50 Businesses You Can Start In Your Spare Time

Photo credit lifehack.org

Most people want a few more dollars in their wallets. But between an employer and family, the time most of us can devote to a second job is severely limited. Running a small side business can provide a few more options: you don’t have to show up at a set time and you can use skills you already have. Not all will be perfect for everyone, of course, and I’m sure that you’ll have a few ideas of your own after reading this list. If you’d like to share any other business ideas, please add them in the comments.

1. Selling collectibles — From antique books to teddy bears, there are plenty of opportunities to buy and sell collectibles. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the collectible of your choice but if you choose something that you’ve been collecting for a while, you’ve got a head start.
2. Locating apartments — It can take time to sort through apartment listings, but you can make some money by finding the perfect apartment for a renter.
3. Baby proofing — New parents often prefer to bring in an expert to make sure their home is safe for a new baby.
4. Calligraphic writing — If you’ve got elegant handwriting, you can pick up gigs writing or addressing wedding invitations, holiday cards and more.
5. Selling coupons — Search on eBay for coupons right now and you’ll see thousands of listings for coupons. It’s just a matter of clipping and listing what you find in your Sunday newspaper.
6. Pet training — A surprising number of people don’t know where to start in training a pet. Even teaching Rover simple commands like ‘Sit’ and ‘Stay’ can bring in a few dollars.
7. Running errands — A wide variety of people want to outsource their errands, from those folks who aren’t able to leave their homes easily to those who have a busy schedule.
8. Researching family trees — Amateur genealogists often call in experts, especially to handle research that has to be done in person in a far off place. If you’re willing to go to a local church and copy a few records, you can handle many family tree research requests.
9. Supplying firewood — The prerequisite for selling firewood is having a source of wood; if you’ve got some land where you can cut down a few trees, you’ve got a head start.
10. Hauling — As more people trade in their SUVs for compact cars, hauling is becoming more important: people have to rent a truck or hire a hauler for even small loads.
11. Image consulting — Image consultants provide a wide variety of services, ranging from offering advice on appearance to teaching etiquette.
12. Menu planning — For many people, the trip up in eating home-cooked or healthy meals is knowing what to prepare. Meal planners set a schedule to solve certain dietary problems.
13. Microfarming — Cultivating food and flowers on small plots of land allows you to sell produce easily.
14. Offering notary public services — Notary publics can witness and authenticate documents: a service needed for all sorts of official documents.
15. Teaching music — If you’re skilled with a musical instrument, you can earn money by offering lessons.
16. Mystery shopping — Mystery shoppers check the conditions and service at a store and report back to the store’s higher-ups.
17. Offering research services — Just by reading up on a topic and compiling a report on it can earn you money.
18. Personal shopping — Personal shoppers typically select gifts, apparel and other products for clients, helping them save time.
19. Pet breeding — Purebred pets can be quite value, especially if you can verify their pedigree.
20. Removing snow — During the winter months, shoveling walks can still be a reliable way to earn money. You might be asked to take care of the driveway too.
21. Utility auditing — As people become environmentally-concious, they want to know just how efficient their homes are. With some simple testing, you can tell them.
22. Offering web hosting services — Providing server space can be lucrative, particularly if you can provide tech support to your clients.
23. Cutting lawns — An old standby, cutting lawns and other landscaping services can provide a second income in the summer.
24. Auctioning items on eBay — Want to get rid of all your old stuff? Stick it up on eBay and auction it off.
25. Babysitting — Child care of all kinds, from babysitting to nannying, can offer constant opportunities.
26. Freelance writing — If you’ve got the skills to write clearly, you can sell your pen for everything from blogs to advertising copy.
27. Selling blog and website themes — Do a little designing on the side? Customers that don’t want to pay full price for a website will often pay for a template or theme.
28. Offering computer help — Particularly with people new to computers, you can earn money by providing in-home computer help.
29. Designing websites — It may require a little skilled effort, but designing websites remains a reliable source of income.
30. Selling stock photography — For shutterbugs, an easy way to put a photography collection to work is to post it to a stock photography site.
31. Freelance designing — Check with local businesses: you can provide brochures, business cards and other design work and get paid a good fee.
32. Tutoring — Math and languages reamin the easiest subjects to find tutoring gigs for, but there is demand for other fields as well.
33. Housesitting / petsitting — Stopping in to check on a house or pet can earn you some money, and maybe even a place to stay.
34. Building niche websites — If you can put together a site on a very specific topic, you can put targeted ads on it and make money quickly.
35. Translating — The variety of translating work available is huge: written word, on the spot and more is easy to find even on a part-time basis.
36. Creating custom crafts — No matter what kind of crafts you make, there’s likely a market for it. Etsy remains one of the easiest places to sell crafts.
37. Setting up a wi-fi hotspot — With a little bit of equipment, you can set up a wi-fi hotspot and charge your neighbors for the access they’ve been ‘borrowing.’
38. Selling an e-book — You can write an e-book about almost anything and put it up for sale online.
39. Affiliate marketing — If you’re willing to market other companies’ products, you can earn a cut of the sales.
40. Renting out your spare room — From looking for a long-term roommate to listing your guest room on couch surfing sites, that spare room can make you money.
41. Offering handy man services — Handling small household tasks can provide you with plenty of work, although you’ll probably be expected to have your own tools.
42. Teaching an online class — Share your expertise through a website, an online seminar or variety of other methods.
43. Building furniture — For those with the skill to create handmade furniture, selling their creations is often just a matter of advertising.
44. Providing personal chef services — Personal chefs prepare meals ahead of time for customers, leaving their customers with a full freezer and no mess.
45. Event planning — From planning corporate events to bar mitzvahs, an event planning business can require plenty of work and offer plenty of pay.
46. Installing home safety products — Particularly as Baby Boomers age, people able to install handrails and other home safety products are in demand.
47. Altering / tailoring — If your sewing skills are up to par, altering garments is coming back as people try to stretch more wear out of their clothing.
48. Offering in-home beauty services — Hair cuts, makeup and other beauty services that can be performed at home have a growing demand.
49. Business coaching — Helping others to establish and develop their businesses can provide many opportunities to earn money.
50. Writing resumes — Writing resumes can provide a reliable income, especially if you can put a polish on a client’s credentials.

