Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

Being out of work, I can tell you that the weekly check I receive from unemployment leaves me with a huge shortfall every month. In order to help cover my bills, I have taken on some odd jobs and projects.

The first thing to get over, is how little you may be making doing these odd jobs versus what you used to make in your prior job.  It’s a tough mental block to get over, but I try to look at it that “something is better than nothing.”  If I can make $500/month doing odd jobs, it’s better than nothing, even though I could have made that at my prior job in no time.  The challenge is to balance your time with also having time for your job search!

Here are a few ideas I have, but would love to hear your thoughts in the comments:

• Babysitting – Rates for babysitting vary widely – I’ve seen anywhere from $10/hour to $20/hour.  If you can give the parents the confidence that you are good at what you do and you are responsible, you can command a higher rate (although some will still balk at the higher rates).  What I like about babysitting is that the hours can vary.  You can either pick up random jobs, or find something regular that works for your schedule.  I happen to love kids, so it’s a nice break from networking or sitting at my computer.
  • The best service I have seen for babysitting is Sittercity. It’s like a dating service, where you list your profile and other information about you.  The parents email you with their requirements, and you email them back if you are interested.  They also send you a daily email with the prior day’s new jobs.  They even do background checks on the babysitters.  It’s free for the babysitters, but not for the parents, so I felt a little safer on this site.  I found one job I have been doing 2 afternoons a week for $17/hour… $136/week – not bad!
  • And, of course, there’s always CraigsList.  I haven’t used CraigsList for babysitting though… I have found more than I can handle through Sittercity.
• Housesitting and Dogsitting – These are great jobs if you can find them!  Sittercity also has modules for these services as well, and I have found opportunities through the site.  The great thing about these jobs is that it doesn’t take up much of your time (especially if you already have a dog like I do!).  I would say for the dog sitting, it’s an hour more of my time a day… extra love to the new dog, extra love to my Stella so she isn’t jealous, more feeding, more walking.  But, for $35-40/day, it’s a great source of additional income!  A while back, I sat for 2 dogs for 10 days, and they paid me $60/day… $600, great!  It was fun for me, and also fun for Stella.
• General odd jobs – I also scan Craigslist (and sign up for an RSS feed) in the Jobs section to see if there are any odd jobs that are being offered.  And, why not post ads on CraigsList for things you’re good at?  You never know what someone needs… help moving, organizing their office, filing their paperwork, etc.  If you can do it, put up an ad and see what happens!
• Focus Groups – Being in Marketing, I usually get screened out of being able to participate in focus groups.  But, if you spend a couple of hours and find the local marketing research companies in your area (or follow @focusgroups on Twitter), you can register with them, and they’ll email you or call you when they have something appropriate for you.  Depending on the study, you can make $100 or so for a 2 hour focus group.  They’re often quite interesting to participate in (at least the ones I’ve watched behind the glass are interesting!).
• Consulting – this is a whole other situation, so I’m going to cover this in a separate post.

Do you have any other ideas for making additional money while out of work?