This will be a short guide on how to make an extra $1,000 or more each month with skills you already have. Your skills could be carpet cleaning, car wrapping, computer repair or something completely different. Take something you like and what people are charging money for.
This is also how I got started with web development. I’ll make a more in-to-depth post about my journey with web design soon, but the process basically is he same.
1. Master your skill
The first thing you need to do in order to make this work is to master your skill. You have to understand that you’ll need to deliver high quality results to your clients. Everyone can deliver medium quality services, so you have to stand out of the crowd. This is also what will get you repeat business.
Do you want to offer car wrapping? Wrap your car or the car of your mum 100 times before you start offering your service. Want to become a web designer? Build 10 websites from scratch.
2. Get your first clients
Now, after you’ve become a specialist in what you’re doing it is important to do some marketing. The best way to get new clients is by referrals and that’s what we will focus on.
In order to get your first job you’ll need to use your network. Reach out to family members, friends, friends of friends or other people you know who might need your service. Offer your service for free to get your first clients in exchange for referrals and make sure to over deliver (be super fast, polite and keep the quality of your service as high as possible).
If your service is of high value your clients will be happy and gladly tell their friends about your work. This is when people will approach you to pay for your service.
3. Repeat step two
Repeat the step two as often as needed in order to get things rolling. Do it least three to five times so you have a small list of happy clients to start with. Once you have enough clients in your portfolio people who are looking for your service will approach you on a regular basis.
Now you can start to charge a small amount of money for what you’re doing. If you’re booked for more than a month upfront increase your prices and do this until you’re happy with what you get for your work. Make sure to never compete on price, but on quality!
This is everything you need to know to get started. Please keep in mind that this isn’t something that will make you 10 grand by tomorrow. These steps should help you to grow your own small business so you can make $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or even more in the matter of a few months. Of course there is more needed to run a successful business, but you'll learn the most by just doing it. Great results require a long process of hard work.