Ok, Before you start plotting for world domination, you’ll obviously need the tools of your trade. Beyond that we need to get a few things sorted out:
You will need your idea and plan of what you want to do. I fully appreciate that a lot of side ventures like this are punts and tyre kicking exercises so not everything needs a plan. Ie: I didn’t write a plan for the survey sites I was using but I did map out the equations I was going to use when using the stock market.
Is what you’re doing a legit business? Are you going to register a business or company? Is it just a hobby? You need to decide this and obviously take into account how your country deals with things like that. Then there are the next issues of insurance and so forth. Again I won’t preach to you about what you have to do. But you need to consider this. Especially if you’re a physical trade or food business.
THE BASICS
You will need an internet ready phone. The amount of jobs I’ve gotten just by having my phone on me when out and about, looking at listing sites and forums for work is not funny. Check these regularly. In Australia we have a classified site called “gumtree” and obviously facebook. Find out the classified sites in your country and town and use them. They can be your best friend!
You will need a bank account and a Pay Pal account to collect money – I’ll explain why the Paypal thing below.
You will most likely need a website. If you have no money I’d suggest using Blogger.com. If you have enough to fund say a $70 per year website Id suggest Unlimited Web Hosting and get on the 2.99/ 3.99 (UK pounds) per month website plan. It kicks ass and has great WordPress hosting features. It punches well above its weight and has lots of cool plugins that when I signed up to the company weren’t available else where without spending significantly more money.
I’d strongly suggest a domain name for your site. Google Domains is a great place to get this. Hopefully you can hook it up to your website yourself, pay a nerdy friend or if you guys join my mailing list and let me know you need help i’ll try and post a lesson on here.
If you’re running a physical business / Side hustle you will need a credit card reader. They start from $50 USD and can take credit card payments. The great thing is you get paid almost immediately. Lets face it not everyone carries cash anymore. You don’t want to miss out on those sales.
ONCE YOU START:
I REALLY recommend using Microsoft EXCEL. If you don’t have that or are not prepared to pay for it (I don’t pay for it) use Google Sheets or Open Office for free. Spread sheets are a great way to keep track of both your money coming in, money going out and time spend on each project. Also if you have a lot of online ventures (especially with surveys and such) its a great place to keep them all listed. If your journey is anything like mine has been, You’ll most likely sign up to a lot of things. Some will be winners others will be a waste of time. Keeping a log of this is a great way to filter out the better paying jobs from the duds.
Thanks for reading this, be sure to keep checking back on The Income Site on a regular basis!