Do you want to make money on the side?
As hardworking nonprofit employees, or ex-nonprofit employees, we don’t have a lot saved up for retirement. Perhaps, we don’t have ANYTHING saved up for retirement. And that’s kind of par for the course for our entire country.
We try to live within our means. We try not to want too much. But of course, sometimes we like to go out to dinner. Or we wish for a new car. Or maybe we’ve got medical bills or college debt still. So it’s in forbearance. We’ve got a payment plan on our credit cards. But what now? How do we start to save and pay off debts? How do you get more money without exhausting yourself?
So, what to do about this problem?
The first part of this post is here. This post talks about how to find out what your potential customers would want, making a website, and how to become a nonprofit consultant.
But what if you don’t want to make your secondary income stream dependent on nonprofits?
As Cherita Smith asked in her comment, “I worry about the glut of nonprofit consultants out there.”
Never fear.
If the nonprofit nickel-and-diming is all a bit too much for you, I don’t blame you!
Let me tell you a little story.
As a young girl, I LOVED drawing. I would do it all day and all night. Then I would read. And then some more drawing. One year, I made all of the Halloween decorations. And I taped them to the walls with surgical tape. When I was twelve, I was really into pen and ink and long white scrolls of paper. A hallway in my dad’s office needed artwork, so I made a long long scroll of a painting.
I’ve never lost my love of art.
In 2005 I finally created a website for my art. I put my pen and ink, watercolor, and acrylic paintings on there.
I took several classes in Encaustic art in 2006 and 2007 and started teaching people Encaustic art in 2007. Encaustic art is a Greek art which was used for burial portraiture in ancient Egypt.
Earlier this year, I made a new website Encaustic Austin. This website has brought me in over $800 in cash for my artwork and art classes.
Since it’s part of what I love to do, it doesn’t feel like work.
What do you love to do, that doesn’t feel like work? Is it knitting? Could you sell gloves or scarves on Etsy?
Do you love to write? Do you think you could look at Allofcraigs.com and find some remote blog post writing gigs and get paid $25/per post? You could crank out 10 posts a day and get paid as much or more than you get paid for a day at your nonprofit office.
Perhaps numbers really turn you on. Could you take a class or two at your local community college, get a certificate in accounting, and do accounting part time for small businesses?
Or maybe public speaking is your thing. Take some time to see what conferences you’d like to speak at, what their requirements are, and see how you can create a platform to become known in your field, and become a professional public speaker. It probably won’t pay like a full-time job, but can be good to do on the side.
What other ideas do you have for how to make money on the side?