In a time when many are confined to their homes, making extra money remotely can help.
Recently labeled a pandemic, COVID-19 is spreading a plethora of health and economic concerns. Offices continue to close and transition their employees to remote work, while other businesses are furloughing and laying off employees, leaving them in financial limbo.
In a time of such great unknown, identify things you can do quickly and with a reasonably high level of quality that others seem to be unable to do with the same mix of speed and quality.
I learned early on in my career that I had the ability to write reasonably good articles, documentation and content at a fast rate of speed. I had a process that I honed over the years that involved having a core idea, jotting down notes, turning them into a really simple outline and then just churning out reasonably good words – and I could do it fast. I don’t claim to be a great wordsmith, but I do think I can convey ideas in a personal way at a pretty high rate of speed, and that’s a skill.
My wife, on the other hand, can crochet like a machine. If we’re watching a television program, she’s usually crocheting something for someone and her hands are a blur of activity while doing it. She can churn out all kinds of things surprisingly quickly, given that she’s usually doing it while focused on something else.
I have a friend that can churn out YouTube videos on certain topics incredibly quickly. He has a number of technical skills and a system in place that lets him produce reasonably good videos at surprising speeds.
I have a friend that makes handmade soaps. I have another friend that makes glass etchings. Another friend makes deck furniture. Yet another friend tutors math students.
All of these people are drawing upon skills that they either naturally have or that they built up over time that lets them do a particular task better and/or faster than the average person, usually both, and usually significantly better and/or faster than the average person.
That’s the key to finding the right at-home work for you. Find something you can do faster and better than the average person, then figure out how you can easily sell that skill either to an employer or through some kind of marketplace.
What if you can’t figure out that skill? It’s not hopeless, but it will be a lot harder to find good work at home.
Don’t sink a whole lot of money into it.
Many “work from home” opportunities are actually just attempts by businesses to get you to buy their stuff with the idea that you’ll then sell that stuff at a markup. This usually requires you to invest money upfront into products, marketing materials and other items.
Don’t do that. In fact, avoid it like the plague. In those situations, you’re the customer, not the money earner. If a “work from home” opportunity involves you spending more than a tiny amount of money upfront to get started, then it’s not something you want to be involved with.
A good work from home opportunity is one in which you use a skill and, in some cases, equipment you already have to make money. You may have to buy a small amount of material to get started, but it should be a trivial amount and, after that, the income should make everything self-sustaining while producing income for you.
If that’s not the case, then it’s not a good way to make extra money from home. If it’s requiring a significant up-front investment from you, it’s probably not something you want to be involved with.
In fact, of the work from home side hustles that won’t work out well, most of them revolve around putting your own money into it upfront. Those fail the vast majority of the time, leaving you having tapped your own money, a lot of your own time and energy, and sometimes friendships, too.
Even if you do find something that doesn’t require a lot of money, you can still nickel and dime yourself with little expenses. A piece of software here, a web hosting plan there, a few car trips, and before you know it, you’ve devoured much of what you make.
You have to keep track of your expenses if you work from home, not just for taxes, but also to determine if the time is worth it for you. Here are some good strategies for minimizing a lot of common work at home expenses, but the real key is to just keep track of them and keep a close eye on them.