Jobs for Teens to Make Money

1 Save as much as possible. Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned. Cut down on unnecessary spending, and you will have more money as a result.

No one ever regrets having saved money. Balance out your immediate needs with longer-term goals.

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   • Shoot to put away half of what you make. If your parents support you, this shouldn't be too hard. Make $100 detailing a car on a Sunday? Put $50 of it in savings automatically and give yourself the rest of the cash to spend.
   • Look for a nice savings account. If you just hold onto money in a shoebox under your bed, it sits there and tempts you to spend it.
   • Set goals. If you have a defined goal of how much you want to save, it'll be easier to reach that goal, and you'll have something to work towards.
   • Don't worry about investing your money yet. Unless you're 18 and want to start stashing away money for retirement (in which case, kudos to you!) just put your money in savings. You don't want to risk losing your money before you have time to put it to good use.
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   Work for yourself. Treat it like a program or business. Babysit, walk dogs, or mow lawns for your neighbors. You can make a lot of money, but it's hard work and could take up much of the weekend. If you get distracted or depressed, remind yourself that your hard work will lead to very real results.
   • Shovel snow. Go to every house in a good sized neighborhood charging 10-20 dollars per driveway, or 30 dollars a week for shoveling the snow. (Charge extra when shoveling snow that has been driven on, which is packed down and very hard to remove.) Do this every time it snows. Someone may pay you in advance for a month if they know you, or if they like your work!
   • Do work around the house. Negotiate fees with your parents for extra chores around the house. Try to pick things they might hire a professional to do, like cleaning the toilets, and charge them half price. Ask your parents if you can clean the house each week. Do your laundry and the dishes. Be sure to do the chores properly or your parents might not think it's worth their money. If there isn’t much work to be done, you might even be able to work out some other kind of arrangement (ex. "If I work really hard to save water and electricity, will you pay me the amount of money we saved on the bill since last month?"). Parents are sometimes more willing to help out if they know what your plan is, so share all the details with them.
   • Run errands for an elderly person. Get groceries, do heavy lifting, troubleshoot the computer, or do any other tasks they might have trouble with. Try to have a good relationship with the person; remember that they might be lonely and probably enjoy spending time around younger people such as friends. (It makes them feel younger.) The better they feel around you, the more they'll be likely to give you for your services.
   • Place a cheap ad in the newspaper or online for something like babysitting, house-sitting, pet-sitting, etc. You can also pass out flyers and business cards for people who need help advertising. Craigslist is a great place to offer your services, but plan on having a parent or guardian accompany you when you scope for work; it's probably not ideal, but there are people out there who could try to take advantage of you, and you want to be prepared. It's nothing to worry about, but it's something to be aware of.
   • Take trash to the curb. On the day before trash pickup, hit up all the houses on your street and ask for a dollar from each house to take all the bins out to the curb. (Don’t ask for any more than this; it’s a super simple job, so you have to maintain a reasonable cost-to-laziness ratio to get anyone interested.) If it works on even twenty houses, that’s twenty bucks for almost no work. You might have even better luck in a retirement community or an area where you know a lot of elderly people happen to live. Don’t do this in sketchy areas or go into anyone’s house for any reason. You might be better off working with a partner in some situations.
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   Work with a group of friends. Divvy up the tasks fairly (rotating if it keeps everyone happy), take your group around the neighborhood after school or on weekends, and offer to get various tasks done quickly for a set price. Yes, group work means splitting up the funds, but it also means you can get a lot of jobs done quickly and, more importantly, safely, which means you will also be able to go more places. And of course, the more people you hit up, the more likely the word will get out that you’re available for work.
   • A lot of people will turn away a lone teenager knocking at their door for fear that it will look suspicious. If they see that you’re working as a team, however, they’ll know you can get in and out quickly without concerning the neighbors.
   • Team up to do odd jobs like landscaping: One person mows, one cleans the gutters, one clips the hedges, one rakes up all the debris. Ask your parents and your friends' parents for all the necessary tools, or rent them from a supply store.
   • Car washing and detailing is another great money-making idea: One person rinses and scrubs, one does windows, two detail the inside. Remember to thoroughly vacuum the inside, hit the wheels with wheel wax, rub the inside with vinyl scrub (if the surface is vinyl), and do a thorough job. Remember, if people don't like your work, they can probably go to a professional and get the job done cheaper. Keep in mind who you're competing against.
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   Sell items at a yard sale. Even if you don’t think you have anything lying around that anyone will want, you’d be surprised by how quickly a lot of little sales can add up. If you have the time, you can also make or build things to sell. If you're serious about selling things, learn how to haggle.
   • Empty out your closet, attic, or basement and gather together everything you don’t want. Put all the small-ticket items into a group to be sold at a yard sale, which you can advertise with street signs and Craigslist. (Often, clothes in nice condition will sell at a yard sale. Worthless clothes, especially simple tees, can be cleaned and sold in bundles as shop rags.)
   • Make a little extra at a yard sale by offering simple, cheap beverages or snacks. If it’s nice weather, offer lemonade, individual baggies of popcorn (stove-popped, not microwave-popped, which is way more expensive), or other sunny day refreshments; if it’s cold or blustery, offer hot tea or cider. You can either sell these at a very low rate (it’s a yard sale, after all), give them away (making people more likely to buy out of niceness and good will), or offer them for free but accept donations (some people will blow you out of the water with their generosity).
   • If you are raising money toward a specific goal (ex. buying an instrument, being able to go on a school trip), let people know; they’ll be much more likely to buy stuff from someone with a purpose and may even give you extra.