There are plenty of offers that claim to provide you with the opportunity to make thousands of dollars a week. Unfortunately, none of these businesses will provide that sort of income, but they aren’t scams either. They were chosen because they all require a minimum investment to get started — some require nothing more than a flyer advertising your business. Even better, if you do enjoy any of these businesses, there is a potential with most of them to continue to expand — perhaps even to the point of going full time.

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23 Body Language Tricks That Make You Instantly Likeable

  

Photo credit lifehack.org

You send people signals all day, without paying attention to them. The way you move your eyes, the way you shake a hand and so on. There are things you can do to send subconscious signals using body language that make people like you better, or at least give you the benefit of the doubt. Whenever I discuss techniques like these there are always one or two people who feel uncomfortable with ‘influencing’ someone with psychological tricks.

Manipulation is not negative

• Influencing is changing someone’s behavior or mind
• Manipulation is intentionally influencing

When you hear the word manipulation, you may immediately think of negative things. Please don’t.

Manipulation is not bad. People with bad intentions are bad.

Example 1: Manipulative sneaky person

Bad people are bad. Bad people who manipulate are problematic. An example of this:

• Mean Girl wants to reduce the social standing of Sweet Classmate
• She tells the other classmate this person did something horrible
• The class likes Sweet Classmate less
• Sweet Classmate feels sad now

Example 2: Friendly manipulation

Manipulation can make everyone in a situation better off.

