If you are like many, the thought of starting a home-based business has probably crossed your mind at some point. With the economy being what it is, layoffs all around us, and an increasing desire for many to escape the rat race and work from home, many are trying to start a home-based business. Working from home not only offers independence and freedom but there are also some great home-based business tax deductions as well.

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As I sit and write this, I am reminded of the years I spent in jobs that I didn’t like and am now so thankful that I get to work from home and do something I love. If you are longing for that situation, I encourage you to work to figure out what it is that you would love doing and keep at it until you reach that goal.

For my business (blogging here at Christian PF) it took a long time before I started making any money blogging, let alone enough to pay the bills each month. I didn’t really know anything when I started and still feel like I do a whole lot more wrong than right, but the one thing I have had going for me is that I have been persistent. Great ideas and business degrees only go so far. It is persistence and determination that, I believe, are the true sources of success for most businesses.

I put together a list of legitimate home-based business opportunities below. But they are just ideas, hopefully they will spark some inspiration, but you have to apply all the diligence and hard work to turn it into something.

Starting a Home-Based Business

Even though I wasn’t making very much at the time, when I got laid off a couple years ago I was very happy that I had started a side business that was another source of income. Even if you don’t have aspirations of working full-time from home, having a little supplemental income would be nice – wouldn’t it?

Below are a bunch of home-based business ideas that you can peruse to see if any would work for you. Oh, and also as an aside, I am defining a home-based business as one that can be run from home, not necessarily a business that you would work from home all the time.

Top Home-Based Business Ideas

1. Sell a product online

A friend of mine had a baby and didn’t like the style/design of any of the baby products at the stores,  so she started making her own. After getting some compliments, she realized that she could turn her idea into a business that she could run from home (with the babies). She just created an online store and sold all of her products via her website.

2. Freelance writing

Since I started blogging a few years ago, I have seen the freelance market explode. There is a huge demand for content and so there are a lot of ways to make money writing it. Jonathan wrote a great article about a few legitimate work from home jobs – most of which were freelance writing.

3. Goodwill/Garage sale reseller

There are a lot of items that can be purchased very inexpensively at garage sales or thrift stores and sold for higher prices elsewhere. A few years ago I discovered that I could purchase good hardcover books at my local thrift shop for $1 or less. I realized that some of them could be sold on Amazon.com for $15-$20, which turns out to be a pretty decent profit. Find and sell enough items and you have a fun home business.

4. Blogging

I find a lot of people are interested in the idea of blogging as a business. You really can make some money blogging, but it is hard work. Not hard like digging ditches, but hard like it requires so many different skill sets and requires a lot of creativity and mental energy. It also is kind of the opposite of get-rich-quick. I only made $100 my first 6 months of blogging, but now I make a living doing it.

5. Ebay Business

A few years ago I started an Ebay business kind of as an experiment, just to see if it were something I could do if I needed cash. I wrote step-by-step instructions about starting an Ebay business if you are interested. Ebay is a pretty crowded market, but it still is one of the most popular home-based businesses.

6. Wedding Planning

Isn’t this every girls dream? People will always be getting married, so in theory they will always need wedding planners. If you love all-things-weddings and can handle the pressure from the brides, this might be a fun one.

7. Car Mechanic

Do you know how difficult it is to find a good and trustworthy mechanic? Maybe it is just me, but I feel like I have had way too many experiences with mechanics not be truthful with me that I would gladly pay more and give all my business to an honest one.  If you know your way around a car and have a few tools, this could be a great business idea for you.

8. Mobile Oil Changes

Building off the previous idea, what if you offered a service where you came to the customer’s house and changed the oil in the street? I would pay to do that – and would be willing to pay more since I didn’t even have to do anything but make a phone call.

9. Home Inspector

This one will require certification, find out more about getting certified here.

10. Medical claims billing

This industry is one of the most popular work-from-home businesses. You can find training courses online at places like eLearners.com

11. Real Estate Agent

This one isn’t technically a home-based business, but with the flexibility it allows you would be able to likely do a lot of work from home. Find out about getting your real estate license.

12.Tutoring Students

What subjects do you have a good working knowledge of? Math, Science, History, Baseball, Soccer? Parents will often pay to see Johnnie or Sally excel at _______. If you can help, then it sounds like a business.

13. Handy-man service

If you are handy, there are lots of little old ladies who are willing to pay someone to do odd jobs around the house. There are even franchise opportunities available with certain companies.

14. Home-Based Daycare

I have seen many stay-at-home moms start simple businesses just by babysitting a few of the neighborhood kids after school or during the summers.

15. Lawn Care

Don’t forget good ‘ol lawncare or landscaping. As we become more and more acquainted to the air-conditioned lifestyle more people are going to want to pay someone to do landscaping. If you like to sweat this one may be for you.

16. Photography

Because I am just a little bit techie, I get asked to video record weddings all the time. If video or photography are up your alley, starting a wedding photography business could be a great idea for you.

17. Virtual Assitant

Virtual Assistants are just like a secretary in another part of the world. This industry is growing very quickly. Check this out to find out more about being a virtual assistant. For opportunities, go to this site and search for “virtual assistant”.

18. Window Cleaning Business

A lot of businesses (and homeowners) need windows cleaned. If you are not afraid of heights, cleaning windows could be a decent side or full-time gig.

19. Candle-making

A few years ago I started making my own beeswax candles – because they were so stinking expensive to buy. In the process of learning, I found that there are a lot of people who use candle-making as a home business. You can sell to your products online at places like Etsy.com or Ebay.com.