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   Sell at online listings or buybacks. If you find any big-ticket items, sell them individually through the classifieds and/or Craigslist to attract someone who’s specifically looking for that item; they will be willing to pay a fair price for it, compared to people at yard sales who are usually looking for cheap deals and might try to haggle your nice item way down). Again, make sure to talk about Craigslist-transaction safety with your parents beforehand or, better yet, have your parents present wherever the sale takes place.
   • Offer to sell stuff on your parents’ behalf. They probably have nicer stuff than you but less time and energy to deal with it. For a certain percentage of the profits, offer to sell the pricey items for them on eBay and the rest in a yard sale. Make sure to pre-agree to things like what each item should cost and how much you should be allowed to drop the price if someone tries to haggle you down.
   • Sell photos. If you have a decent camera and know how to compose an image, try taking stock photos and selling them online. They don’t usually make much per sale, but it’s a fun, passive way to make a little cash while developing an interesting hobby. If you have a nice camera, take black and white pictures, develop them yourself (or get them developed), and sell physical copies, with or without frames.
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   Make crafts to sell. One friendship bracelet, bag of paper beads, or whale made from a plastic straw won’t do much to your piggy bank, but fifty of them sure will (and each one will be faster and easier to make than the last). Since you probably aren’t allowed to sell on campus or in most public places, make a nice collection of these items and include them in your yard sale or, if they’re unique, post them on a craft site like Etsy.
   • Gather crafts to sell. Crafty people love incorporating natural items into their work. Do you live in the boonies, have a backyard, or know someone who does? Try collecting dried branches and vines. Believe it or not, people will pay good money for manzanita branches, curly willow sticks, birch twigs, sections of gnarled grapewood, budding cattails, and pretty much anything else with an interesting shape. (Look around on a few craft sites for ideas and see if anything in your area stacks up.)
   • If the holidays are coming up, gather mistletoe (with gloves) and/or pinecones, tie them into bunches with ribbons and cheap bells, and sell them as decorations. If you want to do a more elaborate project and have access to a fallen tree or log, have one of your parents cut it into thick slices, drill four candle-sized holes into each slice, decorate them with fir branches, holly berries, mini pinecones, and/or ribbons, and sell each arrangement as an Adventskrans, a traditional Scandinavian Yule candleholder. You should do this already in November, as they are used through the entire month of December.
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   Host a party and collect all the recycling. Ask everyone to bring bottled or canned soda (no need to explain why), provide the chips and dips (and a clearly-marked recycling bin), and when it’s over, take the loot to the recycling center. If you aren’t allowed to host a party at your own house, do it at the park and bring Frisbees, a soccer ball, etc. Alternatively, go to a friend’s party and offer to stay behind to help clean up.
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   Work remotely on your own schedule. There are plenty of opportunities to make pocket money without getting saddled with a part-time, on-location job.
   • Work via app. If you have a smartphone, hunt around for apps that ask you to perform small tasks for pay (or will set you up with local businesses that will). A lot of these tasks don’t pay well but are ridiculously simple (ex. taking a photo of yourself at a certain establishment – likely for marketing research) and add up quickly. GigWalk, WeReward, and CheckPoints are three such examples. Make sure that the program accepts teens before signing up.
   • Do online surveys. Market research is very important for big businesses and many sites will pay you for your opinion. Hunt around for sites that accept teens (not all do), don’t ask for cash up front (completely unnecessary), and offer cash (or points you can redeem for cash). Read How to Make Money with Free Online Surveys for more information.
   • Work via YouTube. Videos that are high-quality and that reach a wide audience can be easily monetized. That's because YouTube begins showing advertisements before the video if it's popular, and you are entitled to cut of whatever advertising money they make. You'll probably have to invest in a video camera, editing equipment, and know what makes a video go viral, but it could be worth it.
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   Participate in local studies. Not all will be open to teens, but whenever you do get a hit, you can make a decent wad of cash for a very small time investment.
   • Look for focus groups in your area. Focus groups are simply group surveys done in-person for marketing research – and, unlike online surveys, often pay between forty and one hundred dollars an hour. Since teens are seen as a very valuable marketing demographic, you might be eligible to participate in your area.
   • Look for medical studies in your area. Before you get weirded out, know that not all medical experimentees are forced to take trial medications or get injections in their eyeballs; some studies are as simple as being monitored while performing a task on a treadmill or even serving as a healthy control for an experiment regarding an illness. Search with a local medical research center or medical college for legitimate studies and, if possible, ask to be put on a call list for simple, non-invasive experiments.
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    Get paid to do something you’re already working on. If you're talented at sports or games, participate in tournaments. You might even be able to get a weekend job officiating sporting events. If you’re very good at a sport or a subject in school, find out what the local rules are for charging a small fee for tutoring. You may not be able to work or advertise on campus, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work privately with another student at a public library or one of your houses, for example.
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    Hold a fundraiser. If you’re committed to a worthwhile personal cause (i.e. not creating an iPod fund), consider coming right out and asking people for money. Make sure to clearly outline your ultimate goal, your step-by-step plan for raising the money, and exactly how the funds will be used; nobody wants to throw money at a half-baked concept for someone they may not even know. Go door-to-door, throw a bake sale or car wash, do a jog-a-thon, or even try to raise money on an online fundraising site like GoFundMe. Ask for your parents’ advice on how to do this tastefully and non-intrusively, as they’ve probably dealt with fundraisers before and can give you pointers on what works and doesn’t.

