During my schooling days, i was always looking for ways to earn extra money and was open to whatever opportunities that came by. To me, it was more of a challenge to do something and see if anyone would pay me for it. No harm trying since the only thing that i could possibly lost is time or money. Below are ways which I personally done it before during my schooling time and made money from it.
1) Selling stuff at Flea Market
I did my first flea market (aka Pasar Malam in the past) at the age of 11 during the december school holidays. In the past, story books were our version of Google to acquiring new knowledge since internet wasn't that commonly available yet. So every month, our mum would restock our small library at home with new books and with 3 kids, everyone of us must have the same number of books otherwise our mum would risk us fighting with one another. Gradually overtime, the small library was filled with so many books that we have to look for ways to reduce it. We had two options, either throw it away or sell it at a Pasar Malam which I chose since my aunt happened to have a booth and I wanted to earn some extra money. The results were unexpected as over a period of 3 days, I ended up $200 richer which was alot for a 11 year old kid. Who in the right mind would be selling books at a Pasar Malam!
2) Selling Stuff via Carousell, Gumtree, Hardwarezone and VR-Forum
As flea market is not consistently available and require long hours with no guarantee of sales, I resorted to using online platforms such as Gumtree, HWZ and VR Forum since 2009 before using Carousell which came out in 2014. You never know if your trash at home is a treasure to someone. I would usually look around at home to see if there are any things that we do not use and put it up for sale online. To date, the fastest time that i ever took to sell an item using Carousell was 2 hrs where i listed the item at 9pm and at 11pm, the buyer came by to collect the item.
3) Help others with their Schoolwork or Homework
In school, there are usually the hardworking students who often complete their homework on time and the lazy students who usually do it at the last minute. And then there is me, the entrepreneur student who is able to see the opportunities to make some money. With the lazy students often being punished for not completing their homework, I proposed to them a deal whereby in return for completing their homework, they will pay me $1 for each completed assignments. To me, helping them with their assignments wasn't just earning $1 but it also allowed me to improve on the subject as well. I probably earned over $60 during that year and at the same time, was among the top scorers for that subject. Talk about a win-win situation.
4) Selling Snacks in Class
During break time in school, as the vending machine is just downstair our classroom, my classmates would all rush down during the 15 minutes break to grab a snack before the next lessons start. However, as there is only 1 snack vending machine, being last means you would end up being late for class and getting punished. To "help" my classmates with their needs, every time when i had to go for tuition classes, i would buy similar snacks from the vending machine at mama stores in bulk and sell it to my classmates during the 15mins break. All my classmates would automatically come to me during break time to buy snacks and I will end up being sold out of snacks. The funny thing is that because i was having such good business, one of my classmate ended up copying what I did. Below are pictures of the actual snacks that I sold in class.
5) Scoring A's for Exams
You must be thinking score A's for exam can earn money meh?
Well, it is actually possible to earn money if you do well in school. Every year, bursaries and edusave awards are given out to students who perform well in schools. It is definitely not easy compared to other methods of earning money but if you are the kind that are good at studying, then it will be no kick (aka easy) for you. I probably have "earned" about $1000 during my secondary school years. Not easy but since I had to study, might as well study hard and make some money from it. Below are screenshots from MOE on the amount and details to be awarded the money. Or you can click here to find out more.
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