Category Archives: Home Biz Ideas

Learning about Second income ideas for supplemental income and help lower debts and survive today’s high costs of living.

How to Start a Rental Guest House

September 28, 2016Home Biz Ideasan informal cornr, build financial security, earn money in guest house rentals, home business, micro home business, real estate second income, rent a guest house, second income, start a guest house rental businessGinsense

The idea of entering and starting a ‘cottage/guest house‘ rental side business, can operate with success, if done with great marketing and management. Let’s explore ‘how to start a rental guest house‘ for a second income.

A search online having to do with cottage rentals, you will find quite a few listings about such places. Such an endeavor can provide an extra source of income. Where do we start?

2nd Income Trends

A trend in the housing and rental industry was recommending to have a ‘guest‘ house built on your property. One could use it for their elderly parent or as a rental income.

You will need to do research into local municipal by- laws, zoning laws and regulations about providing such accommodations. Applications and fee’s can be found at the local municipal city hall office. Also, one must get a business license to operate such accommodations.

Cottage/Guest house short-term rentals have been an ongoing popular operation and source of income, for many years. Those who are able to afford buying their guest house may live in their own primary residence or have a second cottage for personal use.

It does take money to begin this project but the long term pay off can be quite rewarding. A successful operation can bring repeat business, continuous bookings, a good reputation and sense of prestige. A family could poor their money together to have one built, get it successfully listed for repeat rentals, and then build another.

Required Skills and Knowledge

Operating a rental business does require knowledge in the hospitality and tourism industry, local Landlords Act along with business management skills.

It is IMPORTANT to have these skills, and I do recommend at least taking a course in these areas. A business plan will help you keep ‘direction‘ and ‘overview‘ of maintaining the following skills ;

business

marketing skills will help you learn to promote, advertise

know your competition

financial skills will help you stay in operation

business law will help you be aware of rights and responsibilities ,as an owner and for the customer/tenant.

Paper work is involved with this business, as all businesses do have to provide for tax reporting.

The owner of a cottage or guest house will have some steps to follow once skills and knowledge are gained. A first step is having the property, for a cottage or guest house, and figuring out, how to set it up their occupancy rates.

second income rental — earn with second income property

A Peek into a Part of this Type of Operation

If it’s a two to three bedroom, one can offer a occupancy of three to six people, if functioning as a ‘cottage‘. This is done if you have bunk beds in the bedrooms and/or pull out beds. Furniture would have to be sturdy and removal of ‘personal‘ items done. Keep it to bare necessities as the ‘guests‘ will bring their own. Just think how a hotel room provides for their guests.

A method to deliver keys for the guest(s) would be required. Some may have a ‘lock-box‘ on site, a key pad lock may also be used or just go out and meet them in person, to deliver the keys. A major consideration and requirement for any business, is insurance.

Liability and Equipment for Safety

Do shop around and meet with insurance agencies who can provide for ‘vacation‘ or ‘rental‘ accommodation businesses, and they provide a good pricing range. Insurance protects you, your property and customers.

Hotels have computerized programs which help them with their booking schedules. As a small owner/operator of your guest house or cottage, you can also find computer software programs to help you with your own booking schedules.

One can also offer to add the traditional method, of signing a guest book upon arrival and departure, if you’d like to add sense of ‘vintage‘ to your operations.

gypsy wagon rental — gypsy wagon beach rental

Promotion for Building Awareness

The advertising and promotion of your cottage or guest house will create awareness and bring customers. This can be done with attending trade shows related to the tourism and hospitality industry, registering with ‘vacation‘ or ‘rental‘ agencies, creating your own website with option to ‘book‘ a time schedule. Check on how to get on tourism sites, partner with local hotels.

Excellent photographs will be needed since these will help provide prospective customers with an idea of what they will find. This is also a good time to share available local sights and amenities, available activities and resources (boat, canoe, etc.). It’s suggested with your advertising, that it be done on international, national and regional sites to build and gain a wider awareness of your service(s).

Live in Action

Extra Reading

How to Start a Bed and Breakfast in Ontario

CMHC- Dealing With Problems

Brian’s Backyard Tiny Guest House

Conclusions

Owning a cottage or guest house can provide an interesting and rewarding experience. You can eventually hire and allow a property manager to oversee this small venture once able to afford the extra costs of hiring.

This area of business would be considered part of the real estate industry and why it’s popular. It can provide a source of supplemental or eventual full time income, and improve your quality of living. It will take patience to learn all that’s involved along with the costs to acquire such a property but as mentioned, the long term benefits can be rewarding.

I hope you found this article informative. Please feel free to leave your comments and share with your Friends. Use the ‘Ask a Question’ form and recommend a topic of your own interest, for the next Post!

AIC|An Informal Cornr, all rights reserved. Ginsense writes articles on business skills, development, health, science, technology and society and enjoys advocating for independence, security and a better world for all of us.

