Money Making

Earning Extra Income: Marketing 101

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Alex on May 17, 2012

We’re going to start focusing on extra income as one aspect towards reaching your financial goals, especially in regards to the 2×2 Plan we developed and use ourselves in meeting our every financial goal. If you haven’t heard about our 2×2 Plan, we encourage you to head over here and read more about it!

As part of this, and as we continue to share our list of over 100 ways to earn extra income, we thought it important to give you some ideas on how to market your business. But before we start sharing some initial strategies you can implement, its important to establish some thoughts about marketing overall and why you should do it. We want to cover some ideas for you to consider before you market your business, to help you understand why you need to market your business and finally some tips on what to consider to ensure you are choosing your right strategy in how you market it. We would love to have you share your thoughts as well so we can continue to build this great resource!

What is marketing?

We need to start somewhere of course and to me its always important to break a subject down to its most basic form. According to Merriam-Webster, marketing is “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” The reason I start here is because I want you to consider a few things before you start. When you market, and especially promote your family business, you are promoting your product or service. Why do I emphasize this?

First, don’t forget that your product and/or service has value – The first place a family business can fail is when you don’t understand that you are offering value for what you are selling (I include products and services in this as you really do sell your services). If you start a business and believe that what you are selling doesn’t have value, its going to come across in the way you promote it. You don’t need to apologize for marketing. You don’t need to apologize for promoting your products or services. Remember the key to any transaction will be that you are providing the customer with something they want and are willing to pay for – and that ultimately the products/services they receive in return is worth the money they paid. Just because you don’t have a brand name associated with it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value.
The value of your product and/or service is not free – Remember you are promoting a business – what your family is doing is building a business. It can become frustrating at first if you don’t see much interest in your product/service. It can take time to establish trust with those potential customers and time to build your product/service to a point that others see the value in it. And although you might offer some free or deeply discounted products/services at first (incentives you offer for new customers to be discussed in our next article), remember that your product really does have value. You are not taking all the time in the world to offer your product or service for some purely altruistic reason. Yes, you may be able to help others with your product/service, but if you’re not going to receive anything in return for it, its not going to be worth your time as free products and services won’t help you reach your financial goals.
Don’t be ashamed to promote your product/service – As you market, remember you are promoting the reasons why the potential customer need your products and services! This may sound obvious, but when you promote your products, you need to tell the consumer why your product/service is of value. Why would they want to buy from you instead of someone else? It can be hard to talk about yourself, and that includes your family business, but if your product/service has value, then tell the world that it does. Don’t apologize to them for offering value and asking the consumer to buy your product.
Tell them why they should buy your product – Hopefully you’re business idea isn’t too saturated in the market, but we all know its rare to find a business idea that won’t already have competitors the day you open your doors. And if your product/service is of value and you don’t initially have competitors, rest assured you will soon. Let your customers know then why they should buy from you instead of someone else. Think about this from every perspective – it doesn’t just have to be “we’re the cheapest”. In fact, if you are selling a product/service with more value than your competitor, make sure to give the reasons why they should buy from you, with your higher priced product, than from their competitor.
Promote your products and services honestly – After all this is said, make sure to be realistic in your marketing. If you’re selling a service that will merely relieve the customer of the pain and agony of having to clean their own toilets (e.g., you offer to clean bathrooms), you probably don’t want to communicate that by hiring your services they will bring in peace on earth. And if your product/service really isn’t worth the value you are selling it for, when either figure out how the improve the quality or figure out how to drop the price – or find another line of business altogether (last line of attack).

Why market?

I love to write about the obvious. Shouldn’t everyone know this? Maybe. But when push comes to shove, when the rubber meets the road, when the tough get going…most don’t seem to understand these obvious points. Maybe you would share these tips with your neighbor if they were starting their own business. But when it comes to your own, especially when you are blinded by just how amazing you product/service really is, you might miss the reasons why you need to market.

