In this episode, we start our two part series on ways we think are pretty awesome to make money this summer. These are things we’ve either done ourselves, or seen others do successfully. They may be unconventional, but they pay! Stay for the end to hear a hilarious moment from Ruthie’s life in our “Gawk” portion.
Welcome to business talk sister gawk! I am Ruthie, and I’m Bekkah! And today we are doing the first part of our two-part series, 15 ways to make money this summer.
Bekkah: If this is the first time you’ve ever listened to our podcast you should check out our website businesstalksistergawk.com because we have all of our other episodes as well as links to tons of fun resources on our tools and tips page. Definitely check those things out we love helping people demystify business so that they can try it out for themselves. The first thing on our list today for 15 ways to make money, Ruthie is going to tell us a little bit about it.
Ruthie: We spent a lot of time making this list of things that we’ve done to make money, things we’ve heard of other people doing, or have friends that did it, we thought was interesting, and you guys might like as well.
1. How to Pot Plants and Sell Them to Make Money
The first thing we have on our list is potting plants and selling them to your neighbor’s. Basically, this is pretty self-explanatory, but Bekkah and I used to work at a greenhouse called Red’s Greenhouse and we loved working there many, many great memories from that. We would take pots and we would fill them with fresh dirt and then we would arrange the flowers inside the pot and make them really pretty and then we would grow and cultivate them so that they had a nice root system. It wasn’t just throwing things in there and then giving it to people a lot of the time it was just really making it a quality product and then selling those to people.
Bekkah: I think a lot of people are wondering about to is, “How do I make it look nice? Because I potted this plant it totally looks ugly.” That’s the way they normally look when you first pot them. The trick is you have to wait like a month before you start actually selling them because you need them to get bigger and more lush to look fuller within the planter and you’re utilizing resources. If you go to any kind of store that sells greenhouse supplies and get some pansies or whatever and start putting them in planters, arranging them they’re obviously really small. We have to remember that plants grow bigger like that’s the point of plants.
Some tips we have for helping you figure out how to price them and all that kind of stuff is to scope out some of the different potting places or greenhouses in the area. See what they’re selling for. Some places they sell for like hundreds of dollars other places are around like fifty dollars. Know what your costs of goods sold is going to be, then think about how you can market those better.
I know someone who I talked to in the past who went around their neighborhood and sold them out of a wagon. I think I would go about it by putting them on a business Instagram page because then you can see the analytics behind it. On a personal one you are not able to do that. From there, you could definitely take really nice pictures of them and have at least 6 different types of designs of what you think people are going to like. Not in the exact same plant or planter every time.
2. How to Use Your Car to Make Money This Summer By Filling Gas Tanks
Ruthie: The next one that we have on our list is filling up gas tanks for people. This sounds a little bit interesting. You’re not going around and just taking people’s cars, but it’s actually taking those little red tanks or whatever color they are and filling them up for people. I know for me that’s one thing that I hate doing. I always get a headache when I have to take a gas because we live far out of town. Having to drive all the way back to our house with the smelly gas tank and it’s spilling everywhere. Despite the pungent smell, I always seem to forget that it’s in there and I turn or something and all the sudden spilled all over the place and it smells worse.
Basically, what we want to do is capitalize on that frustration that people have in transporting gas for things like your lawnmower or their chainsaw or whatever else and telling people, “I’d be willing to go to the store or go to the gas station to fill that up for you and bring it back within the hour.” Doing that for them and making that known, to your neighbors that you’re willing to do that. This is not necessarily something that you’d be able to do all the time but keeping people aware of that and making that known to your friends, your family so that they know that you are not only willing to do that but you’re punctual and you’re able to do that and you’ve got a set up or something.
Maybe you put a tarp in the back of your car so that if you do have any spillage then it’s taken care of so it’s not a huge inconvenience for you. Maybe you can do a run where you do that for a whole bunch of people. Maybe you do it once a month or something. You could say, “Leave your tanks outside and I’ll swing by and fill them up for you. You can fill up your lawnmowers yourself”. You could just have it in a rotation you can do it that way as well as opposed to just waiting for people to contact you, you say, “Once a month I’m going to come and fill up your tank for you and drop them off at your house.”
Things to Keep In Mind For This Business Model
Bekkah: With that though a couple things that we should keep in mind. One you’re going to need to document with the price of gas is, because that fluctuates pretty regularly. And you’re going to need to tell people, “This is how much the price was when I filled up your tank” and then also what is your service fee for doing that. Include like the mileage it takes you and that kind of stuff because that’s all going to be something that you need to factor into your cost because it’s going to cost money to get there and get the gas too.
I also would say, don’t go crazy on how many you’re doing at the same time because it’s one thing to be filling up a couple 5-gallon tanks but when you start saying, “I’m going to buy a huge truck and do this.” You actually need a permit for that.
