So thanks to the personal/professional development board game, I’m actually starting to make decent progress on the massive non-fiction book list that I started years ago.
The latest book I read is ’25 ways to work from home: smart business models to make money online’ by Jen Ruiz. This is a book for those who are thinking of leaving (or possibly trying to supplement) their 9-to-5 life in a office (or lab) setting.
As someone who has been thinking of a ‘non-traditional’ direction for the second half of my life, this book seemed to be a good compliment for the other one I just finished: ‘The Financial Diet‘ by Chelsea Fagan and Lauren Ver Hage. Especially the chapter(s) on the side hustle (in Financial Diet), though this book doesn’t refer to them as side hustles, but 25 different ways to work from home.
The 25 different ways the book goes into are:
- Teach English online
- Become a virtual assistant
- Self-publish books
- Freelance writing
- Video editing
- Gig economy
- Start a podcast
- Monthly subscription/membership
- Start a you-tube channel
- E-commerce
- Private coaching
- Travel planner or guide
- Online courses
- Affiliate marketing
- Advertising revenue
- Summits
- Sponsored content
- Buy & sell websites
- Install & customize wordpress themes
- Graphic design
- Create an app
- Rent your property
- Sell your photographs
- Selling clothing and accessories
- Offer professional services
The authors of both books state that you should figure out how to diversify your earnings (that way if something goes wrong with one ‘job/direction’ you still have money coming in from other jobs/directions. While I’m still contemplating part-time/three-fourths time of a ‘physical in-person’ job–I’d also like to still have some control and variety in my day and week.
Therefore, the ones that either jumped out at me or I’ve been thinking about trying are:
- Freelance writing (a high yes/with moderately high anxiety)
- Self-publishing books (high maybe)
- Start a podcast and/or a you-tube channel (high yes for both/with very high anxiety)
- Creating online courses (high yes/with very high anxiety)
- Affiliate marketing/advertising revenue/sponsored content (high yes/with moderate anxiety)
- Graphic design/video editing (high maybe)
- Selling photographs (high yes/with moderate high anxiety)
- Creating and selling jewelry (high yes/with moderate high anxiety)
So I’ve listed about 12 total ways I would like to work from home. Three are currently listed as ‘high maybes’ (writing books, graphic design, and video editing), while the other nine are listed as ‘high yeses’ with a decent amount of anxiety going along with each of them. But I’m also going to rank those nine, brainstorm ideas for the top two (or three), and once I have those methods working (with decent income coming in consistently), I will then slowly start adding in other methods (one or two at a time), until I have created my ‘perfect’ blend of activities.
The other thing I liked about this book is that it has links/addresses to quite a bit of supporting material for each potential job type plus little blurbs on people who are earning a decent salary each way. I highly recommend this book to those who are thinking of leaving their nine-to-five, wanting to supplement their nine-to-five, or those of us who have left the nine-to-five and are looking for guidance on starting some totally new.
5 out of 5 stars
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