• Party Person is an experienced manipulator
• Party Person bumps into another person
• Party Person smiles disarmingly and apologizes, even though the other person was wrong
• Party Person doesn’t get into a fight and has a great night

The problem with the Mean Girl example is not the manipulation, the problem is bad intentions and lying.

My request: Have good intentions

I’m assuming you will use these tricks with good intentions. Please do so.

Section 1: Attitude & body language

The human mind is judgmental, it’s what it does. It is what kept us alive during evolution.We make judgments in split seconds:

• Is this person a threat?
• Is this person attractive?
• Is this person useful to my (social) survival?

Pay attention to this instinct, but never act on it without knowing the person better. The tricks below will trigger you to behave in ways that are perceived well.

This section is not strictly about body language, but these attitudes will subconsciously influence your body language.

Feel secure and project confidence

This one is so important it requires its own article, and you can never do this 100% of the time. Plus, there are certainly cases where not seeming confident can gain you likability points, but on average, the above holds true.

There are two things to consider with this point:

• Try to remove things that make you uncomfortable
  • For me bad skin was an issue, which I solved like this
  • Another was clothing choice, which I solved by bringing along a girl when shopping
• Train yourself to help you feel secure
  • I learned a lot from self-help audiobooks I downloaded
  • For me staying in shape helped a lot. Read the 4 Hour Body or its summary

Everyone is a friend, unless proven otherwise

Why burn bridges before you’ve made them in the first place? It makes no sense:

• You have everything to gain
• You have nothing to lose

You will notice soon enough if this person would/wants to be a good friend.

Everyone deserves respect, unless proven otherwise

Again, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by treating people with respect. That doesn’t mean you should kiss boots all day; it means you shouldn’t dismiss anyone or make them feel unimportant.

Like everybody, until they don’t deserve it

Strangers deserve to have the benefit of the doubt. In our world anyone can be anything, without looking like it. I’ve met douchebags who looked kind and billionaires that behaved like excited children. Look at the cover of the book, but read a few pages before judging.

Neither the douchebag or billionaire are ‘better’ than each other. But being around one made me feel unhappy, and the other made me feel gusto and enthusiasm.

Always think about what you can do for others

When you meet someone, don’t think ‘what can they do for me?’ but rather ‘what can I do for them?’ Helping people is the best way to make them want to help you, and everybody wins.

Note that I’m not saying you should give unsolicited advice to make yourself seem smart. Help people if you genuinely and truly believe this person’s life would be better with the knowledge/help/contact that you can offer.

Offer help, but don’t insist. Keep it short and let them decide.

Section 2: Posture

Your body is constantly signalling the people you meet. Postureinfluences the snap second judgement people make about you, but also what you think about yourself. In addition, proper posture is good for your back, what’s not to like?

Stand up straight, but relaxed

To find positive posture, try the following:

1. Stand with your feet as wide as your hips
2. Make yourself as tall as possible, imagine being pulled up by the top of your head
3. Now keep that feeling of being tall but relax your shoulders
4. Relax your neck and angle your head so you don’t have to look up or down to look an average person in the eyes

Some tips:

• Relax as much as possible while maintaining your posture
• Don’t puff your chest, it should be flat as if you are lying on a floor
• Pull your shoulders back very slightly

Sit up straight, but not rigid

When you start sitting up straight, you will notice how small most people make themselves. You will instantly feel quite tall when sitting at a table. Keep your back straight, but relax as much as possible.

Always have some tension in your core

Your abs, back and general core should never be flaccid/floppy when you stand or sit. Keep your abs and core in general under some tension. Not only does it reflect well upon your posture, but it also makes it easier to move with grace.

Position your feet at about hip width apart

The stance of your feet says a lot about you. It’s not an exact science, but putting your feet closer together generally signifies insecurity, whereas a wider stance indicates confidence.

Both holding your feet too close together and too far apart can reflect badly upon you. Try to aim for a position where your feet are at hip width or slightly wider apart, but not much.