The business model “Build it and they will come” just doesn’t work – You’ve built your product. You have developed your service you just know everyone will buy. But whether you made the best product in the world, created the best website ever (after ours of course ), or even came up with the cure for cancer, you can’t just sit back and have your product/service just sell itself. This idea might be nice for a touching baseball story, but you really need to let the world (or neighborhood, city, nation – whatever sphere you are trying to influence) that your product or service is ready to buy. We have seen business flop (yes, including our own) because we couldn’t get those products and services in front of the right customer base.
Others don’t see the value in your product like you do – Yes, your product is better than any other on the market. We get that. Or do we? Your product is the one you want others to buy and you know inside and out why. Its your baby. You have invested and even poured yourself into it and you know that others will benefit from your product. But when you don’t tell those potential customers the value of your product and benefits, when you don’t even get those proposed benefits in front of a potential customer, you won’t have a customer. Don’t think that just because you know your product/service intimately means everyone else will have that knowledge. You need to share that with them – and you need to market to do so.
Potential customers don’t want to part with their hard-earned money – Even in the best of economies, consumers only have a limited amount of resources. And to get consumers to part with those resources (time and money) and buy your product/service (then becoming your customer) may take some convincing. You need to market to those customers, to let them know you exist, let them know why your product/service is of value, etc. We hope you’re getting the idea.

Considerations when Marketing

We wanted to finish up our Marketing 101 with some additional items to consider.

It really does take money to make money – This old adage is so true. In fact its become increasingly clear as we continue to build all our businesses. It really does take money – invested – to make money – profit. You might be thinking I’m wrong – that all you need to do is invest your free time to make your business take off. But that’s exactly my point – your time is money. Not only do consumers have a limited, finite amount of time to work with, so do you! When you take that “free time” and put it into building your business or marketing, you’re taking that time from somewhere else, whether its family, time you could have spent more effectively on another aspect or your business (see next point), or even away from your own free time. Your time has a cost associated with it, and that cost must be somehow determined to understand the investment you are making in your business.
Consider Return on Investment (ROI) – Whether you are investing your time or your money, its important to consider your ROI. What this means is that when you invest your resources, do you expect to see a positive return on that investment (making more money than you invested) in the long run? If your business idea is to sell a product and it cost you $100 in supplies and marketing and you only expect to sell $80 (with a loss of $20), then all of the sudden you see that you probably could have stuck that $100 under your mattress and ultimately come out ahead. Now if that initial $100 investment started to make a monthly, residual income of $20 per month, you all the sudden see that after six months you’ll start making a profit. This illustration is to help you understand that resources invested should have an expected return on that investment – hopefully in the black. And as you realize that you can start making wiser decisions. Would $100 invested in this marketing strategy have as high of a return as in another? Your wisdom acquired throughout the process should help you to determine the best answer to those questions in the future.
Sometimes it makes sense to pay for a service you can do yourself – I tend to see every one of these considerations in terms of ROI, especially this one. I know that given enough time, and possibly even resources, you can figure out how to do everything you want to accomplish. But when your task list continues to build, you start to wonder if there will be an end to it. One lesson that has been hard for me to realize is that when you can, let the person who can do it best – while ultimately saving you time and money – do it for you. Sure you can figure out how to design your web page, but if you know that paying a designer a reasonable amount of money will allow you to invest your time in something else with better return on your time (there’s the ROI), then maybe you should consider hiring it out. How does this apply to marketing? Instead of passing out flyers yourself, pay some kids to deliver them for you. Think through each decision, consider your time and ask whether that time can be invested better somewhere else by paying them to help you – yes, even if you can do it yourself.
Ask yourself whether you would buy from someone else using your chosen marketing strategy – One of the quickest ways to determine whether your selected marketing strategy will be successful is to ask yourself some quick questions:

Would I buy from someone if they marketed this product/service the same way?
If I’m bringing this person inside my home will that amount of information communicated in that marketing strategy translate into trust?
Did that strategy communicate enough information that I would know enough about the value of the product/service and benefit to me?
Does the selected strategy hit the right target audience?

Consider cost of reaching the right customer – Some marketing strategies are going to cost less to implement than others. A simple flyer placed on a car windshield or neighborhood may cost less than purchasing a full-page ad in your local newspaper, but you have to yet again consider your ROI. Your business may not require as much trust as another (your product/service isn’t taking you into their home or isn’t requiring the customer to pay a lot of money) so some strategies might be more appropriate. Or rather, you need some great testimonials, some way of communicating that you have the professional requirements and trust so another form of advertising (though more costly) could be of greater benefit. We can’t go into all the details here, but as you know your business intimately, consider the best ways to market your business, communicate your message and reach the right consumer.
Don’t trust solely in a single marketing strategy – Right after thinking that “You have built it and they will come”, the next usual error is trusting too much in a single marketing strategy. We’re not going to say that it will always be the wrong decision, but usually when you can diversify your approach you can ensure that if one fails you’ll still have other marketing strategies to rely upon.
Test and Evaluate. Try again. – When you decide on the ways you plan to market, make sure to test your marketing strategy and then evaluate whether it was successful. Try to quantify the results so you can truly determine your cost and the actual ROI you found from the cost of your investment. Have you ever wondered why companies will usually include the question, “How did you hear about us?” when you purchase their products? Its so they can determine whether the cost they expended in marketing through that strategy was worth their cost. You can and should do the same. It might take some creativity to come up with that information, but it should be possible.

