Make money

Open a boutique in your apartment.
Margot Miller, 25, has turned the long hallway of her Upper West Side apartment (above) into a clothing store called Merch by Margot. She scouts thrift stores and affordable chains like H&M to find hot but cheap dresses, shirts and hats, and then channels her inner fashion designer and adds embroidery, buttons, gems, pins and tons of iron-on patches. She even picked up a few mannequins and clothes racks at a midtown store that was liquidating its stock. Since opening her makeshift boutique last month, she’s sold seven pieces—some in person to friends, some on craft marketplace Etsy (etsy.com)—for a total of $170. “My favorite piece so far is a thrift-store Boy Scout shirt that I girlified,” she says. “I want to be a freelance children’s book illustrator, so I would love for this business to grow enough to support me.”
Prerequisites: DIY style, apartment space

REFINISH STREET FURNITURE.
A little sanding and a bright coat of paint, and the curbside table you found becomes a lustworthy vintage item. Fort Greene’s Brooklyn Flea (flea@brownstoner.com, brooklynflea.com) starts up again in April, and Eric Demby, who runs it, has a soft spot for people who refurbish old objects. “The Flea is curated—it’s not first-come, first-served,” he says. “But I love what I call ‘rejuvenators.’ They usually have good success— people respond to it.” Sign up online to be a vendor.
Prerequisites: Creativity, scavenging know-how

PERSONALLY ASSISTANT SOMEONE.
Running errands, answering phones, walking someone’s pet iguana—personal assistants do whatever random tasks a client requests. The Pavillion Agency (15 E 40th St at Madison Ave; 212-889-6609, pavillionagency.com) is currently hiring—apply through its website. Part-time gigs pay from $20 to $100 an hour.
Prerequisites: Can take care of other people’s lives, if not your own

GIVE WALKING TOURS.
Big Onion Walking Tours (476 13th St at Tenth Ave, bigonion.com) offers jaunts through nearly every Manhattan and Brooklyn enclave and is looking for new guides, who get $50 and up per hour. “But we have extremely high standards—all our guides must have advanced degrees in history and be licensed,” says Seth Kamil, Big Onion’s president. “And it takes four to eight weeks of pretty serious training to learn the Big Onion method.” If you’re lacking the diploma, consider guiding for Foods of New York (917-408-9539, foodsofny.com), which pays $150 (plus tips) for a three-hour tasting tour. The company’s hiring priority: “Personality,” says director of operations Amy Bandolik. “You should have a general love for New York and the historical elements and culture of the neighborhoods that we cover. No Ph.D. required.”
Prerequisites: Historical knowledge, big personality, comfortable shoes

BE A PART-TIME PERSONAL CHEF.
By day, Molly Kincaid is the editor of an online magazine. But because the 28-year-old loves cooking, by night she’s started working as a personal chef. “I’m always buying expensive ingredients and then inviting friends over to eat,” she says. “So I figured I should be doing this for a living.” She posted an ad on Craigslist in late December and has already lined up two regular clients. She charges $50 an hour—less than the going rates for chefs with culinary degrees—and works two to three hours a night. Her advice: Offer to grocery shop, since that can be intimidating to the culinarily challenged. And avoid dishes that involve kitchen gadgets, because if a client is so pressed for time that they’re hiring a personal chef, chances are their utensil drawer will be bare.
Prerequisites: Knowing “White Castle” is not a food group

SPOT TRENDS.
Trend Hunter (trendhunter.com), a website used by bloggers, marketers and journalists to tap into fashion, tech, business and social spheres, employs thousands of trend-spotters to create its content. Join for free by writing a profile with info about your professional background and personal interests; then, when you come across new trends (off-the-shoulder dresses; urban farming), upload photos, videos and descriptions. The site shares ad revenue with its finders, so people who post frequently can make $200 monthly.
Prerequisites: Internet access, time to spend trolling the Internet

TEACH A CLASS.
The Learning Annex (110 W 40th St; 212-371-0280, learningannex.com) offers more than 8,000 courses each year, from how to be a matchmaker and how to flip houses to how to be a “Real Cougar Woman.” If you have an idea for a class (“How to Make Money Without Really Working”?), send an e-mail to newcourse@learningannex.com. For noncelebrity teachers, they pay 20 percent of the profit. The average class costs $44.95—so enroll 30 students and you’ll make $270.
Prerequisites: A skill others would pay to learn

