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One Minute Odd Job Tip

Once someone discovers that there’s such a thing as “Passive Income”, it becomes what everybody wants, but to most it may seem unattainable. There’s also a stigma that somehow hard work is “noble”. Some people I’ve come across in life even view working hard as something to be praised above all else.

For people who place the highest value on how hard someone works, Passive Income may not be attractive, since, once you put the work in at the beginning, it keeps paying and paying and paying — without any further effort from you.

>>> NEXT WEEK: Enduring past the excitement of starting a new venture.

Strictly Business:

So, let’s define “Passive Income”. The term “passive income” is frequently used loosely for any revenues, including returns from investment, that appear to require little or no effort by the one receiving it. Sometimes we also include in “passive income” that income which requires a very small amount of effort in comparison to the money received.

I’ve mentioned this book before, The 4-Hour Work Week. This book helps a person to think more realistically about the idea of passive income.

The one thing that can make building a passive income business attractive is that it usually involves a very small income for a lot of work early on, and then, as the business grows, it takes less and less active work to keep it going. This makes it difficult for many to have the time and resources to put into a passive income business at the start. It also requires a person to have strong discipline to stick with it, despite a lot of time and effort for little return at the beginning.

Some Odd Jobs You May Never Have Considered:

Number 1 — Shopping Cart Bounty — (S maybe B Quadrant¹) 

This one isn’t passive, but I’ve seen it several times in the last couple weeks. Our current gig is in a community that has a very large vagrant community, and most of them have at least one shopping cart that they push around.

In the last two weeks, several times I’ve seen this Dodge Caravan with a U-Haul trailer on the back with shopping carts in trailer. It seems that they’re going around town and rounding up the stray shopping carts and bringing them back to the stores they belong to. I assume that the store is paying a bounty on their carts’ return. According to my 30 second search on Google, a regular shopping cart costs about $265, so it’s worth it to the store to pay a bounty for their return.

Looks like a pretty simple business to get started, and depending on where you are, it could be quite lucrative. You would have to do your due diligence, but it could be a nice avenue of revenue.

Number 2 — Author, Write Books — (S Quadrant¹) Can Become Passive — This is a “We’ve done this!” job

If you write a book and publish it, it’s possible to have income from that book for years, even decades, into the future. To varying degrees, an author may need to promote the book, which is something to do “actively”, thus taking away from its passive nature.

Every author’s dream is that their book takes on a life of its own, goes viral and sells millions and millions of copies. That can happen, but more realistically is that a person may have to spend some time in promoting their book.

We have several books published, mostly children’s books, but some books relate to business and building wealth. We’ll go in spurts of doing some promotions and such, and then when we’re busy with other things, let the books take care of themselves. The nice thing is that the royalties we get from these books are pretty consistent, and at this point, we use the proceeds we get every month to pay our illustrator for the next book and promotions

This is nice because we no longer have to put any money into the project, and it continues to grow steadily.

We have been using Amazon’s KDP publishing platform up till now, and after figuring out how to format and publish our books on their platform, works well. I would warn you to read the Terms of Service well and adhere to the rules there, or be prepared to be slapped sharply by Amazon.

Number 3 — Vending Machines — (S or B Quadrant¹) — This is a “We’ve done this!” job, kind of

Well, my wife and I haven’t done this, but our daughter did when she was about 13. She read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and it got her thinking.

She had a couple hundred dollars to put into a business so she bought a couple of 25 cent candy machines on Ebay, went to a local candy wholesaler and bought Skittles and M&Ms wholesale.

Then she want around the small town we lived in asking permission to place a machine at a business for a split of the profit. It turned out that most businesses were tickled to see a 13 year old girl taking this kind of initiative, and didn’t want the split.

Once a week or so she went around to each machine and emptied the coins and filled the candy. Pretty sweet gig for a 13 year old.

This is a very simple and low-start-up version of a vending business. There are thousands of variations that can be done, and thousands of products and audiences for this type of venture. Soda machine? Snack machine? Water bottle machine? There are lots of opportunities!

Number 4 — Sell Stock Photos and videos — (S Quadrant¹)

If you like taking pictures, you may be able to turn this into a passive income stream. There’s a huge market for photos and videos to be used in marketing, online content, magazines, and almost anywhere else you can imagine seeing a photo.

There are dozens of places that you can make your photos and videos available online. Once you’re approved to submit your photos and video, you can add more and more to your catalog. Those pictures, etc., sit available for purchase worldwide and 24/7. Imagine making money while you sleep!

We have a friend in Portugal who does this very thing. He says it makes him enough money to pay to take his family on vacation every year. So, for him anyway, this venture doesn’t support him, but for the effort he puts into it, he’s tickled to death to get that money every month.

It’s not hard to find online places to sell your pictures or videos. Google “Stock Photos” and you’ll find a dozen or more sites. Each of them has their own “special sauce” (requirements for photos and selling them on their platform) and ,you’ll have to study up on which will work best for you.

This Week’s Quotes:

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.

— Anna Quindlen

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.

— Robert Lynd

Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.

— Jawaharlal Nehru

Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

— Laurence J. Peter

People who ask our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to give it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly.

— Brendan Francis

A Book for Success — I have always been a Rock & Roll fan. Tommy James of Tommy James and the Shondells fame wrote a book about his experiences as a Rock & Roll sensation in the 1960s.

It’s called Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells.  Yes, the mob. Tommy tells of his experience with a mob-run record company, the theft of most of his music royalties, and the struggle to continue in the music business.

It’s a short read that’s fun, but also gives some insight into a business that you may not have been aware of.

Snarfy Jokes —

What do you call a boomerang that doesn't work?

 A stick.

What do you call cheese that isn't yours?

 Nacho Cheese.

What do you call Santa's helpers?

 Subordinate Clauses.

What do you call four bullfighters in quicksand?

 Quatro sinko.

The sky was looking ominous so I asked Siri, “Surely it’s not going to rain today?”

And she replied, “Yes it is, and don’t call me Shirley.”

Some Final Random Thoughts —

For those who stick with it, building passive income can pay tremendous rewards, even a legacy income to be left to future generations. Have you ever seen the Bob Ross painting lessons on TV?

Bob Ross died almost 30 years ago, yet his content is still being used and making money for his heirs. Isn’t that amazing? Wouldn’t it be great if you could create something that would generate a legacy income for future generations of your family? With a passive business model, this is possible.

¹ CashFlow Quadrant references the book, Cashflow Quadrants by Robert Kiosaki. In a nutshell, there are four sources of income — “E” Employee, “S” Self-Employed, “B” Business and “I” Investor. We reference these quadrants at the beginning of each of the jobs we talk about in Odd Job Tips Newsletter. To see more about this concept, refer to this issue of this newsletter.

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