20. Massage Therapy

“The massage therapy business has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last decade, tripling in volume. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, it should grow by an additional 20% through 2016, meaning this home business has strong potential for growth. And, because all in-home massage services are necessarily local in nature, it’s work that can’t be outsourced to another country.”

21. Web Design

I feel like I have people ask me to build them a website all the time. If you have skill in this area there is a lot of opportunity from small business owners. Check out Elance.com or Odesk.com for opportunities.

22. Professional Pooper Scooper

Maybe not the most glamourous work, but in recent years I have seen many dog waste removal companies pop up, so there must be some money to be made.

22. Senior Care Services

More and more seniors are wanting to avoid nursing homes in lieu of staying in their own homes. Offering nonmedical home care by assisting the elderly with regular daily tasks could be rewarding and profitable.

23. House Cleaning

I have known a few women carved out a flexible home-based business by cleaning homes. You probably already have the skills you need, now you just need to get the word out.

Need more home-based business ideas?

Here are a few more articles with even more ideas and opportunities…

• The Top 25 Home-Based Business Ideas
• 23 Ways To Make Money
• Home business ideas
• Home Business Ideas for New Home Based and Small Business Entrepreneurs
• About Home Business

Photos by: Robert B Donovan, Lint Machine, Just Us 3

Do you have a home-based business? Or have any other ideas or suggestions of  good ones?

Related Articles:

• How I Run My Home-Based Business
• 5 Legitimate Work-From-Home Jobs
• Legitimate Home Survey Companies?
• 11 Steps To Starting A Small Business Online

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

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7 steps to put your stuff on eBay

As part of my de-cluttering process, I unload a lot of my stuff and random items by selling it on on Ebay. If you have never done it before, you will probably be surprised at how easy it is and how quick you can make a little money. Last time I de-cluttered, I made over $200 for only a few hours worth of time. This is a perfect follow-up to some major closet simplification. So, if you have a few hours of spare time, this may be a good way to make a few bucks.

Here are a few more ways to make money selling your clutter…

• How to sell books on Amazon.com
• How to sell old electronics
• Selling Your Gold? Be Careful!
• What to do with old cell phones

1. Open an eBay account

This is a very quick and easy process. Click here to get started.

2. Buy a few items to get some positive feedback

(This step is optional, but it will probably help) -Small items are fine, anything you can find will work. The reason is that your credibility as an Ebay seller is primarily determined by your feedback score. By purchasing a few items and paying for them quickly, you will be able to get some positive feedback, thus giving you at least a little bit of credibility. Think about it, if you are buying an item wouldn’t you rather buy from a seller has feedback proving that he actually delivered his products rather than a seller who has never used eBay before?

3. Decide what to sell

I only sell name brand or easily defined unique items. When selling, you have to think like the seller and ask “how would I search for this item?” If the answer isn’t clear, it may not be a good item to sell. For example, I had a pair of fake leather pants (don’t ask) that weren’t a brand that anyone would care about, but I knew that people would be searching for leather pants, because it is such a unique item. Often times buyers will search for a brand name and a size, and this is why brand name items are good to sell.

Oh, and I also don’t sell items that aren’t in great condition – you can, but one person’s definition of “small hole in sleeve” can be completely different from another’s. I consider it to be dangerous territory, so proceed with caution.

Just FYI, about the fake leather pants, I had gotten them for about $3.00 on a clearance rack and ended up selling them for about $15.00. So, the $12.00 profit helps offset all the harassment I received for owning them in the first place.

4. Get Pictures of your items

Grab your point and shoot digital camera (if you are still taking Polaroid pictures, then see step #2 and make a digital camera one of your purchases) and start shooting. Use a well lit room, with the simplest, nicest looking background you can find; e.g. a hardwood floor or a plain wall. Take a few pictures of each item and get close ups if needed. Check out this article for more tips about Ebay pictures.

5. List your item

Now you are ready to list your items. I suggest doing all of your listings on the same day. This will enable you to do the shipping all on the same day, eliminating wasted trips to the Post Office.

Be as detailed as possible in the listing title. Include as many that apply to your item:

• item names and similar names
• Brand names
• Model names or numbers
• Sizes
• Colors
• Men’s, women’s, or kids
• material
• any other details that stand out about your item

At the time of this writing, if you search for “dress shirt” on eBay it will yield over 12,000 listings. However, if you search for “M banana republic dress shirt blue” we only get 5 results. As sellers, this is what we want – limited competition when people search for our item. If your listing title just said “dress shirt,” then your shirt would now be thrown in the world’s largest bargain bin with 12,000 other shirts for people to dig through. The more detail you put in the title, the easier it is for your buyers to find it.

The first picture is free, but Ebay does charge to add additional pictures. I suggest adding at least one additional picture, unless you are convinced that the item doesn’t need it. Buyers like to see products from different angles and with detail.

Use the description field to fill in any and all detail that you couldn’t squeeze into the title section. The more detail the better. I learned the hard way when selling my wife’s clothes that a lot of the eBaying women like to know the measurements of each item before bidding on it.

A few more things to keep in mind:

• open a paypal account (free, simple, and will make it easier for buyers)
• Check for misspellings in your title (this could dramatically affect sales)
• International shipping can be expensive and time consuming, so you may want to limit your shipping area

6. Answer buyer’s questions

Buyers may email you with questions about the product, it is in your best interest to respond quickly to them. They are clearly interested in buying the product, otherwise they wouldn’t have spent the time emailing you about it. You can respond to their questions and see what each item is going for from your Ebay account.

