Working for yourself: ways to earn money

Self-employment is often associated with financial independence and the ability to freely plan your work schedule. Of great importance in achieving such results is the correct choice of the type of activity and the ability to sell their services for a decent price. Otherwise, you will not only not be able to receive a stable income, but also waste your energy, time and money. If you are interested in working for yourself, the ways you can consider earning money should be related to your personal interests and skills, and most importantly, be in demand in the market.

Work for yourself with the prospect of building a full-fledged business

Only such type of activity can be called a full-fledged business, which allows the owner to delegate authority and eventually step back from business, while receiving passive income . This does not mean that initially you cannot do everything yourself. But, if you want to achieve true financial independence in the long term, you need to choose ways to earn money that are easily scalable and do not depend on your personal talents. These areas include:

• Agriculture and crop production. Choosing this way of earning, you can focus it on direct sales to the end customer or wholesale deliveries to stores, which will determine the strategy for developing your future business. The cultivation of expensive and relatively new products on the market (arugula, Japanese mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, ginger), greenhouse floriculture (houseplants and cut flowers in bouquets) is in great demand in this direction (see Growing flowers in a greenhouse as a business ), growing quality seedlings, harvesting seeds and planting tubers.
• Mini-production of consumer goods and food products . This category does not include the manufacture of unique products (handmade). In order for your business to become a business in the future, it is necessary that the production process is brought to uniform standards, and the technology does not depend heavily on the creative component. For example, you can come up with your own recipe for a sauce, sausage or stew and sell it first to your friends, and then expand into a more global market.
• Internet commerce . This type of activity is easy to start from scratch – you can work as a dropshipper (see Dropshipping – what it is and how it works: for dummies ) or organizer of joint purchases, gradually moving on to bulk purchases and opening your own store.
• Household services . The most promising types of self-employment in this area are services that require expensive specialized equipment (one’s own fleet can be formed gradually in the course of activity), as well as services that are difficult to legalize and fairly simple work technology that any beginner can master. In this case, when you hire a staff as you expand your business, they will not be tempted to become your competitor. Such activities include: disinfestation and disinfection of premises, plumbing and construction work.

Self-employment as additional income

The desire to build your own business is not inherent in everyone, but everyone undoubtedly has the desire to earn more than the employer can offer. If you consider yourself to be in this category of people, it would be a great option to develop your own business in parallel with your main job, which will allow you to be more confident in the future and provide insurance in case of loss of an official position. At the same time, you can choose for yourself both a completely new type of activity that will allow you to exist with dignity, and focus on your current profession, developing skills and improving your qualifications. In this direction, the most affordable options are the following types of self-employment:

• Needlework and handmade . This method is often chosen by women who are forced to stay at home on maternity leave (see What to do on maternity leave to make money: ideas for every taste ). For the majority, needlework (sewing, knitting, patchwork, decoupage, felting from wool, embroidery) remains a means of additional income, but the most talented ones completely switch to working for themselves, devoting their whole lives to the chosen business. When choosing handmade as a form of income, it is important to understand that commercialization has a strong influence on the creative process and you may be faced with the need to give up your own opinion in favor of market trends (see How to make money on handmade: creating a needlework business ).
• Multilevel Marketing. The right choice of an MLM company and product type will allow you to easily generate real passive income right at your main workplace, turning colleagues into buyers and partners.
• Freelance. The main advantage of this type of work is the ability to start without investment. At the same time, if, leaving your main job, you immediately lose all the clients who contact you, then working as an independent specialist, you can get a lot of independent regular customers. The most popular types of earnings in this direction are copywriting, photo processing and photography, design, programming, video creation, administration of Internet sites (social communities, stores, video channels), expert services.
• Information Business . You can teach others in various formats (personal meetings, webinars and conferences via Skype and other messengers, by e-mail), as well as completely different skills. In high demand are: tutoring for schoolchildren, business training and personal growth classes, people management and communication skills, pickup courses for women, photography and music classes.
• Service industry. Having special professional skills, you can work in your spare time for yourself, providing individual household services – repair of equipment, nail service, tailoring, gardening services, photography, and cleaning. Such activities allow you to get a good income, which can even become your main one, but if you decide to retire, delegate authority and receive passive income will not work.