Make sure that when you’re doing this think about those things. Be safe, as well! One of the things Ruthie mentioned was chainsaws. You are going to need to do a little bit of research on what a 2-stroke engine is and that kind of stuff because that gas is special. It’s half oil. Know what you’re doing if you’re going to do more than just gas because certain engines need certain things. You don’t want to make liability for yourself and completely destroy someone’s stuff.
Also, document what you did so that way if ever someone says, “You completely ruined my chainsaw!” If you are just putting it in the thing for them and saying, “Here’s the tank.” That’s one thing, but if you are filling it up for them make sure that you say this is exactly what I did to lower your liability. If you’re doing it for your neighbors, it might not be that big of a deal but it’s always good to be safe.
3. How to Take On Sewing Projects for Cash
Ruthie: And Keep your windows open when you are driving! The third thing we have on our list is clothes mending work or other sewing projects. This is something that Bekkah knows a lot about. She’s done a lot of sewing. I’ve recently gotten into sewing. One because of quarantine and two because I had hip surgery so I had to do a lot of sitting so I thought, “I really need to get some sitting hobbies.” I started making a quilt and that’s something I’ve been working on right now. I’ve been doing a lot of research to be able to do those sewing projects. There are so many YouTube channels that teach you how to make pillows, how to make quilts, and how to make duvet covers, etc. Things like that that you can custom make for people and Bekkah is going to tell us a little about that.
Bekkah: Some of the biggest things that people are always thinking, “Oh, I would so pay someone for that,” is buttons, zippers, usually you have to have a sewing machine for zippers, and hemming. Hemming for things like dresses and pants. There are a couple different ways that you can do this. If you are really low cost and you don’t want to invest in a sewing machine, you can do a lot of things by hand. Buttons you can’t use a sewing machine for. A lot of hemming you can do by hand as well. I would definitely check out a few youtube videos before starting and practice because when you hem someone’s clothes you are probably going to want them to be wearing them when you are figuring out where to put your pins.
The cost of this really depends on where you are in the US. In the mid-west, people probably charge $10-15 for hemming a pair of pants. If you have nothing else going on and you just want to watch some TC while you are hemming a pair of pants this is an excellent way to make some money! Especially if you are stuck inside!
Another project could be if someone has a favorite shirt got a rip in it, just getting those like simple things sewn up for them in a way that looks nice and clean. Investing in different colored threads is important to make sure that you look professional. I have definitely done that and it’s awkward when an entire outfit is blue but the thread is orange.
4. How To Make Money At the County Fair
The next thing on our list is number 4. The county fair. I don’t know if you guys have ever looked into the county fair, but Ruthie and I grew up doing 4-H, so we are pretty well versed in the county fair. You can enter things! If you have ever been to the county fair and think, “Wow! These are really cool hand made exhibits from these people!” That’s because people in your county who make stuff, brought it there, and entered it! What you don’t know is that if you win a place in the fair like a ribbon, the majority of the time, you get paid for the place that you get. With 4-H it’s a different price point than it is within the open class so if you’re not in 4-H you can still enter things, and you can still do it as an adult, too. It’s not just for kids. You also can enter by class. If you are a beginner versus an expert, some places have that option.
For quilts, oh my goodness! Quilts are so competitive in the elderly category! They do the classes by age. If you’re over 60 years old you’re in one category versus another one. If you win a place in that category, you can make some money. What I’ve done in the past is enter stuff that I’ve already been working on. Maybe it’s flowers that I’ve grown, I just take some of those flowers that I’ve grown and enter them in the fair. Or like my rhubarb patch or whatever. I just grabbed stuff that I worked on throughout the year from my house, brought it in, and showed it to other people at the fair. I made like 45 bucks on the ribbons I placed with.
Ruthie: That kind of stuff is really nice because you’re not getting rid of it. You’re not selling your stuff you’re just putting it on display for everyone else to see. Then you get to take it home with you afterward! What a deal, right?! Definitely check out the County Fair because this summer your County probably has one, and they’re always looking for more people to enter stuff in the fair because they want people to pay to come to the fair. Make it worth their while, and show off your stuff.
Bekkah: Definitely if you’re a small trying to grow a business – that’s a great way to get exposure.
Ruthie: Ask someone who’s a professional, maybe you can embroider your logo and contact information into a pillow, and then you can display that!
Bekkah: The price does vary from County to County. When we lived in a larger County, the payout or the prize money that you got was lower than when we lived in a smaller County.
Ruthie: You got significantly more money! That was something I was absolutely floored by when we moved to a smaller County. Putting things in 4-H we got paid almost double for everything that we put in the fair in the smaller County.
Bekkah: One time, my sister entered chickens, she got paid like 60 bucks for one chicken!
Ruthie: Well, she got that when they did the Blue Ribbon auctioned for 4-H and she actually got $200 for that. Miriam got like $150 for the Blue Ribbon. Which is something a little bit different. You can make some serious money really if you look into it.
