Do you want a random job?

It wouldn’t be fair to tell you that you can live a Champagne Living style of life without money. While you don’t need a LOT, you will still need enough to get by on and a little extra to get you to some of the fabulous places, those discounted designer dresses, and a day at the spa every now and then. Take it from me, you don’t have to work 9-5 to get what you want our of life. I’ve always been able to create an interesting and full life with very little, using a more creative approach to earning money and so has today’s guest blogger Bethany Mooradian, a woman who’s lovingly known as the queen of the random job.

“I began finding random jobs after receiving my degree in puppetry because I realized that most puppeteers don’t make that much money,” says Mooradian, author of I Got Scammed So You Don’t Have To (www.QueenOfTheRandomJob.com), a how-to book for finding legit work in an economy of scammers. “At one point, I was even Ronald McDonald’s bodyguard.”

Beginning in 1999, in order to make ends meet while pursuing her artistic passions, she looked for odd jobs. It wasn’t long before the search for and execution of odd jobs became a lifestyle. She gave so much advice to her friends on how not to be scammed, that she decided to write a book about it.

Mooradian came up with an acronym to help as a general outline to avoid scams:

1. SCRAM. S = scrutinize the source;
2. C = check for affiliate links and fees
3. R = research the heck out of every detail
4. A = ask for more information
5. M = mouse over images and links to see what website you end on before you click.

“I was scammed in a work-at-home gig from a magazine ad when I was young and naïve,” she says. “It was before the internet was widely used, so it wasn’t as easy to check it out, and I hadn’t yet developed my SCRAM method.”

While the odd, random job or source of supplemental income usually does not replace the income of a fulltime job, there are several ways of making money people often overlook, or simply don’t know about.

Mooradian emphasizes that anyone can find extra ways to earn income from what they already know how to do, “No one ever goes to college to learn how to ‘work at home.’ It’s simply a matter of taking your skill set and translating that into a home-office or flexible work environment instead of a 9-5 job.” Here are five income opportunities most people are not aware of.

• Being a Virtual Assistant: If you have computer and internet skills, you can work as a VA doing general secretarial work, or processing orders for large-name corporations at home. Many companies are seeing the benefit of “homesourcing” instead of “outsourcing” because overhead is reduced, and customers get to speak to local operators who understand the language and culture.
• Merchandising: Have you ever walked up to someone shelving products in a store to ask for help and they reply, “I’m sorry, I don’t work here?” Those are merchandisers. They’re hired to set up displays, check prices on items, and shelve products like magazines, food items, and greeting cards. Merchandisers have specific locations to service, but with fairly flexible hours.
• Landlord (rent that extra space!): Many people own property because they want their personal freedom. But for those who’ve fallen on hard financial times, like millions of Americans, finding a good, trustworthy person to rent your extra room, a storage space, garage, or a parking space is a great option.
• Mystery shopper: Mooradian has created a video and book training course on this topic titled “The Mystery Shopper Training Program,” which can be found on her website, as well as through Amazon.com and local bookstores. Mystery shoppers are paid to surreptitiously check out the behavior of employees in retail shops, bars, restaurants, apartment buildings, car dealerships, banks, and even on cruise ships and travel resorts.
• Use your talent: You don’t have to have movie-star aspirations to get work as an extra in movies, television shows or industrial/training films. Many times you can call up your local film board to find casting directors in the area to get on their “extra” list. Voiceover work can also be done from the comfort of your home if you have a powerful enough microphone, and you can also be a “standardized patient” acting out diseases to help medical students with their board exams.

“The internet is full of information, but finding useful leads for jobs or making extra money can be like searching for a needle in the proverbial haystack, which is why I provide over 300 legitimate companies, ideas, and resources for money-seekers,” she says.

 

For even more from Bethany  pick up her book at Amazon.com: I Got Scammed So You Don’t Have To!: How to Find Legitimate Work at Home and Random Jobs in a Scamming Economy

You can also search back posts on Champagne Living for links to legitimate Mystery Shopping companies!