Did we just throw too much information at you? There is so much more that we are learning ourselves, but we thought it would be important to share with you the what and why of marketing before we shared the how. We will next be sharing some ideas you can use for your businesses – and we hope to continue to build the list as we find more ourselves and hear from you.

Has this been helpful to you? Share with us that it has in the comments below and share with a friend! We look forward to continue providing you all the information you need as you find ways to earn extra income, especially in relation to the 2×2 Plan to help you reach your financial goals, that we’ve continuously used to meet all our financial goals.

Photo Credit: Thanks Photo Wand

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Now is the Time to Join: Changes to PerkStreet Financial Means More Benefits for More Customers

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Alex on March 27, 2012

Earlier this month we received an email from the PerkStreet Financial CEO, Don O’Mally, regarding some changes to the PerkStreet program. If you recall, PerkStreet is an awesome way to earn cash back by using their PerkStreet Financial^SM debit card – something we learned about from Dave Ramsey and have loved just how much money we have earned! But two things blew us out of the water with his email. The first is PerkStreet’s commitment to provide more customers access to more benefits (see below). The second was Don O’Mally’s request for us to email him personally with any questions we have regarding the changes. That is a company that knows how to serve their customers – personal service and availability when we have a concern or even simply a question.

But back to the changes in benefits we had mentioned. The original offer provided 2% cash back for every non-PIN transaction if your balance exceeded $5,000 and 1% back for balances less than that. Many of you commented how difficult it is to just have $5,000 sitting in an account just for the additional benefit. We get that. And more than that, PerkStreet gets that to.

With this, there are two main changes PerkStreet has made to their program:

1. Giving more people the ability to earn more cash back

This is probably the main thrust of their changes – trying to give more benefits to more customers because they mentioned that over 90% of their customers were receiving 1% for each purchase. Here’s the new ways to earn:

As you note, at certain stores and in certain situations (e.g., having dinner with friends) you will be able to make 2% back on many purchases just because you are making a non-PIN charge. There’s no need to have $5,000 in your account for those purchases. And just as before, you still get those 5% PowerPerks – which means for certain stores that you vote on each month you will get 5% of your purchase back to you! Just this month any purchase at Dollar General, Barnes & Noble, or NewEgg.com will yield you those 5% benefits; plus right now you can even vote to choose your April PowerPerks (signing up? vote away!) with stores such as Groupon, OfficeMax, and Ace Hardware to name a few.

2. PerkStreet is offering more ways to redeem your perks

When you earn those 1%, 2% and 5% rewards, you are actually earning “Perks” – mean that for each dollar of perks you earn you get $1 of perks to spend! And what PerkStreet is doing is expanding their number of ways you can redeem those perks, including:

Amazon.com	Applebee’s	Best Buy	Walmart
Chili’s	Dunkin’ Donuts	GAP	iTunes / Apple
Macy’s	Marshall’s	Olive Garden	Sears
Starbucks	Target	T.G.I. Fridays	T.J. Maxx

Yep, when you earn those perks you’ll get more choices to redeem those perks for an even better selection of gift cards. You are now even provided the option to have those perks deposited right into your account ($22 perks for $20 deposit). What this does is gives you the purchasing power to buy more for less at a later point while giving you more for your budget!

What we love

Remember that what we love about this is that you have full control of your budget by paying all your bills and everyday expenses just by using a new card – not a credit card but rather a debit card. In our minds, there’s something that mentally clicks when you are spending money out of your balance rather than watching a credit card balance pile up through the month. It just seems to make it easier for us to keep to our budget.

We will continue to occasionally include our savings in our shopping trips and other places we save – because remember those perks you earn count as savings off your total bill as well! We would love to hear from you – do these changes make it more likely for you and your family to sign up and start earning these perks?

And if you want a secret from us: We love redeeming our perks for Amazon.com gift cards – we just apply the balance to our Amazon account and never have to think about it again. Then when we buy items (see our Best Deals on Amazon) on Amazon, that balance is ready for us to use!

