Open A Boutique

The times we are living in are challenging to say the least and downright scary to put it bluntly.

Everything; gas, food, clothes, interest rates, cars and rent (the things we need most) seem to have gone up in price enormously. I don’t know a single person who is not feeling the heat. 

I was talking to my hair dresser and she told me how hard the economy has been on her and her clients. She’s working more, charging more but still not able to make enough money to be able to take any time off. She said she is just working to live and that it had not been that way years prior. She looked at me poignantly and said, “This is not how it’s supposed to be.”

Wow, did that hit me hard. She was 100% right!

Then, I was at the emergency vet recently because my St. Bernard hurt her leg and needed immediate care. While I waited to speak with the vet, a young gal came into the hospital with a sick kitten. She told the receptionist she found the kitten and needed to get it help and find it a home. The receptionist told her, if she wanted vet care, she’d have to pay for it. 

The woman with the kitten said she was homeless, living in her car right now, and could not afford a cat. She then politely begged me, and another lady in the waiting room, to take the baby cat. It broke my heart. I wanted to take her but I was just worrying about my 185 lb. dog eating the poor thing.     

She left, with her sick kitten, and before I could worry about them, my attention turned to the three women, working behind the counter, who began to speak of their money troubles. All were struggling. One mentioned working two other jobs besides her vet gig. Another said she was helping her brother with his auto insurance, and a few other significant bills, and it was killing her. 

I knew immediately I had to put together this guide; 5 Ways to Make Money Without Spending a Dime 

I think the timing of it is critical. Whether you are looking for cash to make your living easier, buy a home or investment property, or follow your dreams and start your own business, cash is always a necessity. 

It can be difficult to cope with a poor financial situation.

The stress it adds to our lives can be atrocious and often times, we don’t even know it’s there. It shows up in our over eating patterns or our short temper or an inability to get good sleep, etc. It can manifest in a multitude of ways; none of them good. 

When we lack money, we find our choices are limited. It’s discouraging when there are things you want to do and you’re unable to afford to do them. There’s a whole world to explore, but you need cash before you can start living life to the fullest. Being stuck, not being able to buy the things we want (or the ones we need), and do things like travel, can be hard on the psyche. 

Wouldn’t you love to learn how to make some extra money without spending it? It isn’t as difficult as it sounds! There ARE ways and I am going to share a few of them with you here. 

Consider these ideas to bring in extra money without having to spend some to get started:

1. Create a service using one of your talents. Everyone’s good at something. Most of us even have a talent that can be monetized. Talents like these can be turned into profitable services: writing, using social media, proof reading, book keeping, website design, public speaking, playing a musical instrument, humor, singing, and much more.

• Compile a list of your talents and see if there’s something on there you would be willing to do. 
• If you are a neat freak, you could start a house cleaning service. You can post flyers on business cork boards or even better, post your service on Nextdoor telling everyone near you that you have a house cleaning business. You could do this with anything; dog walking, painting, handy service, tree planting, piano lessons – whatever the skills you have. Figure them out and then monetize them.  
• Check out websites like Upwork and Fiverr. Here people post jobs for things they need done. Are you good with WordPress, excel, social media posting, photography? I bet, if you think about it, you have lots of skills that are marketable. 
• Most business owners do not have time to try to do everything themselves. Offer them your services and be on your way to making money without spending a dime. 

2. Sell something online. There are thousands of websites which allow people to post classified ads for free, or for a fee, but fees are paid after items sell. Sites like eBay, Poshmark and especially Facebook Marketplace are amazing. With eBay and Poshmark you have to ship the items and that can be a hassle. But with FB Marketplace, people come to you and pick up the items. 

My friend was recently moving from WA to CA and I was visiting her. She had a bunch of stuff to get rid of and decided to sell it on Facebook Marketplace. I figured she’d just donate it but that was not her plan. She took pictures of everything, posted them on Facebook Marketplace, with good descriptions, and sold just about everything. When she was done, she had made almost $3000 and impressed the heck out of me. She sold items like dishes, dog crates, boots, leather satchels, art, a pool table and purses. I am not exaggerating when I say people were stopping by almost hourly to transact their purchase.  

The nice thing is, buyers make the decision to buy the product based on the pictures and description online; before they arrive. Once they get there, provided you have given an accurate description of the item and its condition, the customers hand you cash, or use Zelle, and you just give them their purchase. Pretty much no haggling or tire kicking. At least not the way my friend did it anyway. It was smooth and efficient. 

Now, if you are uncomfortable with having anyone come to your home, I completely understand that. You can meet them at a crowded shopping center parking lot or better yet, in a police station parking lot. 

Do you have anything you could sell? A bike, old furniture, jewelry you do not wear, old car, clothes you have given up fitting into, silver pen set, a wedding dress, set of tires? Make a list and see what items you feel good about parting with. 

• Look through your basement or storage units and make a list of items that could be sold. You can create a small business selling second hand items for a profit. This process is called “product flipping.”

• Post items for sale on sites like eBay, Poshmark or even better, Facebook Marketplace. 

My son recently purchased a dozen small trees on Facebook Marketplace. He had looked for some at a local nursery priced for $100 each. My son just happened to search for them on FB Marketplace and found someone selling the same trees for $50 each. The seller told my sold that he buys them from a wholesale nursery and then sells them on Facebook Marketplace as a business. Wow – impressive. Could you do something like that?  