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10 Ways to Make More Money Selling Used Cars

Everybody dreams of that lottery win that brings you millions and ends all your problems in one clean financial strike. But of course, most people are smart enough to know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Supplementing your income is possible, but it will take some time and effort. Still, why not do something that you actually like and doesn’t require you to drop your day job.

If you know everything there is about Ford Mustangs, MG Midgets or BMW M3, why not trade used cars on the weekends to supplement your income and rekindle your passion. Obviously, all business involves rick, so if you’re not willing to lose your money, then you’re better off leaving it in the bank. But we think these tips will help you maximize your profits.

1. Buy Low Sell High

⌕ The only way to make money

It might sound like we’re stating, but if you want to maximize your profits, you’ve got to buy a car as cheaply as possible and sell it for the highest amount of money. To do this, emotions need to be taken out of the equation; you can’t simply buy a car that you like in the hopes of finding the right person to pass it on to.

Just like the stock market, the used car market has a bit of an ebb and flow to it. Usually, both used and new cars are tricky to shift in the January to March period, which means it might be a good time to pick up a bargain.

Cars are connected to everything else that is bought using large amounts of money, so if a housing or banking crisis is on the way, expect people’s desire to buy automobiles to suddenly drop. When the 2008 financial crisis became widespread in the media, people advertised their motors for as little as half of what they were worth just to ensure they wouldn’t be swamped by their bank loans. They say hindsight is 20/20, but we think you’ll agree that was a bad idea.

2. Go Online

⌕ eBay

The days of dodgy car dealers and quick talking scammers are mostly behind us. Going online could yield much better finds than sifting through the weekly magazines in the hopes of finding. Of course, you still need to visit the car you want to buy and check if the description was accurate, but online auctions provide huge benefits.

For starters, since more cars are advertised online than anywhere else, the market is fairer and less prone to wild fluctuations. Some online auctions provide statistics about the average prices some cars sold for during a year, which can prove very helpful.

In addition, because there’s such an abundance of cars on eBay you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a bargain nobody else sees once in a while.

3. Trust Your Instinct

The blinking of an eye and the fidgeting of fingers has nothing to do with the nuts and bolts of an automobile, but you should always trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right about the way a seller is acting, just walk away.

If you’ve missed out on a good deal, you can always call him again, but if you’re right you could save yourself a lot of headaches.

4. Check Twice, Buy Once

The most desirable cars on the planet deserve their status because they are fast and fun. That’s why most have probably been street-raced and could have sustained major damage. A few dings here and there are a good indication of a honest car, but always take your car to a mechanic you know and have it checked out for rust and structural problems.

Buy with your head. Always inspect every fault and consider how much it would cost to put right. If it’s more than what you’re going to make in the end, walk away.

5. Stay Away from Complexity

The difference between a $500,000 and a $1 million home is in the fit and finish. It’s basically the same story with classic cars, which is why you should stay away from the more complex cars out there.

A faulty window powered sunroof switch could give your buyer just the leverage he needs to pinch your pennies away. Cars like the old BMW 8 Series might seem like V12 performance bargains of the century, but they’re really not. One faulty engine management computer could cost you more than the car itself and turn it into a total write-off. Which brings us to our next point…

6. Life in Classic Is Fantastic

⌕ Ford Thunderbird

New cars tend to lose at least 40% of their value within the first three years. That means that if you buy a used VW Golf, it could lose 10% of its value by the time you sell it.

Classic cars are a different story. They’ve already done most of their depreciating already. Some have said that buying these retro automobiles is a better investment than gold. That can only be true if you know what you’re doing.