Self-employment and the Internet

Many mistakenly believe that self-employment via the Internet is easy money. Of course, you can choose a quick way to earn some money by entering captchas or writing comments, but categorizing such activities as work for yourself is extremely wrong. Creating a real business on the Internet will require no less effort than building your own business offline.

There are several types of activities that allow you to work effectively and profitably for yourself via the Internet:

• Own web project . This category includes not only creating a website or blogging to make money on advertising (see How you can make money on your own site from scratch ). You can create a unique project: a loan selection service, a calorie calculator for animals, a new social network, a recipe portal, an online cinema, a freelance exchange or a game server. All these resources can be easily monetized through the collection of user data and the subsequent sale of this information, the provision of a package of advanced services, subscription fees, and commission fees for mediation.
• Online Services . A lot of demanded specialized services can be provided online. For example, sign language interpretation via Skype, remote psychotherapy sessions, classes to improve diction, making astrological forecasts, remote control of automated systems.
• Hosting sale . You can become a reseller by purchasing a wholesale package from the main server owner and renting small parts of it for individual sites. This practice is actively supported by hosting companies that offer very favorable rates for wholesalers.
• Cybersquatting (resale of domain names) . This method is included in the top of the most promising types of earnings on the Internet. Knowing the most popular site names, you can book them and then resell them to companies with similar names. The initial cost of a domain is from $ 20 per year, if a company is interested in it, it can be resold at a price of $ 400 and up to several thousand.

How to choose the right way to earn money

When choosing an idea for self-employment, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the perception of the business by customers. So, for example, if you are interested in self-employment, ways for men to earn money in which they will be more successful include fields of activity that involve knowledge of technology, engineering and hard physical labor.

Among them:

• car service;
• sale of heating and electrical equipment;
• installation of energy saving systems;
• expert assessment of the state of real estate;
• drawing up construction projects;
• production and repair of furniture;
• freight and passenger transportation.

Men’s ways of earning also include:

• home mini-production (even if it is a cosmetics issue);
• animal husbandry and horticulture;
• sale of goods for hunting and fishing.

Of course, women can engage in such a business, but in order to achieve decent results, they will need much more time and effort, because, unfortunately, most of the clients will not take them seriously.

Considering self-employment options, ways of earning money for women are more often associated with the provision of intermediary services (tourism agents, real estate), work with documentation (legal and accounting services), education and beauty industry. In addition, it is easier for women to work in consumer goods retail, as well as in Internet marketing (dropshipping of clothes and shoes, children’s goods) and any areas that require excellent communication skills.

On the other hand, even in a truly masculine or feminine business, you can pick up a niche that will be an advantage for you on the contrary. For example, in the beauty industry, men can provide services that are exclusively aimed at men (opening a barbershop), and a woman can succeed by choosing women who do not trust men as her target audience (taxi for ladies, female construction teams).

How to start working for yourself without investment

Building your own business is easier if you have start-up capital. If it is not there, it is better to choose adapted options or find a job that will allow you to accumulate an initial investment in a business of interest. No financial investment is required for such areas of work as:

• Studios to promote sites with texts and links. It is very easy to get the necessary skills online, you can find customers remotely on freelance exchanges or by personally offering services to companies. Services of attendants and nurses. Taking children to school, walking dogs, accompanying the disabled.
• Creation and promotion of groups in social networks for subsequent sale or monetization through advertising.
• Development and copying of landings for sale. You can find orders on freelance exchanges or by ads.
• Services of a sports instructor with a visit to the client’s home.

When deciding on self-employment, it is important to remember that any self-employment is a way to earn money that requires high discipline and constant self-control. You will have to perform not only the work itself but also act as a sales manager and accountant, make purchases (if this is a production), be responsible for warranty and financial obligations, study the market and plan further development.