3. Compile a list of services and sell them as a package. How many times have you stumbled upon a pamphlet with a company offering a wide range of interesting services? It might be a good idea for you to combine different related services and sell them as one package.

• For example, if you’re a good writer, you could offer a range of services like writing articles, editing, proofreading websites, creating resumes, or any other service that could capitalize on your writing skills.

• I know everyone today is using AI for writing. But AI is not perfect. In fact, if you use AI, you really have to go through and edit the dialogue. AI tends to repeat itself a lot and some of the topics don’t make sense. You really have to add your own flavor to the content for it to be any good. It’s more of an outline than a finished product.
  

Could you offer your service to bloggers or content creators to edit AI generated content for them, personalize it and personalize it for their brand? 

That’s just one idea but I have others… 

I met a gal recently named Danni and she has a great love for horses. She’s had them since she was a kid and had an office job but wished she could be with horses all day instead. She decided to start her own “Equine Services” business. Today, she goes to barns and stables all over and provides grooming services to horse owners. She does things like clipping (shaving), washing, braiding and getting horses show ready. She provides a service, to busy horse owners, to keep their horses clean and looking great at all times. She reports her work is dirtier now, but she  love, love, loves it!  And, she makes good cash!!

What type of things do you love? Could you find a way to do it all the time and make cash doing so?

Do you like to set up or maintain vegetable gardens, or provide garden car or water plants or train pets or teach elders to swim or repair furniture? Only you know what skills you have. Make a list and start figuring out how to offer your services to your community. Remember, this is not free services to friends. Instead, this is a way to start to bring money into your household, without having to shell any out.  

4. Offer to babysit, housesit, or watch someone’s pets while they’re on vacation. There are plenty of people who need help with these tasks and they’re willing to pay well. Babysitting, housesitting, or watching someone’s pets are great gigs for those who have extra free time.

• Create a flyer offering these services. Leave them on local billboards, pass them out in your neighborhood or ask if you can post them up on cork boards of local restaurants and community centers. I check out the flyers on those boards all the time for good handymen, cleaners, window washers, pet sitters, etc. Remember to include a good phone number and answer your phone immediately or call them back within 5 minutes!
  
• You can even go door to door with your services if you are comfortable with that. I had a gentleman come to my door right after I bought my house. He said he was a window washer and offered a fair price to wash all my windows. I hired him on the spot. The next year he came by again and I hired him again. I loved his tenacity and willingness to work hard and he did a great job for me. 

• Word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to spread the word. If you do a good job, your clients will recommend you to their friends. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. My window washing friend asked if I could call a few of the neighbors and ask if they too wanted their windows washed. I did and one of them just happened to be home and hired him that day too.  

5. Teach. Everyone has knowledge that they can pass on to others. Figure out what you can teach and then find people who would pay to learn it. Teaching can be fun, rewarding, and profitable.

• There are websites like Thinkific and Teachable that allow you to create an online classroom and teach people a specific skill. These sites often allow teachers to charge their own rates. Most offer free trials so you can check them out and see if they make sense for what you want to teach. 

• Figure out a topic or course that interests you and then teach it to others. If your students love it, and the information is good, your students will recommend it to others and your business will grow from there. 

• If you lack technology skills, like me, don’t let that stop you. I have found that asking my kids is a great way to get free help. They might not know the software, but it just makes sense to them and they pick it up so easily, and then explain it to me! 

• If you don’t have young people around you, do you perhaps have a sibling or friend with children or grand children? I’ll just bet you do somewhere. If not, check out sites like Upwork and Fiverr and post a quick job. You will get offers to help you within minutes and most are a very reasonable rate too. 

6. BONUS: Deliver for businesses like Doordash, Uber Eats or Instacart. I know I said I had 5 Tips for you but tip #6 is too good to not mention.  

If you have a bike or a car, you can make deliveries for people. I have several friends who deliver for Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash and Instacart for extra cash. Some are students and others have full time jobs, but they do it because it provides them with extra money, they can work when they want and there is no contact with customers.  

One such friend was buying a home and, a few weeks prior to closing, was a bit short on down payment money. He started driving DoorDash every evening, after he got off work from his Physical Therapy job. He made everything he needed to get closed on time and get moved into his new home. He’s an enterprising young man.  

What about you? I bet you can be enterprising too! You just have to do a little soul searching to figure out what service you can provide. Is there something you can sell? What could you do to generate cash without spending a dime.   

As you can see, there are many ways to make money without having to spend it.

All that’s required is a touch of creativity and a “go-getter” attitude. Mix those two with determination and the ideas I have for you here, and there is no limit to what you can do. 

Before long, you won’t have to keep worrying about how you’re going to pay the bills next month. Give it a shot!

Use this material to brain storm and figure out what other things you could do to generate fast cash. Send me your thoughts and ideas as I’d love to hear them and add them to my list. 

Maybe none of these ideas will work for you but I hope they will inspire you to come up with something that does. 

My name is Laurie Bennett. I am a life long entrepreneur and business woman. I’ve owned everything from retail boutiques to ice cream stores to investment real estate and online stores and blogs. 

You name it, when it comes to business, I’ve probably done some version of it. I still enjoy learning and teaching others everything I know about tapping into their passion and getting their own business online. 

I’ve been to business school and I know that they don’t really teach you what it’s like to “actually” own and operate a business. That is what I do – teach you what they don’t in business school. I love to learn and teach others everything I know about finding their passion and starting their own online business. 

I hope I have helped you today. Visit me at OpenABoutique or email me at hello@openaboutique.com with any questions or comments.