We think the key is to look for the modern classics right before they get their status. The best way to do this is to check out major tuning shows. If for instance the old VW Scirocco make a huge showing at the Worthersee GTI Meet, you know what to look for.

7. DIY

Probably the biggest way to make a profit in the used car business is to take out the spanners and fix things yourself. Specializing in VW Beetle service and maintenance for example could make the difference between doubling your investment and going broke.

This comes with the added benefit that if the job is done right, you might get a profitable call from your client a few years to service that Beetle once more.

8. Multiply and Think Bigger

Say you’re a self-employed car mechanic. You make money by the hour fixing people’s cars. If you hire somebody, that basically means you’ve doubled the amount of profitable hours your have. Most of the time, this means you’re going to make more money. It’s the same selling cars.

If you’ve learned everything there is about say the VW Golf V from a previous successful sale, than you need to capitalize and increase your success by doing that once again.

You did a lot of work on your first car, learning how to take the trim off to change a light bulb or how to change out a radio CD player for a navigation system. So the next time, you’re going to spend far less time because you know what you’re doing.

9. Failure Is an Option

⌕ ..but it's never fun

Business is business, so failure is going to inevitably happen. Don’t let yourself be bummed out by that one time you bought a lemon and find the best way to quickly change your luck.

Nobody likes to fail. To a person who want to be a little bit more successful in life, failure is gut-wrenching.

But as long as you keep your business small and do buy used Ferrari and Lamborghinis, you’re going to be OK. In the worst-case scenario, you’ve taken two steps back and need to rethink your strategy.


10. Talk to People, Advertise

Owners’ clubs know pretty much everything there is, from where to find the cheapest spares to what model years to avoid and which to seek out. They know what it takes to refurbish spokes on the E-Type Jaguar and how to fit a non-original Ford Mustang bumper.

They’re also the best people to talk to when you want to sell a car. Advertising is just as important as buying and fixing. Inside information about specialist auction sites for classic cars can prove to be a life saver. Whichever website you chose, always go for the best quality photos to attract the most buyers.

We hope this article inspired you to go out there, combine your work and your hobby and supplement your income.

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How to Make Money at Home

Most of us love the idea of earning extra income or quitting our full-time jobs altogether and working from home. But aren’t all the home-based opportunities just scams?

Not at all. There are plenty of authentic and reliable ways to make money by working from home. The secret is knowing how to separate the scams from the real jobs.
Here’s a hint: Legitimate jobs will typically never require you to pay a fee to get more information, and they don’t come in unsolicited junk e-mail messages.

Still, there’s plenty of earning potential in working from home. "Companies are learning they can save a lot of money by hiring home-based working moms to do projects such as word processing, writing, computer programming, even tutoring," says Lesley Spencer Pyle, founder of Home-Based Working Moms ( hbwm.com).
Most of the jobs listed below require an up-to-date computer, a high-speed Internet connection, a phone with a dedicated land line and a quiet place to work. Imagine reporting to work in your pajamas!
Customer service rep
Many companies, such as J. Crew, Express Jet, 1-800-flowers, and even the IRS, outsource customer service operations to third-party companies who then hire home-based workers or "agents" to take calls and orders. When you call 1-800-flowers, you may be speaking with Rebecca Dooley, a retired police officer and employee of Alpine Access, a major call center service. When you dialed the number, your call was automatically routed to Rebecca’s spare bedroom in Colorado.
Alpine Access currently employs more than 7,500 work-at-home customer service agents who take in-bound calls (there’s no outbound or cold calling) for dozens of companies. "This works perfectly for me because I can set up my hours around my family’s busy lifestyle," says Rebecca, who usually works 20 to 32 hours a week, depending on her schedule.
While the typical hourly rate is about $9, Alpine Access agents can earn up to $20 an hour with incentives and bonuses. Rebecca also receives benefits and a matching 401(k) plan. (Some companies consider their staff independent contractors, so they don’t provide benefits.) Go toalpineaccess.com. Other companies that hire virtual call agents:

• LiveOps.com
• Arise.com
• WestatHome.com
• WorkingSolutions.com
• RepsforRent.com
• ACDDirect.com

Telemarketer
To do this job, you need a pleasant voice and personality, and really thick skin—you’re bound to encounter some hostility. Still, it’s a good way to earn income. Many large companies now outsource their cold-calling campaigns to third parties who hire home-based workers to place the calls. Telemarketers are typically paid by the hour, and they may earn incentives and commission based on performance.
Companies hiring home-based workers include West.com, Telereach.com and Intrep.com. Apply on their websites. Keep in mind that a legitimate company will typically not require you to pay a fee to get information or leads, and will explain how to apply, exactly what is required and what to expect.
Online juror
Companies will pay you to sit on mock juries to give attorneys and other jury consultants feedback on cases they are currently handling. Think of these as focus groups. The cases are real, but your verdict will do little more than give those involved a prediction of how things might go. You can earn fees ranging from $5 to $50. Be sure to read all the disclaimers and details. Go to:

• ejury.com
• onlineverdict.com

Photo by: © Comstock

No matter what your area of interest or expertise, if you have the desire to work from home, someone, somewhere, has work for you that uses your skills and natural talents. If you remain diligent and flexible, you’ll find it. And you won’t have to spend nearly $4 a gallon to get to work.
To avoid work-at-home-scams
It's not always easy to figure out if a company is legitimate. Try these tips from the Attorney General of the State of New York:

Check with the Better Business Bureau in your area and the area in which the company is located.

