Entreprenuer

I want to make just 1500 dollars more per month. I don't want to work for anyone. What small business venture could pull this off? Any other ideas?

3 things I already do that could easily earn you $1500+/month

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#1. Flip Packaging on Amazon

This has been a very small part of what I do, but in general, you can pick up packaging for insanely low prices on 阿里巴巴1688.com and then turn around a sell them on Amazon. There’s a lot of gaps in the packaging market in the US, and a whoooole lot of Etsy sellers who want and need small quantities of packaging. I order packaging, wrap it up into 6, 8 or 10 packs, label it, and send it to Amazon for FBA.

Example: These 3g jars are $7.37 for a 50 pack. I just bought 50 for $0.81 this morning.

FBA fees are a pain, but you could your bottom line could still be about $4.00/unit easily. You would order these once, wrap them up, send them in, and send back and rake in the cash.

I work in the cosmetics industry and do cosmetics/cosmetic packaging consulting, so it’s easy for me to see trends.

I’m sure you could lather/rinse/repeat in basically any industry.

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#2. Consult, Teach or Coach

Whatever you’re good at - consult at.

Usually I find that I’m more informed than I think, especially to someone who’s a beginner or even in an intermediate stage of learning.

All those mistakes I made in business? Life lessons. Expensive ones.

Single mistakes have been as expensive as a year at MIT.

People pay for consulting so that they don’t have to make those mistakes. You already made them. It’s best to earn some money from it.

The more I learn, the more efficient I become, the more value I can add, and the more I charge. Currently, my rate for consulting is $250/hour (it’s been going up every 3 months, so I doubt it will stay at that rate for long). That would take 6 hours/month to earn $1500. My business coaching rate is the same, but I typically put together packages.

I take clients through referrals and occasionally some find me through SEO. I don’t advertise. Everything is profit.

Why am I so expensive?

Because I have a lot to add and have little free time for other stuff outside of my main gig (my own company). Opportunity cost is a real thing. Take it or leave it.

Similarly, my current speaking rate is $3000. That’s for a 15–30 minute speech. So there, you could earn $1500 in a day as a speaker. But you have to have something to show for yourself to be able to charge that kind of money.

In college, I used to teach a variety of subjects through Cardinal Scholars (which merged with Course Hero). Sometimes I did home visits, sometimes I did tutoring via Skype. I taught Latin, Calculus - actually all levels of math - Physics, Chemistry and a few other courses.

If I remember correctly, I was paid about $30 or $40/hour. If it was $30, that means you’d have to work 50 extra hours/month to earn an extra $1500 - BUT THE CATCH WAS - they were charging $60/hour.

Cut out the middle man and DIY.

Similarly, photography, editing, design.. anything you can do, you can find clients for. I work with a lot of consultants for the items mentioned above at nice rates.

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#3. Blog for It

This is definitely a long term strategy, but it can be done, even if you’re not an influencer that’s on Snapchat and Youtube 24/7 flaunting it all.

Just find a way to add real value.

Choose something you’re interested in and passionate about, so that you can keep writing/vlogging about it for as long as you need to.

Ads suck and will earn you little money - about $0.001/visitor in my experience, and that’s only visitors that don’t use Adblock (which is 50/50 for me). My 50,000 visitors a month rarely earns me $50; it’s usually more like $25. Great.

What really earns money for me is partnerships (and my own products, but my brand was established pre-blog).

For sponsored blogs that I set up, I’ll earn $500-$1000/post, or about $0.10-$0.20/reader (if you want to think about it that way).

For sponsorships that I get through my agent, I’ll earn $200-$400/post, or about $0.04-$0.08/reader (again, if you even want to think about it that way).

That’s at ~50,000 views/month, and it took me ~18 months of blogging 4–12x/month to gain this readership/views.

My blogging has been much less consistent in the past few months as I prepare to launch new products for my line, and it shows in my numbers. I hit the 50k mark about 5 months ago, much closer to the 1 year mark.

The bigger your readership grows, the more you’ll earn. There’s also so many ways to earn money with a blog. My media kit has about 30 ways for brands to collaborate with me. If I were doing all of them each month at the capacities I’ve set, I’d be earning upwards of $25k/month.

I currently only take on about 2–3 sponsored blogs per month, but you can easily see how the sponsorship money can add up as a side gig. I’m just at the stage now where I FINALLY have an agency to handle my sponsorships, so it only goes up from here. Having an agency is great, because they help you land spots with brands who normally don’t do one-on-one sponsorships. For example, this month I’ve worked with Bacardi and Burberry through my agency, and with A Complete (another beauty brand) on my own.

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(Bonus) #4. Sell Your Own Product

Totally obvious, but make your own product and start selling it. A hell of a lot of work, but they only way to take yourself off of the piece-work and hourly gigs.

Making money in my sleep never ceases to amaze me.

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Consulting is obviously the fastest way to earn your desired $1500/month, but you have to be able to provide real value in a tangible way to potential clients. You also have to find them, or they have to find you.

Some unsolicited advice: Whatever you choose, just know that it takes a lot of hard work and focus; it’s really best if you have a full-time gig to keep the bills paid until you’re earning money steadily and stably with your side gig. There is such a thing as jumping the gun.

Cash flow can be inconsistent as an entrepreneur (understatement of the year) so it’s difficult to adjust if you’re used to that #paychecklife. Sometimes there is no paycheck when you’re your own boss. You have to get used to that and not give in to lifestyle creep.

Best of luck!