An emergence of new skills

Late last year I posted some photos of some earrings I had made .  A past time that really allowed me to get out of my head and focus on something I enjoyed & be creative.  Well I decided to pursue it even further and enrolled on a diploma course, (naturally I quit my job first, not something I'd decided to do lightly).  We'll today is the final day of my course, my exhibition.  Excited? Oh yes. It's been a roller coaster of emotions throughout, some components I've loved and others have not been my friend.  Nevertheless, I'm now armed with so many skills it's hard to know with which I'll start.  I have 7 pieces being exhibited tonight all based around a collection to do with outer space.  This is most definitely what I want to do for the rest of my days (well a lot of them at least). The days seem so short when I'm researching, designing, creating & buying materials, I'm happy, humming to myself, engaged with life and others around me and actually wanting to get out of bed on a morning.  This is what it should be about.  Have I found my element? You'd better believe I have.

Got a spare room? Use it to make some money

Part of making your money work for you is getting paid for something which you either already own or already do.  In this case, what I mean is why not rent out your room.  There are a few ways in which you can do this and it has become easier especially since the government allows you earn £4250 tax free from doing so.  Watch this space in future as there have been numerous petitions to up this limit to £7500 as we have a shortage of homes particularly in bigger cities such as London, Manchester and Birmingham to name a few.  Renting out your spare room can be done on your terms and need not involve problems galore.  

1. For the non techi person it's easy to advertise in a local shop window or local newspaper.  If you have a University near by or (teaching) hospital, students and nurses are always looking for reasonable accommodation.  

2. Spareroom.co.uk is one of many websites where you can advertise your room.  You can add you listing in one of 2 ways, a paid listing (early bird) or a free listing.  The early bird listing allows your advert to be seen by anybody who has just registered to the site, otherwise only after 7 days will your listing be accessible to all.  You can specify the kind of person you want, male/female, age range, even sexual orientation if you happen to have a preference.  You can also specify if your room is only available Monday - Friday (which would allow your privacy on a weekend).  London in particular has an abundance of workers who need accommodation just for week days only, generally, commuting from their home is just too far everyday.

3. Another option, which in my opinion is the best, is Airbnb  Here, you post photos and description of your room and all of the facilities in your home which guests are allowed to use, i.e. wifi, washing machine, parking etc.  You also state what the price is per night (this you decide).  The wonderful thing about airbnb is that you decide who you want to invite into your home and how many nights you want to let your room out for.  You have a calendar which is accessed by only you and on there you can block out any dates that you have friends and family visiting or if you merely want some peace and quiet. You can also set a minimum requirement stay (or max for that matter) and can add a cleaning fee.  Host (that's you) service fees apply and is 3% of the cost of the reservation a guest makes.  That makes it £3 for every £100 of a reservation.  They will even send out a photographer to take some professional looking shots of your home and add them to a site for you all for free.  This is great not only because you don't have to do very much to set up your listing, but also so that potential guests can see that your property really does look like that and has been verified.

Want to make money for doing nothing (or at the very least not doing very much) then this is the way.  If you make less money than the threshold I mention before then it doesn't need to be claimed to the tax man either - bonus.

3 easy ways to make money

Once upon a time the easiest way make a few pennies (and to get rid of some unwanted rubbish) was taking empty coca cola and beer cans to the recycling centre or selling your unwanted furniture via the local newspaper.  I remember my family doing both of these things when I was growing up and whilst we enjoyed a little bit of extra pocket money, so to speak, we also enjoyed, as a family, a little bit of excitement as to whether the bookcase or the dolls house would sell and how much the dust bin sack of old squashed cans would bring.  Today, even though these methods still exist, there are much more sophisticated ways to earn money.

Buy via Quidco

There are a number of similar websites but Quidco is by far the most popular.  The idea is that you earn a certain percentage of cash back whilst making your normal online purchases with big named companies.  Monies are paid into your paypal account (or you can choose to take an Amazon Gift certificate instead), of which Quidco take approx £5 a year as a fee for running the site.  Sky are currently offering £165 cash back plus £50 Sainsbury's voucher for one of it's deals, along with, EE who are offering an iPhone 5c 8GB £9.99 upfront + £110 cash back.  The site is easy to use which makes it even better.  You can even register your credit/debit card and earn cash back in store and find special deals at participating shops nearby via a nifty little app.

Sell an old mobile phone

Due to our increasing need for the latest gadget we often have old phones cluttering draws.  With thanks to certain websites its easy to get rid of old unwanted junk and be paid.  My favourite site is Mazuma.  There are many sites which you can send your mobile phone to but I find Mazuma to be the least problematic.  I always take a photo of my phone too before I send it, just in case, if you know what I mean.  An unlocked iPhone 4S 16GB will give you £120 currently, slightly less,  £110, for Vodafone and O2 £95 for all other networks.  Still, definitely not to be sneezed at.  You can also opt for Argos vouchers at a max of £132.  Perfect if you're wanting a few necessities for your home.

