Diamonds in the Yard, Not in the Sky

These days, critics find it almost laughable to talk about “investing in a career” or “following the American Dream”. Few of us even remember what that’s supposed to be, with the hustle and bustle of Christmas still ringing in our ears and the Visa screaming in our faces. Is it something to do with having a chicken in every pot and two broken-down cars in the garage? Do we even cook with pots on a stove anymore? And who on earth has the luxury of sticking with just one career? Try three.

Getting out of debt might become the new American Dream, and looks really good on a New Year’s Resolution list. You write, “Find part-time work”. Check. “Ask for raise”. Hmmmm. “Get new job making more money.” All that thinking about more income has made you hungry, so you mosey on over to the fridge and stand there, wondering why half of it is taken up with condiments and the other half looks green and leafy. Not what the taste buds crave. You decide to go out to Burger King, and justify it by saying that the “dollar menu” is quite reasonable – you just got paid on Friday. And so the job cycle goes.

There’s part-time jobs aplenty, if you want to stand in the Resume Line at Target with 6,000 other applicants, trading your family Christmas for cash. Ebay is still running, though a ghost of its former self, and there are plenty of library books to let you know how to capitalize on yours and other people’s junk. However, most of us have had garage sales and looked at an empty list of assets long enough. It’s time to look at the diamonds you have in the backyard, per the business classic, “Acres of Diamonds”.

Part-Time Work  for Homeowners

Just talking with neighbors can generate ideas. For example, 100 years ago, nearly everyone knew a seamstress, a laundress, the farm with a small stream of egg and milk clients, and those with light hands on the pastry. It’s possible by watching YouTube videos or the Food Channel, to find ways of making cheesecakes or green bean casseroles or fluffy mashed potatoes. The next step is to have samples to pass on to those who are too busy to cook – the working mother, the 7-to-7 executive, or the mechanic with two jobs and no family. Eating out is a major part of any American’s budget, but gas concerns are rising along with increased prices, and we’d rather shop local than big chain anyway. Remember the story of Moses and his mother? She was paid by an Egyptian princess to feed her own child until he got weaned off the bottle. Just by getting good at cooking for your own family, you could make twice to three times at much food and have neighbors waiting with cash in hand. Package it attractively in Rubbermaid containers, and ask them to bring back clean containers when they’d like Irish stew next Tuesday. Supplies don’t have to be from Costco – becoming a distributor at a Bountiful Baskets Co-op can net two weeks’ worth of produce for $15, and turned into tomato basil soup or broccoli cheese casserole.  Instant meals from Fry’s and Safeway can be a thing of the past.

If you have mechanical or fix-it skills, this could be the time to invest in Vistaprint free cards. Not to hang on doors or stick under windshield wipers in a Wal-Mart parking lot, but to hand out to those for whom you’ve already done projects. Most homeowners dread having to call up a plumber or electrician for the least little thing, but they either have no experience or no time to install new water heaters, paint walls, or simply put in new tile on the bathroom floor. If your Dad taught you to be handy with cars or wood, get a reputation for installing batteries and replacing broken headlamps for a small charge. (All you have to do is work on your cars outside and talk to neighbors for a month. They’ll ask.) Forget paying hundreds for landscapers, just show up at your pastor’s house on a Saturday and say you’re going to trim his palm trees and mow the lawn if he’ll spread the word to everyone else. Don’t take on a job that requires a professional if you’re not, but some of the smaller jobs can bring in extra monthly cash. Feel free to put it on your resume as “contract work”.

Petsitting can apply here. There’s no rule in life that says you can’t charge people to stay over at their house and make sure that Fido gets fed on time and eats his pills. It also looks good on the resume – one must care about both clients and animals to apply. Pet care is more than a $45 billion dollar market – tap into just a little of that, and be willing to sleep on someone else’s sheets, and you don’t have to apply at Wal-Mart for the greeter position (although, I recommend this to those with a passion for making others feel welcome).

Part-Time Creative Work

If your skills are more artistically inclined, there’s a market for Normal People Art. January 2011 of “In The Zone” magazine featured thirteen-year-old Maddy Rose Anseth is saving for college by selling drawings and watercolors. If you received awards at local art shows or State Fairs in your childhood, it might be time to brush off that sketch book and dabble in paint again. If people can’t afford copies of Thomas Kinkade, they still want something appealing on their walls, and you might be able to give them what they want. A classic example of making money in bad times can be found in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s classic, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich“, where a Soviet prisoner is told by his wife that he needs to pull strings to get a job as a ‘carpet painter’, making thousands of rubles per month. There were only three officially sanctioned styles, and all you had to have was a set of stencils with paint, and people brought their clean sheets to be turned into art – and paid for it.

While you’re waiting for your great novel idea to make you the next J.K. Rowling, it might be an idea to earn a reputation as a writer. Common grammar seems a thing of the past, but if you got good grades in English, bring in a few coins by it. There are hundreds of sites, from Helium to Skillpages to Odesk that can put your turn of phrase to use. With all the outsourcing these days, being a native English speaker can get you anything from teaching jobs overseas to part-time work as an editor, or content writer for blogs.

Odesk also features contract white-collar work, for those who can’t leave their home, or live far away from high-rise office buildings. One can bid and be accepted as a virtual assistant, a graphic designer, or a computer whiz – or anything in between. If you object to installing wireless internet systems at people’s homes for extra cash, you could try setting up a Paypal account, scanning some verifiable documents, and trying out for office work…without working in an office. If you negotiate right, you could be taking care of projects with the same amount of time you spend watching Netflix reruns of “24″ or “Burn Notice”.

Sure, it takes time to develop a reputation. No, it won’t generate thousands of dollars within ten days, and there are few guarantees. On the other hand, there are few guarantees that you’ll be able to get more than a cost-of-living 3% raise this year at your full-time job, and no guarantees that a new job will kick in with medical benefits as they did before. More on raises and new careers in February – for January, just writing down a list of your marketable skills would be a good start to the new year.

My point is that it is time to start thinking outside the box. Give me a call if you are ready to discover your diamonds in the yard.