Find a Second Job
Finding it hard to make ends meet? As economic challenges continue to loom, consumers are seeing food, fuel, and living expenses increase. Everything is on the rise - everything except incomes. A second job can provide the income to make ends meet, jump start an emergency savings account, help reduce or eliminate debt, or provide the foundation for long-term goals, such as a child's college education or retirement. But how do you go about finding one? Bartender? Seamstress? Tutor? Retail clerk? Those are a few of the second job ideas that might work for you.
Steps
- Consider earning extra income by bartending a few nights nights a week. The flexibility of bartending can allows you to spend time with family, especially if you can pick the nights you work. Working parties and special events earn more money.
- Use your talents. Take in sewing projects, tutor local students in math or other subjects, or use your love of cooking to make extra money. Offer to cook for co-workers for a fee or find a local construction site and seek permission to sell plates of food to employees. If you are an animal lover, offer dog walking or pet sitting services in your neighborhood.
- Be an outdoors worker. If you love the outdoors, there are many possibilities open to you, for example:
- Make up and distribute a flyer offering to mow lawns in your neighborhood.
- If you are a sports lover, train to serve as an umpire or official at youth sporting events in your community.
- You might even consider stenciling house numbers on the curb for extra money. Put out a flyer and asking people to hang the flyer on their door on the day you will return. You can stencil even if they are not home and come back and collect payment. At $10 per house, you can easily earn $100 or more on a weekend morning.
- Shovel snow away from walkways. It's good exercise and if it's only the walkway, you can easily clear a few a night.
- Clean up at night and on the weekends. Many cleaning services have flexible evening and weekend hours for people interested in cleaning office buildings. If you prefer working for yourself, you might consider looking for a few clients and striking out on your own.
- Consider retail. Retail work offers lots of flexibility for people who already have another job. You can look for work in merchandising, where you restock shelves after normal hours. Many inventory companies also use temporary and part time employees to conduct regular inventories of grocery stores and other retail outlets.
- Use your love of shopping as a mystery shopper or as a critic for movies, restaurants, or retail stores. Look online for companies offering this. Shoppers might also consider a second job at their favorite retailer. The discounts for staff at many clothing and other retailers can be considerable. Be careful that you don't spend your entire paycheck and more shopping for things you don't really need.
- Benefit from the barter system. If you pay gym fees, perhaps you can get them waived by working a night or two a week at the front desk. Have lots of pets? Working at a veterinary clinic might get you discounted services for your furry friends.
- Sell, sell, sell. Many people earn extra money by selling items in online auctions. Some people seek items at local yard sales and shops to resell at a profit; others clean out items from their home. Selling used clothes to earn money for new clothes can be a great option.
- Go green. Recycling can earn you extra money and you don't have to go dumpster diving to collect aluminum cans. Simply set up recycling boxes at your office and collect cans to be taken to the local recycling plant.
- Work at home. Many jobs can be done from the comfort of your own home. Data entry, transcription services, billing, telemarketing, and data collection are all jobs that offer flexible hours and provide opportunities to earn extra income. When looking for jobs you can do from home, beware of programs that require you to pay a fee-they are not likely legitimate. Talk with friends and family members about opportunities they might know about for you to do projects from home.
- Seek seasonal work. Whether it's working for a tax preparer in the spring or a retailer in November and December, seasonal work opportunities abound. These provide great opportunities to earn extra money without making a long term commitment to a second job.
- Be creative. Consider things out of the ordinary, like renting out driveway space to a neighbor who has too many vehicles. Or run errands for local seniors and provide babysitting services to families.
Warnings
- Stay focused on your main job. Don't let the second job impact your main job negatively. If something has to give, it must be the second job.
- Stay healthy. A second job is not worth a physical or mental breakdown.
- Do not allow your second job to become a financial drain, remember why you chose to get your second job...financial gain!
Things You'll Need
- List of options
- Realistic expectations of what will fit in with your day job schedule
