Sylviawh.co.uk Blog

  With the economy in a bad way and more and more people being made redundant it is time to find a way to cut your losses and start afresh.  Many people had no interest in school and missed the chance to be one of the lucky ones with qualifications to back them up.   If you gain qualifications your chances of gaining a well paid job will be much improved which means a better living standard for you. 

I want to tell you about a real live person, she had a good job as a manageress in a dry cleaning shop and made decent money, but she felt she had reached a full stop and she wanted something better.

  She is 40 years old, has a husband and three children aged 11 years 10 and the youngest is 5 years. 

She made the decision two and a half years ago to go to college and try and get her 0 levels that she missed out on before she left school.  At that time she had no interest in school so wouldn’t stay on to do exams.

  She gave her notice in at work and enrolled full time at college, she also got a job working four evening’s six till ten in a supermarket so she could still contribute some income into the household. 

She completed two years at college and is now at university training to be a teacher. It is hard but she is determined.

  Her day begins at 6 30am when she gets the children up and gives them their breakfast, then at 7 45 she bundles them all in the car and drops her husband off at work then continues on to take the children to school. 

She has to be at university for 10am which is a fair journey away. She finishes at 2pm then rushes home to do one or two odd jobs or does a bit of shopping, then she goes to pick the children up from school at 3 15 pm.

  She arrives home about 3. 45 pm and makes dinner for the children; then at 5 15 pm she bundles them in the car again and goes to pick up her husband from work. She drops them off at home and continues on to start work for 6pm. 

In between all this she has to find time to do more work for university so she is often working late into the night.

  It is rather a punishing schedule but she never seems down hearted and feels very proud of herself for achieving so much, 

She knows it is not forever; maybe another two and a half years and then she will be qualified as the word fail is not in her itinerary.

  I am sure many of you with fewer restrictions on your time could also benefit by going back to college. Your future would be brighter and you would have no time to bemoan the loss of your job, in fact losing your job might have done you a good turn as you can achieve so much more with a few qualifications behind you. 

Do not let the fact that you failed to do exams at the end of your schooling put you off, or that you failed your exams. You are now older and wiser and will have a learnt a lot along the way.

  Everyone has it in them to learn and you are no exception, for a start you are on a computer now and if you are reading this it shows you had the ability to learn how to use a computer.  You can read and write and these are the main components to higher learning.  

If you passed your exams then ignored them, then go back to college for a refresher course and set your sights on achieving a higher level.

Working at home to make money online is not always as profitable as you might wish. If you are not making a comfortable living then you need to suppliment your income in other ways.

First of all look at your hobbies, sewing, knitting, jewellery making, wood working, carving, etc.  If you do anything that might appeal to others then why not advertise it and make extra money.

By making and decorating cakes for one or two friends I found I enjoyed it and as I felt confident in what I was doing I decided that this was what I would like to do.

I had no training what so ever but that did not deter me.  This is what I did, I bought a sheet of card from the stationers and cut it down to size, I then made a poster advertising that I made celebration cakes to order.  I even chose a name for my business and put that on the heading.

I then placed the poster in the front window of my home. A few days later the first knock on my door to order a cake, it was exciting, from then on it became a steady stream of customers untill it got to the stage where I could hardly move in kitchen or front room as I was so busy.

I reached the stage where I was able to buy a shop and my business that started as a type of hobby became successful, I employed three other people and continued untill I decided to retire and I sold the shop.

All this began from a poster in my front room window, you can do the same and advertise what you are good at. If you have common sense and believe you can do something then it should come naturally.

Have a few items to show your customers, then take orders for for what they require.

This can also be done online with a website, the website may take a bit of time to get known but between your home and the website you should be able to start a profitable business.

This of course is for those people that enjoy making things, a good time to get started is coming up to Christmas when people are searching for unusual gifts for friends and loved ones.

Never be frightened to try anything, if you think you need a bit of training then enroll in a night school for a term it will give you the confidence to get started.