Click HERE to go directly to PerkStreet Financial^SM and sign up for FREE!

The PerkStreet Financial^SM Debit MasterCard^® is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to license from MasterCard International Incorporated.

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Earn Extra Cash this Holiday Season by Painting Windows

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on November 19, 2011

It’s time to share another idea with you to help you make some extra income this Christmas season to help you have a debt-free Christmas, pay extra bills or have an even bigger Christmas! Either way, we have the master list over 100 Ways to Earn Additional Income that we are continually adding to and highlighting topics to help you and your family find some money-making opportunities.

Today’s idea is for those of you who may have someone in the family that is an artist! Holiday Window Painting is the name of this money making idea. We have personally known a family who does this as a regular gig in addition to their full-time jobs so that they can earn extra income. They have stated the holiday season especially booms with clients (business owners) wanting to draw customers with fun and festive windows. The family that does this is self-taught hobby artists and they do a great job! They love to do it and they actually get jobs all year round as it is a fun and affordable way for businesses to utilize their window space for marketing any time of year! As always, because you are in charge of the business you can invest as much time and effort as you would like. This could be as small as painting for a few local businesses or as involved as a full-time year-round venture.

So if this seems like something that would be fun and potentially a great way to utilize the skill-set of some of your family members, then here are some ideas to get you started.

Marketing ideas

Paint your windows on both your home and car and place a sign in your yard offering window painting. There is no greater advertisement than someone actually seeing your work! You could also offer to paint friends’ windows for FREE for Christmas if they are willing to put a sign up in their yard too!
Get your listing up on your local free classifieds - This is a tried and true way to get business for FREE and you can generally post pictures to show off your work!
Take brochures into businesses with pictures of your past work. You can even consider providing a discount to them if they allow you to put your contact information on the window under the painting (like an artist does, but advertising your work). Consider offering a year-round package at a discount for the commitment (if you want to make this even bigger).
Offer incentives to your current customers. These could range from ideas like giving them a gift card for referred customers, discounts on future window paintings for referrals, etc. Not only are you getting word-of-mouth referrals (which are the best kind!) but you are giving them an incentive to do so and helping them reduce their overall cost of service – the more they refer, the cheaper their overall price is!
Offer a gift card to your own network of friends and family - They may not have paid for your service, but again advertising spread by word-of-mouth can help you grow your business organically!

As far as the costs involved, it really can be a low-cost overhead type of business. There really isn’t many items needed much more than the proper paint (which you may be able to find some great discounts on at places like Amazon and warehouses), paint brushes, window cleaning supplies and your marketing materials.

Other considerations

Think outside of the box for how the whole family can work together - Each member of the family might offer great talents that you can use for the job. Does one of the children have a great eye for design (e.g., our 7-year old marketer)? Use him or her to design your marketing supplies! Consider using some of your older children to help pick up the supplies from the store or even shop around to find a great deal on them! If you sit down as a family you just might find some ideas that you would have never considered before.
Taxes - This is standard on every money-making post, but make sure to discuss with your accountant how to track your costs and income to prepare your taxes. There might be some deductible expenses (e.g., all the mileage for the work/advertising, cost of supplies, etc) that you might not initially consider as part of this business.
Insurance - Make sure to discuss with your insurance agent and consider whether something like this is necessary for this type of work in your area. Every business has risk involved, so it is always something to think about.

We hope some of these ideas will at least get you started in utilizing skills in the family to help generate some extra income. We would love to hear other considerations you might have and anything else we might have missed.

Finally, we encourage you to check out our full list of over 100 ways to earn additional income! We plan on expanding this list in the days and weeks ahead as there are some great opportunities with the holidays approaching!

Photo credit: JJGrabber.com who looks like he is doing exactly what we are talking about

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Make Money Through Mommy Talks Plus FREE $5 Just For Registering (It Is FREE)

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on November 17, 2011

This is an AWESOME new survey company called Mommy Talks! We just saw this and I registered for this myself and it took my about 3 minutes to register for a new account. And just by registering – I received $5 cash! These are surveys geared towards moms about products for moms and babies.

Even better is that they have a super slick survey taking-and-reward system – better than any we have ever seen from a survey company! They have a chart showing you how many surveys are available for you to take, how long they will take and the actual cash amount you will receive for taking it! This is a great opportunity to make a little extra cash too!

Here’s a screen shot of some of the surveys available to me today after registering for a new account! I actually had 64 that I could take!

