep, what to toss, and where to take action.  You can specialize or be all encompassing, figure out what you’re good at organizing and begin there.  Additional services can be added later.

The job could range from organizing the kitchen and pantry, or an overflowing closet, to working with an entire house.  Room space planning, improved storage of papers and computer files, personal finances and other important records.  With businesses, organizers can help business owners improve productivity and profitability by improving filing and storage, work flow, and time management.

Other specializations could be working with seniors, students, kids, those with ADD, or someone who’s just plain disorganized.

According to StateUniversity.com, earnings for professional organizers vary widely according to qualifications, experience, type of service offered, and geographic area. Organizers may start out with an hourly fee of $25 to $35, while those with more experience may charge as much as $125 per hour. Some organizers charge by the day, collecting as much as $1,500 for an eight-to ten-hour day.

Getting started does not take a big expense and you don’t have to be certified, although holding a professional organizer certification can add credibility.  The main expense up front will be your marketing to get the word out of your presence and develop relationships with suppliers and vendors for organization products you’ll use with your clients.

Promoting:

After you determine who your target audience is, find out where they hang out, what papers/magazines they read, what businesses they might shop.  This will determine where you might place some advertisements.  Local papers, magazines, Craigslist can be a good start with minimal expense.

Websites can be set up relatively cheap if you have a basic know how or can have a professional designer set it up for you ranging from a few hundred dollars on up to $2000 depending how much designing and features you’d require.   A basic site explaining your services and a way to contact you for an appointment should be all that’s needed.  Add a blog to the site where you provide organizing tips for added credibility and will help place your site higher on the rankings ensuring people will be able to find you.

If it’s in your budget, paying for some AdWords on Google can help drive traffic to your website in the beginning until more people start finding your site naturally.

Of course, the most important form of marketing is your quality of service and customer satisfaction.  Many people can offer an organization service, but the organizers who will always come out on top are the ones who develop positive relations with their customers and will do whatever it takes to get the job done right.  Provide a satisfaction guarantee to help eliminate any doubts in your service.

Referrals are the cheapest and most effective form of advertising you can generate.  Provide free written estimates of costs before you begin.  List services, storage items and their cost so clients will know up front what they’ll be expected to pay.    Many satisfied customers will provide names of people they know that you could contact by phone or mail.

Helpful Resources:

NAPO – National Association of Professional Organizers

You can become a certified professional organizer by taking courses through NAPO.

Dave Ramsey has proven he can run a very successful small business and run it debt free.  He gives some very basic, yet so important, pointers on starting your home business.  Going into debt to start a business without any revenue being generated is a high risk to take when the odds are against you in the beginning.  Be sensible about your strategy and follow Dave’s wise advice -

I Want to Start a Small Business
from daveramsey.com

Doesn’t it sound like a great idea to start your own business, maybe from home, so you can be in control of your destiny, have flexible hours and not have to worry about a control-freak boss?

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. Small-business owners work unbelievably hard, and even hard work doesn’t guarantee success. According to the Small Business Association, only two-thirds of small businesses survive two years.

There’s no magic formula to making a business work, but here are a few tips to get you thinking in the right direction:

Love what you do!

What would you do if money and time were not factors? What do you have a passion for? According to Success magazine, the entrepreneur is the only one who can go from sheer terror to sheer exhilaration and back every 24 hours. It’s a roller coaster ride, so you better love what you’re doing in order to survive it. That doesn’t mean you won’t have bad days if you’re doing work you love. Everyone has days when they want to throw up their hands even though they love what they do. But if you don’t love it and are just doing it for money, it won’t last long.

Save up. Don’t borrow.

Start your business debt free with an emergency fund in place. It’s easier if you can start part-time and get the kinks worked out while you still have other income. If you’re going to quit your job and walk out, you definitely need substantial savings. You have to think about how long it will take from starting your business to the time money will start rolling in and plan accordingly. Never use credit cards for a business loan or to float you through hard times. It’s a good way to cause your business to fail. Saving up for purchases is key. Pay with cash. Make sure your business can pay its own way. Don’t go out and purchase a bunch of new equipment and supplies in hopes that the business will succeed. Start off small.

Do your homework.

If you want to be skinny, talk to skinny people and see what they do. If you want to open an eBay store, talk to people who have successful eBay stores. Talk to people who have started similar businesses, read about the industry, and do some research.

Here’s a quick, easy start to earn some quick cash if you already have a pickup.  Warehouses who receive truck shipments will receive their products on wooden pallets, commonly  48×40 size.  Some warehouses reuse or send the pallets back to the shipping companies, but others have no use for extra pallets and place them outside for anyone to pick up for free, which you can sell to the local pallet recycling center for cash.