This job is suitable for men and women, its quite an exciting job as you will be a mystery shopper.  You will go to shops do some shopping and give your views about the service you received, was the sales person polite and helpful or did they rush you through your purchase or annoy you.

Was the shop tidy, and were the items you required easy to find. All this is done without anyone knowing that you are really just a shopping spy. Of course you are called a mystery shopper not a spy.

The good thing about this job is that anything you buy you keep yourself but it is paid for by the company you work for.

You will also get to visit restaurants, sample their wares and while you are doing this you check out the cleanliness, the attitude of the waitress, give your opinion of the food. all this you keep in your head till you reach home and then write down your findings and send the feed back to the company.

You could call this a paid fun job  Paid Shopping My daughter joined this and she received a phone call to start work but she had already accepted another job so she had to turn it down, but it shows that these jobs are above board.

Today I am changing tack and veering away from health problems. I am changing over to ways and ideas to make money. These ideas can be online or offline where ever my thoughts take me.

Some may be simple jobs where you can make a few dollars to tide you over, and hopefully others will keep you working to make a reasonable living.

I am open to ideas so if you want to respond with some of your own ideas then I am sure every one will be interested.

The winter months can be cold and miserable and not many people relish the thought of going out in the cold to tidy up the garden.  This one job you could do, nothing looks worse than dead plants and leaves cluttering the garden and I am sure many people would be happy to pay a few dollars to have their garden kept tidy during the cold winter months.

Snowtime may be a happy time for kids but many householders would willingly pay to have their drives kept free of snow, this could be a fairly regular job in very cold countries. Just remember that not everyone is young and agile like you, or they may even be too busy to tackle these jobs. A small advert here or there, or have some flyers printed to say what you do. or you can simply knock on doors and ask if they want the job done.

Do you have a yearning to appear in films or on television? or maybe you want to join in the game shows or sit in the audience.

Here is your chance, you could be a film or television extra, or you could even be the star of the show.

Producers of TV shows, commercials, movies and photographic shoots often use “ordinary” people to appear in their productions as extras. They like to use “real” people, but also people who have some experience in amateur dramatics.

The great thing about this type of work is that it is usually occasional work and you can always plan for days off at work to coincide with the time span. The pay is good as well extras earn around £70-£100 per day and the photographic work pays £150-£300 a day.

 The appeal of this type of work is the thought of appearing with well-known performers in a professional studio environment, and being seen on screen.

Maybe you run your own website and you are looking for new content, if so you can contact them about taking one of their latest shows feeds? It can be as simple as adding 1 line of code to you site and you can have all the details of their latest listings included directly into your site. If you are more technically advanced, you can receive feeds as XML or if you would prefer something easier to integrate, you can just include 1 line of HTML code to bring in their Javascript feed.

For more information on the vast amount of ways you could join in go here http://www.beonscreen.com/uk/user/index.asp

Sorry I missed a bit out of my last post on Little Acorns. What I didn’t say was to advertise house clearances. You can usually pay as little as £300 to £400 for a houseful of goods and furniture as the relations that inherit just want to get rid of it.

If your unemployed and desperate to start earning money then this could be your chance to get started in your own business.

They say from little acorns huge oak trees grow, so think about what I am telling you.

What is the easiest way to earn a pound or two?  Ebay of course. So start off by selling a single item from your home, it could be anything from clothing to ornaments, or or some little trinket that’s lying around doing nothing.

I had a tiny alabaster dog on my mantle piece so for a laugh I put it on ebay, it was no bigger than 2″ high, I thought oh well someone might pay 99p for it. I was astounded when it went up to over £5, it was money for next to nothing.

When you have made £2 or £3 go to a jumble sale or a car boot and spend wisely on a few odds and ends, you should be able to double your or treble your money.  When you have done this a good few times and if you are wise you have saved, it you should have a good few pounds in the kitty.

