15 Ways To Earn Money Alongside a Full-Time Job

So, you find yourself living from paycheque to paycheque more often than you’d like to. Or simply, you’d like to have some extra “fun cash” to do things that wouldn’t eat into your savings for bigger things like a house, marriage or future education.

While the timings of your existing job, your work load or required skills may play a big role into your ability to earn extra income, we have compiled an indicative Infographic of things you could do with little or no effort to make that extra buck while having a full time job.

 

 

1. Overtime or holiday work

While we wouldn’t want to encourage this and rather that you enjoy your weekends, and celebrate those holidays, there are times you’d rather be doing something other than sitting and watching shows on TV all day. So try looking for opportunities when you can make some overtime money or work on a holiday. The extra income may be worth the very insignificant sacrifice.

 
2. Sell your skills

You can churn out an article or two while on the long cab ride back home. Or maybe designing a logo is a minute’s work for you.  You can sign up with sites like fiverr.com and elance.com and take up freelance gigs as per your convenience and time.

 

3. Weekend Photography

We know a huge number of people who’ve turned their hobby of taking photos into a side profession by turning weekend photographers. While how much you get paid depends on your skills and marketing and there’s no dearth of photographers around these days, you can always do small projects for colleagues and friends over the weekend for a small fees or in kind. Not only is photography a creative and fun way to make money, but it also helps you socialize and network with people.

Dev Purbaiya is one of the sought-after photographers in India today, who started experimenting with his camera while employed at Samsung.

 

 4. Tuitions

You’re an expert in a foreign language or you so miss solving those quadric equations.  How about take up a weekend tuition or a home tuition gig for a few hours a week and you get to live that childhood dream of being a teacher, while still being a corporate slave.

 

5. Be a guest lecturer in your specialized field

With your education and work experience combined, you’ve built up a large inventory of skills and expertise on a particular subject over time. Educational institutions are often looking for Subject Matter Experts to come as guest lecturers to the institute for a couple of hours or so and this can be a quick and satisfying way to earn that lil extra dough. A good place to start would be enquire within your own alma mater. 

 

6. Participate in contests

While this one is a play of luck, and to an extent social media clout, sometimes entering in skill based contests could turn fruitful and while they may not earn you cash, the awards by way of movie tickets, travel, restaurant vouchers and the like could help you cut down your social bills for a weekend. Ask the many “influencers” on Twitter who spend a good amount of time playing contests on Twitter, while gainfully employed in the corporate.

 

7. Share your ride

Are you traveling alone in that fancy sedan guzzling litres of fuel everyday? Ride sharing is on the rise these days especially in the metros and you could sign up for one such service and cut your commute costs by half or more or even make a little profit, with no additional expense. One ridesharing app you can use is Blablacar, which was recently launched in India, while UberPool is another great idea to cut down your driving costs.

 

8. Trading Stock

You don’t have to be financial whizkid to trade stock. As long as you have some disposable income to spare and a little head about the current news, and a decent risk appetite, you can do it yourself on one of the many online portals available or try signing yourself with a stock broker to trade on your behalf.

 

9. Employee Referrals

A big source of revenue could come from your company itself. So your company has a policy of a referral bonus. Look around, you’d probably discover many people within your network who could be looking at an opportunity that’s currently open at your company. Help them apply and prepare for the interviews and should they get selected, ka ching!

 

10. Work towards a cash award

While you should be working towards performing well, awards or no awards, sometimes the monetary incentive of an award may be tempting. So, put in that extra effort, get the right ratings and who knows you might just end up coming in to a sizable chunk of money, not to mention the added prestige of being a star at work.

 

11. Optimize your foreign work trip

So your company has given you an option to either take the company guesthouse or arrange your own accommodation at a certain allowance. If you’re not particularly keen on the former or happen to have friends in that city or can Air BNB for cheaper, you could end up making a lot of money from your accommodation allowance. And the longer you’re there for, the more you can earn.

 

12. Sublet your house when away for long

Are you traveling for a business meeting and leaving your home empty? Do you have a spare room or guest house? It’s time to put them to work and list them on Airbnb or a local forum and make rent money.

 
13. Promote external events internally

So you happen to have a large employee base, and/or a huge personal network. Companies, especially for events and special promotions look to promote within a large organization and you could be rewarded with a small cut or a free ticket for spreading the word.

 
14. Help your friends to your employee discount

If your company is into products, you probably get an employee discount on those. While not to misuse that, maybe once in a while you can let your friends use the discount and who knows they might up end up treating you to a nice dinner.

 
15. Put up that holiday gift you didn’t like for sale

This is our least favourite way of all, but sometimes it’s really better to pass on or sell back a gift you don’t see yourself using anytime soon. Maybe you got a phone that you don’t need right now for Christmas or that 36 piece dinner pack that will just rust away to posterity. Put it up on seconds classifieds portals like Quikr or Olx and pocket the cash and buy what you actually need. Hey, after all your company wanted you to have something you used.