We want to share a couple of posts on finding extra income this holiday season. So many of us get into the bind where we run out of money this time of year! We encourage you to start your holiday savings and planning right after Christmas to try and avoid financial mishaps this time of year and we will talk about it again in January this year with downloads to help with the early planning. But there is just something about the holiday season that gets everyone into the spending mode and you just simply need more money whether out of necessity for living or to have cash for Christmas.
There will be two articles that we will be sharing. Some of which we have shared in the past, but this allows you to gain a refresher from our past posts as well as some new ideas.
The first article is regarding seasonal services or goods that you can provide to others and earn some cash in the process. The second article will come out later this week and it is simply how to find some extra cash this season doing some miscellaneous things!
With that, today’s focus is on goods and services that are specifically for the holiday season.
Here’s a short list of what you can do to earn some extra income with additional links for more details and marketing ideas.
- Install Christmas Lights for homes and businesses – check out this post for more ideas on how to do this and advertising and marketing ideas that are free or cheap!
- Offer Snow Removal services to businesses, HOA’s and home owners/property owners (like apartment complexes, etc.) – check out this post HERE for more ideas on how to make this work as a way to make money this year.
- Paint the windows of businesses with a holiday theme – check out this post HERE on ideas and ways to market and advertise this type of money making service.
- If your area has nighttime holiday parades, events, craft fairs and more (most communities do) for Christmas or even the New Year, consider selling some popular novelty items with a low investment and large return. We shared this idea over the Fourth of July holiday, but it also works well for the winter holiday’s like Christmas and especially the New Year. See our previous post HERE on how to start with a small investment and get a large return for easy selling of these novelty items.
- Sell hot coffee, hot chocolate and hot cider at these same events.
- Offer a gift wrapping service to a group, or to individuals.
- Offer to write Christmas Cards, New Year’s cards, etc. for businesses to their loyal customers. Realtors, doctors, chiropractors, orthodontists/dentists, car dealers, massage therapists, salon clientele, attorneys, loan officers, daycare, or any other type of service based business that just would love to hire this very seasonal task out! It can be done from home too!
- Make candies, cookies or other baked goods and sell them or make special made to order sales of these same items. You can sell them door-to-door, at craft fairs and events, or even advertise your services with some free ways we list below.
- Make gift baskets for a businesses clientele. Similar to the card writing in number 7, many service based businesses also love to give their best customers gift baskets. We personally know someone who has this seasonal job and she just drummed up business by asking those businesses if she can make gift baskets for their top clientele. The discount and dollar stores become your best friend. Markup on those items is incredible, but you can beat the prices of floral shops for the same thing – so you make extra money and your client is happy to have the personal touch and savings! Food and treat based baskets are the most popular. If you plan on this in future seasons, you will get the best return on your investment with the after holiday sales, and looking for cheap baskets all year. But even mugs with treats will be good too!
- Make handmade gifts or products for Christmas gifts: jewelry, crocheted items, woodworking items (dollhouses, wood toys, shelves, other handmade items, etc.). This one is something our whole family has done many times, including many extended family members.
- Use your skills – do you have a specific skill that you can turn into a part of full-time money making effort?
With those 11 business ideas to get you started, you may be surprised to find out what kind of business you may acquire!
Now for some additional ideas on how to find the clients as well as free and cheap ways to advertise and market your business.
To Find Those In Need of Any of the Above Services:
- Look in the newspaper! You may find people advertising the need for seasonal jobs and needs!
- Look in the online classifieds or Craigslist to see what services people are looking for
- Talk to your personal service providers such as doctors, dentists, realtors, attorneys, etc. (this is an endless list!) and ask if they would be needing anyone this holiday season to hand write notes or cards or to make gift baskets for, a window painted seasonally, etc. – just whatever tasks above that you think they might be interested in!
- Use your social circles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest (like pinning a picture of a window you painted, your gift baskets, etc.) as well as email your email list and tell them to pass the word around that you are going to be doing “xyz” this season and to let their contacts know. Never underestimate the power of the social media!
Ideas on How to 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 find out if you can even pass around or hang-up fliers advertising your service to their customer bases.
- Consider placing fliers on cars in parking lots advertising your service (but get permission from the business who owns the parking lot).
- Go door-to-door to hang fliers or if you know those in a specific neighborhood, just asking them!
- 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!
- 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.
With a quick list of ideas, we also encourage you to read up on our Marketing 101 guide HERE to help you be a more effective money maker this season!
A couple of final thoughts:
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.
The list above is not an exhaustive list of ways to make money, so we encourage you to see our list of Over 100 Ways to Make Extra Income and Counting post HERE to help you find more permanent ideas, but this list may be of big help this holiday season!
Be watching later this week for the second article on how to find extra money this season different from business type money making ideas.
Heather L.
I would caution about number 8 & 9. You need to know your states cottage business laws and in some states you can not make or package food to sell in your home. If you can then you will need to be inspected to receive a license, get a tax ID number and get insurance. Making a couple extra bucks is not worth risking legal consequences.
Cassie
HI Heather – You do make very good points. We weren’t necessarily talking about producing commercial food products to sell publicly, but offering to help with holiday baking or making cookies and baked goods that you sell to your neighbors, friends, family, etc. in bake sale type of fashion. Each state will have different laws and rules – however, we know of several situations in which people sell food goods temporarily to earn money for a time. If you were to make a regular business out of it, then those things are necessary. But we have friends who each year make cookie dough and their kids sell it to their neighbors, friends, family, church friends, etc. so that they can earn enough to buy season passes to a local theme park. They just make it from their kitchen. Secondly, every year we attend (sometimes with a booth selling something) seeing other booths who are selling homemade baked goods made from their kitchen without those regulations (maybe it is not a needed law in our state for this purpose) but they can make several hundred dollars in this 1-2 day event. Thirdly, in the summer, I can’t tell you how many garage sales we go to where the family hosting has a table with baked goods that they made or drinks they made (like lemonade) to earn a little extra at the garage sale for the one day. As far as the gift baskets…we probably should have clarified further in the post… but we are not saying to make the food that goes in the gift baskets, but it is perfectly fine to buy those specialty crackers that the dollar store sells, the summer sausages, already made candy, etc. – even fruit, and put together baskets. When you can buy a box of crackers and other items for $1 and put them in a basket, you can resell for a good upcharge. So the baskets, you are not making anything. Hopefully that helps clear it up. We are merely suggesting ideas for ways to generate a temporary income to find extra money this year.
Piter
It would be better if you told what marketing strategies are relevant in 2022)))
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