By Laura Royer
Many Personal Financial Managers (PFMs) encounter military families who need to generate extra income, and there are many ways for your client to find work easily online.
When working with a client who needs to generate extra income, it’s important to first do a skill assessment to determine the variety of ways your client could earn income using his or her knowledge, skills or talents. For more information on how to do that, check out “Helping Military Families Assess Their Skill Set to Generate Extra Income.”
Once your client has identified their skill set, help them understand how they can use that skill with the following five different ways to generate income.
- Become a Virtual Assistant. With so many businesses or entrepreneurs working online, there is a great demand to hire assistants who work virtually. A virtual assistant (VA) is hired to manage and complete a variety of different tasks that a business owner does not need to be doing themselves. It can be regular administrative tasks like booking travel, managing email or appointments, or it could also be specialized tasks like social media management, editing content, running Facebook ads, or doing SEO (search engine optimization) for websites to drive traffic. On average, a VA makes between $10 – $28. The amount paid depends on the type of work and the experience.
- Online Tutoring. There are many kids or even college students looking for tutoring on various subject matters. Online tutoring is a great way for your client to share his or her knowledge and have a great impact on students while working from home. The average hourly rate is $15 – $20.
- Teach English Online. Learning how to speak English online has become very popular and your client does not need to be a certified teacher or speak another language. The hourly pay ranges between $10 and $40, depending on experience.
- Become a Freelancer. One of the best and often easiest jobs online is freelancing. Freelancers are contractors who work for themselves and have many clients they can work for to earn money. There are a growing number of freelancing jobs available, and freelancing allows an individual to do something they love while working from the comfort of home. Examples of freelance work would include writing blog or magazine articles, website design, photography, music or videography, transcription, programming, editing, and graphic design. Have your client research online his or her specific freelancing trade to find the going hourly rate and where they could list their availability to be hired.
- Virtual Customer Service. Many large companies are outsourcing their customer service departments to people who desire to work from home. Jobs include working online to intercept calls or as an online chat agent. The average pay range is $10 to $19 hourly. To find companies hiring for virtual customer service positions your client can research “virtual customer service jobs” and find several companies to choose from.
Online accessibility to increase household income has never been more available. These ideas are just a few of hundreds out there to help your client and military families generate income for their household.
