Career Network Plus

At one time or another in our careers we find a need for a second income or at least an additional stream of income.

Yes, we may get a job at the local big box store. However, your income is limited and you are at the mercy of your schedule of work. How then do you add a second money making career?

Let me tell you about Lillian. She worked as a receptionist and her husband had a promising career. They found they were not saving as they should even though they put their credit cards in a drawer and rarely used them. In other words they were running in place and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

A friend told her about selling on ebay. After some study Lillian bought herself a good digital camera, and started selling extra things from around her house. After a few months she had made a number of sales but based on the time required she was making something short of minimum wage. Lillian didn’t think her time was wasted as she was learning how to take effective pictures and write copy that quickly sold the item.

She kept her eyes open for possible things to sell. One day in a high end home accessories store she found some lamps and lighting fixtures selling at deep discounts (less than 10% of retail). She took a giant leap of faith and bought for about $300, lamps and lighting fixtures, that had a retail value of over $3600.

After two months she sold most of the lighting products on ebay for over $1400. The balance she sold at a flea market for about $200.  She had found her niche. She began buying lamps at garage sales, and deep discount lighting products at several area high end speciality stores.

After one year she netted over $15,000. Not bad for a part-time second career. Lillian now could fund a Roth IRA for both herself and her husband. She now had the flexibility if she ever lost her job, she could crank up her second career and replace most if not all of her lost income. In addition, her family was now more financially secure.

Do you have a back-up career? Look around-opportunities are everywhere. The teacher that found she could make $3000 a year ghost writing articles for the internet. The warehouse worker that worked every other weekend as a pet food represenative (he was learning the ins and outs of marketing a consumer product).

The key to this approach is what are you doing with these additional career skills? Is the extra income being invested? How about the extra knowledge, can it be leveraged to improve your current career prospects?

Do you have a back-up career? A hobby that can be turned into a stream of income? Keep your eyes open and you can match or exceed what Lillian accomplished.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 1:45 am and is filed under Career Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.