7. Ship your eBay items

Try to get your items shipped ASAP to get positive feedback from your buyers. Look for old boxes (without writing on them) or for some items you can use brown paper bags to package it in.

I have had the best luck with the good ‘ol U.S. Postal Service. The standard shipping at that Post Office is almost always cheaper than UPS and FedEx. There are some occasions where this is not the case, but from my experience, the USPS is the best way to go.

As with anything, the more you do it, the faster you will get at it. And of course, some items will sell, and some won’t – I just give the unsold items to Goodwill. Good luck!!

Click here to open a FREE eBay account

Technorati Tags: How to sell on eBay, eBay selling, put stuff on ebay

Related Articles:

• How to sell books on Amazon and make money!
• 5 ways to get a deal on Ebay
• Starting an Ebay Business: A Step-by-Step Guide
• How To Make Extra Money with Facebook

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

I heard about the PerkStreet Financial Cash-Back debit card about a year and a half ago and it seemed like a pretty good deal when they were offering 1% cash back on all purchases. But when I found out that they were offering 2% cash back for new customers for the first 3 months, I decided to give it a shot.

Video: How our bank has paid us over $1000

Now that I have been banking with them for 1.5 years I figured I would let you know how it has worked out for me.

Since opening my account in May of 2010 I have earned $1169 cash back.

This breaks down to an average of $58/month for doing nothing different than I was doing before I switched from my old bank. They have all the same protection and features of my old bank, the only difference is I get a ton of money back just for using them.

Everyone’s situation is different, so I know not everyone will be able use a bank like Perkstreet, but I would recommend looking at your current banking situation and budget and considering if opening an account would be worth it for you.

Below is the original article I wrote in June of 2010:

The PerkStreet Deal

Basically this is a rewards debit-card (note: debit card, not credit card) that really does have some great perks. You are lucky to find a credit card that gives you 2% cash back on your purchases, much less a debit card.

In order to get the 2% beyond the 3 month introductory period, you just need to maintain an account balance of $5000. We did this by moving our Emergency fund over to the account. But even if you have a $10 balance in your account you will still earn 1% on all purchases. So if you use the card as your primary debit card, you can imagine how the rewards could add up.

Once you are ready to cash out your rewards, you just go to the PerkStreet site and press a button and viola, your $50 or $100 Visa Gift Card will be on the way.

Here are a few of the answers to the questions I had…

• They do not have physical branches
• Similar to ING Direct, to make a deposit you have to transfer the $ from another account or set up direct deposit.
• They do offer checkbooks (and the first one is free)
• They have live phone service 24/7
• Free online banking and bill pay
• According to their website they have the “Nation’s largest surcharge-free ATM network”
• No minimum balance requirement
• FDIC insured up to $250,000

What’s the catch?

I am naturally skeptical when it comes to good deals, I am always looking for the catch in the fine print – and here it is… There is a monthly inactivity fee of $4.50 if you don’t use your debit card or write a check that month.

While I wish they didn’t have the inactivity fee, I still opened an account because I am going to make it my primary debit card. I use my debit card almost daily, so as long as I am using this account – I won’t ever being charged a fee.

How do they offer 2% cash back rewards?

According to their website, “U.S. banks spend over $80 billion a year to build and keep their branches open. Our customers prefer to bank online, so we invest our money in what really matters.” This makes sense to me. ING functions using a similar business model – they save millions by doing away with branches and pass some of the savings on to the customers.

Deciding if it is worth it

Before signing up Linda and I had a quick discussion about whether or not it would be worth it for us to sign up. I am not a guy who drives 10 miles out of my way to save 3 cents on gas, and so I didn’t want to waste my time creating this account if it really weren’t going to be worth our time.

Looking at our budget I calculated that during the first 3 months we would likely earn $55-$60 each month if we kept a $5000 buffer in our account.

After thinking about it I realized that while it would take a little time setting up the account, once it was set up, running our personal budget and money management would be no different – except that the debit card would have a different logo. So after chatting about it for a few minutes we realized that for us it would definitely be worth trying it out.

We would likely earn $500-$600 this year in cash back rewards and really don’t have to do anything different.

If things end up being different than I am expecting I will be sure to update this article.

Setting up the account

As it says on the website, it only takes about 5 minutes to open the account. I filled in all the info and then they said they would get back to me within 2 business days and the debit cards and checks would be in the mail.

(A few days later…) I logged into my new PerkStreet Account today and my deposit had been made. I haven’t received my debit card or other paperwork in the mail yet, but it looks like everything is good to go. The website is pretty simple, but seems like it will do everything that I will need it for – transferring money and bill pay.

(A couple days later…) I just received my debit cards and activated them. Now we are good to go!

If you are interested and want to find out more, you can watch the video below or visit their website here.

Have you tried out the PerkStreet CashBack debit card or are you planning on it in the future?

Related Articles:

• We’ve Earned $73/month Cash-Back From Our Debit Card
• How to Earn Over $700 from Your Banks Each Year
• Perkstreet Debit Card Offering 5% Cash Back
• Update on My 2% CashBack Debit Card

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

Chances are you were raised to believe you should go to work from 9-5 your entire life and that was it.  You probably were taught that you should focus on your career and nothing more.  What if I told you that you are missing out on opportunity after opportunity to make additional income outside of your typical career path?

