Are you at a job where you are paid by the hour? If you are trading your precious hours for dollars you are probably not making the best use of your time or your knowledge.
I started working during the summer that I turned twelve.
My family wouldn't let me work alone so I had partners.
I had two part-time jobs.
The first job was babysitting.
My partner was my best fried, a girl named Debbie.
Debbie and I hand printed cards and flyers advertising our service.
We would baby-sit for up to three children for $2 per hour.
We had many people in the neighborhood that used our services and we prided ourselves in doing a good job.
We changed diapers, prepared food, played with the children, took them to the park, and made sure they took a nap.
We followed any direction that the parents left for us and followed their rules to the letter.
The parents loved us and used our services any time they had to be away for a few hours and needed to leave their children.
At the end of the summer we had each made about $100.
My other job was mowing lawns.
My partner for this endeavor was Tim, the boy next door.
His father let us use his older lawn mower and we promised to take care of it and always keep it filled with gasoline.
Again, many neighbors wanted our service.
Boys don't like fancy cards or flyers so Tim and I just told people what we were doing and they told the others in the neighborhood.
We charged anywhere between $10 and $20 to mow a lawn front and back, depending on how big the yard was.
We also picked up any dead leaves or branches and put everything into their trash can.
Sometimes the people would buy some flowers and we offered to plant them for an additional $2 to $5, depending on how many they had bought.
We only had one lawn mower, so we took turns.
When one of us was mowing the other would fill up the trash can, plant flowers, or hose down the cut grass to make it look better.
Unlike baby-sitting, we could mow the grass whenever we had the time and desire.
As long as we did it by the end of the week the customers were happy.
It took varying amounts of time to complete a yard but usually we could finish an average sized one in about two hours.
At the end of the summer Tim and I had each made about $220.
There is a huge difference between $100 and $220.
But the real difference was that with baby-sitting Debbie and I were trading our hours for the parents' dollars.
We each made $1 an hour at the rate we were charging.
There were many other girls who could have done the job in the same way that we were doing it so we couldn't charge more than we were getting paid.
With the lawn mowing business Tim and I were being paid to complete a specific task.
Our rate was only slightly less than what professional gardeners were charging.
We were also able to add additional services like planting flowers and receive more money.
During the summer grass has to be cut more frequently so we knew that certain people would want us to come even more often than once a week.
Also, my family went on vacation for a week and Tim's older brother helped him during that time.
The customers were still happy because the job was completed whether I was doing it or someone else was working.
With the baby-sitting job the parents were not happy when I was gone because the children had become used to Debbie and I and how we did things.
The point is this.
If you can find a way to make money where you are paid to complete a specific task rather than to work for a specific number of hours you will make more money and have a more flexible schedule.
Maybe you have never thought of your job in this way.
Think about it for awhile and watch how your thinking changes.