Entrepreneurs have to dream big even when they’re working for somebody else and only starting out with their business. It’s this mindset that will help them endure hours of moonlighting and trying to earn a couple of extra bucks to support their business idea.
Even some of the biggest brands out there were bootstrapped while their founders took up side gigs. Apple’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both had jobs at Atari and Hewlett Packard, respectively, while they were building their first Apple I in the garage during the early 1970s. The rest is history, and this example is just one of many that prove hard work pays off.
Here’s a list of jobs you should consider for making some extra dough while growing your business.
1. Make Networking Your Side Hustle
As an entrepreneur, you definitely need to know a thing or two about networking and establishing connections with other businesspeople and prospects. That’s why it makes sense to capitalize on this skill until your own business takes off. Besides, while you’re already at it, you’ll additionally hone your expertise and maybe strike a couple of valuable relationships for your own venture.
According to surveys, 85% of jobs are filled through networking – a stat that clearly illustrates the power of this practice.
You can offer your services to other businesses and help them get in touch with potential business partners or prospects. This will, of course, require you to understand the industry very well, but matching two parties that need each other can be a great way to earn some money.
Another option is to organize meetups and similar events that will help entrepreneurs interact and connect among themselves.
2. Teach Online Courses
One of the best and easiest ways to earn some extra income is by teaching online courses.
No matter what your area of expertise is, you can offer it to other people and get paid for sharing your knowledge.
What’s great about this is that you can find people interested in your teaching services easily on different platforms offering these kinds of services. For example, if you’re a native English speaker, you can offer some conversational classes to people from other countries who’d like to improve their spoken language.
As an entrepreneur, leadership is something that you have to pick up in the process, and this is another skill that you can teach others. Many people can benefit from such a course, as it’s not something that traditional schools and colleges teach – especially if it’s backed up by the lecturer’s own experience in the field.
3. Become a Freelance Writer
As an aspiring business owner, you probably know how important blogging is for attracting and educating your target audience and keeping them on your website.
Again, your knowledge and expertise in a particular field prove to be an asset that keeps on giving – you can make a few bucks by becoming a freelance writer. Pick your niche, write a couple of good articles for your own website, and then start offering this service to others willing to pay for it.
It won’t take up too much of your time if you’re familiar with the topic, which should be the case if you opt for industry-related topics.
4. Try Your Hand at Options Trading
Options trading is a serious business that people do for a living, but you can start small and see how it goes. It’s a good idea because you can do it from home, dedicate only a couple of hours a day, and still make some money.
Options are defined as contractual agreements between two parties – buyers and sellers. These agreements can be over-the-counter, meaning that they can take place outside an exchange, or standardized, meaning that they’re listed for trade on exchanges.
Of course, in order to learn the ropes and make this work for you, you’ll first need to do plenty of research on becoming an options trader. Fortunately, the risk is limited, meaning that you won’t jeopardize your capital if things go south.
5. Start a Dropshipping Business
This is one of the best and most popular ways of making an extra income because you don’t need a big budget and risks are pretty low. On the other hand, there will be 2.05 billion digital buyers globally in 2020, and you can have a share of this huge potential.
Since you’ll basically be selling items directly to customers without having to physically store them in your inventory, you’ll be acting as an e-commerce middleman. Your main job will be to properly market the products you’re selling and find a way to attract customers.
So, you don’t need a warehouse because you forward orders to the manufacturer who carries and ships goods that you’re promoting. As you can see, everything is pretty clean and elegant – all you have to do is build a visually appealing website and landing pages, invest in some ads, and reach out to prospects.
6. Become a Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants can help companies significantly reduce operating costs, which means that there are a lot of available positions in this field. The benefits of this job include working from home, the ability to make a decent income, and an option to choose your working hours.
This is a job suitable for extremely organized people who are capable of multitasking successfully. Your tasks will revolve around administrative work, such as scheduling meetings, taking care of email correspondence, entering data, as well as social media activities.
It can be a bit tough until you learn the ropes, but in time, it can turn out to be a great way of making some money on the side while still having enough time to develop your own business.
7. Create Transcripts
Transcription jobs are decently paid, and you can do only a couple of hours a day and still earn enough.
What’s even better is that you don’t need any particular skills other than those that you already possess. No particular experience in the field is necessary either, but it’s crucial to be focused and capable of typing very fast. You should know, however, that medical transcriptionists need a degree because they fall under the category of health workers, and their job is to transcribe recordings of medical reports.
Your task will be to listen to audiotapes and create transcripts. The only problem is that sometimes these recordings can be bad, the sound somewhat muffled, and some speakers can use different accents.
If you want to make your dream come true, you need to invest in it. Making an extra income will help you bootstrap your business without having to rely on expensive loans and other risky options.
