The final bell has rung, the kids have gone home blasting “School’s Out” in the car, there’s nothing left to grade, and now you’re looking for a summer job open to teachers like you.  Either you need supplemental income to get you through the next few months, or you’re the type of person who just can’t sit still for that long, or both!  Here is a quick list of a few summer jobs to fill your newfound time.

• If you prefer to continue in your field, consider tutoring or teaching summer classes. Tutoring can be a good option to help you keep a good amount of free time for yourself, while summer classes can help you stay fresh and perhaps come up with a new teaching format.
• If you’re into sports and fitness, you could coach a local team, lead an exercise class at your gym, lifeguard at the pool or beach, etc. This is a good way to stay active and get your mind out of the classroom, especially if you’re burned out and need a break.
• If you’re an arts or music teacher, offer private lessons. You can sign up your current students and open it up to the community as well to create more business for yourself. You’ll certainly be spending the summer doing something you like to do.
• You could work at places where you might take a class on a field trip in the fall. Consider local museums, national parks, nature centers, etc. It could turn into an educational experience for your students when school resumes.
• If you work with the younger grades, a day care setting might be a perfect summer job. You already have a knack for working with small children, so the transition will be smooth.
• If you’re absolutely dying to get as far away from the classroom as possible, plenty of other fields will fit right in with your schedule. You could work in retail, wait tables or bartend, help out in construction or landscaping, etc.

There are numerous summer jobs for teachers.  Many places do have summer-only positions available, so they’ll be prepared to lose you in the fall.  You can use this as an opportunity to do something that you love to do, including teaching!

When you’re starting your own home business, you usually start with a great idea for an innovative product or service.  You might be lucky (or daring) enough to use your own available funds for your initial investment.  Maybe you need some help and will be applying for a loan.  Maybe you have no new ideas-you’ve just decided to freelance in your field, or you’ve become an independent consultant for a company like Partylite, Pampered Chef, Beachbody, etc.  No matter your circumstance, a business plan is always necessary.

You business plan is a description of what your company is, what you provide and how you plan to do so.  If your home business requires loans from outside investors, you absolutely need a business plan (no exceptions), and a professional one at that.  Your proposed investors will want to know exactly what they are getting into and how likely it is that your business will be successful enough to repay them.  You can find many books, websites, and downloads that can give you standard outlines to follow to get started.

If you don’t require investors, some might say you don’t need a business plan.  But if you read carefully, most advice will still tell you that you should have a plan.  Well, you’re starting a business and need a plan in place?  That’s a business plan no matter how you slice it, my friend.  The only difference between you and the ones that need investors is the how professional and in-depth you are.  Your plan doesn’t need to be 50-100 pages long or more, especially if it’s solely for you.

Your plan, long or short, will provide direction for you.  Your idea may sound amazing in your head, but once it’s on paper, you may find that it needs a little tweaking or it’s unfortunately implausible.  Write down exactly what your company is and what you offer to the public.  When you begin to expand, you’ll be able to estimate your chances of success.

Know your market and include that in your plan.

• Who are your customers likely to be?
• How will you find them?
• Most importantly, how will you attract their interest?

Get to know your competition.  You’ll need to know what you’re up against.  What are their marketing strategies?  Why were certain ones successful or unsuccessful?  When you know what your competition is all about, you can effectively answer potential customers when they ask you how you’re different or better.

Set goals in your plan.  They’ll be easier to achieve and track when they’ve been fully thought out and written down.  You’ll feel the crunch when you’re near the deadline, but you’ll also feel that sense of accomplishment and see your success when you can cross that goal off the list.  Even if you only finished a group of small goals instead of a large one, you can see your progress.  Include a budget in your goals to help you stay on track and monitor your profits.

Every step in writing your plan will activate your brain and force you to think creatively about your business goals.  Plus, if you don’t have a complete understanding of your company and its future, how will you successfully explain it to customers or potential investors?  Even a few strong paragraphs can suffice when you’re starting out by yourself.  You don’t have to treat it like a Masters’ thesis.  Just spell out your intentions, set your budget and goals, and implement your marketing strategies and you’ll be better prepared for success and your company’s future.

It’s the ultimate fantasy: working at home, in your pajamas, setting your own hours, answering to no one, and making money doing what you love to do.  But many of us have been scared away from even attempting this by all the scam stories.  Working at home doesn’t have to be a fantasy, though.  It can be done, especially if you start with the right mindset.  You can be a freelancer for just about any job in existence.  Writing, photography, administrative assistant, web management…the list is long, and it probably contains a field that you’re passionate about.

You’re not going to get rich right away.  In fact, you might not ever become rich as a freelancer, but you can pull in a comfortable salary.  How much you make is dependent not only on what people in your field tend to be paid but also on how much time and effort you are willing to put forth.  The beginning may be uncomfortable and scary, but you have to realize that you are really starting your own small business.  You don’t have to register yourself as such unless you want to, but you are now a business in the start-up phase.

You’ll need some tools outside of the obvious requirements for your field (camera for a photographer, internet access for web developers, and so on) and there’s a variety of help on the web.  If you’re more comfortable with a hand to guide you, you can start with websites like GoFreelance, odesk.com, elance.com, and sologig.com.  These are trusted and proven sites for freelancers.  They not only offer jobs for you to apply for and/or bid on, but they offer secure payment.  This is especially helpful when you are getting started with little to no business contacts.  You can be sure that you will be paid by your temporary employer, and they won’t have access to any of your personal account information that could open you up to being scammed.

No matter where you look for work, whether it’s on these sites or with people you networked with while in your previous job, make sure there’s a contract in place.  Don’t respond to vague job postings and/or people that refuse to tell you basic information like the company name and location, a full and honest description of the job that is to be completed, and how and when you’ll be paid.  You don’t want to be left in the lurch after committing serious time and energy to produce a good product.  And don’t pay anybody for the opportunity to work for them.  That defeats the purpose.

Regarding pay, don’t be afraid to negotiate for what you know your services are worth.  You have to be your own advocate.  If you accept low pay or agree to do the work in exchange for “building your portfolio,” you’re devaluing yourself and hurting the market for other freelancers in your field, as the employer will know they can find someone who will do the work for cheap.  If anything, start with a price that you know is a bit too high and let them talk you down.  You never know…they might accept your high price immediately.  At worst, you’ll end up receiving average pay.

Treat yourself like a business all the way.  Have business cards handy for potential prospects.  Set up a website as a way for people to find you, read about your services, peruse your portfolio, and hopefully hire you.  Network and establish references just like you would with any other job.

A couple of helpful websites I’ve found are VistaPrint and dawnaturservice.wordpress.com.  VistaPrint offers numerous deals on supplies for your business like free business cards, pens, postcards, car magnets, websites, etc.  You can use their templates or upload your own.  Dawnaturservice offers advice for virtual assistants that really applies to all freelancers.  You’ll find helpful hints and lists of other helpful websites to help you keep track of hours and accounting, maintain your own website, store files, create a successful blog, etc.

You can be successful working at home.  Utilize every tool at your disposal and invest yourself fully and you can get yourself off the ground and living the dream before you know it.