Joe's Money

1.  Sell Things You Don’t Use

This is an easy one.  With tools like eBay and Craigslist, the possibilities are endless.  Take a look around your house and find some things you don’t need or use anymore.  Even if you are not sure it will sell, you have nothing to lose.  Craigslist ads are free and reach loads of potential buyers.  If you need an even larger scale, try eBay.  Both are very easy to learn.

2.  Computer Repair Services

Are you good with computers?  Well guess what, most others are not.  Throw an ad in the local paper or again, on Craigslist.  Most of the big box stores charge big bucks for the same services.  If you know how to fix em up, give it a shot.  There are even easy ways to create your own website to support your business.  You can list your qualifications and pricing info.  Be sure to offer in home service.  Most people do not like the idea of a stranger picking up their computers and being on the honor system to bringing it back.

3.  Help With Moving

Can you spare some muscle?  People are often looking for a extra set of hands or two to help out with the ever so fun task of moving.  Movers can expect to make $15 an hour or more.

4.  Lawn Care

Lawn care is yet another task that many of us don’t exactly look forward to.  Put your mower to work!  Start small with some residential customers and build your way up.  Once you save up some money you could purchase a larger, commercial grade mower and hit the commercial seen for some big bucks!

5.  Resell a Product

Many products can be found online at wholesale prices, especially if you buy in larger quantities.  Take a look around, there are tons of options.  Some wholesalers will even drop ship good for you.  This simply means you make the sale and they will ship the item directly to the customer for you.  That way you don’t have to actually order the product, store it at your home, and ultimately ship it to your buyer.

6.  Sell Crafts or Keepsake Items

Are you good with crafts or other keepsake items?  You can easily turn this hobby into cold hard cash.  Some crafty folks have been seeing selling anything from your regular craft items to custom wedding invitations.

7.  Write an eBook

Are you an expert on a subject not as well known by others?  Write an eBook.  An eBook is simply a digital book.  You can sell these on eBay or countless other websites.  I have personally seen many for sale including topics like workout routines, gambling tips, gardening, and many other how to topics.  The best part of this is, once the eBook is created, it is all profit and you don’t have to ship anything!  Delivery is usually via email.

8.  Cleaning Services

Are you neat and tidy?  Between bringing the kids to baseball practice and too many other errands to count, sometimes we all can’t keep up.  Take advantage of other people’s busy schedules (or in some cases, laziness) and offer you tidy hands up for hire.

9.  Get a Paper Route

Shockingly, some paper routes for the major newspapers can actually pay quite well.  The local paper here advertises up for $400 per month for simple delivery.  Check around and see if there is anything available in your area.

10.  Rent Out a Room

The big question…  Is an extra $500 per month worth having someone else in your space?  Depending on what you can tolerate, this could be a very easy way to generate some extra income.  Also, depending on your home design, you may already be setup for success.  You might not even notice anyone coming in or out if you have a separate entry.  Be sure to check local laws, etc before offering a room up for rent.

Quick update on my experiment.  For those of you that are reading for the first time, the goal was to turn my $52 investment into at least $104 to double my money.

The product has arrived.  I have started to list the items for sale.  I have only listed these once so far.  I did get one response from the initial ad.  The buyer was looking to purchase more than one so maybe I can dump a few.  I will be starting to advertise these more aggressively shortly.

Stay tuned!  I will update as soon as I make my first sale.

Just  quick update on the money experiment.

I have found and ordered my product.  I was able to purchaswe 14 units for a total of $52 including shipping.  I actually bought 2 very similar products.

Based on the $52 investment, the cost per unit is about $3.71.

I am hoping to sell the products for $7 and $9.  Again I have 7 or each for a total of 14.

Estimated revenue, assuming I get the prices listed above are as follows.

7 units of product A = 7 units * $7 = $49

7 units of product B = 7 units * $9 = $63

Total revenues of $112 – $52 cost = $60 profit.  Hopefully, this will hold true and I will double my money.  I’m going to be realistic though, at the end of the month, I might have $52 worth of product remaining.  HA!

So…  Here is the scoop.  I have $105.95 sitting in my paypal account.  This is money left over from a few websites I sold a couple of months back and a little bit of revenue from another site that went belly up.

The plan:  Use some or all of this money to flip a profit by buying a product wholesale and reselling online only.  For every $50 I spend, I want at least $65 in return.  Another rule for this experiment, all business will be conducted from my home.  With the exception of maybe the post office, I will not be leaving.  Hey, at least I get to work in my PJs!  I may try the popular CraigsList or eBay.  eBay is probably out of the question because the site is too saturated.  Yes they have the largest user base, but they also have the most sellers making it almost impossible to find a product I can be competitive with.

Stay tuned.  I will update this as I go.  I will reveal the product after the first round of buying and selling is complete.  This should be fun!