Bekkah: The County Fair in Minnesota, when you go to the State Fair afterwards especially in 4-H, I had a lot of friends who did cows. The Blue Ribbon auction is just basically businesses buying your ribbon to support young farmers. My friends would make 16 thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money to just auction off a ribbon from taking care of a cow! I mean cows cost a lot of money to maintain, but that’s how most of my friends growing up paid for part of their college. Definitely look into these different avenues. We highly recommend 4-H. It’s a great leadership program.
5. How to Play the Stock Market to Make Money
Bekkah: Play the stock market. Now, I know some of you might think this is really scary, but there are some new features out there, new apps that are really awesome. I use Robinhood (If you click this link it will refer a free stock to me if a bunch other people open accounts. They still should have a promotion where you get a free stock for signing up too!) We’ll put a link to that in the blog post of this as well so you can go back and check it out. The reason I like it is because when you use Robinhood, you can trade for free. You don’t have to pay any money to make a trade. You do have to have a bank account connected. If you don’t have a bank account yet, you should probably set that one up with your parent. Completely free to set up a bank account if you’re under 18, under your parent’s bank most places.
What I did to get started with the Stock Market:
- I got some money for Christmas two years ago, and I put that in there to see how it did.
- I started listening to the news. They have a podcast as well it’s called like this daily snacks or something but their newsletter is the bomb. I love it. I read it almost every everyday, and within that, they tell you like who’s up, who’s down, and what’s going on. If you pay attention to what’s happening in the world, you can really capitalize on some opportunities. When this whole COVID-19 thing broke out in China to begin with in Wuhan my husband, said to me, “I bet that Zoom is going to go up because people are going to start using video chat for more things. More companies are going to start buying it. We should really buy that. So we did! Well, first of all, we thought they were good company to begin with. We totally wanted them a long time ago, but they weren’t even a public company yet so we waited. We bought them, and all of a sudden, everything happened in the United States a month later! All this stuff, boom it went up 50 dollars in a week.
- I pay attention for when to sell things. When Facebook announced, “Oh, we’re gonna be starting a new video software that’s absolutely free, their stock price dropped like 13 percent in one day. Definitely be watching other people too. Other players entering the market or when they have their earnings announcement coming out. Do you think they did well this quarter or not? Pay attention to those things, because that’ll definitely help you.
Just for some numbers to reference, the stock market is a little slower than other things if you’re playing it, and you’re not super active. You need to hold the stock for three days without a day trader license. So just plan on that. You can’t buy it, and sell it the same day. I started probably in 2018 and with a hundred and eighty dollars, and now I think I have like four hundred and sixty some dollars. Almost doubled if not right about doubled my money, but that took me two years! I tried some smaller stocks that only went like a couple dollars. Sometimes I lost some money! Really think about how to diversify and all that kind of stuff too. It’s just a fun time you guys! Definitely check it out.
6. How to Capitalize on Being A Nanny This Summer
Some of you guys probably are thinking, “I know, I’ve already done babysitting! but what does it look like to long term over the summer. If you have one family that you’re caring for. Ruthie, can you tell us a little bit about what that would be?
Ruthie: What I did in high school for three years is I nannied for one family. There’s different ways that you can do it. You can go and have really cool experiences where you do like an exchange program and you go nanny for someone for a summer. You can do that within the United States, you can do that abroad, which is a really cool opportunity if that’s something that you’re interested in. I nannied for the people that lived on the end of the block from me.
Basically, what I did is I just got up and every morning and then I went and, I would talk with the mom before she would leave, and I was in charge of getting them to their summer activities. Things like T-ball, a lot of basketball camps, and things like that. Also, what I did is cleaned for them. She knew that I was a hard worker, and she knew that I was very thorough. She asked me if I would be willing to clean for them as well. That’s something that if you’re a nanny, you could ask them about that. Say, “If I were to clean for you as well, could I get paid extra or something?” Word it in a way that doesn’t sound like what I just said though!
Bekkah: You also need to be good at cleaning. I’m just going to put that out there. I have had so many different people that I have let watch my kids that I would not let them clean my house.
Ruthie: I don’t know why that is a thing! Do people do this? I’ve seen so many people sweep a pile of stuff, and just sweep it into the corner and leave it there!
Bekkah: Why would you do that? I don’t!
Ruthie: I have seen so many people do that! It’s gross, but anyway! If you’re going to sweep the, floor pick it up! That’s just common sense!
Bekkah: If you don’t know how to clean watch a YouTube video! (Side note: this video that we linked has over 13k views! Okay, apparently a lot of people don’t know how to sweep the floor.)
If you listen to the episode, you can hear our Sister Gawk portion of the show! Thank you so much for joining us, and join us again next week for part 2!
