Ok so we are all reeling from the harsh cuts in the latest Irish Budget and with €6bn taken out of the economy just about everyone will be affected. The way I see it is that we have two options. Sit around moaning and complaining about how we are going to be worse off or getting up and doing something about it.
If you consider that a typical middle income earning family with 2 children will probably be about €150 to €200 worse off what can you do to make up the shortfall? In reality it should be easy enough to make this money back, and more, by focusing a few hours a week on setting up a small business.
It doesn’t have to be anything too complicated or that would cost you a lot to get going, just something that you can quickly set up and make a couple of hundred euro per month from.
Sell services as a freelancer
One of the quickest ways to pull in some extra cash is to offer your services on one of the global freelance websites that have popped up over the last few years. Sites like www.elance.com, www.freelancer.com and www.peopleperhour.com all have real projects poseted for people to bid on and start workign on right away. Sure you will need to have some skills and if you are good at graphic design, or web design you should easily pick up work. However even for people without these skills there is often basic admin or writing work available. Another place to look is www.fiverr.com where you can offer your services of something useful you can do in return for $5.
Start an online store
These days the barrier to entry to setting up an online store and selling your own products and services. With something like http://www.bigcommerce.com you can set up a professional lookign ecommerce website for less than €100. If you don’t have any products to sell then why not consider approaching a local business and offer to set up a ecommerce site selling their products in return for a commission on any sales. This way you will not have to invest anything in stock and can test out the idea very cheaply and you are also helping someone else in your local economy.
Make and sell something at a market
Are you creative or good at cooking? If so then why not consider making your own products or using that secret family recipe to your advantage? You can get your products in front of potential customers cheaply at places like http://www.irishfarmersmarkets.ie/ or http://www.carboot.ie/venues/Listings/
Package up your knowledge and sell to others
Do you know how to do something that others might find valuable? If so then consider using your knowledge and running training courses or creating your own ebooks or other information products. If you can cook to a high standard then perhaps you could run kids cookery classes at the weekends, or maybe you are great at knitting or sewing and could run a short course on this for people. Don’t assume that just because you know how to do something that others will do. Use your life experiences and skills to create extra cash.
So hopefully this has given you a few ideas of things that you might be able to do to make back the money the government has grabbed from you. Who knows if you put in the right effort and get something good going you might make even more. When you have your own business you can put in the work and write your own pay cheques.
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