It may sound like a new concept and that’s normal.  Thinking outside the box like this is abnormal in our American society.  Go against the grain just one inch and boom, you are considered a “rebel” or an “outsider.”  Well I say ignore the crowds and pave your own path!

Look, I’ll be honest with you.  Your job may feel comfortable, but it’s really not.  Your job is not secure and your job will not be there once you hit retirement age.  It’s prudent and wise to seek out alternative income streams and achieve financial freedom that most people only dream of.

So, what does it take to create income outside of your day job?  It would be a cop-out to simply say that hard work will get you there.  Hard work will get you to a certain point, but other factors will propel you further.

Let’s dive into the top four factors that I believe will make or break your goals of alternative income:

1. Don’t settle, do what you love.

You’ve heard it before; doing what you love will more often than not create an easier path to greater income.  For example, if you hate finances and work as an analyst, you probably won’t move up as fast as other people because you’re not passionate about the subject!

2. Patience is a virtue.

Patience is a Biblical virtue for good reason; it usually leads to some pretty cool things.  Another quote I think about is “great things come to those who wait.”  A great example of this was when I started my first blog, Free Money Wisdom.  I was in the negative for 6 months before I turned a profit.  Did I get discouraged?  Sure I did.  But with a long term viewpoint, I kept my eyes on the ball, which was years down the line.

3. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

You wouldn’t invest in only gold would you?  Of course not!  Chances are you invest in broad markets and try to spread your retirement savings out so if one market goes down, the other goes up.  This is the simplest form of diversification.  Just like your investments, you should diversify your income.  Don’t rely solely on your day job because one day it may not be there anymore!  My personal rule of thumb is to have three income streams.

For me, my current income streams include my day job, my blog income, and compound interest from my retirement investments.  I love my day job and I love blogging, so these came naturally to me.  The key here is to find a couple things you love and learn how to make money off them.

4. Perseverance.

On your quest for additional sources of income, you WILL FAIL.  I failed, I have friends that have failed, I see strangers fail, and it’s just inevitable.  The real issue here is how you will response to this adversity.  Will you throw your hands up in the air and just give up?  Or will you get back up after being beaten down and keep going.  It’s all about how you react.  If you can develop perseverance, I’m confident you will succeed in developing additional forms of income.

Are you up for the challenge?

I want to recap and challenge all of you to press on and create alternative forms of income.  Stop sitting around and wondering why nothing is changing.  Take action this next week.  Brainstorm some ideas or things you are truly passionate about and put all your effort into it!

Are you looking for ways to make extra money? What have you found that works? Meet us in the comments!

Bright path image from Shutterstock

Related Articles:

• 3 Ways to Make Money: By Time, Task, or Potential
• Make Money Designing Logos
• 21 Ways To Make Extra Money From Home
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Jon is a Christian personal finance writer at Free Money Wisdom. His mission is to help you succeed in your personal finance life with the Bible as your compass. When Jon is not writing on personal finance, he spends time with his girlfriend, lifts iron at the gym, and plays Scrabble. You can subscribe to his site through EMAIL/RSS or you can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Back in college I interviewed a man in New York City who worked for a small company that promoted get-rich-quick schemes. Now—this is important—in his line or work, they don’t refer to their “products” as get-rich-quick schemes, but by some other more socially acceptable handle that escapes me at the moment. No matter, he gave me a wealth of information and insight into the world of get-rich-quick.

Every scheme—er, eh, program–is possible, at least in theory. The “in theory” caveat means that you’d have to be a person with such extraordinary talent, energy level and boldness that you’d probably succeed at anything you try anyhow. For everyone else—which is to say, the very type of people who would buy the schemes at all—it was mostly a promise. An empty promise.

The promise was then neatly wrapped in a package of recurring themes that you probably recognize: the get-rich-quick guru came from humble beginnings and/or lost all he had early in life; he re-started with nothing and is now a multi-millionaire; he loves God, he loves America, he loves his family and deep in his heart, he’s just like you and me!

That packaging is critical. Its purpose is to show that our get-rich-quick hero has values—that he has higher beliefs—that he believes what we do, or at least what we aspire to. Think of it as appealing to our better selves.

Sadly, it’s pure marketing pitch. The “plan” and the packaging are both aimed at the weak spots in our human armor. And it seems to work.

I suspect that the appeal of get-rich-quick is much wider than we’re comfortable admitting. Ad pitches are all over TV, radio and the internet, hawking everything from business ideas to investment schemes. There are enough ads out there that we can know with some certainty that somebody somewhere is buying in. Most likely, many somebodies.

The subtle power of Get Rich Quick

What is it that draws people to get-rich-quick? I’m not a marketing genius, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the time honored draw of the something for nothing concept. Deep in our hearts and minds we know it isn’t possible—or at least it isn’t common—but there’s something deeply satisfying on an emotional level about the very possibility that it may be attainable.

Then there’s greed. There may be at least a small part of each of us that secretly longs to be rich. After all, turn on your TV and what do you see? A great big bunch of rich people living The Life. Do they ever work? If they do, we never see it. Not unless they’re lawyers or doctors, two professions which by their very nature conjure up still more visions of riches. We want that too.

Finally, we have the human hope factor. It’s the whole reason people buy lottery tickets. Get-rich-quick works on the same principal, except that is gives some sense of control, or even of merit. After all, get-rich-quick schemes usually require us to buy something (a book, CD or DVD) and to take some minimal form of action (reading the book, listening to the CD or watching the DVD). It just seems so much less random than buying a lottery ticket.