Drive around industrial and warehouse complexes searching for companies that do this on a regular basis and soon you’ll be able to efficiently drive around, gathering quick load of pallets for recycling .  Payment averages $2-5 per pallet depending on the wood quality and in good shape.  Pallets with broken boards are usually not ones you’ll be paid for, these usually are skipped over for the dumpster or to be shredded into mulch.

How often businesses place pallets out for pickup is sporadic and some days will be better than others.  Develop a route of constant producers to check everyday as to minimize your fuel costs.

I used to work in a warehouse and had a couple regular guys come by and pick up our pallets we didn’t want to store.  They created a system of stacking to be able to load roughly 26 pallets into the pickup bed without being a road hazard.  Average $3 per pallet and build up to 3-5 loads per day and that could add up to a nice side job.

Helpful resources:

North American Pallet Recycling Network

IFCO Pallet Recycling locations

Recycle.net – pallet recyclers list

Palletpages.com

Computer security consultants work with individuals or small businesses to help protect their private data from security threats involving hackers stealing personal information such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, emails, etc.   Private individuals want to feel safe while browsing around the internet.  Your service can help them feel safer from email viruses and online purchasing security.  Small businesses can suffer loss of private data about their customers from hackers on-site and off-site.  This theft of information could cost the business thousands and thousands of dollars and, being a small business, could pose a threat of shutting them down.   Small businesses such as accountants, financial advisers, mortgage brokers, and law offices especially need extra security on their systems to protect their large databases of client information.

Services that could be offered are setting up anti-virus programs, encryption, firewalls, email security, installations, training, and coach them on the best security practices.   Offer them checkups on an annual or bi-annual basis.

Although preventive services would be key in this business, some people will experience a computer security breach, like downloading a virus, and have lost some functioning of their computers and might not be able to perform any business.  Help clean up their systems to get them operating again., you could also provide backup services as another revenue channel.

Some computer security consultants have been able to provide this service without having any formal education, they’ve gained experience on a previous job or at home over many years.   You could take some formal classes at a local community college or online in network administration, which could add some credibility to your background.  Also a certificate as a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) or Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) could help too.

As big as computers and the internet are evolving and usage growing worldwide, security will always be a big factor and should be a growing opportunity for more computer security consultants. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that network and database communications will increase by 53 percent from 2008 – 2018 and will include security analysts.

From WSJ/Small Business

Picking Your Business

By Sarah E. Needleman

FOR SEGUNDO BALDOVINO, the decision to become an entrepreneur last year was a no-brainer. The hard part was choosing what type of business to launch.

Mr. Baldovino was laid off in January 2009 from a management position at Ford Motor in Detroit. After several months of job hunting, he determined that his best option for working again would be to start his own company. But he only knew what industry he didn’t want to pursue: the one he had just come from.

“I said to myself, I got to do something. I have a family to feed, a mortgage to pay,” Mr. Baldovino recalls. But “I didn’t know what kind of business I wanted to get into.”

Choosing a business to pursue is always a challenge — and it’s especially so when you need to act fast. Some people might feel most comfortable sticking with an industry or field they’ve already worked in, while others may be inclined to try something new. Regardless, there are several factors to consider, including start-up costs and the amount of competition a business category entails, but experts say one of the most important is choosing a path that will keep you motivated for the long haul.

“Passion is critical because it will get you up each morning,” says Nancy F. Koehn, an entrepreneurial historian at Harvard Business School. “If you don’t love what you’re doing at the beginning, you’re going to be in real trouble.”

Last July, Lucinda Sierra turned her six-year-old hobby of making themed cakes out of small chocolates into the Little Candy Cake Company. She says she opted to try her hand at entrepreneurship after she broke her foot and was forced to put her job as a freelance costume designer on ice.

“I never set out to have my own company,” says Ms. Sierra. “Life just pushed me into it.”

At first, Ms. Sierra was concerned about whether anyone would actually buy her custom candy cakes. To test the waters, she put four cakes for sale on Etsy.com, an online crafts marketplace with 4.4 million members. Within less than a month, she secured an order for 150 cakes.

These days, Ms. Sierra averages five orders per month for a total of around 1,000 cakes through Etsy, her company’s Web site or referrals. She charges between $4 and $20 per cake, depending on their size. She has three employees — her mother, husband and niece — and recently signed a six-month lease for retail space at Limelight Marketplace, a new bazaar opening in Manhattan this week.

“I absolutely love doing this,” she says.

Aspiring entrepreneurs who don’t have a long-brewing idea or hobby to propel into a business can always turn to an already-proven model: a franchise.

