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You can listen to the podcast of this post by clicking here!

If you’ve never heard of snowflaking, it’s a term used in the personal finance blog world to mean little bits of money that you can put toward your debt. The money you have to throw at your debt each month is affectionately called your “debt snowball” (coined by Dave Ramsey), and somewhere along the lines the term “snowflake” came to mean little extras you can add to your debt snowball to get out of debt faster.

The real question we all have is HOW? It’s one thing to say that this is what needs to be done; it’s quite another to actually get more snowflakes into your snowball. Coming from experience, I thought I’d write a realistic guide for anyone who’s looking to build up more income to add to their debt snowball.

I have found working side jobs (by myself, not with an employer) to be a fantastic way to get extra money. I know it sounds so obvious, but how many of you have actually taken on more work to power up your snowflaking? In reality, probably very few.

So what are you waiting for? Most likely you’re stuck, or overwhelmed, and need some ideas and motivation. I hope this guide gives you what you need to get going!

Make Side-Income Snowflakes! (A step-by-step guide.)

1. Take a deep breath.

Do it with me! Breathe in. … Breathe out.

This doesn’t have to be done overnight. All you need to do now is figure some things out, and start planting seeds, which we’ll get to in a minute. When I started each one of my little side businesses, it took about a month for it to “sprout,” if you will. You need to plant seeds and water them religiously. So take a breath and know that there will be time involved before there will be money - but there will be money, so it’s worth the time.

2. Get over yourself.

Before we get to brainstorming, you need to drop your ego. Yes, you. Drop it. You are not better than any job. You are not “worthy” of only high-paying dream jobs. I say this to you because it took me a LONG time to realize this myself. I wasted so much time refusing work, refusing low-paying jobs because I thought I was “above” them. What a load of crap.

Once I was fired up enough, I realized that I would do anything to earn more… and only then did the doors open everywhere around me. Let your pride go - no matter how little or how much you have - and allow yourself to be OK with jobs that you wouldn’t normally do for a living.

3. Brainstorm - hard.

Get out a pen and paper (or open a blank document on your computer ) and start listing the things you’re good at. The list can be anything from random talents (I was really good at math in high school, or I know so much about sewing) to things you know you could do well (I would do well at housekeeping). Grow this list as long as you can.

4. Decide on a few things you want to do.

Once you’ve thought up a good list of talents, it’s time to do something with that list. Decide on a few services you want to offer. Whether it’s lawn care, dog walking, or graphic design, you must decide on something(s) you want to offer as a service for payment.

5. Plant your seeds and water them passionately.

For your service (or services), you have to advertise like crazy. Post to Craigslist daily. Paper your neighborhood and local organizations with fliers (make sure to include little rip-off phone number pieces!). Use a free service such as Wordpress.com to create a small two- or three-page website for your business so people have somewhere to go for more info*. Go to your local community websites and get involved in the forums online.

You must keep up with this every week. Put up new fliers - find new places to put them (ask local businesses to host a sign for you on their community billboard, ask friends and co-workers to hang a sign or two for you in their neighborhood). Advertise differently each day on Craigslist.

6. Tell everybody and their mother.

The more people you tell, the more work you will get - guaranteed.

I have advertised like crazy for teaching Italian and for tutoring, and I’ve gotten a few bites - enough to bring in a few hundred more each month. But I make twice that amount on web design, and to this day I have never advertised for my web design business. My web design is kept going by word of mouth alone. Why? Because of two things:

1. I tell everyone I meet that I do web design and let them know that my name is my website. It never appears strange that I tell them this - after all, the first dialogue everyone has with someone new is about what they “do.” So I tell them I “do web design” and give them details. It’s free advertising!
2. I do a fantastic job with every website that I do, and the glowing reviews I get from my customers in turn get me more customers. It’s surprising how many people want web sites for every different reason… or maybe it isn’t

So tell everyone. Tell them twice. Tell your family that you are now mowing lawns and will travel up to 15 miles to do it. Figure the cost of gas into your service and take all the jobs you are offered.

7. Keep at it.

I get tired of having so many jobs every now and again, but I keep plugging away. Because few of my customers are regular (usually they want me for a project and then we’re done, with the exception of a few students), I could easily stop all the side jobs whenever I wanted. And sometimes I think I will, but I MAKE myself get out there and do what I’d said I’d do - at the very least. And guess what? At the end of the day, I am so satisfied, and so proud to be working hard - and making extra money - that I get up and do it again the next day
I hope this list has given you some ideas! And I hope it’s given you some structure to building up side incomes for yourself. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments, or email me.

* When using a blog service such as wordpress.com, you can create a different post for each page and then make a main post with links to all three other posts with info. OR, you can make multiple pages and then only post once - and that one post will be your “home” page. If you play around with it, it IS possible to make a blog look like a regular website. And it’s free!

—–

In a home business , all the deals matter equally, including having business cards. The stock brokerage does not consider you a serious applicant for mortgage otherwise.

Related Posts

• Starting a Snowflake Business: (Part 5) Advertising
• Building a Snowflake Business: (Part 2) Explaination and Answers
• Starting a Snowflake Business: (Part 4) The Notebook System
• Starting a Snowflake Business: (Part 3) The Materials
• Snowflake Challenge: I DID IT!!! But… wait?!

Filed Under Random Tips, Tricks, and Advice, Self-Help and Personal Progress, money and finance 

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  I live in Seattle where good fashion is hard to come by and the coffee is fantastic. I blog to keep my sanity.
  
  

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