Get-Rich-Quick in a bad economy

Get-rich-quick becomes more effective in a bad economy. The harder it is to get a job the easier it is to sell get rich quick schemes. Get-rich-quick plays on desperation. The person who has been out of work for a year or more is willing to try anything if it will bring in some money. He becomes a natural customer for the industry.

When there’s no opportunity to make money, you can make money by selling people programs about how to make money. Simple—and it works like magic for the promoters. That’s where the only money in get-rich-quick is. The part you’re buying is pure marketing spin.

The consumer of get-rich-quick probably knows better, but his circumstances have him in bargain-with-the-Devil mode. He might think, “OK, I know I won’t make a million dollars with this program—that’s ridiculous—but all I need is $50,000 and if only I could…”

If you’ve ever been in this situation don’t kick yourself; desperation makes people do things they wouldn’t do otherwise.

If you really need to make more money…

If you’re doing OK with your finances and just fishing around get-rich-quick schemes looking for ways to make some extra money, have at it—it might even be fun. But if you’re doing it because you’re looking for a way out of your financial troubles, stay away from get-rich-quick and seek answers closer to home.

Trust in God. This can seem like a cliché to a person struggling with long term financial problems, but it’s also one of those times when we most need to draw closer to our loving Father.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. —Philippians 4:6

and…

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified…for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. —Deuteronomy 31:6

Believe it.

Seek help anywhere you can find it. If you need money, a new career or both, seek the counsel of others. Not only can people you know help, but you may find groups set up at your church or in your community that can help you identify a new career path and move into it, as well as providing some needed financial resources to help you with the transition. Real people will be more help to you than TV or internet pitch men.

Pursue your passions. You don’t need a get-rich-quick program to help you decide what it is you want to do with the rest of your life—that’s a pure play on money. God has given each of us talents and desires—how can you blend the two to find what it is you were meant to do with your life? It’s often what it is we dare not do that’s exactly what it is we need to be doing. And sometimes the lack of enthusiasm you have for your current career is a major reason for financial problems.

Consider Apprenticeships. One way to make more money or to enter a new career is through the time-honored system of apprenticeships. If you can identify a business or career you’d like to enter, find someone who’s doing it right now, and approach them about a mentoring program. One way to do this is to offer to work for free—your compensation will be the skills you learn. Another is to work at reduced wages. Decide that you’ll do what ever it is you need to do to start a new career, then throw yourself into it and do what ever it takes. In truth, if you were to follow a get-rich-quick scheme to the letter, that’s exactly what you’d be doing. Why not try doing it in something real, something you’d actually like to do?

When we need to make more money—what ever the reason—the answer to our dilemma can usually be found somewhere in the real world right outside the front door. We don’t need silver-tongued pitchmen with convincing infomercials or websites to show us the way forward.

Have you ever purchased a get-rich-quick program? How did it work out? What would you advise someone who’s considering one? Don’t be bashful—I’ve known some pretty smart people who have gotten into them at one time or another. Meet me in the comments!

Image by Andrey Armyagov/Shutterstock

Related Articles:

• 7 Proverbs That Will Make You Rich
• Is it a sin to die rich?
• If you want to be wealthy, act like it!
• How NOT to become rich

With backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry, Kevin Mercadante is professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of OutOfYourRut.com, a website about careers, business ideas, money and more. A committed Christian, he lives in Atlanta with his wife and two teenage kids.

Wanting to get my income up, I’ve been thinking about how I can make some extra money. Inevitably, this leads me to think about how I can be more productive with the resources at my disposal, and I thought I’d pass this brain-work on to you for your consideration. Do you make money by time, task, or potential?

Three Ways to Make Money

I believe that how you make your money is vital to your future success. Keep in mind that I didn’t say how much you make is vital, although that is important and the end goal.

Here are three ways you can make your money. Which one are you using, and how is it working out for you?

1. Make money by selling your time.

Paid by the hour? What you’re doing is selling your time. Now, depending on how much you’re making per hour, this may or may not be the right way for you to make your money. If you’re making minimum wage, you certainly don’t want to sell your entire life to that job. If you’re making $30 per hour, you might want to hold onto that one!

But there’s still something lacking in selling your time. We’ll get to that in a moment.

2. Make money by selling a task to be completed.

Let’s say your a contractor or freelance writer. You’re probably getting paid by the tasks you accomplish. You can save a lot of time this way and work to find ways to speed up your process.

The risk in this is that you might not keep your quality up. If you’re self employed or working on projects, make sure that you do quality work and create things you’d be proud enough of to show your mother!

But again, there’s still something lacking in selling tasks. It has to do with the future . . . .

3. Make money by working for long term potentials.

This third way to make money I have found most rewarding in the long run. You may have heard this type of work described as “working smart” or “generating passive income.”

I believe too many people focus on short term income, and don’t consider future benefits of their work. All too often, people work for a set amount of money for a set amount of time or for accomplishing a specific task.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the first two methods can surely keep you afloat. But if you want to launch into something greater, consider working in a way that will generate income automatically after your time is spent or your project is completed.

Allow me to give you an example. In my business online, I work using all three methods. I get paid by how much time I spend on a certain project, if I complete a certain task, and also by previous work that continues to generate income. I value all of these sources of income, and deem them very important. But the most important work I’ve done has been on those articles I’ve written that continue to bring in affiliate sales or Google AdSense income.