You can see from the chart from my account, with a survey or two a day, at the end of each month – you could get a nice check!

IMPORTANT: To get your $5 bonus – your account will show a $0.00 balance after registering. But just hop on over to the email account that you registered with and click on the email to confirm – you will not get your $5 until they can confirm who you say you are. It will look like this in your email:

Then once you click on through in your email, then your account balance will show the $5 and then start taking surveys to earn more!!

We are not sure how long they will be offering the $5 bonus – so take a few minutes and get registered for your $5. Then log-in whenever you would like to make a bit of cash!

Head to the Mommy Talks site through this link HERE for your $5 bonus

See our master list of Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting

Thanks Money Saving Mom

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Earn Extra Cash this Holiday Season by Installing Christmas Lights

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Alex on November 16, 2011

Over the next couple of weeks we are planning on sharing some great earning ideas as part of our list of over 100 Ways to Earn Additional Income as we move into the holiday season. As we’ve mentioned in the past, not only will finding part-time income help you meet your financial goals, but you might be able to turn some of these ideas into your main form of income. For example, if your family has a roofing business, this could be a great opportunity to help you through those lean times when the snow is falling!

We actually know about this idea from our “transitioning days”. What do I mean? We actually used this service a few years ago when we were starting our transition from being deep in debt to starting to pay off our debt. Cassie grew up loving a house beautifully decorated for Christmas so we wanted to decorate our home on a thrifty budget. We purchased some Christmas lights on clearance and were pleased with the sale. It was then that Cassie noticed on one of the local classified ad services that two college-aged brothers (trying to earn money so they could pay for their schooling with cash) was offering to not only put up our Christmas lights for a reasonable price, but also take them down for us as well when the spring came. We’ll share in a different article on weighing the cost of paying someone for a service (e.g., could you realistically make more money by paying someone for a service and use the same time for your own business venture?) – which was part of our rationale at the time. But even more so we were excited about their vision and goals of working to pay for their schooling debt-free and wanted to support them. We hired them for the service and loved the results – they did a great job!

We wanted to share with you some ideas on how to get started (you may want to get started pretty quickly – there’s no time like the present) with some ideas you might want to consider. As always, because you are in charge of the business you can invest as much time and effort as you would like. This could be as small as helping a few neighbors with their lights or as involved as a full-time seasonal venture.

Marketing ideas

Get your lights on your home (making sure they are just right) and place a sign in your yard offering Christmas light installation - We have actually seen a couple of businesses get creative with the moving lights to have them “move” toward the sign which helped draw our attention to it. Don’t forget to place a small spotlight on the sign so your potential customers driving by can see the sign during the prime time – at night while they view your beautiful lights!
Make a vinyl sign that you can place on your vehicle - If you call your local print shops they will often get you set up pretty quickly. And if you call around you can negotiate a great price!
Get your listing up on your local free classifieds - This is where Cassie saw our installers a few years back advertising and can be a great, FREE source of marketing!
Ask some local senior citizen’s centers whether you can post a flyer in their center - If you think about it, there could be a great opportunity for seniors that would love to decorate their home but just can’t because they are unable to get on a ladder or on their roof. This could be a great blessing to them as well.
Offer incentives to your current customers that you’ll offer them a $5 gift card for referred customers - Not only are you getting word-of-mouth referrals (which are the best kind!) but you are giving them an incentive to do so and helping them reduce their overall cost of service – the more they refer, the cheaper their overall price is!
Offer the same $5 gift card to your friends and family - They may not have paid for your service, but again advertising spread by word-of-mouth can help you grow your business organically!

Supplies you will need

Ladders - Obviously you’ll need a couple of extension and shorter ladders to get you on the roof
Warm clothing - If you remember our post on starting your own snow-removal business you’ll note we mentioned the need to purchase cold-weather clothing to keep yourself warm during the venture.
Snow removal supplies - Depending on your bravery level (can you tell I’m a bit scared of heights?), you’ll probably need some shovels and de-icer to help give you some safety while you do this.
Materials to attach the lights to the house - We assume if you are even considering this that you’ve put up Christmas lights in the past. As you know it can require additional miscellaneous supplies such as various clips and even a staple gun (if your customer directs) to attach those lights. Having the supplies stocked up well ahead of your job will help prevent unnecessary last-minute trips to the store.
Extension cords - You will obviously want to factor the cost for any cords or power strips you might need into the bid for the job. Each job will probably be unique as the customer may already have these ready for you to use.

