I work full time for a fortune 500 as a product manager in government programs, but I sometimes write on the side. It depends on the publisher/editor asking me to write and what their specs are for - I try to stick to what I know I’m good at (generally erotica) since my time is limited, not just by my full-time job, but by my toddler and wanting to spend time with my family and on my own as well.
I get my book deals and short story gigs based on my previous experience when I was a freelance writer and decided that I wasn’t making enough money so started writing trashy stories, which sold really well. Word got around that I produced quality fiction while meeting my deadlines (which can be kind of hard to find), and things sort of mushroomed from there.
I started out filling in for a friend of mine, running a small water system very part-time. Eventually, I started testing backflow preventers too, to expand a little bit. I still had a ful-time job that wasn’t really related.
But last August, I finally managed to convince the managers of this water system that they really needed a full-time operator with my expertise, and I’ve been doing that ever since. I recently won a three-year contract to keep doing it too. I still test backflow preventers in a neighboring city on the side to keep my existing customers happy, but it’s starting to eat too much of my time and I may quit.
But that’s how I parlayed a side gig into a full-time business that incidentally pays much better than my original career. It was all about falling into the right place at the right time, recognizing when that was, and going for it. Oh, and collecting related education and certifications whenever I could.
Good deal. Note that there is a lot of discipline that goes into determining what “need” means, as well. You need to eat, you need auto fuel, you need to pay your existing bills, and that’s it. You might need new shoes for work or you might just need to polish your old ones. You might need to replace a shirt for work or you might just need to learn how to remove stains and sew buttons. You might need coffee but you don’t need Starbucks. You might need to buy your mom a mother’s day gift but you don’t need to get antique crystal.
Learning how to get by on what you absolutely need is an easy way to get “extra” money without having to do anything “on the side” at all.
People get paid for doing things. Find things that you can do that someone is willing to pay you to do. I watch children, pets and houses. I help people clean and help people move. I’ve been paid to help people put together outfits for special occasions (I have a knack), and to complain about poor service (another knack). I’m an expert with Google, and can type on a typewriter.
I present workshops and give public presentations at local and national conventions. In actuality, I donate my time and expertise, and am given an honorarium in turn.
I paint dolls’ faces and make clothes for them, in a relatively small, sort of high-end niche market. I also make a website or graphics here and there.
Well, yes and no. Answering the side question of how rich people get rich through their jobs, it isn’t usually for working a lot of hours at X per hour. There are basically two ends of the job spectrum: the one where you’re paid for your labor, and the one where you’re paid for your product.
The labor side is inherently limiting in the “get rich” sense: you’re limited by the number of hours in your life. Even lawyers and the sort of people who can bill in the multiple hundred dollars an hour don’t end up in the “super rich” category.
The product side is more interesting. Handcrafted, one-of-a-kind products have the same limitations as labor, but manufacturable products scale: you have to design them once, then you can sell the same product (art, music, software, writing, business IP) or a copy of the same product (physical goods) to many, many people. This is the only real potential for large wealth: note that Bill gates didn’t get rich on his hourly salary for programming Windows, but rather by his ownership in the process of manufacturing software.
There are middle points in the spectrum (your “product” can be the labor of others, for example, and still get that nice scalability.)
If getting rich is your goal, your question should be: “Can I sell whatever I’m producing more than once?” If the answer is no, look for another possibility.
There seems to be an almost un-meetable demand for dog sitters and dog walkers in this town. That takes real responsibility, and commitment , but it can be a great side job if you get a big client list.
All cash, too.
Still, picking up some “cash on the side” and “getting rich” are totally different things. Most people I know who have a lot of money – not like helicopters and yachts, but like a boat and a second house – simply worked a well-paying for a long time, and spent their money wisely. I’m talking engineers, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists. . .the kind of “rich” that most college-educated people can attain.
They don’t turn their cars over every two years. They’re not frivolous with trips or food. They put money in the market early and often, and let it sit there.
They might have paid interest on a house, but they didn’t pay interest on televisions and vacations.
I do mystery shopping and a little bit of online work as well. It’s nice - I pretty much take on things that I can do as much or as little of as I’d like, so I can take a month and do nearly nothing, or I can do a lot (as I tend to right before the holidays) so I can expect a swath of checks coming in next month.
I’ve done a fair bit of tutoring, and taken on part-time jobs filing/stacking books in the university library when I needed extra cash. There’s also delivering flyers/newspapers (always seems to be a shortage of people available to do that job in my area).
In terms of how the rich get rich, I highly recommend the book Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth! by Robert G Allen. (It can be found on Amazon. 2nd edition paperback 2005.) Also, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
These books really opened my eyes to a (to me) very different way of thinking about generating money: most salaried work is dependent on one being able to work, so that if you become unable to work (due to illness, say) then that "stream of income"stops. Whereas if you (for example) write a good book, once you’ve written the book, the royalties keep coming without you having to write more books.
Oops - this will post as being written by** trupa** but in fact this is his wife serious lark posting.
Rick or Gary T have not chimed in yet? I sell auto parts as my main job, on the side I install them for people who can’t/don’t want to. As Spring nears I will be cleaning and refurbishing lawn and garden equipment. Find most of my “stock” on the side of the road or at the local recycling(dump) center.