My Challenge to You

So here is my challenge to you: find ways to work that will potentially benefit you in the long run. Spend some of your time not only making money, but working on projects that have the future potential to make you money.

Any company will tell you that in the beginning of its ventures, it made almost no cash. But all of that hard work was what the company needed to lay a firm foundation from which it could grow. What do you think?

How do you make your money? What projects have you done for free in the past that now bring in substantial income? Meet us in the comments!

Photo by the air we breathe

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• 10 Ways To Simplify Your Life (And Make and Save Money In The Process)

John Frainee is a personal finance writer at TheChristianDollar.com. His goal is to provide biblical financial principles that encourage people to live healthier lives. Beyond personal finance, John enjoys spending time with his wife and two crazy cats, playing a competitive game of Monopoly, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Let me start by saying that these were the steps I took to start my small business and they will vary depending on the type of business you are wanting to start. Hopefully they will give you some ideas of some things you need to keep in mind as you progress!

Pre-Step 1. Figure out what you are passionate about.

This can be difficult, but following your passion is – in my opinion – absolutely critical to successful business that you are still enjoying a couple years into it. Sure there are ways to make money doing things you hate, but I did plenty of that while working for someone else in a cubicle – how about you? The goal shouldn’t be just to make money, but to make money doing something you enjoy. As anyone with any common sense knows, money does not equal happiness.

For me (and probably for many others) my passion was easy to spot for others, but not so easy for me to spot. But if you would have asked my wife what I was talking about all the time, what I was reading about, what I was doing after I got home from work she would have said I was obsessed with learning about personal finance and money management. My hobby was figuring out how we could better manage our money and how we could cut our expenses.

Even if you don’t feel like you have something that you are that passionate about, at least focus in an area that interests you.

Pre-Step 2. Do something – ANYTHING – to move forward

Once I found my passion, I didn’t really know what to do with it, but I figured starting a website was probably a good place to start. I don’t even think I knew that you could make money blogging, but I just figured writing about the subject would build a little bit of a platform while forcing me to learn more and organize my thoughts a bit.

Regardless of what online business you are wanting to start, getting a website is probably a good first step.  After trying out a lot of different hosting companies, Hostgator is my favorite and they also are great for newbies as they have hosting packages that start at just $3.96 a month.

Starting a website was turning point for me as it pulled me out of months of thinking and wondering about starting a business to a tangible action step that helped propel me forward.  I was like many others who deliberate and wait around for the timing and the circumstances to be perfect before taking any action. So regardless of whether it is starting a website, advertising your services in craigslist, or anything else – just take a step of action to move forward.

Steps to get started with your small business

Assuming you have your business idea in mind and are ready to get rolling these are some things that you will want to check off your list. They are not all necessary for all businesses, and obviously this isn’t an all-inclusive list, but they will give you some ideas of things that you need and may want to do.

One of the worst mistakes I made was that I was intimidated by a lot of these things because I didn’t know how to do them. So much so that it caused me not to start a business years before I should have. Please do not do this! Focus on growing your business and do not let these things be obstacles that prevent you from moving forward.

Additionally, if you don’t have money to invest in the business off the bat, then many of these things can wait until you start making some money.

1. Business plan (sort of)

I am an avid planner. But if you aren’t going to borrowing money from a bank or pitching your idea to a VC firm, I would question going through the typical business plan creation process. The process definitely has some benefits, but I would argue that it might be better to spend 9 days trying to grow your business and a day on planning, rather than spending 2 weeks creating the “perfect” business plan.

Many online business owners may be better suited just setting annual and monthly goals. I have a whiteboard in my office that has my goals for this year listed, which are broken down into monthly goals, and which are then broken down into actionable daily goals. Since it is about 3 feet from my head I look at it all day long and it is really motivating when I can check some off the list. (Read more about how I run my business)

2. Get an EIN (tax id number)

A lot of places will charge you to do this, but you can apply for an EIN for free.

3. Form an LLC

This may or may not be necessary for you right away depending on the type of business that you will be running. By default, just starting out you will be a sole proprietor and you can claim your business earnings on your 1040 tax form. I did this for about 2 years and then I switched to an LLC. You can create it pretty cheap using a site like MyCorporation.com or LegalZoom.com.

4. Get business cards

Yep, even with an online business you should probably get them. Believe me, it is a lot easier just handing someone a business card than trying to spell out your website URL and hoping that they will remember it. Luckily you can get 250 of them for under $20 at places like VistaPrint or OvernightPrints.

5. Get licenses, permits, etc

Depending on your business you want to investigate the licenses and permits that you may need to operate.

6. Get Business Insurance

Depending on the type of business you are in you might want to look into getting business insurance. Check out Bolt Insurance for quotes.

7. Open business bank account

I looked long and hard for a free business checking account and I finally found one at US Bank. I used that exclusively up until about a year ago and now I primarily use Paypal as my business bank account. They offer a cash-back debit card that pays 1% that I use for all my purchases. They even have an iPhone app that allows me to deposit checks by taking a picture of them – pretty cool.

8. Think long and hard about borrowing

The beauty of online business is that many can be started VERY cheap and without borrowing anything.  The days of being forced to borrow $50,000 from the bank to get your business up and running are gone. I started this business without any money and it has been run without borrowing anything.

I understand that not all businesses can be built without borrowing, but if you must do it, be very cautious about how you spend the money. The problem is that I see so many businesses “spend money like they are in a rap video” when they haven’t earned a dime. I would rather earn the dime and then spend a nickel.