Other considerations

Obviously you really need to consider the risk involved - If you love heights and stand on the top of ladders for a good time, this might be a perfect fit for your family.
Think outside of the box for how the whole family can work together - Each member of the family might offer great talents that you can use for the job. Does one of the children have a great eye for design (e.g., our 7-year old marketer)? Use him or her to design your marketing supplies! Consider using some of your older children to help pick up the supplies from the store or even shop around to find a great deal on them! If you sit down as a family you just might find some ideas that you would have never considered before.
Consider loading of electrical sockets - As we mentioned before, we’re sure you have not only put your own lights up before but have probably done it multiple times. Make sure that you understand just how many lights can be plugged in safely without tripping the breaker.
Insurance - Make sure to discuss and consider the price of insurance with your insurance agent. If you happen to have that roofing company we mentioned before you probably know all about this and possibly could already be covered. Every business has risk involved, but this one seems to potentially have more than others.
Taxes - This is standard on every money-making post, but make sure to discuss with your accountant how to track your costs and income to prepare your taxes. There might be some deductible expenses (e.g., all the mileage for the work/advertising, cost of supplies, etc) that you might not initially consider as part of this business.

We hope some of these ideas will at least get you started in developing your Christmas Light Installation business. We would love to hear other considerations you might have and anything else we might have missed.

Photo credit: Thank you to Home Tips as the source of this image.

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PerkStreet Financial Rewards You With an Amazing 2% Cash Back Debit Card as Recommended by Dave Ramsey

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Alex on November 5, 2011

Earlier this year Cassie noticed that Dave Ramsey referred to PerkStreet Financial^SM as a financial services company that made a lot of sense – they offer a FREE checking account with a debit card that rewards you for using their card (the normal verbiage: non-PIN transactions of course). From his recommendation we thought we would check them out – and we have been very happy users since. We love they were founded to help families live debt-free by rewarding them for making smart spending choices and avoiding credit card debt and big banking fees.

First if you’ve been following the news, you know a lot of banking customers (us ourselves) are up in arms over the number of fees that banks are charging to use their debit cards. Wells Fargo, Chase & SunTrust all charge somewhere in the range from $3-5 monthly just for using some of their debit cards. The latest, Bank of America made the announcement they would charge a monthly $5 fee for the same. If I understand correctly, they heard their customers loud and clear (or many ex-customers, that is) and have recently taken back that charge. If nothing else, you can sense the winds of additional bank fees – as demonstrated by the Bank Transfer Day – a day dedicated for users to leave their current banks and transfer fully to a credit union solely because of bank fees for debit card use.

Here’s where the awesome part comes in – PerkStreet Financial offers their checking account and debit card without any maintenance fees and instead rewards you to use their debit card (on all non-PIN purchases) – and you can keep your current bank account! Here’s what they say about themselves:

It’s an FDIC insured checking account that gives you more debit card rewards than any other account in America. When you use your PerkStreet Financial Debit MasterCard^® without entering a PIN, you earn free coffee, music or 2% cash back, plus up to 5% cash back in popular categories.

So as you can tell, what’s amazing with PerkStreet Financial is that you can get 2% cash back just for using your card and making purchases you would normally make every day compared to our current bank that only offers 0.25% back – a HUGE difference! PerkStreet Financial also states their average customer receives back $601 per year in perks – which means about a $50 card per month. And yes, that’s one of our rewards cards above!

First, its free and easy to open an account. Just click on this link to PerkStreet Financial and after you get to their site just click on the button below (you can’t miss it ) to apply for an account – and as they have said before, it only takes a few minutes to fill out!

After they approve and create your account they will notify you and you can start using them for your purchases!

So here’s the nitty and the gritty:

Earn 2% cash back on all non-PIN debit card purchases for 3 months (90 days)
After 90 days, earn 2% cash back on every non-PIN purchases when your balance is $5,000 or more or earn 1% cash back for balances below $5,000. Either way, you won’t find another bank in America that gives you more rewards on debit .
Get 5% PowerPerks at rotating monthly categories and merchants (this month on movie and local bakery purchases)
No credit check. No annual fee. It’s free to get and free to use.

Finally, we’ll share with you more in the future on how you can maximize your perk rewards, but when you request your rewards you can receive them as assorted gift cards or – our favorite – CASH (in the form of a card as you see above). We love taking those perks and paying some of our bills online. How great it is to see our monthly budget reduced (even if just a little bit) just because we earned cash back spending wisely!

Click here to sign up today!

