A Little Extra, Please!

Wouldn’t it be great to earn a side income in your free time, be it after work or between minding your kids? Here are some ways you can work on an ad-hoc basis.

- Davelle Lee

You can make use of every minute of your day to help you put money in the kitty. Just ask Vivien Tan, a craft instructor and founder of online craft store The Cotton Shoppe.

Before the 41-year-old turned crafting into a full-time business in 2013, she was a corporate communications manager for 18 years, who worked long hours at her day job while carving out time to make and sell her crafts on US-based online marketplace Etsy. “I made use of my bus rides to and from work as well as my lunch hours to reply to customers’ e-mails and social media postings,” says the mother of two children aged 14 and 16, who sells quilted products, baby gifts, totes and other lifestyle products on Etsy.

If the success of her business is any indication, it was time well spent. You don’t even need to be a crafter; you simply need to identify where your pockets of free time are, then turn those into avenues through which you can make a side income. Here are some easy and doable ideas.

Crafting

If you’re like Vivien and enjoy crafting as an outlet to relax after a long day at work, why not turn your hobby into a source of income instead of reserving your handmade gifts for family and friends?

If you’re skilled with the scissors or a needle and thread, leverage on the recent surge for one-of-a-kind, handcrafted items and sell your work on Etsy. The e-tailer, which carries a wide variety of goods such as accessories, clothing and even skincare, charges a listing fee of just 29 cents per item and a commissioning fee of 3.5 percent of your item's selling price, excluding shipping costs.

With Etsy, you’ll get access to an international market and the opportunity to interact with your clientele, at your own pace and without having to worry about raking up high overheads.

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