9. Get some accounting software

I waited a little to long to do this and it resulted in a very time consuming tax time. QuickBooks is the standard that most people (and accountants) still use.

10. Get a logo

Pretty much any online business will need a logo and you can find logo-designers at Odesk or Elance.

11. Get a business address

Rather than having my home address posted all over the internet I chose to get a mailbox at the UPS store for about $10/month that functions as my business address.

More related reading:

• 24 Home-Based Business Ideas
• Starting a home business
• Steps to starting a small business
• Starting an Ebay business | Step-by-Step
• Checklist for starting a small business
• Starting a small business 101

What other tips for starting an online business do you have?

Related Articles:

• Pros And Cons Of Starting A Small Business
• Starting a Business: 7 Costs to Consider
• The Small Business Jobs Act: How Will You Benefit?
• 9 Lessons on starting a business with cash

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

Before dropping off your first application for a summer job, you should first first stop and define what the perfect summer job looks like.  Some teens would love to spend the summer working at a camp, and others would be content setting up their own business.  Make sure you define what you are looking for before you start shopping for jobs.

Summer Jobs For Teenagers

The following questions will help you establish your perfect summer job:

• What is the minimum pay you’re looking for?
• Do you want to work inside or outside?
• Do you have transportation?  How far can you work from home?
• Do you want to work days, nights, or weekends?
• Do you have any other summer events that will conflict with a job?
• What kinds of things do you enjoy doing?

You might find that you are better off starting your own business for teens.

3 Considerations When Looking For Teen Summer Jobs

Consider both the value for today and the value for tomorrow.

One reason teens should work is to develop important life skills – not just increase their income.  Moreover, when you work hard for a pay check your are in a better position to combat teen spending and consumerism.

Some jobs have great pay, but in the end they will do little to help advance you towards your life goals.  As a result, your summer job should be something either in a field of interest, in a job that gives you interaction with the public, or a job that helps you improve a skill.

The obvious reason to work in a field of interest is so you can get to play the profession – do you like the job as much as you had anticipated?  What parts of the job do you enjoy and what don’t you like?

Working in a job that gives you interaction with the public will help you no matter what you do in the future.  Learning people skills is a skill that helps in any job.

Finally, some jobs might help you grow and improve in areas of weakness.  For example, putting yourself in a service industry, like working at a restaurant, might help you improve how to interact with and relate to others.

Don’t assume a degree equals a job because school can’t completely prepare you for work.

Consider the safety factors.

Some better paying jobs pay you more because you are more at risk.

Here are the five worst teen jobs in terms of occupational danger (as quoted in Money Still Doesn’t Grow on Trees):

• Driving and delivery, including operating or repairing motorized equipment.
• Working alone in a cash-based business and late night work.
• Cooking with exposure to hot oil and grease, hot water and steam, and hot cooking surfaces.
• Doing construction and working at heights.
• Selling items door-to-door and traveling youth crews.

Here’s the thing – every job will have a little risk, so evaluate the risk.

Consider the company’s flexibility and reputation.

Some employers are notoriously ridged.  Even a weekend off might cost you your job.  Others, like McDonald’s, have a reputation for being very flexible.  If you are interested in taking a week off for a short-term mission trip (need to raise money for your mission trip?) or camp, just tell your future employer at the start of the interview process.

For some jobs, it will be very important that you have limits.  They will call you at night and over the weekend.  That’s fine if that is what you are looking for, but if not, just be clear about your work limits and boundaries.

Remember, flexibility is a premium, so you might want a job that gives you a little less pay and more flexibility.

Now you can start brainstorming and come up with the summer job that you think fits your needs the best (keep scrolling for some fun ideas).  If you need some more ideas here are the some ways to earn money doing what you love.

Then you should talk to someone who already works for the organization.

The best way to know if a job is a good fit is to talk to those who are already working for the company.  This doesn’t need to be a formal interview.  Even a simple casual question like, “Hey, do you like working here?” can give you a lot of valuable information.

Once you’ve found the summer job, how do you land the job?

Here are a few quick tips:

• When you pick up an application, ask for at least two copies or make a copy – this way you can make necessary changes
• Ask someone to look over your application and make suggestions.  Pay attention to verbs and adverbs. Are you using good, strong, and convincing words to describe yourself?
• Be sure to ask all references if they would provide a ‘positive reference’.  When you drop of an application, just send your references an email saying, “I just dropped off an application at X company.  I listed you as a reference so you might expect a call from them.”
• When you drop off your application, ask to see the manager and hand deliver the application.  Be sure to wear something appropriate.  I’d define appropriate as anything a step above everyday clothes.  In most cases, this might be something like a pair of khakis and a collared shirt.
• If you don’t hear anything back in a week, call the manager and ask if she had a chance to look over your application.
• If you have certain non-negotiable items, make a note of this on your application.  For example, I suggest teens indicate that they cannot work Sundays since they will be at church.  This way the company has this request in writing before they hire you.  If it ever becomes an issue, you can ask them to review your application.  In addition, if you are planning a short term mission trip over the summer let your employer know at the interview process.

Photo by Kahala.

Added by Bob: Since we were talking about teen summer jobs, I thought it would be good to add a few ideas to get you started. So here are a few…

10 Fun Summer Job Ideas for Teenagers

Umpire baseball and softball games – I started doing this when I was 13 years old and did until I was about 17. It can be really good money for a 13 year old.

Movie theater – Many teenagers love this job because of some of the great perks. Working with friends, air conditioning, and getting to watch free movies – what’s not to love?