The PerkStreet Financial^SM Debit MasterCard^® is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to license from MasterCard International Incorporated.

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Take Surveys and Earn FREE Gift Cards

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on October 21, 2011

MySurvey is accepting new applicants right now and so we wanted to give you a head’s up because, as we have mentioned before, survey companies can be great opportunities to earn a little extra money!

In this case, the money is in the form of gift cards to retailers, restaurants, etc. So this is just as good as cash, yes it won’t pay your electric bill, but if you sntached a Walmart gift card for example, it can help with your grocery bill which means that money can go towards another bill or financial goal!

With MySurvey, you share your thoughts taking surveys about products/services and you will receive points (each survey has a different points value and different length of time for each). You can take as little or many surveys as you want, but you will “bank” your points and then you can redeem them for prizes, including gift cards. It reminds us of Swagbucks!

You can head to the MySurvey site here to quickly apply.

You will be asked questions about your demographics and household interests so that they surveys are tailored to you! This only takes a few minutes, then you are well on your way to start earning!

Be sure to see our “Earn Extra Income: Over 100 Ways and Counting” for more money make ideas!

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Join a Mailing List to Receive High Value Coupons, Samples and Offers

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on October 7, 2011

We’ve mentioned survey companies to earn extra cash, but what about taking quick short surveys for exclusive high value product coupons and FREE samples?

You can join the mailing list for Shopper’s Voice and answer questions when you want. In return, you will receive these exclusive high value coupons and samples from companies like Proctor and Gamble, Nestle, Con-Agra, Johnson & Johnson and more.

This is a great way to rake in extra savings for your family’s budget and be rewarded for a few minutes of your time!

Shopper’s Voice only opens up to new members a few times a year, so don’t miss this opportunity before they close membership on this round! When you first join, you will be asked a series of questions on what you and your family purchase so that they can tailor the surveys and the coupons/samples to your liking. This takes a few minutes to get started, but will hopefully be more than worth it!

Join the Shopper’s Voice mailing list here.

See more FREE Stuff and Ways to Earn Extra Income Over 100 and Counting

Thanks A Proverb’s Wife

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National Consumer Panel Open For New Applications: Get Rewarded For Shopping

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on October 6, 2011

This is open again for new applicants, so we are posting this again!

Have you heard about Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel before? Well, we had not and we had several friends that are consumer panelists for this company and they really like it! In addition, you can win cash and earn prizes just for doing something you all ready do – Shop.

Essentially how it works is (if you are accepted) you will receive a price gun and you will scan your groceries as you put them away. They are tracking consumer spending habits to see how to change the market, etc. This is a fun activity for kids to do while you’re putting groceries away and the longer you’re a panelist, the better the prizes get.

So you can join Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel – Earn valuable points, which are redeemable for electronics, household items, jewelry, toy, gift cards, and more.

There application windows are short, so if you and your family is interested, don’t hesitate to apply!

Head to the Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel site for more details.

See our previous post for even more ideas on Over 100 Ways and Counting to Earn Extra Income

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Earn Additional Income by Starting Your Own Snow Removal Business

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Alex on October 4, 2011

It’s time for the next money making post. We hope that our list of over 100 ways to earn extra income and articles are inspiring you and your family to pick up pen and paper and jot down ideas for your own family business. We will continue to share ideas with you on how to make money on the side with the hope it will encourage you in meeting your financial goals and with the thought that maybe one day one you can transform one of these ideas into a full-time money-making venture! Please don’t forget to continue sharing with us any ideas that you have as well.

We want to now discuss running a snow removal business. We do write this with the understanding that some of you might be blessed to live in an area which may snow every few years and where the city shuts down on that one day. We will try to catch you on the next article. But for you families that know what snow is, love the first snowfall and possibly start dreading it on the second (or love it through the end!), this article is for you.

One of the things we love about this business is how many members of the family can play an integral role. Don’t forget whenever you look at a business to consider developing a family economic – each member of the family can play a role. We will discuss this more thoroughly in another article, but instilling a solid work ethic into your children will prepare them for life. Training your children to be the ant (referencing Proverbs 6:6-11) instead of the sluggard, will train your children to work hard, learn that money doesn’t grow on trees and that hard work is necessary to reap later and make it through the lean times.

Why are we talking about Snow Removal business when the snow hasn’t even fallen in most parts of the country? Because if you get started now could mean less time each day to prepare, the ability to find cheaper tools and materials, and especially more time to find committed customers!

