Extra Income Ideas for Full Time Employees

Multiple streams of income is no longer a luxury

During the lockdown of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I realised that having one income simply doesn’t cut it anymore. I started doing some research and found there are many ways of generating extra income after hours.

If you rely on only one income, you are one step away from being broke. What happens when your employer closes down or downsizes? Sadly many companies did not survive the COVID-19 pandemic because they simply could not pay salaries and bills while not getting any income.

If you had another income, you at least had something to fall back on. Now, if that income was not dependent on your location – ie you could do it from home, or anywhere for that matter, you would be able to even increase that income during the lockdown.

So, after I realised one income was not enough, I started looking at alternative ways for generating income, but it had to do something I could do part-time, since I was still fortunate enough to be able to work from home in my 9-5 job.

!!DISCLAIMER!!

There are many alternative ways of generating a side-line income besides the ones covered in this post. You should go out and find one that suits your interests, lifestyle and schedule. It is very important to find something that will not jeopardize your commitment to or productivity in your 9-5 job. Remember, that it is still you primary income, and you need it to pay for your basic needs.

AT THE END OF THIS POST, I SHARE SOME INSIGHTS ABOUT FUNDING AND GETTING STARTED

These are the extra income ideas I found

Once again, let me clear something up before I go any further, none of these ideas happen overnight and it won’t grow if you don’t put some work into it.

1 – Blogging

If you enjoy writing about a certain topic, or perhaps you are just passionate about a topic and would like to share your knowledge, insights and experience.

You can start a blog with no (free websites) or very little expenses (if you want a registered domain for your website). You don’t necessarily need to know or understand the technical details of how to publish or host your website, since sites like WordPress or Wix provide all the tools and training you need to get started.

With a blog you can generate extra income in various ways:

• Selling advertising space (Google ads or directly to companies in your niche)
• Affiliate marketing (more details further down)
• Product reviews

Blogging is something you can easily do from any location where you have an internet connection. You can do it outside of working hours.

2 – YouTube Channel

With a YouTube channel you get to be creative and share your passion on whatever niche or topic you prefer. For me there has been quite a few things to learn, but there are so much material available on how to get started and how to build an audience on YouTube that you can pick it up quite quickly.

There are a number of ways YouTube can help you generate extra income, but your channel itself can also eventually be monetized and become another stream of income. This is done through ad revenue on your channel.

Income generated from you YouTube channel may vary because of different factors – even you niche influences how much money you could make from YouTube.

3 – Social Media Service

I am sure you may already be having fun on different social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Why not change from being a user to a manager.

Many small companies who want to increase their exposure will want to expand their footprint and engagement on social media, but don’t have the capacity to do it inhouse.

Social media services is also a great way of generating extra income, since you can do it behind the scenes and there are many ways to automate some posts and actions.

This was you can help a small business grow and generate leads, while you earn extra income and it doesn’t impact your primary income. It can get quite involved though, and there is a lot to think about, but has the potential to be very rewarding.

4 – Trading collectables

Trading collectables like rare coins (as an example) can be a very lucrative business and it is something you can do over weekends or after hours.

It is quite obvious though, that you will need to know you stuff so you can have the knowledge of what to buy and how much you can sell it for.

I once knew a guy who studied with my brother, but never needed to go work for someone after they finished their studies, since he was generating enough income from trading rare coins. This guy eventually went on to buy a house cash from the money he made from trading coins.

5 – Test Preparation or Subject Tutor

Tutoring students to prepare for tests is a great way to use your knowledge and experience to help younger generations prepare for the future. This could be a very fulfilling way to generate extra income with.

With the technology available to us these days, you could do it online on different platforms and this means you can do it from the comfort and safety of your own home.

My own mother does this with great success and there are even agencies where you could register to be a tutor for different subjects of your choice.

6 – Car or property sales

With the technology available to us these days, you can even do it online, and tutor a student from the comfort of your own home.

In both cases there are many agencies, dealerships an websites in these markets, but that doesn’t mean there’s no space for you. Any business works, if you are willing to put in the work.

You can work as an estate agent part-time and if you can sell a house once a quarter, on a minimum commission of 5%, you could make extra income of R35’000 or more per quarter (calculated on a selling price of R700’000)

Car sales is obviously a little different, but with websites, auctions and private sellers all over the place, there is potentially lots of money to be made.

7 – E-commerce

E-Commerce has become a massive market, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing previously more traditional buyers to shop online. It is not to late to start and there are many opportunities from large companies to starting your own E-commerce business.

The beauty here is that if you can set up a system, e-commerce has the potential to not only generate extra income, but grow into a passive income.

Facebook market place is an example of C2C (customer to customer) buying and selling, and it is very easy to get started. There are other more complicated business models as well, but I’ll just leave it at that since this is a whole blog post on its own.

8 – Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. There are different affiliate marketing models with different commission structures. There are also MANY different products to choose from and you are very likely to find a product you like and use regularly.

Finding a product you use and like is great since you can promote it with confidence and sincerity.

Affiliate marketing is one of the ways I have started using to build an extra income with and I do it part time, since it can be done online and is time-independant.

Most affiliate marketing programs will take responsibility of converting the lead you refer into a sale, all you have to do is find the potential customers and perhaps screen or qualify them before you refer them.

9 – Forex and Stock Market Trading

The forex and stock market trade is both risky and very rewarding means of generating extra income and should not be taken on lightly.

The financial markets trade 5.1 trillion US dollars daily, so clearly there is a lot of money to be made! Many people will tell you it’s a gamble to trade the stock market. There are scores of people who lose money on the stock markets, but there are also people that make lots of money.

Make sure you learn from a few reputable people and organizations so you can make informed decisions about the broker you choose and the trades you enter into.

I started trading during 2020, and if you’d like to register a free demo account and start learning how to trade, click on the banner below.

10 – Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador is usually someone who already has a large following on a social media platform like Instagram. As a brand ambassador you are expected to share how great a brand is.

An example of a brand ambassador is a fitness instructor who promotes a brand of active wear or a supplement on to their followers and that brand either pays them for the posts or gives them free products or pays them commission on sales generated in exchange for the brand exposure.

The reason I put this as a part-time means of creating an extra income, is because you could make this part of your daily social media routine without impacting your productivity at work.

Funding your side-hustle

First things first, you need to lower you expenditure first. Yes – that may be easier said than done. Sit down with yourself and whoever else is involved in spending money in the household and have a serious open discussion.

The goal is to find a sweet spot where you can live below your means. Got it? Good step one is done. For more tips and guidelines, check out another post on this blog titled: Personal Finances for Beginners

Getting started

Step two is to assess where you are, what your circumstances are and to realise you are your only real competitor as well as your own worst enemy. Don’t compare yourself to anyone who seems to have it all together, they have their own problems to worry about, and so do you. To get some more motivation to get started, check out one of or both of these videos:

• Start from where you are | Learn by doing|
• Don’t count on motivation, count on discipline

Your beliefs about who you are and what you are capable of will need regular upgrades as you progress on you journey of becoming financially free – by the way: you can be financially free long before you become wealthy. Don’t agree? Ok, that’s fine – but if you’re interested in why I make that statement, check out my post about Financial Freedom vs Financial Independence