The first official day of summer is fast approaching. Most of the kids across the U.S. have already finished the school year. College students are settling into their summer life. It’s a good time to relax and unwind, if that’s really how you want to spend your time.
But, if you’re highly motivated, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get your side-hustle on and make a bit of extra cash for whatever you need it for. Maybe you want to pay off debts, get a down payment for a car, or need a little extra income for travel. Whatever you need it for, right now is the best time to earn it.
Here are the benefits to finding a summer job:
-Close to home. You don’t have to go very far from home to find extra work.
-Save money on gas/travel.
-Convenient. You can do it whenever you get extra time.
-You get a chance to meet interesting people and your neighbors.
-Easy to get going. Just print off fliers and cheap business cards offering your service.
-People around you know who you are, so it wouldn’t be difficult to convince them to hire you.
-Cash. You don’t have to wait for a paycheck. Do the job and get paid right away.
These are typical jobs that you might find a teenager doing, but it’s not bad work if you apply yourself and need a bit of extra cash. There are people who make an extra $1,000 per month doing these jobs.
The best part? There are all sorts of apps that can help you in ways that you couldn’t even imagine. I certainly wish I had these options when I was growing up, but now you can wield the power of the internet at your fingertips to expand your reach.
Here are the five ways you can make extra cash this summer:
1) Lawn Care
In the summer, there’s no shortage of lawns that need constant care. There are plenty of people who would rather shell out a few bucks to have someone else do it for them. Depending on what services you want to provide, you can make a killing.
You can even use a subscription-based model to make even more. You can offer regular lawn care for $100/month. If you find 10 clients, that’s an extra $1,000 every single month just mowing lawns on the weekend.
Also, during the summer months, a lot of landscaping companies are hiring to keep up with demand, so you can look into that as well.
2) Pet Sitting
This is one of the easiest ways to make money out there. There’s a variety of ways it can be done. Pets mostly take care of themselves minus being able to put food in their bowls and go out for a walk to relieve themselves. Most of the time, it’s a quick job and it pays well.
Summer is a great time when families go on vacation. You can save them a lot of money by offering to pet sit so they don’t have to take their furry family member to the kennel. A lot of clients will allow you to stay in their home, eat their food, and watch their TV while paying you good money to make sure their pet is well taken care of while they’re gone.
Also, there are new apps that people can use to hire dog walkers. Sign up for that and you can represent your neighborhood!
3) Housekeeping/House Sitting
If you love to clean (or even if you don’t, but it’s tolerable) you can make money doing it for others. There are a lot of people out there who will pay you to help organize their stuff, clean out garages and/or basements, do final clean-ups after moving out, or maybe they’re disabled and willing to pay for extra help for a while.
To reuse the point about vacations, people need more help than just watching their pets. They could use someone to check on their home, water plants, bring in the mail, and do a few other chores to keep things looking good while they’re away.
Either way, this is a great way to make money while providing a needed service.
4) Tutoring
If you’re pretty good at something, you can get people to pay you to teach them. This is especially true if you’re willing to work with kids, as exasperated parents could use a bit of help teaching their kids math, science, history, or whatever subject they’re struggling in.
Summer is the best time for kids to pick up these extra skills before heading into the next grade year. Since this is specialized knowledge, tutors can make anywhere from $25-$100 per hour!
5) Uber/Lyft
Most of the jobs I mentioned are labor-intensive. You might not want to mow 10 lawns twice a month. That’s okay! With today’s technology, you can make pretty decent money just driving people around.
The only downside with Uber and Lyft are the ‘tough’ requirements. Your vehicle must be under 10 years of age and there can be some wear on tear from the additional driving. But, if you fit those requirements, it might be the best way to make extra money.
