One of the scariest things about going to work is realizing that any day could be your last day. Sometimes people get fired for no reason but more recently people have been on edge because their companies may have taken a hit or because the recession has caused a lapse in revenue. There are two types of people out there and the ways that they react.
You have the people who gossip and whine or just sit back and wait for it to happen and you have the people who create a safety net and back up plan. Those people are the ones who feel more confident because they not only have something to fall back on if they do lose their job, but they also have extra income coming in so that they can save money in case the worst happens. Here are 5 back-up plans that you can begin to implement if you are worried that you may be losing your job soon.
1. Turn Hobbies and Crafting Into Income. If you like to make jewelry or enjoy turning bottles into dolls for kids, why not use that creativity and what you love to start a small business on the side. Tons of people just like you have found ways to sell their crafts online and build a following of customers by creating shops on Etsy, Cafepress or even small Amazon and eBay stores. Not only can you generate sales and revenue by using these sites, but you can build a fan base which may come back to buy from you again and again creating a secondary source of income.
2. Become an Affiliate Marketer. Although this is one of the hardest secondary sources of income to generate, it can be the most fun. What many new Affiliates do is start a website or blog and write about their hobbies. They upload pictures from ball games or events that they go to if they have a sports site or share how to make certain foods if they have a cooking blog. Then all they do is find stores that have products relevant to their sites and posts and join their Affiliate programs. Once you build up enough traffic, the visitors may click on your links and begin shopping which means you’ll earn a commission each time one of your visitors clicks on your links and makes a purchase.
3. Learn to Entertain. If you love the spotlight and love kids, one thing that can be fun for you, and is also a great way to kill the boredom of a weekend, is to become an entertainer. All you really need to do is buy a magic kit or a clown costume, work out a routine and then leave business cards and flyers around at grocery stores and on public billboards. You could even invest a little bit of money and advertise online or on local events sites. Learning to do magic or creating a comedy routine as a clown is a great way to get to perform and be creative, as well as generate a small stream of income as a cushion by performing at parties and events in case you would lose your real job.
4. Start Baking. If you haven’t noticed the huge rise in cooking shows, cupcake shops and pastry stores everywhere, you should look around you when you are in a downtown area. Tons of people are into designer cakes and pastries again. If you have Grandma’s old cake recipe or Grandpa’s recipe for bbq sauce lying around, why not use them to create a secondary stream of income. Not only can you have fun making your old family recipes, but you can get creative by using fondant, modeling chocolate and other edible sculpting tools. You can take Grandpa’s bbq sauce and alter it to make a gourmet edition and collection as well. You can then sell them to friends or use them for parties on the weekends to get people to want to try them and buy them. This is how some of the most famous bakeries and cake shops got started. Just don’t forget to post the pictures online and get some testimonials from happy customers. Action shots of people enjoying your food are even better.
5. Become a Contributor or Ghost Writer. Everyone is an expert at something, you just have to think about what that one thing is. There are also probably hundreds if not thousands of websites dedicated to that topic that are looking for copy and content. If you are able to write or have creative article ideas, many of these sites will allow you ghost write or contribute to them and pay you for your content. Not only will you get to write about something you know well, but it can be fun to get paid for sharing your knowledge. Becoming a freelance blogger is not as difficult as you might think.
There are a ton of ways that you can build a secondary source of income. You just have to think about what you are happy doing over and over again and if you can devote a ton of time to it without getting bored. Backup plans are important if you think you may be losing your job so think about what you can do or if you have a talent and how you can turn that talent into a secondary source of income.
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