Saving money is all very well but you have to make it first. If you’re in employment, probably the most obvious way is to try to increase your income from that. If you’re not that’s not possible, then you’ll have to look at other options. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for unusual ways to make money.
Before you start
If your income goes up, then your tax liability probably will too. Whatever money-making scheme(s) you try, make sure to check what it means for your tax.
Unusual ways to make money
Here are five unusual ways you can make money. Three ways are in the real world and two are online.
Offer pet-care services for less-common pets
You may be able to find a market for dog- and/or cat-care services in your local area. There is, however, likely to be a lot of competition here. If, however, you tap into another part of the pet-care market, you may well find fewer customers but you are also likely to find a lot less competition.
The key to making this work is to establish both your comfort zones and your credentials. For example, are you comfortable feeding carnivorous reptiles? If you are, are you willing to handle live feed or only frozen feed?
If you do want to enter the dog-and-cat market, then you could offer to clean up dog poop from gardens. In houses which have both dogs and cats, you can offer to check and, if necessary, empty the cat’s litter tray while you’re there. Busy pet owners may be willing to pay highly for this.
Become an expert in IKEA
IKEA furniture is notoriously challenging to assemble but very popular. If you can get to grips with assembling it, you can offer your services to people who’d rather not. Joining TaskRabbit offers an easy path to accessing this market. There is, however, nothing to stop you from setting up your own independent service.
Another option would be to customise IKEA furniture. This is often easy to get for free or for very low cost when people are moving (or updating their home). You can practise your skills on this and potentially sell the results. You could then offer to do commissions.
Help people go digital
There are still numerous documents, photos, cassettes and videos waiting to be digitised. In some cases, they will need to be digitised soon or else they will be at risk of degrading. Part of the reason for this pile of analogue media is that people struggle to make the time to digitise it. That’s where you can come in.
Build a specialist online store
The key word in that heading is “specialist”. In a nutshell, the bigger the store is, the more generic it is. Amazon is probably the headline example of this. There is no point in trying to compete with mainstream online retailers. There can, however, be a lot to be gained by niching down into the areas they overlook. This does require some level of specialist knowledge but if you choose a topic you love, you can learn while you earn.
Become an expert gamer
Computer, tabletop and pub games are all hugely popular. If you can get reasonably proficient in at least one of them, then you potentially have a lot of options for monetising your skills.
For example, you could play games where you need a certain level of experience to acquire certain assets organically. Many of these games allow players to transfer assets to each other. Once you get the necessary experience, you can acquire the assets and transfer them to newer players for a fee.
Other options include giving lessons in gameplay, reviewing/commentating on games and/or streaming your play. This last option may not make a lot of money in itself. It can, however, be a useful way to showcase your skills that can also bring in a bit of extra money.