How to Earn Extra Cash – Enlarge Photo’s Service

September 22, 2016Home Biz Ideasan informal cornr, easy photo edit business, photo edit business, photo editing service, picture editing services, self-employment, unemployed find workGinsense

How to Earn Extra Cash – Edit Photo’s Service

A corner of your apartment or even a converted closet, can be a suitable work space, to begin your own niche business, offering ‘photo editing services‘, specifically, enlarging photographs, and earn some cash. How do I start?

How to Start a Photo Editing Service

The technique described here is to provide yourself with operating a basic service and pricing will be up to you. Just remember to not view customers as cash cows. Your little business service, if done well, will grow over time, as will your income. Treat your customers well and they will return but most importantly, they will send their friends and family. Word-of-mouth advertising, is beyond priceless.

A little of your own investment for equipment will be needed, as follows:

Computer
Scanner
Paint.net (Free online photo editor to download)
Printer + ink cartridges
Photo paper (optional)
Flash drives (optional)

Steps to Edit Photos

Let’s begin, here are the steps :

1. Take your photo that needs enlarging.
2. Place into scanner, usually face down, set or save, as a PDF. Some scanners will auto-open while others may require to save the file. Remember the NAME of the file!

Should look like this when opened with Adobe Reader. Good job! (Is that me? Yes, back when I was young and sporting that metal, rock and alternative rock gal, image). Be ready to have a couple windows, and programs, open.

3. Open your Paint.net program, or other photo editing program, and have it ready.
4. Once your PDF photo is open, tap your PrtSc or Print Screen key. This will capture an image of your PDF photo.

5. Go to your Paint.net program and under Edit, scroll to Paste. Your image should now appear. Again, you may want to SAVE this new file. Close your Adobe Reader program. Your Paint file should look like this image, with the dotted lines.

6. Move your cursor to the bottom right dot. A little hand should pop open. Click on that corner dot, and HOLD your mouse and DRAG the corner, to enlarge your photo. Do your best to keep it’s original shape. ( Yes, that’s a different photo I captured).

7. Once you have it to your desired size, click on IMAGE (3rd button from File at top bar) then scroll to ‘Crop to Selection’, and click. SAVE your new enlarged photograph. Again, remember the NAME of your new file. Unfortunately, your photo size is limited to what you can see in Paint.net program. My photo’s are about 4”x3” but you can paste into a word processor program, enlarge again and print on photo paper or save to a USB flash drive.

8. The size of your new file can be found under Image, scroll to Resize. A box pops open and right at the top will tell you the size. (My own enlarged photo is 1.8Mb).

9. All you have to do now, is transfer the NEW enlarged photo to the Flash drive for your customer. They can either purchase a Flash drive from you (meaning you will need a few on hand) and those will also bring in extra cash! or the customer can bring their own. All other image and pdf files can be stored in separate customer file.

10. You can use your Printer and photo paper to offer customers a print-out of their new larger photo, one or more copies, again, for extra cash, price fairly. Ensure you adjust your Printer for Photo’s since you can print one or more. Do your best to not waste your Photo paper.

11. Another method of delivery to your customers is by email. Attach their new photo to the email and send.

Photo Appearances Vary & Other Services

A few notes to think about in providing this service. Some digital photo’s appear to blur as they are enlarged whereas a photo from 35mm cameras (yes, those old photo’s stored in photo albums) can keep it’s appearance along with any ‘age spots’ but they do remain clear.

Other services you can provide with your new found business, is offer people services to ‘digitize‘ their photographs or important documents. Again, save it on a flash drive or send by email to a cloud service (Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, etc.), where customers can download them. This is a service so be sure you charge a fee.

Marketing your Photo Editing Services

Marketing can be simple such as posters, stating your business name and services with contact information on tear away strips, such as this image.(Psst! Do your best to have yours looking spiffier than my example).

Place these posters in high traffic areas where people will NOTICE them. Apartment buildings, free boards, laundromat, food store, etc. Other promotional methods include :

Tell your friends and family to pass the word along.
Business cards, hand them out to store owners, restaurants, etc.
Network at community events with elders, parents, pet owners. Give them your business card.
Use a T-shirt iron on transfer with your business name on it. Print your business name services and contact information on transfer paper, iron on t-shirts.
Check your newspaper, to post a free ‘Announcement‘ about your business.
List your business online in business directories.

Business Reputation Management

Operate your business with utmost security of confidential information about your customers. Respect and friendly service will help build word-of-mouth advertising and repeat customers. You can go online and learn about the special effects the Paint.net program offers, and add these skills to your services, and then graduate to the professional programs such as Adobe Photo Shop suite.

Learn about as many photo editing programs as possible and how to use them. Some are free and others will require outright purchasing. An article by FroKnowsPhoto writes that the Adobe Photo suites is offered as a ‘subscription‘ only with prices ranging from $20 – $50 per month.