Pool Maintenance – If you live in a part of the country with a lot of pools, being a pool boy (or girl) can be a great summer job for many teens.

Babysitting – It seems as long as babies continue to be born, babysitters will be needed.

Lifeguard – This is one of the classic teenage jobs that is still a great one. Get to hang out by a pool and get tan in the process.

Tutor kids – If you are gifted in a school subject (or many) tutoring can be a great way to make some extra summer money. Proactive parents might want to help johnny get a head start on Algebra – so why not be the one to tutor johnny?

Mowing grass – Alright, I guess I didn’t think this was fun at the time, but now I love being outside in the sun. Either way, I think mowing lawns is one of those jobs every teen should do at some point. Manual labor in the hot summer sun is just a good all around life experience to have. And if you get a few regulars it can turn into a decent business.

Camp counselor – Don’t you remember going to camp as a kid? Summer camps are still alive and strong and always need counselors to help out. So if you love kids and being outside, this might be a great one for you.

Car washing and detailing – I remember a friend from high school who worked at a car wash and made about double what I was making bagging groceries. He worked hard, but it paid off handsomely.

Clothing store in the Mall – While this one never seems to pay that well, working at a mall retail store can be a fun job for teens.

Do you have any other great summer job ideas for teenagers?

This article was originally published on April 28th, 2010.

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Craig is a fulltime missionary in Papua New Guinea who writes Money Help For Christians and Help Me Travel Cheap, a frugal family travel blog. He is the author of Money Wisdom From Proverbs, has a Masters of Divinity degree, and (most importantly) eats homemade pizza with his family every Friday night.

Your emergency fund should be for an EMERGENCY! Not, “I really, really want to go to this concert,” or, “I really need a diamond studded dog-collar for Tinkerbell.”

Everyone’s definition of an emergency is different. But, if you want it to be of some use to you, you need to have a strict definition of an emergency.

Your emergency fund is what you should turn to when “life happens.” It will be what you turn to rather than your credit cards.

Leverage your emergency fund

Also, your emergency fund should put more dollars into your pocket once it has been well established. Here is how:

1. You start putting $100 a month into a high-yield savings account. This will not generate much income, but it will do a whole lot better than spending the money.
2. After a five months, barring no emergencies, you will have $500 in your high-yield savings account earning a nice interest rate. Now you can call your car insurance company and ask them to raise your deductible from from $100 to $250. Since you have $500 set aside for an emergency, you will now be able to afford the $250 deductible.
3. The good news is that when you raise your deductible, your insurance bill goes down. Now that you are saving $120 a year on your insurance bill, you can add that to your emergency savings. Instead of saving $100 a month, you can now save $110 a month ($120/12 months=$10) with no extra money out of your pocket.
4. Now that you are adding $110 a month to your emergency fund each month, it will grow even faster. In a few more months, you will reach $1000 balance. You can call the insurance company again and ask them to raise your deductible to $500. Again, this will lower your insurance bill even more. Add the difference to your emergency savings and keep this cycle going.
5. As you can see doing this over and over again will save you money, while expanding your safety net. Your bank account will be growing at a faster pace and you will have more peace of mind.

The figures used are hypothetical and I would suggest raising your deductible only to a level that you are comfortable with. But remember, you are paying a lot of money to the insurance company to have a low deductible.

Keep letting your emergency fund grow larger and larger and shoot for a dollar amount that would cover 3 months of your living expenses. Once you get to that point, then you should start looking at investing in mutual funds or stocks to get a better return on your money.

Related Articles:

• 3 Steps to Strengthen Your Emergency Fund
• Do You Need an Emergency Fund? GS13
• Your Emergency Fund Is For More Than Emergencies
• How To Save On Auto Insurance – 4 Tips

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

I overheard someone talking about lending ebooks using their Kindle this weekend and since I am not a Kindle owner I didn’t really get too excited about it – but apparently it is not exclusive to Kindle owners – iPad owners can take part in the fun as well.

By the way did you know that you can get a brand new Kindle for $114 at Amazon? I didn’t realize they were so cheap!

Anyway, getting back to lending your eBooks, there is a service called Lendle.me which allows you to lend ebooks using your Kindle (or iPad, Blackberry, Android, etc) to others and make money in the process!

In another review of Lendle the reviewer makes a good point about lending ebooks and why Lendle is such a valuable service:

“After all, you can only lend a Kindle e-book once, and so Lendle and the other similar e-book lending services like BookLending.com have depended on the altruism of their users in order to grant that one-time loan to a complete stranger.”

How it works

The process is pretty simple. You sign up for an account and list the ebooks that you own and want to lend out to others. Then when someone wants to borrow a book that you own you will get a request to let them borrow it. You then approve the request and the borrower will have 14 days to borrow the book and you get paid.

How much do they pay?

Standard Lendle users get paid $.50 for each borrow, however if you make a one-time donation of $25 you will get paid $1.00 for each book lent out.

Putting this to use

As more and more of these eBook lending services start popping up, it seems to be making the idea of an eBook reader a better deal. First off, there are tons of completely free ebooks you can download, you can borrow ebooks from others to save some cash, and now even if you buy your own you can make some of that money back (or even profit?) from lending your ebooks to others.

Paper books will always have a place in my heart and there are some that I will always buy in paper form, but for me there are some types of books that are well-suited for an ebook reader.

Kindle users: what do you think? Would you do this?

Related Articles:

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Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.