Just because you are a full-time employee, it doesn’t mean you have to rely on your salary as the only source of income. There are countless employees out there who run successful businesses, have their own passive income sources, and benefit from the many other opportunities available on the market today. You can too!
What you need is the right opportunity to grab and a good start to generating new sources of income. That last big task – getting started – is always a challenge. To help you overcome that challenge and start making extra money without leaving your full-time job, here are six moneymaking ideas you can try right away.
The Financial Markets
You don’t have to be a full-time investor with lots of capital or a licensed trader to tap into the opportunities offered by the financial markets. All you need is a trading account with a reliable broker and a good understanding of the market.
The former is easy to get. Many brokers now cater to individual investors with smaller investment amounts. For instance, you can open a forex trading account for as little as $10, and you can start making money with that capital.
Understanding the market, on the other hand, requires some learning. You need to get used to the trading software, learn how to use the charts and indicators to analyze the market, and find reliable sources of news and insights to stay up to date.
Your Own Online Business
Another alternative to explore if you are looking for ways to generate extra income is starting your own online business. The internet has made starting a new business incredibly easy. You can set up an online storefront and start selling products and services to customers in a few minutes.
Before you can get your online store up and running, however, you need products and services to sell. Once again, the internet is your friend when it comes to finding products that potential customers actually want.
You can also choose to develop your own products. This is an opportunity to follow your passion and create something that solves problems in the market. When you have a strong product that the customers really love, selling that product is a breeze.
Offer Your Services
You can also choose to offer your skills and experience as a service. You’ll be surprised by how many people are in need of the services you offer, even when you think it is not a service worth offering. There is a simple reason behind the increasing demand for microservices.
The world is moving so quickly, and people don’t always have time to deal with things such as their taxes, managing their personal finances, doing digital marketing for their online brand, or writing articles for their LinkedIn profile. Yes, these are all services that are potential selling points.
Starting a service business begins with understanding the services you can offer based on your existing skills and expertise. You still need to invest in creating a strong online presence and connecting with potential customers, but the rest should be easy from there.
Invest Big
You don’t always have to settle for a business or another job just to raise your income. If you have been saving your money for a while, you may be ready for bigger investments. The financial markets are particularly interesting, plus there is a mountain of opportunities to explore too.
If you want to invest big, consider entering the real estate market. The property market has been growing steadily this past couple of years, so your timing could not be more perfect. You can pick up some excellent properties and aim for a substantial long-term gain through them.
You can also buy properties and become a landlord to generate rent income. You don’t even have to worry about the day-to-day operations and maintenance of your rental properties because there are service providers that will take care of everything for you.
Share More
As a professional, having a strong online presence is a must. After all, that is how you establish yourself as the authoritative figure in the field. When you have a strong enough online presence and you share a lot of useful information, however, new opportunities will present themselves.
Getting invited to industry forums and receiving offers to speak in these forums are signals of your strong position as a credible source of information. After a while, you will also get offers to do consulting work and to get involved in exciting new projects.
All you need to do is share more. Explore the things you really know, write great articles that the audience will find useful, and post those articles on your blog or your LinkedIn profile. It will not take long before you start building your audience.
Help Businesses and Startups
Next, we have the boom of peer-to-peer or P2P lending. P2P lending allows you to connect with business owners and individuals who are in need of cash. The P2P nature of this opportunity means you are allowed to lend as little as $25 and still get a healthy return on the loan.
Many P2P lending platforms grant access to profitable businesses and new startups with exciting products. You can expect returns of up to 25% p.a. depending on the business or opportunity you choose to fund.
As mentioned before, there is no need to put in a lot of money to get involved. Focus on finding a P2P lending platform you are comfortable with the most and don’t forget to do your due diligence before deciding to lend money to borrowers.
Get Started!
The most important tip to keep in mind about generating new revenue sources as a full-time employee is to get started. There is no point in having great objectives and even more amazing ideas if you don’t act on them.
Start by defining your objectives and making a plan on how to achieve them. Figure out the best opportunities to grab based on the return on investment or the amount of extra revenue you want to generate. Be persistent and overcome the challenges you may come across along the way. You will have many more income sources before you know it.