Section 3: Entering a Room

The moment you enter a room is the moment you expose yourself to the judgement of the people in that room. Make sure to make use of that.

Some would recommend more extreme techniques like peacocking, but that doesn’t apply to all situations.

Smile like you are happy to be there

Regardless of whether you are, smile when you enter a  room. Smile like you really like what you are seeing. Don’t overdo it, don’t laugh out loud. Smile like you stepped outside and noticed the sun was shining.

Greet the crowd

Not explicitly. Don’t shout “HEY!” or draw explicit attention unless these are people who appreciate such behavior. Otherwise take a  moment to stand still or walk slowly while looking at the people in the room.

• Make eye contact

Don’t glance over the crowd like it’s an object. Look people in the eye and if anyone holds your gaze smile at them. Make people feel like a positive influence just entered this room.

• Take your time

This shows confidence, but also signifies an open attitude.

Wave to (imaginary) friends

Humans are hard-wired to like and/or respect people with friends. When you walk into a room and do your usual ‘greet the crowd’ routine, follow it up by waving to your friends and mouthing something along the lines of “I’ll be right there”.

Here’s the thing, feel free to do this to imaginary friends. I do this all the time at bigger events. Keep in mind that people don’t see 360 degrees. If you wave to an non-existent person behind them they don’t know you are just waving to empty air.

This has a number of effects:

• People assume you know people
• You have more time to calmly look around
• You will feel more confident

The trick here is to do this in full confidence, don’t timidly wave. Wave like your best friend is across the room and you are trying to communicate to them that you’ll be there soon.

Section 4: the Handshake

Use a firm but gentle handshake

Men, especially, are sensitive to the way you shake a hand. A weak or ‘dead fish’ handshake will instantly lose you likability points.

• Don’t just ‘offer’ your hand, a handshake is teamwork
• Use the pressure you would use to grab the stick of a heavy pan
• If a  person is offering you a ‘dead fish’ handshake, don’t squeeze too hard

Make eye contact as you shake hands

Looking away automatically signifies negative things:

• You don’t have attention/respect for the other person
• You have something to hide

Look into someone’s eyes long enough to memorize their eye color. Don’t stare, just observe for a moment.

Smile like they made your day

When looking into someone’s eyes during the shake, smile as if you saw something in their eyes that makes you happy.

Don’t laugh out loud, just smile.

Section 5: Positioning

How and where you position yourself makes a difference in how you are perceived. Positioning combined with posture is very powerful.

Open your stance

When you are talking to someone, position your body in such a way that you are open to them. Preferably position yourself in a ‘vulnerable’ way. Don’t cover your chest with your arms, don’t slouch etc. This signifies trust and comfort.

Angle yourself towards the person you are speaking to

It is a subtle change, but making sure that your body is ‘pointing’ to your conversational partner makes a difference. Angling away can signify fearfulness, insecurity and mistrust.

Don’t lean on or against objects

Leaning on/against an object (e.g. a wall) signifies passivity and possibly insecurity. Whenever you can stand up with good posture. Using the tips from the posture section, try to develop a comfortable ‘neutral stance’.

When you do lean, use posture

If you do have to lean against something for whatever reason, keep good posture. Don’t slouch.

Section 6: Your Face

Your face is an area with a lot of signalling. In fact there is a lot ofresearch into micro expressions people make subconsciously. People project a lot of information without knowing it. You can use your face to signal information about yourself to people.

Make your neutral face a happy face

Ever heard of ‘resting bitch face syndrome’? Some people claim their face at rest looks annoyed/angry, which makes people perceive them as a social danger. You preferably wouldn’t talk to a person with that kind of an expression on their face.

It says nothing about the actual person though. But it does disadvantage them.

Make sure that your face at rest (e.g. when you are working on a laptop) looks relaxed, if not happy. An easy trick is to have a look on your face like something is mildly amusing to you.

