Earning money in tough times....ideas ?

[Áine]

We have all been talking about how hard things are right now.. I am just wondering how we are all trying to earn a little extra...especially sisters in the home ? I need to save for the convention

I sew a lot and have been making little felt baby shoes to sell....I'm just building up my stock for the summer, I will try and take a pic and put up here

[BlaqueCalalilly]

cool ......I sew too but really just for fun though

[boodles]

Here in Mexico people are real big on having things brought and sold to them at their house or at their convenience. I know one sister who makes lunches and sells them to people at their place of work. Others prepare fruit cups/desserts and carry them in the street to sell. Others wash cars in the street. The first two might not succeed in Ireland, but the last one might work wherever you live.

[Áine]

Yes I have heard of someone here making sandwiches or lunches and visiting factories.....that worked out well for them. Washing cars is always good... most of the brothers in my congregation clean windows for a living... but have found that to be hit in the recession, as its a job that many can do themselves.

[ava]

I just recently got a job after being at home for years with my kids. Just started it in Jan, not alot of hours right now, but there will be more hours down the road. Just happy I got something. With gas and food going up, and my husband's income has been stagnant since 2003, we need a few extra dollars.

We also cancelled our satellite tv which has been good, saving money and giving us more time to study for meetings. We have not been able to go on a real, week long, expensive vacation in a few years, but we have been able to do 3 small camping trips a year. Camping is cheap and where we go camping is a few hours away, so it doesn't cost much.

[retroHelen]

We started self-employment as a part of a carpet/upholstery-cleaning franchise. Each year we went to the city of Carlisle to have the cleaning machine, hired from them, serviced at the HQ, pay our yearly subscription to the fanchise and collect advertising literature. One year we went and left our machine with them and paid subscription, went off to get a meal while they serviced the machine as usual. After 2 hours we returned to get the serviced machine and collect our literature to find the company had "moonlighted" and the offices were empty and they had gone with our money and equipment - and everyone elses! As 'self-employed' we couldn't get any government unemployment money for 13 weeks, so we were on skid row.We had stalls at garage sales/boot fairs ourselves. I saved seeds from fruit and veg that we bought to eat, especially tomatoes and asked around the congregation for little used yoghourt/dessert pots. Through spring I grew the seed on in the little plastic pots and sold little plants. I did the same with collected seeds from flowers either in gardens of friends or ours. I picked wild blackberries from field hedges in August, September and sold them in cut down old cereal box home made punnets for 50p, they were £2 or more in shops. We found some old houses being pulled down by devellopers that had mature gardens with all sorts of plants already growing, so we asked the builders for them and they were so glad to be rid to clear the site for building that they used their digger machinery and dug the rhubarb, flowers,fruit bushes and small trees out to help us get them away quicker. We borrowed a trailer and brought it all home to plant in our garden. Supermarkets sell rhubarb stems at £1 for 2, so we could sell ours at fairs for far less. Propagated some fruit bush stems into pots to sell too. When we got some money together and paid our bills, not trusting banks, we spent extra cash at garage fairs/boot fairs buying good things cheaply to sell at antique shops to dealers for a small profit after a lot of haggling. Then got into that trade ourselves.

[GrumpysWife]

My sister started a business making 3D things with her embroidery machine. She has quite a nice business going now. I work at taking care of mental and physically challenged people. There is work in this field but it is challenging because it can affect us when they act up. But I have a brother who is challenged

mentally from birth so I am used to some of the problems. It is also a place where I can witness to people who might not listen in a different environment.

[destiny]

I work at taking care of mental and physically challenged people. There is work in this field but it is challenging because it can affect us when they act up. of the problems.

im trained to work with people with (emotional problems) this too can be very challenging. Now, I would be happy with a job that allowed me to put books on a shelf or to put data into a computer. I want to save my brain cells and energy for preaching.;)

[LuanaGlobal]

Sounds like you can create things...How about .....Make cards for the occasions( Weddings, Birth Announcements, Sorrow, Encouragement, and LOVE! that happen in everyone lives and sell them along with the felt shoes.

What do people in Ireland want to buy?

[Celebratelifecoach]

I have tried my hand at making soap, essential oil blends, herbal eye pillows, inhalers... (lotions are tricky). There are some groups on yahoo that are very informative and helpful. Marketing is the difficult thing for me.

[GrumpysWife]

My problem too, Gwen. I had a line of preemie baby clothes that fit from 1 lb. up to 5 lbs. and they were adorable. But I didn't know how to market them so I stopped making them and my granddaughter ended up with a lot of doll clothes. We also donated quite a few to hospitals. It was fun while it lasted.

[Samberr74]

Well , our business was basically shut down by ONE......i will repeat ONE! customer.

This individual decided to tie up our restoration service , by bringing us 5 classic cars (nothing worth anything really)

We offered him indoor storage on 4 vehicles only while he was PAYING for restoration on atleast one vehicle.

He promptly made the first payment, then "oops im a little short heres a 3/4 payment" , then later the remaining 25% payment , and "well im out of money "

By this time he racked up an $8000.00 bill and we gave him the opportunity to pay 50% and take all his cars and just go.

instead of replying he ignored us for 7 months...............now from the time he stopped paying on the restoration he was informed we were going to exercise our LEGAL right to charge him $30.00 per day for storage on each car.

he could have taken advantage of our 50% reduction in his bill and get cars and go . but what happened????

he waited 7 months and got a lawyer and is now TRYING to sue us , for his vehicle and an amount in excess of 10k usd.

Not to vent here but WHATEVER you decide to do for a business make sure you are smarter than were , we were a new company and he was our 3rd. customer.

And since we relied on INCOME from our customers and recieved none from him we are now out of business.

[Celebratelifecoach]

Yep, the best made plans....I think the internet is a great way to market, but everything takes so much time to figure out and in the meantime we need to keep the right perspective on our time.