Great ‘Bit On The Side’ Hunt

starlite_2

Annando wrote:

My dog passed away a couple of months ago and I started doing dog sitting. I don't go into people's houses, they bring their dog to my house when they go away on holiday. I do this through a company, but if you advertise in the paper I am pretty sure you can do it on your own and find clients.
The company charges the clients £13 a day per dog (of which I get £9 a day, the other £4 goes to the company to cover for insurance, advertising, costs etc...). You are only allowed to have 2 dogs if they are from the same owner and all the dogs food, treats etc are provided by the owner.

Ever since I joined I have been booked every day! This has worked out at about £270/month! (one of the owner was so happy he even gave me a £30 tip!)

I used to leave my dog with someone when I went away and he was so happy about it that when he passed away I decided to work with this company just to be able to have dogs around without having the emotional (and financial) commitement.

The other thing I've been thinking about is dog walking, although haven't really looked into it yet. I know people charge £5 and hour / a walk. so there is pretty good money to be made.

This would be fabulous for my Grandparents who are still active, but very much missing their dog who passed last year.
Could you provide a little more information on how they could go about this? They have a huge garden, big car and regularly take trips out into derbyshire for walks etc, yet know it's not fair to get another dog at their age.

Lighteater

I prefer the idea of getting various streams of passive income going, such as stock investing and property (semi-passive, at least!)

Here's one I came across recently that I love because...

a) it costs 2 Euros for a 14-day free trial, and that money goes to Save the Children

b) there's a ton of amazing wealth creation material inside, on PDF, video and audio, which you can use to make some extra dosh

c) if you sign up for the premium business package (at about £270) the company donates a wheelchair to a charity that is commited to supplying them into the developing world, and...

d) just tell a few people about it, and some of the resultant revenue flows into your account! Which is what I'm doing here, of course, just to declare an interest!

Check it out here

TitianRed

I would love to know more please.
Thank you

daveuk_2

katchambers wrote:

Another way to earn money, especially if you have a small van and drive for a living, but also applies to everyone, is that companies pay you to drive your car but has their advertising on it, or you get given a car to drive for free, I recently signed up for all of these but no word as yet, but doesn't hurt to put oyur name down

I just made some headway applying for one of these (the last one you listed, I think) and notice in the T&Cs that you are not allowed to apply for any similar scheme for five years!! Oh dear. Anyone have any recommendations or experience at which perhaps gets a greater amount of work?

I have a rusty old Rover Metro and so need all the help I can get!

TitianRed

Please tell me more.
Thank you

Annando

Hi Starlite,

Tried sending you a PM but can't because you have too many messages stored.
I'm not sure if I can post links here or not. Please PM with your email address so I can give you more info.

Cheers

marts

Has anyone ever made any money from "stuffing envelopes" ? if so, can you let me know with details of how I can do it?

Miss_Penny_Pincher_2

Annando I didn't realise petsitting costs are so reasonable! I think I will look into using pet sitting services as I think my dog would have a nervous breakdown if she was ever left in kennels!

You may be able to make more than £5 an hour dog walking but I suppose it depends on the area. I come home for lunch to walk my dog but on days when had working lunch and couldn't make it I paid £9.50 for her to be walked for 45 minutes. Other company charged £10 for an hour but I chose the first because she promised that my dog would be walked on her own as she is nervous of other dogs I wanted her to enjoy the experience when I'm paying that much! As it turned out the third time the dog walker came she took my dog out with another client's dog so I have never used dog walking services since.

corris3

I go to house clearance sales and buy boxes of odds for anything from £2 to £5 quid and then car boot them. have had some good bargains, last £4 box of " enamel ware " yielded £10 via local paper ( free ads under £200) for the enamel plus two very black pieces in the bottom of the box polished up into hallmarked silver jug and dish yielding £40 at a local antique shop... great fun and usually profitable but totally addictive going to auctions... need to be very disicpined!

Annando

Miss Penny Pincher thanks for your input. I said £5 for an hours walk, but maybe it could be more, I might give it a try at the local newspaper and see how I fare.
The company I am working with for the pet sitting is a small company and they offer a very personal service, I think they have about 40 carers doted around the south (Hampshire, Sussex, Dorset and Berkshire I think, not sure really), one thing I know for a fact is that we are forbidden to have more than one dog at the time unless the dogs are from the same owner.

I know of someone who used to work with them and then ventured on her own... she has up to 10 dogs at the time, all from different owners! Can you imagine how the dogs must feel, plus it must be so difficult to make sure that they all get along... 10 dogs...I can't even think of the smell and the noise in that place!

I think this company I am with is really good, I had no complaints when my dog used to go to their carers, on the contrary, he was always happy and really seemed to enjoy it! They don't do dog walking but I suppose I could ask them to promote my dog walking service!

Regarding pet sitting costs, £13 per day is roughly what a kennel costs down here for a medium size dog, so they charge the same. I know that some people will go and stay in your house if you go away and take care of your pets, stay with them etc, when I made enquiries 5 years ago I remember being quoted £20 per day, I suppose it must have gone up...it is only viable if you have more than 3 pets to take care!