How To Earn Extra Income

If you’re like me, and you already have a full time career and family, but you’d still like (or need) to add a little additional cash to your bank account every month; you’ve probably been looking for some good ways to earn extra income working part-time from home in the evenings and on the weekends. Am I right?

This is exactly what I’ve been doing for over 10 years now. I have a very challenging and time consuming career in the military. And, I have a large family, who also tend to enjoy my company and attention. But I still make time to earn my extra money every month. So, how can you do it too?

There are several important questions you need to ask yourself before you even get started:

1. How much TIME am I willing/able to devote each night/week?
2. How much MONEY (if any) am I willing/able to invest (or reinvest, once you start to get paid) each month?
3. How much income do I EXPECT to earn from my efforts?
4. How much PATIENCE do I have? In other words, how long am I willing to work, even if I’m not yet seeing the results I’d like?

Let’s address these point by point …

How much Time can I devote?

Let’s be honest here, if you were going to take a “traditional” part-time job, you’d probably be working 5 or 6 hours at a time, maybe 20 hours a week. Working from home, you will definitely have a bit more flexibility, but you won’t have someone to tell you when to come to work,and when to stop. If you intend to make money from home, you MUST develop a schedule (dedicate at least an hour per day), and be willing to stick to it. Also, if you’re not willing/able to devote at a bare minimum 1 Hour per day to your money making efforts, don’t expect a lot in return. Remember, if you took a part time job, you’d probably be making $10 an hour or less. You may very well make more than that working from home … but almost definitely not while planted in front of the TV.

How much Money can I invest?

Oh no, there’s that dirty word … investment. Yes, there are some ways out there, especially on the computer, where you can start a business for Free. But guess what, nothing is ever really free. Most “no cost” opportunities will require a much greater investment of Time … which is one of those things we already don’t have nearly enough of, remember? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to go out and run up your credit card starting a home business. Just realize that most legitimate plans will usually require some sort of up-front investment. And just about any type of business is going to have at least some ongoing cost for things like advertising, gas, web hosting, etc., One final word of caution on this subject … if the “promised” return on your investment sounds “too good to be true”, it probably is! Go re-read the first paragraph above … as much as we’d all like to believe it’s true, you are very very very unlikely to make $5000 next month sitting on your nice comfy couch watching old Rambo movies.

How much Income do I expect to Earn?

Wow, I like the way this is working out … that last point segways nicely into this topic. How much money do you realistically think you are going to make from your part-time endeavor? Here’s a good formula to start you thinking … multiply the number of hours you are willing to work (on a consistent basis), by the hourly amount that you feel the skills and knowledge you possess are worth, minus the amount of money you have budgets for expenses. So that it looks something like this: (hours x “wage”) – expenses = income. Two questions: Is the number small enough that it sounds realistic? If yes, ok, is the number large enough that it’s worth the effort?

How much Patience do I have?

Ok, you know that number that you just spent the last hour calculating and recalculating trying to come up with the “perfect” amount? Guess what? … you’re probably not going to make that much next week … or the week after, or the week after. Yet again, I hate to burst your bubble, but just like almost all traditional businesses, most part-time home businesses don’t start out making a profit. In fact, most legitimate home business will have you starting out in some kind of debt. For instance, network marketing is one type of home business that many people looking for part-time income get involved with. I’ve heard it (pretty accurately) described as “starting out as the worst paying hard work you’ll ever do, but if you stick with it, it can also turn into the best paying easy work you’ll ever experience. So basically what I’m saying is, don’t expect to “get rich quick”. If you don’t have the patience to build your business properly, and/or you desperately need cash flow right now, than you might be better off just looking for a job. (another quick word of caution about jobs … there are very few legitimate jobs that you can do from home … especially on your computer … and unlike a business that Should require an investment, Never, Never, Never pay anybody money who says they are offering you a job).

Well there you go. You may notice that I’m not going to make any specific recommendations about how to make money from home … mainly because there are already plenty of examples right here on this blog. But also, because it really is an individual choice … what’s “best” for me, may not necessarily work for you. In any case, I hope that you’ve found some my advice to be helpful. And I wish you well in your efforts to earn extra income.

Todd