Learning in Action

Marketing + Promotion Ideas for Service Business

How can I support my Family?

how to, support family, home biz, side job, extra money — work at home and earn

The cost of living in Canada, has risen to points of being seemingly near unattainable, to enjoy a quality life. So, ‘how can I support my family?’

People struggle to put food on the table, pay rent, car payments, bus fare, daycare, etc. Costs for supporting a family may be more! due to meeting needs for other members, besides just ourselves. Stress sets in and that daily nagging question, how can I support my family?

Today, many families have dual incomes where both parents work, and share financial responsibilities of managing the bills. Some families will have the ‘main‘ breadwinner role, and brings home a higher pay, and their spouse may work only part-time hours, to bring extra monies, to help reduce the financial stress, gain possible savings and still provide, a parental presence for their children.

payhip digital services platform — ayhip – sell digital products

Where to begin?

A business will flourish, when it meets a ‘need‘. We look around and figure, all the needs are being met, shoe store, clothing store, grocery store, etc., and we find that we are unable to compete with them, but, not all services are met.

A few steps to begin;

Examine your own skills, write them down.
Examine your spouses skills, write them down.
What do you enjoy doing most? Write them down.
What does your spouse enjoy most? Write them down.
Write down a list of all your bills, add them all up for the monthly total.
How much extra money would help make life easier?
Can you sell one of your skills, as a service, to others?

Design a Service Business

Success, in selling your services can be found, by learning to ‘market‘, to a larger group of people, interested in your service skills, and who will become your clients. This can be done with a good ‘promotion‘ campaign, of your services whether on simple bulletin boards, online at Craigslist, using classified ads, or simple but attractive flyers. Friends can also help with simply passing the word along about your services.

Let’s examine a sample ad and outcome;’

A client looking for a light housekeeper may be thrilled and call immediately but require your services only twice a week and expect you done within 2 hours, every Tuesday and Thursday. This adds up to $60.00 per day, ($30.00 per hour x2 = $60.00 per day). $60.00 x 2 = $120.00 per week earnings.

Let’s say, another client also calls, and again, may require the same schedule of 2 hours, but 1 hour on Mondays and Wednesdays. 1 client ($30.00 x 2 days) =$60.00, a week or with 2 (clients), same math,you are earning an extra $120.00 per week, x 4 weeks (one month) = $480.00.

Setting your own Schedule

Providing this type of ‘service’ can also be set up, to suit your own schedule. Let’s examine the following sample ‘day planner’ set for working mornings only, 4 days a week, with 4 clients ;

acornrdayplnnrpicb — a weekly work planner schedule

The numbers will vary when holidays are involved but if required by clients, you can ask for a higher price and it’s very important, to know your local labour laws. Do not under sell your services or self worth. Success can be found in selling ONE service and finding a few ‘clients’ who want your service.

Reputation Management and Safety

A major concern with clients will be, TRUST. Nobody wants theft or destruction of their goods and/or property. Police will be called and charges laid. It may be important to consider working with a trusted partner to protect your own innocence, in the event the client files ‘false’ allegations, so they don’t have to pay you. It does happen. Always good to stay safe.

Additional steps you can take towards building trust is to apply to be bondable. This is when you apply to an insurance agent for a ‘bond’. It guarantees you are safe and trustworthy to your clients or employer.

Yes, payments are required, and it’s best to do research and ‘comparison’ shopping with your insurance agent or other related financial advisor, so you can get the best protection, and price.

A last note about applying to be bondable. You can easily lose it with the following:

a criminal record

poor credit/tax history

delinquent payment accounts

The other step is to provide a Criminal background report. It is not a guarantee but one way to prove you’re at least not a criminal. Lastly, you can ask clients if they’d like to give out Reference letters to others who may be interested in your services. A gold trophy indeed.

Work is Available, look in the Mirror and see You

One sample job has been used but there are many other ‘service‘ jobs that you can offer depending upon your skills. Watch the slide show! You may just want to work part time at the corner store , and still offer your own skills, as another part-time job too.

The scheduling will be in your hands, how much you want to earn, how many days you want to work, how many clients will you need. It’s important to keep to your schedule or lose your clients, and ‘business’ reputation. Do a little research ahead of time about ‘business’ development and management skills.

Learning Presentation – Visit link 🙂

How to Earn Extra Money Ideas

Reading Resources

WAHM

CBDC Business Plan

How to Use Daily Planners Effectively

I hope you found this article informative. Please feel free to leave your comments! or share with your Friends who may find this article helpful. Use the ‘Ask a Question’ form and request a topic of your own interest for an upcoming Post.

AIC| An Informal Cornr, all rights reserved. Ginsense writes articles on business skills, development, health, science, technology and society and enjoys advocating for independence, security and a better world for all of us. She is also a VEA available for Hire 🙂