Everyone’s looking for fast money these days, and a part-time business may be the answer for you.  Of course, the definition of fast is going to depend upon how much time and effort you are able to put in.  As with any business, you’ll go through a start-up phase, but there are plenty of options that require little to no initial investment and that you can get off the ground rather quickly.  Here are some ideas:

• Freelance your talents. Whether you’re a writer, a photographer, an accountant, a web designer, there are companies looking for your services. They might not have the right people available to complete the projects they need to have done, or they’re looking for a cheaper alternative to hiring a full-time employee. You can be the answer for them, and you can search for as many or as few opportunities as your schedule can handle.
• Do you enjoy organizing? Start a cleaning or organizing service. Many people don’t have the time or energy, or they just plain don’t like the chore. You can offer the help they’ve been waiting for.
• Become an antiques expert. Search rummage sales and attend auctions. You can pick up plenty of items on the cheap that are worth a decent amount of money. Do research to determine if what you’ve found is valuable as is or is worth being refurbished, and sell them in your own booth at an antique store, on eBay, or at local fairs.
• Design t-shirts. If you’ve got clever ideas, you’ll get people’s interest. T-shirts can be fairly easy to design and can turn a good size profit for you. Think wisely about whether it’s better for you to print the t-shirts yourself or use a third-party. Your own talents and potential selling opportunities can help you make the decision.
• If you enjoy working out, why not get paid for it and become a fitness instructor? This one will require some time to take classes and become certified, but once you’re ready, you’ll get paid to help others reach their goals while keeping fit yourself.
• If not much else seems like it would work for you, there’s always good old traditional babysitting and pet-sitting! This might be especially good for you if you already have children or pets, or simply enjoy playing with them and taking care of them. If you keep your services cheaper than average day care costs, you’ll have eager parents knocking down your door.

Anything you choose can have the potential to become a full-fledged business.  It depends on your motives and your time commitment.  If you want it to remain a part-time business simply for some extra cash, you can definitely keep it that way.  Your best bet for fun part-time businesses is to find something you love to do and figure out how you can get paid to do it.  Sometimes taking it into your own hands can be the easiest and fastest way.

Have you thought about budgeting money lately?  I can hear the groans already.  Nobody wants to think about creating a budget.  It means tediously figuring out your actual income and expenses, and worse, discovering how much money you might be wasting.  However, this is exactly what will save you money and allow you to start doing the things that a lack of money has prevented.

3 Steps to a Sensible Plan

It’s really not as involved as you might think.  You can cover the entire budget plan in three steps:

1. Track your current expenses.
2. Figure out where your money should be going.
3. Monitor your spending and make sure your money goes to those places and nowhere else.

You should be as meticulous as possible, but there’s no need to get obsessive over the plan.  Start by writing down what you pay every month for your bills, groceries, gas, entertainment, etc.  Include even small purchases like lunches at work and morning lattes.  When you find your spending habits staring back at you, you might discover that you should renegotiate your cell phone bill or insurance, or that you’d save $50 a month if you brewed your own coffee at home and stopped buying magazines that you don’t have time to read anyway.  Maybe you’d save if you only went out for dinner once a week instead of three times.  Check out movies from the library or use a subscription service like Netflix instead of going to the movie theatre so often.  Cut expenses where you can, and then stick to it!

Helpful Hints for Budgeting Money

There are software programs available when you’re looking at budgeting money.  Quicken and Microsoft Money can be good places to start.  They allow you to plug in your income and expenses, and then they create the budget plan for you.  You can keep your expenses under blanket categories or get as detailed as you’d like to find even more little places where you could save.

When entering your income, be careful not to include any projected or possible income like raises, bonuses, investment returns, or count on your cousin repaying that money you lent him last year.  Only depend on your current true salary.  This way, if you do receive the extra money, it will actually be extra money that you can then add to your savings or use as a treat for being so good with your money until then.  (Just don’t get lured back into bad spending habits.  Saving is your best option.)

Be aware of how you handle actual cash in your pocket, too.  It’s easier to lose track of what you’ve spent until you realize your money is gone.  If cash is a temptation for you, consider carrying only enough to cover emergencies.  I find myself watching my spending more if I’m using my debit card for purchases.  The money is coming from the same place that cash would, but I’ll be faced with real numbers as I’m spending and when I go to balance my checkbook.

Budgeting money doesn’t have to be a chore, and it can really be enlightening.  It forces you to be honest with yourself, and that’s the only way you can really see your spending habits and learn how to create better ones.

The cost of education is ever increasing, and it is seemingly impossible to go to school without the help of some financial aid. Luckily, with the increase in people going back to school to increase their job skills and income, free student scholarships have become widely available. Financial aid is not just offered by your particular college, but also through various special interest groups and organizations. For instance, one of the fastest growing financial aid programs are the scholarships for women category.

With more and more women obtaining advanced degrees, entering the workforce, and obtaining high-level jobs, there is a big surge to provide scholarships for women to help make this possible for more people.

If you are thinking about returning to school, there are plenty of resources available to find and obtain financial aid in order to pay for some, if not all, of your college expenses. Some of these programs are based on merit, while others are awarded based on income or even particular fields of study.

Whether you qualify to receive scholarships for women, minority grants, or financial aid for studying microbiology, there is no reason not to tap into these resources to help make your educational experience an affordable one. Here are two great resources that can help you quickly get the cash you need to go to back to school.

• Online Scholarships – Simply enter to see if you qualify for their $10,000 free student scholarship program.

• Course Advisor – Enter the areas of study that interest you, and this search database will provide you with a list of online and on-campus colleges that can provide you with the financial aid you need. This is a great tool if you are trying to find the most affordable degree program, or to check if there are any scholarship programs you are missing out on at your current institution.

There’s no limit on the number of free student scholarships, grants or educational loans that you can receive. Cast a wide net by collecting as much information as you can in order to alleviate the cost of books, housing and tuition. Regardless if you are looking for scholarships for women, as a single mother, or low-income status, the money is available.