If desperate to earn some extra income, consider that many people can make use of the services you can offer to save themselves the bother or time should they do these jobs themselves. Services you can offer do not have to be highly recognized professional services, but can be any service that saves other people time and effort.

Perhaps you may want to focus on offering just one or two services, or you may want to offer a wide variety of different services.

Of course no matter what services you can offer to earn extra income, remember that you are not going to earn that much or anything at all if you do not advertise your services a lot. However, as you learn about the different ways to advertise your services, you can consider also adding some simple advertising services to the services you can offer other people.

Free Classifieds Delivery Service
Collect old newspapers and cut out the free classifieds forms. Let people fill them in with details of whatever it is they’re selling, and let them pay you for delivering the forms to the newspaper’s offices.

Distribute Advertising Flyers
People who can afford to have a lot of flyers printed can usually also afford to hire somebody to distribute the flyers for them. You might hand out flyers to drivers at busy intersections, or you may place small piles of flyers on shop counters, or put them in post boxes.

Pay People’s Accounts or Deposit Cheques
People hate standing in queues. Do it for them for a fee. If people have filled in all the details on a cheque, crossed it, and made it payable to only the recipient, they should trust you with these cheques.

Return DVD’s
Sometimes the only reason a person has to leave their home, especially on weekends, is because they have to return a DVD to the DVD rental store. Do it for them.

Weeding
Make sure you have some gardening gloves to protect your hands, and a large hat to protect yourself from the sun.

Bicycle Repairs
Set up shop repairing bicycles. You can work from home, doing repairs, maintenance checks and punctures. Also load your toolbox and signboard into your car, and go to local bicycle races.

Singing Telegrams
If you have a good singing voice, or even if it’s just downright horrid, with enough enthusiasm you can offer a singing telegram service for birthdays, celebrations, and proposals.

Babysitting
Babysit children at your own home or at their home. Be sure to have emergency numbers at your disposal and know where the parents will be.

Manicures and Pedicures
Many women like to spoil themselves from time to time. Trim, file, and paint their toenails and fingernails in the comfort of your own home. Sell gift vouchers to them so they can spoil a friend too.

Book Swapping Service
Start with buying a few second hand books. Then advertise your service and charge people a fee to swap books. Write or stamp return dates in the front or back cover.

Accommodation Agent
If there are schools, colleges or universities near you, find out where there are rooms available, and on behalf of the owner, in exchange for a commission based on monthly rental, screen suitable applicants for accommodation.

Offer a Photography Service
You don’t need a fancy or expensive camera to take pictures of accommodation establishments. The owner can use the photos in a poster, in brochures, or on a website.

Perform
Hire yourself out as a magician, singer, or dancer. If you can play a musical instrument too, performing will suit you even more. Even consider giving talks on certain topics.

Teach
Remember than anything you can make or learn to make, you can also teach others to make, and you can charge for the lessons. If you make it a requirement that people bring their own materials, give them a list of the materials needed, and charge less for those lessons. Charge more if you are providing the materials.

Start a Shoe Repair Business
Collect items and tools that you will need, like bits of leather, buckles, knives, nylon and glue. Then set up shop offering your services. Either do the repairs while people wait or give them an idea about how long it might take so they know when to come back.

Do Make-Up
Good with eyeliner, lipstick, blush, and eye shadow? Do make-up for young ladies going to a matric farewell or for women getting married, or who are attending a special function. You can even do make-up for children at schools for their school concerts. Apply creative and fun make-up techniques for little girls’ birthday parties. Experiment with face paint too and include little boys by turning them into a bearded pirate or a fierce tiger.

Be a Tour Guide
Charge for your services of showing people the attractions of the area in which you live. Speak to them about the history or background of the area or object you are viewing. Recite a list of interesting facts about the area or object. Be friendly and be prepared to answer questions the tour members may ask. Make the tour more interesting by giving the visitors an activity to do. The activity should have something to do with the area, like weaving a basket or even a small placemat or coaster from reeds on the banks of a river, or milking a cow on a farm.

Internet Research
Search for information on the Internet. Charge by the hour, but consider taking into account how difficult it is to record the information the way the client wants you to record it – in a text document, or spreadsheet, just emailing links, or summarizing the info? How much writing is involved and how many different sites are you expected to visit?

Writing Services
Many people want and need articles or website content written for their websites, or descriptive and creative content for their adverts, advertising brochures, posters and pamphlets.

Odd jobs for the Elderly
Drive the elderly to their doctor’s appointments and other appointments. Read to them. Make phone calls for them.

Go through this list of services you can offer to earn extra income again, slowly and carefully, looking at each idea to help you think of related services you can offer, that you may enjoy more, or that you may be better at.

Get even more ideas for services you could offer!
Browse through thousands of online courses at Udemy and get even more ideas for services you could offer to earn extra income! If you don’t know too much about some of the topics for the courses, consider actually taking a course or two – some cost less than $20 (or less than R200)! Start learning on Udemy today!

© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2014