Ask questions, including: what specific tasks you'll have to perform; whether you will be paid by salary or commission; and who will pay you. Also, ask about the total cost to you, including supplies and equipment.

Be wary of overstated claims of prodcut effectiveness, exaggerated claims of potential earnings, and demands that you pay for something before instructions or products are provided.

Be wary of personal testimonials that never actually identify the person so you can't investigate further.

Contact your state Attorney General's consumer help line if you believe you've been victimized by a work-at-home scheme.


Survey Taking
I'd pretty much ruled out survey taking as a legitimate way to earn money from home, but then I heard from Bonnie Alcala. She and her daughter Andrea Spain, an elementary school substitute teacher, take surveys online for fun and a little profit. They are careful to avoid any scams by refusing to pay an upfront fee or other charge. Bonnie and Andrea pocket around $100 a month for spending two hours a week taking surveys, which gives each of them extra pin money. In addition, they collect all kinds of gift cards and other prizes.
If you've got a little spare time and want to save up a stash of cash for holiday shopping or even a family vacation, here are Bonnie and Andrea's favorite survey sites:
npdor.com
surveysavvy.com
acop.com
viewpointforum.com
epoll.com
greenfieldonline.com
mysurvey.com
Writer, Editor, Proofreader
Everyone says you're a fantastic writer, so isn't it about time you got paid? For some content submissions at associatedcontent.com, you might get cash as well as a monthly bonus. If you have experience as a freelance copy editor, writer or proofreader, go to editfast.com. Also, CyberEdit.com hires writers and editors to work for clients. Rates vary between $15 and $25 an hour.

Cyber Crafter
If you're a crafter in search of customers, the internet is your showcase, and not only at auction sites like eBay.
Even though Jamie Beck of WaxingMoonCreations.com and DeWitt Young of ObviousFront.etsy.com have never met, they have something in common: They turn their crafts into cash in cyberspace. Both have booths at Etsy.com's Craft Mall, an amazing place where more than 10,000 artisans and crafters offer their goods for sale.
Jamie creates beautiful clean-burning, soy-based candles from her home in California. DeWitt turns salvaged parts from old TVs and VCRs into artsy necklaces, earrings and figures. "Etsy is a fabulous venue for crafters," says Jamie. "The site is designed for customers to purchase original arts and crafts from artisans. I've found that joining groups with other Etsy crafters for support has been very valuable."
Go back for a recap of resources to make money from home.

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How To Make Money Without A Job

Before joining the staff of Forbes in July of 2011, I was happily self-employed for 23 years. For much of this time my husband and I ran two mostly unrelated home-based businesses. He worked in his office in the front of the house, while I was in mine across the hall. Our office doors were usually closed and we knocked before interrupting each other. Until our son was old enough to go to school, we had a full-time babysitter to take care of him downstairs while we worked upstairs. Our only break during the workday was to eat lunch with our child.

Once you've landed an assignment, you can juggle deadlines and delegate some of the work if necessary. Credit: Peter Till / Getty Images

Upon observing our traffic patterns, our house painter once said, “It’s like you’re in an office!“ Others remarked about our discipline. We didn’t have a choice. If we didn’t produce, we didn’t get paid, and we needed that money to live on. So for all the flexibility about setting our own hours and balancing work and family, we didn’t vary much from the routine. If we took time off to see the class play or take our son to the pediatrician, we made up for it in the evening or on weekends. Come to think of it, we worked a lot of evenings and weekends anyway.