Sell your photos

Are you trigger happy on your holidays, or just about town, for that matter? If so, you are more than likely sitting on a stack of potential money.  The catch is that you really need to be pretty good and produce some good quality photos.  It's not really a catch, it's just something that requires a little bit more of a specialist skill, and for that you can be paid handsomely.  iStock Photo and Fotolia are just two of such sites.  Most sites require you simply, to sign up and upload your photos.  Different sites have specific and sometimes complicated ways of working out exactly how much you get paid, so it's well worth fully investigating each and deciding which works best for you.

Why not let everyone know if you have some of your own ways that you've made money successfully, or can you offer some of your own tips?  

Knowledge is power(ful)

In my very first blog I mentioned I was interested in taking a course where I could make my money work for me, instead of the other way around.  The obstacle of it being a 3 day course was overcome with a simple switch to a similar course, just not aimed solely at women over my half term.  That I didn't mind as I'm a confident women and not easily intimidated, which is one of the main reasons for a women only course.  An amazing course with a plethora of information.  It really is true that people who are in the know are much better equipped at making the decisions which will affect their lives for the better, with that, I mean knowing ways to find/use money (and not always their own) to make their money work for them.  I was introduced to a term known as 'angels' which since I have seen everywhere.  Well maybe not everywhere but it seems to be popping up on other things that I am associated with like meet up which I've never noticed before.  Angels are basically someone who invest money with you doing the work.  A 'fee' is agreed, usually a percentage interest (just like the banks do) and this is added to the repayment.  Why does this work?  Well for you, you get the cash injection that you need and for them the interest is better than that from putting the moment in a bank.  Let's face it, who's happy with the interest rate their bank gives them? And who wouldn't like more of a return on their savings? Well as an "angel' you get just that.  It works for you too as once you've renovated the property, the selling price is obviously going to be higher than that of the price you paid plus the renovation costs.  The extra money you make pays back the 'angel' and the rest you keep for yourself.  Now clearly it's not that simple but the overall effect is clear.   You don't need to have money to make money.  What you need is the right mindset, a little bit of knowledge and a clear plan.

The ins and outs of Trading

So after my little dabble in stocks and shares after the seminar that I went to, I decided that I wanted to investigate this a little further.  I'd already signed up for a demo spread betting account and despite my thorough analysis of the candlewick graphs I was still finding it a bit hit and miss as to whether I made money or lost it.  In came Martlet Equity Management with a course I'd bought online via Groupon.  Alex covered everything we needed to know from stocks and shares, spread betting, investment strategies to risk management, and even made sure we understood UK financial regulation and rules.

Lets just say it's a little complicated but nothing a well informed person can't take a little time to figure out.  I already know in life it's best to be patient and disciplined but one thing I'm not good at is not panicking.  I like to worry, well, like is a strong sentiment but worrying seems to like me at least.  When it's to do with potential loss of your initial investment, panic is likely to set in.  Anyway, I feel like I'm much better informed after the session with Alex and even more ready to jump in.  He made some good recommendations and gave us advice on what we should do initially.  Preparation is the key.  I just have to find some time to do a little research every week.  I think I'll start with getting The Times delivered to me every Sunday so I can check out the stocks and shares.  Familiarity in this case does not breed contempt.  Onwards and upwards

Hackathon or bust!!

Well I'm hooked. I went to my first hackathon and loved it.  For those who are not aware of what they are exactly, then let me explain.  Basically people turn up to a venue with a view of making an app/website/something digital.  They don't know the theme of the event or necessarily anyone else but everybody just gets stuck in.  Myself and two friends went along to Social Innovation Bootcamp 2013 and found out the theme of the day was 'Lacks and Wastes'.  After batting lots of ideas around the room,  there were hundreds of things which were lacking or being wasted in the world, on the board for all to see.  After lots of ideas were scrapped or not fully developed, owners and their ideas had to pitch for an opportunity for their idea to be developed further.  In the end, there were 6 business ideas which were allowed to stand in the competition, which would be judged the next day, of which ours was one.  We were so excited.  We had 4 other people who were interested in helping us develop our idea and we spend the rest of the day and the following day refining our product.  Our time was interspersed with presentations and workshops helping us get our ideas off the ground, these included information about business models, prototyping and market research.  We learnt so much and spent a lot of time fine tuning our ideas ready for the final presentation on the second day at 4pm.  In front of a panel of judges the 5 teams who made it through to the end pitched their business ideas hoping to win the competition.  The judges were professionals who had developed their own businesses and had lots of advice to be given.  Check out the video made of the day.  I can't believe that out of 5 amazing ideas, ours came runner up.  What an amazing feat.   We have been encouraged to continue our business idea and take it further, the judges thought it inspiring.  So what the next step? Well need to make sure our pitch is water tight and we've crossed every t and dotted every i.  There are plenty of start up events/hackathons out there with investment in the business as the prize.  This time the prize was a fast track application to the Imperial Create Lab's Venture Catalyst Challenge 2014. So we just have to keep on trying, and we will make it.