Steps To Start A Snow Removal Business

Set a goal about what you hope to make or achieve in this money making venture.
Ask yourselves whether this business will this cover a bill (like the heating bill) or the car payment? Will it perhaps pay for your next family vacation (vacations are always much more enjoyable when everyone worked hard to meet the goal!), or even help you get closer to your financial goals.

Remember to keep that goal in front of you as you make your decisions. You don’t want to under-prepare if you are hoping to make a significant income from this, nor do you want to over-extend yourself when you were only hoping to make a few dollars. It can and will become what you make of it.

Figure out who in the family will be doing this money making venture and what roles each member would play
Do you have some in the family that are more adept at handling the snow blower? Do you need someone to handle the phone calls and all the marketing? Maybe you have some younger children that would love to be in charge of the de-icer or a snow shovel for those areas a snow-blower can’t easily reach such as the steps. Your family is unique and as such you will need to decide just how each family member can play a role in your business.

Determine your price point
Research what past snow removal businesses have charged and try to beat this. Each area will be different so ask around what a going rate is for snow removal in your area either from home owners, business owners, etc. You will also need to determine how much area you can cover per hour (obviously the level and type of snow fall will affect this). Determine if you want to charge per job or per hour. In our opinion, we suggest charging per job as the time will vary based on snowfall, and businesses will pay more per job than a homeowner would.

Decide what equipment you will need
Try to think a bit out of the box on this one. Do you need a certain number or types of shovels? What kind and how much de-icer might you need for the year? Consider the size of snow blower you might be willing to purchase. Again, this will depend on your ultimate goal and size of the business, but if you can clear a path with a larger snow blower in a fraction of a time of an entry-level snow blower it just might be more economical to purchase the larger blower. Make sure to consider whether you will need to purchase heavier coats, insulated underwear/overalls, and gloves as these are items you might not initially consider as a cost but find yourself spending money on later.

Decide how you will pay for the equipment
Do you have most of the equipment already? Do you already have funds set-aside to invest? Can you borrow the equipment from someone to get started and then buy your equipment once you are making money? We have learned the hard way how using debt to pay for a business venture can be a detriment so again, our encouragement would be to try to consider options that don’t require pulling out the credit card even if you just know its going to be a great business.

Find the equipment now when its cheaper
If you can look for a snow blower and equipment now before the snow season hits you will have more options and probably an even cheaper price. Possibly even consider finding a cheap snow blower as well if you know what you are looking for. Once the snow starts falling, this equipment will become high in demand and that means higher prices!

Advertise your business
We recommend taking advantage of free advertising services in your area like the online classifieds or the newspaper (if yours is free). Consider approaching businesses, HOA’s, apartment complexes, and homeowners before the snow season starts and getting some contracts or simple agreements to take care of their snow removal that season. You can do as much or as little as you want – you will control your commitment.

After the first snow fall, consider placing fliers on cars in parking lots advertising your service. You can also take it snow-by-snow as it is unpredictable when you will be working. Don’t forget the old trick of going door-to-door after a good snow day offering to remove the snow for a predetermine amount of money as your time allows. Very often people are thinking they are ready to clear their own snow but when someone else offers to do it for a reasonable price – it just might encourage them to not get cold and exhausted.

Offer incentives to your current customers
Consider offering an incentive to your customers if they send you a referral such as “$5 off your next service” to help your business grow. It always seems that word of mouth referrals are the best kind.

Use social media to your benefit
Start a Facebook page and/or Twitter account for your business to spread the word and to avoid costs associated with running a website – this is free and a free way of advertising your business. This is also a great way to keep past clients in contact with you. Of course, a website is a very good investment if you want to turn this into a business even more, or if you decide your first year was worth it to invest even more into it in the future!

Keep detailed records
Be organized and keep good income and expense records as you will need them for reporting on your taxes. What? Yes, this is a business so you will need to report your income, but don’t forget those receipts for all your mileage on your car, equipment and marketing supplies. Of course, we encourage you to talk to a good accountant to help you through this.

Finally, don’t forget to have fun making that extra money
We have found some of the greatest joys in working together as a family in our different ventures. And all that extra exercise and time working instead of lounging in front of the television just might help bring your family closer, make you a bit healthier, and help you achieve that goal you are trying to meet.

See our previous post Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting. We would love for you to make suggestions to help us continue expanding our ever growing list of ways to make money to help your every financial goal!

Photo credit: Thank you to CityOfEvanston.org for the featured photo.

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