The iSavta Team | 13.11.2019
Money... We always need money and we are always on the lookout to earn extra money. I see people who, out of necessity, develop their own creative streak, and make something from it. I believe all people have innate special talents. As a caregiver working in Israel, where time is gold because of the limited legal time of stay, I encounter many people who try their hand in earning extra income and I salute their efforts because I cannot do what they do. I can barely cook, I am color blind, I don’t have the patience for selling, I don’t have any creative juices... and worse I am lazy too. (Huh, I need to dig deeper for my special talents, it is missing!)
Who doesn’t want to earn extra income? Especially for those who have big families waiting for the manna to be picked up from Western Union or to be withdrawn from the ATM, they do all kinds of things to earn a little extra income.
I asked around and here are some ways to earn that extra income. Please keep in mind, extra income doesn’t come in a box with a red ribbon.
Part Time cleaning and relieving. It can be cleaning houses which pays by the hour, mostly at 40-50 NIS per hour. I met several women who prefer this kind of job because it pays well. I knew somebody who works part time till the early hours and gets up again after 5 hours of rest to go to her regular work. Hard work, indeed! It can also be relieving temporarily someone from the job so the other caregiver can do her errands or just to breathe fresh air. The common practice is to relieve for 24 hours. Take note, working part time helps fattens the wallet but it is prohibited if you have a category B1 working visa so....
Lending Money with interest. If you have a lot of cash lying around, you can always lend it to someone in need of emergency cash and earn income in the form the high interest. However, this kind of earning extra income is risky and you need to have the skills of a diplomat because people are all nice and smiley when they need money but when it's time to pay up, you will be surprised when suddenly they are sporting fangs when they see you. They can even smell you a mile away and are good in playing hide and seek. Don’t attempt lending money if you don’t have the balls or else your debtors will eat you alive. There goes your money.
Online buy and sell business. My Facebook wall is flooded with all kinds of things posted for sale. And from what I can see it is a thriving profitable business. As usual, there are always the bad buyers but it’s all part and parcel of being in business.
Door to door selling. From food to clothes to jewelries/accessories to cellphone to cellphone loads to anything under the sun. This kind of earning extra needs energy, patience and lots of saliva for sales talk as you cart your stuff from one place to another place. And of course a very, very amiable personality as you deal with your customers on a face to face basis especially if you sell your stuff “hulugan” style or installment payment.
Selling ready to eat food. Food is something that really sells. For me who doesn’t know how to cook, I appreciate and enjoy the traditional Filipino delicacies like bibingka (sweet flavoured sticky rice) and brazo de mercedez cake which I order from this woman who is really good. (Yummy, the cake just melt in the mouth) If you are a good cook, you can take orders for birthdays and other special occasions.
Hair and beauty services. If you have some skills for haircutting, manicure, pedicure, eyebrow pluck, cosmetics etc... Hair rebounding is very popular and expensive. Women has a lot of beauty needs ;) This doesn’t need much capital and as foreign working girls cannot afford to go to an expensive salon, we look for quality but inexpensive beauty services.
Sewing. This is one where you don’t need capital at all as long as you have the skills. You only need a portable sewing machine and threads and you are ready to go. I am barely 5 feet so whenever I buy jeans or pants, I need to have it cut.
Creative hobbies. These are hobbies wherein you create things with your hands and sell it for profit. An example of this is knitting mufflers, coin purses etc... Another is creating artistic displays from raw materials. (FYI, I just bought 3 beautiful mufflers knitted by a friend’s friend and you cannot see this design in the shops. Feels good when people asked “where did u buy that? Eze yafe!)
And of course, if you are a techie, the internet is full of offers to earn extra income like blogging, freelancing at oDesk.com and freelancer.com, and many more (Too bad, nobody wants to hire me at oDesk ;) and my own blog is stunted by my own laziness it’s crying for content!)
These are just few ways to earn extra income without compromising your self-respect and dignity. Most of these extra money makers can be advertised by word of mouth alone especially if you are fair and square with your customers.
Our job as caregiver is not easy but with the right attitude and time planning, anything is possible. Starting a small business on the side is always extra hard because you are still learning and dealing with personal issues like your pride but when you get used to it, you’ll just go on rockin’ and earning.
Editor's note: please make sure you have the right type of visa and permit for any of the above options.