With widespread layoffs pushing many people into business for themselves, we hear from a lot of folks who are wondering how to set up shop and structure their new work life. We tell them that self employment can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, with higher highs and lower lows then you’re probably used to. Whether you want to start something on the side or say goodbye to corporate life forever, here are some tips for starting your own business.
Leave yourself a financial safety net. While creditors require you to pay promptly, most of your own clients won’t rush to compensate you. Even if you write “payment due in 30 days” on your invoice, it’s a rare client that sticks to that time frame. Schedules of 60 or even 90 days are all too common. Complaining about tardy payment or imposing a late charge could drive business away. To minimize tensions while you wait for the work to come in — and then wait to get paid — set aside enough money to cover six months of expenses (a year is even better).
Do what you know. Don’t waste savings on buying an existing business or a franchise. Instead, get ready for what Arlington Heights, Ill. new-business consultant Jeff Williams has dubbed the “scratch startup.” Williams counsels “desperation entrepreneurs”—laid-off employees who aren’t likely to get back into the corporate world. He tells them to sell a skill or a product they already know.
Ken Proskie, 59, is a Williams client who was laid off in 2004 from his job as a health and safety manager for a large manufacturer. Working from an office in his Evanston, Ill. home, he began pitching his services to a network of 300 colleagues from professional associations. After three years, Proskie says, he matched his corporate salary and today has more than enough work. “Now I wish I had made the transition five or ten years sooner,’’ he says. It would have given him time to take on employees and expand.
Don’t bet your savings on a long-shot new venture either. New York financial planner Karen C. Altfest says she has one 70-year-old client who can’t retire yet because she sank all her money into a perfume business startup—in her 60s. Although she worked very hard in the enterprise for two years, going from store to store, it bombed; turned out not enough people liked her scents.
Find a comfortable workspace. It’s important to choose a spot where you won’t have a lot of interruptions and distractions. Working at home avoids the need to pay office rent and makes you eligible for tax write offs. But you must jealously guard your work time, which means limiting trips to the refrigerator, telling friends and family you can’t chat during the workday, and explaining to the UPS guy that you won’t accept packages for neighbors. If you find you are unable to be productive at home, consider working from another location.
Spend judiciously. New technologies and social media continue to reduce the costs of starting and operating a small business. Put seed money towards equipment that can help you embrace technology: laptop, iPad and smartphone. You’ll want to buy a comfortable work chair, if you don’t already have one, but there’s no need to pay top dollar for other furniture. With so many companies scaling back, there are plenty of good deals on secondhand equipment. Try auctions (live or online), going-out-of-business sales and used office furniture stores.
Create digital footprints. These days if people can’t find you on Google, they might decide you don’t exist. Build a Web site. Then get busy online. Social media like LinkedIn and Twitter, along with the websites and Listservs of many professional associations, make low-cost networking and business-building far easier. If you’re already using Facebook FB -1.1% for your personal life, think about creating a separate page for your business. While some business owners limit their tweets to shop talk, others use Twitter to develop a broader persona. (See my post, “How To Grandstand (Gracefully) On The Web.”)
For professionals, there are a few sites that rival LinkedIn. Write your profile, join groups in your field of interest. Then chime into the discussions. Being the boss is not a job for people who are shy about blowing their own horns, but self-promotion shouldn’t be all you do. As with networking in person, helping other people is part of the game.
Present a professional image. Answer all phone calls by stating your name or the name of your business. Avoid referring to yourself as a “freelancer.” (Instead, use your company name, say you’re a consultant, self-employed, or in business for yourself.) When you finally meet in person, follow these tips to make sure your body language reinforces the good impressions you’ve already made.
Go after more work than you can handle. In the early stages, running your own business is a lot like being a lonely Maytag repairman who’s always waiting for the phone to ring. Many of your marketing efforts won’t lead to business right away, and even promising “nibbles” may not pan out. So hedge your bets by pursuing many avenues at a time. Once you’ve landed an assignment, you can juggle deadlines and delegate some of the work if necessary.
Charge what the market will bear. While eager to bring in work, you don’t want to sell yourself short. Yet you know that bidding too high could drive away business. If you can roughly estimate the time you’ll need to spend, charge a lump-sum. Lump-sum fees are potentially more lucrative, especially if you’ve done the kind of work before and don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Another advantage is that clients don’t know exactly how long the project takes you. Therefore, they may be willing to pay more, in effect, than if you charge by the hour.
On the other hand, lump sums are risky if you don’t know — or have no control over — how much time you must put in. Here, the risk is that the client may demand more work (like endless changes). What sounded like good money when you bid on the job can quickly turn into slave wages.
So if you’re unsure about the scope of work, charge by the hour. To figure your hourly rate, take your most recent salary and divide it by 2,000 hours/year (that’s 40 hours per week for 50 weeks). Increase that sum by 30% to cover your expenses — most notably health insurance.
Once you put your price on the table, be open to negotiation. If the client objects to the fee and you really want the job, you could say, “I don’t want price to prevent us from working together. What’s your budget?” Meanwhile, ask yourself whether there are other advantages to the project. Your first goal, especially the beginning, is to gain experience and build relationships. Do good work that keeps clients happy and, chances are, they’ll send more business your way. At that point, you’ll have plenty of time to raise your rates.
Get help as you need it. By hiring subcontractors when you don’t have time to do everything yourself, and bringing in consultants if your own expertise falls short, you free yourself to go after other money-generating pursuits. Call upon extra hands (including students and hourly workers) for time-consuming chores. You can put together a virtual staff to handle everything from research to Web design.
Build a support team. Exchange ideas and leads with other business owners in your area. Surround yourself with people who believe in your ability to be successful. Be prepared for the inevitable downswings: you will want to have an optimistic friend or family member around who can be your cheerleader during these times.
Keep in mind that there is no preset formula for success. You may need to modify your plans – and your expectations – until you find what works best. No matter what, though, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re in charge. And when You & Co. does better than you ever dreamed, you’ll have yourself to thank.
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Archive of Forbes Articles By Deborah Jacobs
Deborah L. Jacobs, a lawyer and journalist, is the author of Estate Planning Smarts: A Practical, User-Friendly, Action-Oriented Guide. You can follow her articles on Forbes by clicking the red plus sign or the blue Facebook “subscribe” button to the right of her picture above any post. She is also on Twitter and Google+