Now for the next part you will need some storage space, a garage or a large shed. You can improvise if that’s not an option at this point, clear out a room in your house by parking the stuff in other rooms for the time being.

The one problem here is you need a van of sorts, although there is a way round it. Until you have made enough money to buy one hire one for half a day at a time.  Keep everything of value to sell on your own website or Ebay, send the larger items to a local auction or advertise them in the free newspapers.

There is always someone looking for what you are selling so take advantage of it. You could soon be running a great business with a new van and one or two employees to do the heavy work.

Do you remember the old rag and bone men that came round the streets! they bought anything and everything, and many of them ended up millionaires.

This opportunity is ideal for moms that want to work from home.

If you are an out going person and have lots of friends, or you feel you work out a business plan to arrange parties, then this could be a rewarding home business for you. 

The company is called  Virgin Vie At Home and as the name suggests Richard Branson is the head of this company.  No its not mobile phones or anything to do with airways. 

You would be a consultant for a Health and Beauty Company and whether you want a flexible part-time job, work based in your home, or a full-time career, there couldn’t be a better time to join Virgin Vie At Home!.  With Virgin Vie At Home  You would have the independence to choose the hours you want to work so you can fit working in with your family and other commitments. 

As a Virgin Vie At Home Consultant you get the opportunity to run your own business and have the added flexibility to juggle your family commitments.  They offer you a range of benefits such as free make-up and the opportunity to receive rewards including designer jewellery, trips abroad and cars. 

To make starting your own business as easy as possible you will have a fabulous starter kit that contains products from their make-up and cosmetics ranges as well as the business tools you need to hold parties.  This kit is essential to your success and it’s packed with everything you need to give your new business a go!

Plus, you will receive FREE comprehensive training – so there’s no need to worry if you are new to skin care and cosmetics. 

 I assume you will have to pay for the starter kit, it is usual in these type of businesses but if you believe you will make a good beauty consultant then it could be the start of a new career. 

To check out their website go here.   http://www.virginvieathome.com/public/index.asp

If you wish to email them for more information here is the email services@virginvieathome.com

Here is an unusual way to make money. A young women named Avril Harper claims she makes lots of money by tearing up old magazines and newspapers.

She is an Ebay power seller with this business and sells worldwide. What you will purchase from Avril Harper is an e-book that explains in detail exactly what you have to do , she also tells you what magazines are the best for purpose. She says  if you can open a book and carefully sift through the pages you can operate this business. 

 All you need are the publications themselves and knowledge of what to do with them next.  But what you need more than this is a complete step-by-step guide to placing your listings on eBay at the right time, in the right place, at the right price. 

All this takes less than a minute to do and costs a few pennies a go.  Even so there are many ways I will reveal to reduce the ‘work’ involved and lots of ways to cut costs to virtually zero and still those eBay listings can generate upwards of $10, $20, $30 a time, perhaps much more.

The cost for this information is $27.00 but if you are unhappy she gives an money back guarantee that lasts for 8 weeks. She also has a blog with which she offers continuous back up support and advice it is set up to accompany this book.  Check it out here it sounds like a great business.

Finding something you enjoy doing is not always easy, so this could be something many people are interested in but do not realise that they could make money doing what they enjoy.

Photography is something that most of you have done at one time or another, maybe just holiday snaps or photos of friends or your pets.

The digital camera has opened up many opportunities on the World Wide Web to actually earn money with your camera.

There are many websites that will pay you for your photos, or other websites that allow you to upload your photos and you get paid each time someone buys that photo from their website.

This website gives you all the inside information on how to upload your photos, who to sell to and how to sell. It tells you everything you need to know on to make money with your digital camera … from what types of images are in demand to where and how to upload your photos for residual monthly income!  Digital Photography

They also give instructions on how to create screen savers, which is another way of earning an income.

 Photographers are needed worldwide – and thanks to the Internet you can fulfil this need no matter where you are located!