Thousands of Free Business Ideas

We all get tunnel vision sometimes, and can’t see all of the money making opportunities just outside our field of view. There’s a great new thread on Reddit with literally thousands of money making business opportunities.

Some of the highlights:

  • I do transcription from home. Mostly reality TV interviews but there’s a lot of other random junk thrown in there. Pretty cool and laid back job for a college student. It comes out to $12-20 an hour. Do a google search if interested.

  • I contract out to inspect welds on construction sites. Make about as much in two days on the weekend as I do during the week at my actual job.

  • I’m a party princess. I dress up as Disney princesses (with minor alterations and such to avoid getting a cease and desist letter from Disney), and entertain kids at parties. You kind of have to be at least a little good with kids, and have activities planned, and know your character inside and out. But yeah, I’m basically a group of children’s new god for an hour or two, and I make $50-70 an hour. It’s pretty cool.

  • I buy cars that have repairable problems or at auction. Cars that are dirt cheap, basically. I fix them up, clean them up and get them purring like they just drove off the lot. Then I sell them for much more than I paid and invested in parts. I flip like two or three a month sometimes. I’ve made over $1,000 on more than one occasion. One time I made like $3,000, but I got a ridiculous deal on the original purchase.

  • Plowing driveways. I live in a town half full of rich yuppies. They all have these huge houses with long driveways, but no means to plow them. 10 bucks a drive and I feel like I’m ripping them off.

  • I build custom computers for a $50 flat fee after the price of the parts.

  • I buy rare books and sell them online (sometimes I just buy them on Ebay and immediately resell them on Ebay for more money). This used to be my money on the side, but I quit my job 3 months ago, and it has paid enough to keep me not homeless.

  • I work as an audio to text transcriber on the weekend. It’s self employed and I work from home. I don’t earn huge amounts and it’s pretty tedious not ever having a day off, but it can add up to £80 a week or so, which really helps.

  • You know those “Keep Calm and ______” posters that Reddit hates? Yeah I make/design and sell those. My last 2 vacations were funded by these. Etsy is fantastic.

  • Cleaning evicted homes. I did it for my landlord during high school and college. $10 an hour under the table. I now have a strong stomach, carpentry, plumbing, and flooring skills. It sucks when you find used condoms or shit on the walls, but hey- I score some neato stuff that people leave behind.

  • I do voice overs from home.

  • I write top ten lists for a site called listverse.com, they pay $100 a list and haven’t rejected a single list I’ve sent so far.

  • I buy old wine barrels and convert them into furniture and sell for cash. Doesn’t make huge amounts but every bit helps and as my wife says ‘at least it is a self funding hobby!’

  • I bead jewelry and sell it for $10-50+ a piece online. I make roughly $100-300 in extra cash a month.

  • I recently made my own website1 about home automation. Its been a passion of mine for some time and now that some bigger players are getting into the industry (apple, samsung, etc.) there seems to be a lot of new interest in it. So I made a review site for the various equipment available and added in some amazon affiliate links. I dont make very much money but enough to justify keeping it going.

  • I do home repairs and improvements. I am a serious tool hoarder so I usually have the right tools on hand for any job and odds are that I also have whatever hardware or materials laying around for smaller jobs. I just did a laminate floor and made a $300 profit on it for 2 days of work. Usually, my jobs take about an hour and I make about $40 a clip. I don’t turn down much of anything except if the job looks like it’s going to blow up in my face or if the person needing the work balks at my original quote.

  • I make posters and album covers for local bands and small festivals. It doesn’t pay much, in fact, almost nothing, but I love it. It’s something I am good at and which I enjoy, and I work with awesome people from my local music scene.

  • I buy vintage jewelry at rummages and estate sales, and sell it on eBay. The best find to date was a gold bracelet that sold for over $200 profit.

  • I fix computerz is my local area. $60 flat rate. Sometimes I end up spending a few hours on them,but mostly it’s 15 minutes, in and out.

  • I’m a part time DJ. I enjoy it so much I sometimes feel bad even charging for it.

  • I teach music lessons at $35 an hour $25 for 30 minutes. It’s good money and even though kids can be whiney it’s still good money.

  • I run a YouTube gaming channel. Took some time to get off the ground but now it pays for itself as well as my gaming hobby.

  • I write papers for college and high school kids. 10 bucks a page. I’m an English graduate so it’s easy for me. Guaranteed B or your money back!

  • I breed corn snakes and ball pythons. The clutches only come around once or twice a year, but when they do, each egg is worth between 50-200 dollars when they hatch. I’ve never had a clutch with less than 12 eggs.

  • I have a flock of chickens and I sell or barter eggs. Fresh, free-range, organic, brown (or blue) eggs are like $5/dozen at the farmer’s market or Whole Foods. Even selling mine at $3 leaves $50 or so in my pocket after costs.

  • My dad and I deliver hot tubs for a small pool company. We have a special trailer that makes it super easy. People buy these $6000+ hot tubs that weigh upwards of 1000 lbs. and then realize they can’t deliver it themselves. That’s when we come in and charge $200 for an easy one or $300 if it has to go on its side.

  • I sell spreadsheets to small businesses. My friends initially laughed at me when I started but over the past several years I’ve been able to save enough (£80,000) so I’m now in the position to let my wife stay off work whilst she looks after our 6 month old baby.

  • I grow salt water coral/anemones and the occasional fish. The fish don’t usually make up most of the money I make. I am constantly selling “clean” excess water from my tank to others who fuck up and need to replace the water in theirs. After 6 months-6 years the return on coral and anemones is ridiculous. Plus live rock and everything else… I can make an easy $1500-$2500 a month on the side for doing nothing but paying my electric bill.

  • Astronomer here! When not doing my day job, I do money on the side by writing freelance articles for various science magazines, like Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, and now working for an assignment for Discover. This can be for various topics in astronomy, from a cosmic ray observatory in Argentina to neutron stars that merge with regular stars to how to find extrasolar planets with radio signals- basically, whatever I find interesting and know my teenage self would find interesting. (For anyone really interested, my latest is actually in the current ie February issue of Astronomy, on the South Pole Telescope.)

  • I buy large off-lease lots of used business laptops. They’re usually without hard disks plus sometimes other issues. I fix them and clean them up, post them on eBay for twice what I have into them. Started as a hobby and now I do it in my free time at home. Makes me an extra $100-$200 a week.

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