In October, Mr. Baldovino, the former auto-industry worker, and his brother-in-law, Marty Navarra, purchased a Senior ComforCare Services franchise in St. Claire Shores, Mich. Today, they have six customers and 16 employees.

Mr. Baldovino says he liked the ComforCare franchise because it provides the kind of personalized service he’d want for his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, if his father wasn’t alive to care for her.

“If I did it alone,” he says, “I’d be starting from scratch.”

If you have skills in web programming/designing, writing, marketing, admin skills, or any multitude of business skills you could use in consulting work, sites like Elance.com might be an excellent way to bid on jobs to perform from home and earn extra income or make it a full time home business.  Or advertise your skills on free sites like Craigslist.

Businesses and individuals list the jobs they need to outsource with a budget range they can afford to pay.  Freelancers bid on the task in a bidding forum and attempt to get hired.  You can bid on multiple jobs to work while your other bids wait to be accepted.

A drawback about this forum is it is very competitive and have bidders from overseas as well.  Could be slow at first, but once you get a reputation formed, getting work accepted could be much easier.   Browse through the site and observe how much money other individuals and companies have earned through this site.

Freelancing Sites:

Elance.com

Guru.com

Odesk.com

Craigslist.org

I learned about this type of work at my previous employer.  The company rented fleet vans out of Austin, TX and new vans were driven by folks doing some part time work in their spare time, driving the vans from Austin to any of our locations nationwide, forgoing using a big truck to haul it.  They were paid for their driving time, meals, and a one way flight back home.  Seemed to be a great gig if you like doing road trips and seeing the countryside or it could be a local gig as well.

Most of the work comes from dealerships, mainly autos and RV’s.  If you have a heavy duty pickup with a towing package (including 5th-wheel), your options can be greater in being able to tow boats, travel trailers,  and 5th wheel RV’s.

This isn’t something you probably want to try to make a living at if this would be your sole source of income, but could be great as an extra money generator and could plan vacations around your work.

One tip I learned from these drivers is you’re put on a calling list.  You might not get called too much in the beginning until drivers with more seniority fade out through attrition.  But once you start getting called, always be available.  If you turn down jobs too much, the calls will stop or become a lot less.

If you’d like to get started in this type of side job, call on some local dealerships in your area to see what services they might provide in auto transporting or auto driveaways.   I’ve listed some sites below as well that provide more information.

Some links to get you started:

Job Monkey – Auto Driveaway job info

Job Monkey – RV Driveaway job info

Happy Vagabonds – has a list of transporting companies.  Many are around Indiana area, but might have jobs nationwide or regionally.

Express RV Transporters – this site has some nationally listed jobs needing cars, boats, rv’s, and other vehicles transported from state to state

If your ideal job entails working eight to 10 hours a week, making about $100,000 per year, then being a voice-over artist might be right for you.

If, that is, you have a unique voice or talent.

Jeannie Stith broke into the business through a friend.

“He was doing voice-over work and spoke to our theater class about it. I was interested and wanted to try and he got me my first job and it snowballed from there,” she says.

Stith markets herself to recording studios and ad agencies and works through an agent.

“For commercial work, I have a demo that is made up of clips of commercials that have all the sounds I can do well. And then they hire me for a job and I go to the studio. A lot of times I don’t even know what I’m doing until I get there,” she says.

“I’m my own boss, so I don’t have to take the job if I don’t want to. It’s very competitive, but if you have something unique, then there is always room for someone who is excellent,” Stith says.

- story from bankrate.com

Being a voice-over talent could be a great part-time gig and even lucrative full-time if you’ve proven to be big talent in this industry.  Many voice-over artists have the ability to work from home with computers today, you could get some necessary professional grade equipment to produce quality voice recordings and submit them to online marketplaces specifically for voice talents and/or submit them to an agent.   No need to go into studios to record anymore since editing software can be used at home to efficiently record, edit, and deliver finished work through emails.

Besides a good working computer and voice recording software package, you’ll first need a condenser microphone, which is a powered microphone that produces high quality sound.  You’ll find these at music stores and not at your local computer stores.  Then you’ll need a microphone preamp to boost the signal of the mike so the computer’s sound card can accept the sound sufficiently.  Then you’ll need a high quality sound card.  All this could cost in the range of the upper hundreds of dollars and over $2000, depending how much you need to obtain and quality.

Voice professional, Colin Campbell, states you can earn $50 or so doing a one page text upwards to hundreds of dollars for a multi-page project.

Some links to get you started:

How To Become a Voice Over Artist – article from an artist giving detailed advice on equipment needed for home recordings

Dan Levine – YouTube video from Dan Levine giving tips as an artist

Voices.com - Voice over community where you can list samples of your work and earn gigs from voice over artist seekers

www.voice123.com – voice over talent marketplace