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How to Make Money on Your Lunch Break

How do you spend your lunch break? Taking a turn round the park? Checking Facebook? Catching up on the work you should've done in the morning? All of these options have their place, but here's something else you can be doing: Making money.

There are more ways to earn some extra dollars from the comfort of your office chair than ever before, thanks to the all-encompassing power of the internet. That said, there's no magic formula here—you'll need a bit of persistence and imagination to start turning your lunch break into dollars and cents.

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1. Freelance your skills

The number of freelancers in the workforce is growing, and if you've got a skill—whether it's writing, coding, designing or something else—chances are you can find some work. Get yourself a professional-looking website (or at the very least, Twitter profile) and start pitching. Sites such as Freelancer.com sometimes make the process easier, though there can be a lot of junk to wade through first, depending on your particular niche. Twitter is another useful tool for searching for freelancing opportunities, though again the signal-to-noise ratio is somewhat overwhelming unless you add a few more specific keywords.

Of course, you don't have to spend your lunch hour working on small projects—the 60 minutes you have to yourself can be used to work on something much bigger, such as that novel you've always been meaning to write. Self-publishing is easy, too—if no one likes your writing, start your own blog. If no one picks up your designs, put them on t-shirts and sell them yourself on CafePress. Photographers have plenty of options for selling their pictures, including Flickr.

With the office internet connection to hand, you can work for someone hundreds of miles away, but don't dismiss the local option. Does your church need a new logo? Would your local sandwich shop appreciate some help with setting up a website? Even if you're not a HTML genius you may well know more about WordPress than they do. Word-of-mouth recommendations can then lead to more opportunities.

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2. Give your opinions

Even if no one in the office ever listens to what you've got to say, your opinion is more valuable than you might think—and people are willing to pay for it. SliceThePie, for example, will pay you to listen to and rate unsigned bands, with the amount you earn dependent on the length and quality of your review.

Filling out online surveys doesn't bring in a huge amount of cash, but it's not difficult to do and is certainly better than nothing. Stick to the bigger, more reputable survey companies such as Opinion Outpost and Springboard America, and avoid sites that ask you for an up-front payment. Gift vouchers are a common form of payment, so you can pick up some free music or movie rentals based on lunchtimes spent ticking a few boxes.

This doesn't have to be an online activity, either; check local press for market research groups meeting in your area, where you can give feedback on a new shampoo packaging design or fruit juice flavor. Another way you can earn money for your opinions is by becoming a mystery shopper. This doesn't mean you have to walk into Best Buy with a broad-rimmed hat and enigmatic air, but you do have to rate the shops you visit based on service and quality. As with online surveys, there are a number of agencies you can sign up with; by going through the Mystery Shopping Providers Association you can ensure that they're genuine.

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3. Offer your services

There are all manner of online marketplaces where you can offer up your services to help others for a fee. One of the most comprehensive and well-known is Fiverr—here you can offer to do anything that will fit into your lunch hour for $5. It could be dog-walking, it could be writing a poem, it could be showing tourists around your home town. If you're struggling for inspiration, check the "Request Gigs" panel where users are looking for specific services.

The Amazon Mechanical Turk marketplace is another site you can frequent to find simple, online tasks that pay. You're not going to get rich in the space of a week, but if you're willing to research web rankings, complete short surveys, or transcribe videos you'll have enough for an extra beer or two come Friday. Use the sorting filters to place the highest-paying tasks at the top of the screen.

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4. Sell your stuff

Selling your unwanted bric-a-bric via eBay is an old trick but still a good one; you might get more than you think for that unused router sitting at the back of your wardrobe. What about the vintage vase in the attic? Now might be a good time to have that spring cleaning you've always been promising yourself, and you can use your lunch break productively by listing items and responding to buyer questions.

Selling on eBay doesn't have to be restricted to unwanted goods you no longer have a need for. You can use it to easily set up a storefront for your hand-made crafts, your unsigned band's latest album, or anything else you can make a profit on. If you're going to get serious about your eBaying, think about products that people can't easily get elsewhere.