Don’t break eye contact instantly

People have a habit of looking away if they meet a person’s eyes. Try not do do this. Keep eye contact, and smile. Often people will look away, though some people will hold your gaze.

Doing this has multiple effects:

• People perceive you as more open
• You will feel more confident

Please note that when you hold someone’s gaze, be sure to smile. Looking impassively can be very creepy…

How to smile

There is a very simple trick to smiling: imagine you are seeing something you really like.

Smiling is not about moving your face in a certain way, it is about feeling a happy feeling and letting your face express it.

Read more about how to smile in this Buffer article..

Section 7: Techniques and habits

Here I cover some things you can do that often involve some measure of interaction with your conversational/communication data.

Mirror your posture

A powerful technique that has been researched a lot is mirroring. This means people feel more comfortable around you and like you better if you stand the way they do. For example:

• They have their arms crossed? Cross your arms
• They are leaning on their right leg? Lean on your right leg
• Are they holding a drink? Hold a drink

The key here is not to be obvious. The moment they notice consciously what you are doing, the technique loses power.

Mirror movements

As with the above point, you shouldn’t be obvious. But little things can go a long way:

• You are having a coffee, they pick up their cup to drink? Do the same
• If they smile, smile back (that’s an easy one)
• Are they stepping a bit closer to you? Do the same

Again, don’t be obvious and don’t be a creep. This technique should be used in an unobtrusive manner, but frequently.

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10 Simple Hacks To Fall Asleep In 30 Seconds, Backed By Science

Yawn. It’s easier said than done trying to actually catch some Z’s, and there is an entire spectrum of people, all desperately trying to claim back the realm of sleep and their quality of sleep. We all want high quality of sleep, and yet so many of us find ourselves tossing and turning hours after we hit the pillow, unable to slip into the Land of Nod.

However, we all deserve to get the kind of sleep we deserve, and so we’ve rounded up some of our best and most useful sleep hacks to try and help you find it a little bit easier to curl up under the covers and nod off. So, without further ado, here are ten of our simple sleep hacks…

1. Read A Book Before Bed

One of the best and renowned sleep hacks is to turn down the lights, snuggle down, and have a quick read of a good bedside tome. It doesn’t have to be particularly highbrow reading, although reading something you find boring or stale might well induce your visit to the Land of Nod.Reading helps facilitate sleep by forcing you to remove yourself from electronic equipment – items designed to keep your mind visually stimulated – and into a relaxed activity. So, next time you’re struggling to get to sleep, try picking up one of those books on your bedside. It might just be the thing to help.

2. Set A Formal Bedtime

Setting a formal bedtime – as in a time in which you force yourself to go to bed every evening – can be extremely beneficial in terms of helping you get to sleep post-haste. Not only can setting a formal bedtime help you physically, it has some strong psychological benefits. Setting a certain time for you to go to sleep helps your mind recognise that it is time for you to start unwinding and relaxing, much in the same way a child learns to sleep through the night. A regular bedtime also helps your brain adjust its levels of serotonin and melatonin, and helps balance your circadian rhythm out. In short, all good things, and essential sleep hacks that you should implement if you want to be asleep within seconds.

3. Eat A Healthier Diet

We know everyone keeps extolling the virtues of a healthier diet, and believe us, we’re sick of it too. However, if you’ll hear us out, adjusting your diet to help you get better sleep, might just be worth it. Research has found that increasing your intake of fruits, vegetables, and pulses can help improve your sleep and the time it takes for you to go to sleep dramatically, thanks to enhancing your levels of magnesium, potassium, or other essential minerals that your body needs. Even incorporating more turkey – rich in tryptophan which helps induce drowsiness and sleepiness – can help make the distance between awake and sleep much easier.

4. Keep Your Room Cool

The last tip we can offer to help you get to sleep quicker, is to make sure that you keep your room as cool as possible – but not too cool. Years of scientific research have found that your body temperature is key when trying to get to sleep, as your body temperature naturally drops when you start to nod off. Therefore maintaining a cool, but not cold temperature in your room is essential. Similar to the way how coming out of a hot bath makes you feel sleepy thanks to your body’s temperature drop, the best course of action is keeping a fan or a window open to keep cool air circulating, and then taking the opportunity to snuggle down. Lovely.