If you're craftsy, you should also consider setting up an Etsy shop to sell your homemade or vintage goods. There are no membership fees to join, and it only costs 20 cents to list an item for four whole months. Those hand-carved troll dolls will be paying off in no time.

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5. Try your luck

Entering sweepstakes and contests usually costs you no more than an email address (and you can set up a special one for just this purpose) or an entry card, but the prizes on offer range from weekends in the sun to the latest gadgets. Websites and companies constantly try to drum up interest through sweepstakes and giveaways, and even if you don't like the prize on offer you could sell it on and pocket the cash instead (always check the small print for what the prize involves and what the entry requirements are).

Pay particular attention to contests that require some kind of skill, whether it's completing a tie-breaker in a certain number of words or sending in a photo of yourself from a far-flung location. If you can stand out enough, it'll give you the edge over the thousands of other entrants. Looking for local sweepstakes is another way of narrowing down the field. One of the potential downsides is an increase in junk email or spam, but most entry forms include an 'opt out' escape route if you're not interested in receiving future communications.

While they are no guarantees you'll win anything, some people do make a decent extra income as 'sweepers', and it's better to be in with a chance than not. Entering competitions is an easy and free way to spend your lunch hour, and just might lead to your next holiday or car. You'll see contests pop up on a regular basis online and offline, but if you want to track new giveaways as they appear you can use a directory such as Online-Sweepstakes.com.

Those are some of our best money-making ideas for you to consider, but it's far from comprehensive. Share your own strategies in the discussion below.

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Listening to Music and Make Money!!!

If you are looking for a clever way to make a few extra dollars online then you should check out one of the growing number of websites that pay you to listen to music. These online communities allow “up-and-coming” artists a chance to feature their music and get valuable feedback from fans. Your job is to simply listen to the music, leave a comment, and then watch your earnings grow.
You probably aren’t going to get rich listening to and reviewing music, but it’s an easy way to pick up a few extra dollars. Personally, I like to multitask by having the music playing while I’m getting other things done on the computer. It’s a fun way to listen to new music and I, of course, never turn down extra money!
There are a few of these sites on the web, but here are my favorites:

JamBuzzer

This site requires that you listen to the entire song in order to get paid. At the end of the song, you simply need to leave a comment with your opinions (50 characters required). For each song that you listen to and comment on, you’ll receive what is known as a “Jambuck”, an online currency that you can trade in for cash or Mp3 downloads.
http://www.jambuzzer.com

HitPredictor

This site also rewards you with points for listening to music. In addition to leaving a quick comment, they require you rate each song. Points on this site aren’t redeemable for cash, but they will allow you to use them for prizes like a free cd or a pair of headphones. HitPredictor will also allow you to trade your points in for entries to their weekly raffles. For example, right now this is a raffle for a $100 gift card to Amazon.com.
http://www.hitpredictor.com

SlicethePie

You’ll need to spend a few minutes filling out your music likes and dislikes before getting started. SlicethePie is a cool website, because you can either cash-out your earnings or invest them in new bands. This site only requires that you listed to 20 seconds of a song, but you will need to write an actual review in order to get paid for your time. A few sentences will do, but your earnings are directly tied to how useful your review is to the community.
The pay rate starts at only .02 per review, but quality reviewers start earning raises quickly and can see their review rate climb to .20 per review.
http://www.slicethepie.com

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How to make money from a Facebook fan page

1.Selling developer applications

A new method to earn  money with Facebook fan page is by using developer applications. You can place these applications in your web pages and get profit with every sale. Some advertisers also embed advertisements with the developer applications that can result in extra income. In fact, many applications are being developed just to sell on Facebook fan pages. Such applications can make you rich in short time provided you have targeted fans on your fan page.

2.Direct Advertisements and Local Deals
Some of the fan pages are just perfect for local advertisements. For instance, suppose you developed a Fan page for a particular city and succeeded in getting a number of likes for it too. Then you can easily get advertisements from local shops in that city and can make huge profits. Similarly, you can provide direct advertisements depending on the niche of your fan page. Since Facebook has gained a lot of acceptance and popularity all over the world these direct advertisements convert quite well for the advertisers too. At such, they keep coming back to you for more advertisements on your fan page.

3.Making Money with Social Ads
With the help of social ads you can generate profits based on cost-per-click or pay-per-click. You provide spaces on your fan page to the advertisers and they pay you for the exposure these ads give to their products and service. This is a huge market and has a lot of scope for future too. This is because every day new products are being launched and also the advertisers are becoming aware of the benefits of social ads.

4.Promoting Affiliate Links or Referral Links
Another great idea is to promote your affiliate link on the Facebook fan page. If your fan page has fans that are related to the product you are promoting you can witness a number of sales. Suppose you made a fan page about any Rock star and it gets a number of fans. Later when a new album of that star comes in the market you just put your affiliate link on the page. This could results in unbelievable sales as all these fans must be interested in buying the new album.

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