5. Practice Yoga Before Bed

If you fancy exploring something a little less orthodox, then research suggests that doing a spot of yoga can help relax your body and help you get to sleep in record time. In terms of sleep hacks, yoga has long been touted as an avenue worth exploring; certain sequences such as ‘Salute to the Moon’ are designed to be slow, gentle movements that promote a feeling of relaxation and which help relieve any bodily aches that might keep you up at night. Yoga gets a lot of attention for its health benefits, but if you’re stuck on a sleepless night, try your hand at some yoga and find yourself relaxing and nodding off immediately.

6. Meditate

The meditation revolution keeps on rolling through our cities and cultures, touted as a huge help for anyone who needs it – and with good reason. In terms of being simultaneously rudimentary and revolutionary, meditation has been commended as a kind of cure-all for a large swathe ofphysical or psychological ailments – in this case being unable to go to sleep. Meditation allows you to calm your restless mind and focus on the kind of slow, rhythmic breathing that helps make sleeping better. In fact one of the suggested breathing techniques, the ujjayi breath (or ocean breath), is perfect for calming you down and helping you nod off to sleep.

7. Drink Some Warm Milk

Sometimes the old wives’ tales turn out to have some common sense or a grain of surprising truth in them. For example, the old adage about drinking warm milk helping you go to sleep, turns out to be not only true, but a beneficial sleep hack for anyone trying to get to sleep quicker. Warm milk, or similarly crafted milk-based beverages, may have shaky standing as a soporific thanks to the ongoing debate over the actual effectiveness of tryptophan in aiding sleep. However,psychologists have considered that drinking warm milk may have an unconscious psychological effect, and that it relates to the childhood experience of breastfeeding and the comfort associated with it. So, if you want to have a little sip of something before you hit the hay, try a glass of warm milk, rather than the traditional boozy nightcap. You’ll feel better for it in the morning – in more ways than one.

8. Cut Out The Caffeine

One of the best sleep hacks out there is to cut out of the most prevalent addictive chemicals out there: caffeine. Yep, we’re all guilty of partaking in some caffeine at one point or another, whether it’s in our tea, coffee, or even out of chocolate. However, if you want to make sure you go to sleep as soon as possible, try and cut caffeine out of your diet after a certain point in the day. Studies indicate that cutting off your caffeine intake after 3pm helps improve quality of sleep, and the time it takes for you to get to sleep. So, if you want to try something to help you nod off in record time, try ditching that late evening cup of coffee, and see what happens.

9. Turn Off The Electronics

One of the biggest, best sleep hacks for the modern-day person, is to remove those pesky electronics from your bedroom to stop you playing with them. Numerous studies have found that the blue light from electronic devices disrupts your brain’s ability to begin relaxing for better quality sleep, as well as the likelihood of being unable to properly relax before hitting the hay, thanks to devices intended to keep you engaged. Instead, try and turn off your laptop, phone or tablet about an hour before you go to bed, so that your mind can unwind properly, and you can get that all-important quality of sleep that you deserve.

10. Invest In Some Blackout Curtains

This can be an issue no matter what your bedroom situation is, but it isalways worth investing in a solid pair of blackout curtains if you’re looking for a great go-to sleep hack. With more and more light pollution in the day-to-day – your neighbour’s backyard spotlight, the streetlamps outside, everyone’s car headlights coming in at 1am – it can be harder and harder to sleep with all that extra light pouring in and messing up your chance at sleep. Blackout curtains are a great preventative measure, as they’ll make sure your sleep is longer, better, and is much less likely to be disturbed.

Featured photo credit: Cute newborn baby sleeps in a hat via shutterstock.com

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