BE A SECRET SHOPPER.
According to Paul Ryan, president of Secret Shopper (secretshopper.com), all that’s required to be a spy consumerist is “common sense.” His company sends sneaks to places like the NBA Store and Equinox. Park Sloper Jessica Tate, 24, is signed up with multiple secret-shopping services and does two to five gigs a month for $20 to $50 a pop. “The pizza-delivery ones are the best because I don’t have to go anywhere, and I get free food,” she says. Get additional assignments at certifiedfieldassociate.com and iccds.com.
Prerequisites: A shopping jones, good cover

TRANSCRIBE INTERVIEWS.
Most writers—especially Ph.D. students and all those newly freelance reporters without interns—will give their souls to have someone else type out their interviews. Transcribers advertising online charge by the hour (from $12 to $25) or by the minute of recorded conversation (around $1). List on Craigslist or mediabistro.com.
Prerequisites: Typing skills

BECOME A FOCUS-GROUP GUINEA PIG.
The Focus Room (693 Fifth Ave at 54th St; 212-935-6820, focusroom.com) is a market-research company that provides companies like the MTA, L’Oreal, HBO and major banks with feedback from people like you. Well, maybe not exactly like you. “Clients set the criteria—they may want people in New York who read travel magazines,” says company president Ira Weinstein. Register through the website, then if your demographic info and preferences match what a client is looking for, you’ll be contacted to participate, earning between $85 and $500 each time. Clients most often want nurses, doctors, travelers and prestige-product fans.
Prerequisites: Time, opinions

RENT YOUR APARTMENT TO TOURISTS.
If you rent once in a blue moon, list on Craigslist for free. If you want to make a habit of it, register at vrbo.com ($249 a year), which will allow you to accept credit card payments and post an availability calendar. Another option if you’re consistently out of town—list at citysonnet.com. “I’m looking for a place that’s fantastic, clean and in an interesting neighborhood,” says owner David Packer. CitySonnet offers rooms for $120 and up and private places for around $135 and up.
Prerequisites: An apartment someone would actually want to rent

SUBSTITUTE TEACH.
In New York City, you need a bachelor’s degree and no criminal history. Apply through the DOE website (schools.nyc.gov) starting in March; eligible candidates will be called in for an interview and writing test. Those who pass are added to the roster of substitutes to receive automated calls about gigs. Some are listed in advance, but most pop up either late the night before or around 5 or 6am the morning of. You can teach up to 40 days a year for $129.61 per day.
Prerequisites: The ability to work on a moment’s notice, the ability to answer the phone at 5am.

SELL YOUR PHOTOS TO STOCK AGENCIES.
Corbis and Getty Images are the biggest, but if you’re not an established pro it’s hard to break in. Instead, try Shutterstock (submit.shutterstock.com), for which magazine editors and graphic designers pay a monthly fee to download images. Each time a subscriber downloads one, you get 25¢.
Prerequisites: Photography background

BE A CHACHA GUIDE.
ChaCha (chacha.com), the service that responds to random questions via phone calls or texts, hires guides to send out answers from home. To apply, take a quick test on the website to determine your research prowess. We got info about becoming a guide via text, of course: “I was lucky enough to make Top Guide and now make 20¢ a text. Thanks for asking!”
Prerequisites: Google-ish speed in finding answers to weird questions

BIKE MESSENGE.
There’s a lot of turnover in the industry; so as long as you have wheels, you’re golden. Most services pay a commission—ranging from 30 to 40 percent—based on the number of deliveries made, and a messenger who works three out of seven days might rake in $200 to $300 for the week. Elite Courier Services (newyorksbestkeptsecret.com) and Cyclehawk (cyclehawk.com) have good reputations; start there.
Prerequisites: A bike, fearlessness

BE AN EXTRA.
Despite the jokes, it’s not such a bad thing to come straight out of Central Casting (875 Sixth Ave at 31st St; 646-205-8244, centralcasting.org). Download a registration packet from the website and deliver it Tuesdays or Thursdays at 4pm. Currently, the most in-demand parts are prep-schoolers for Gossip Girl and faux cops and corpses for Law & Order and its spin-offs. “Every day is a deadline,” explains Brad Kenny, manager of Central Casting. “At 4pm today, a show could call and say, ‘We need ten doctors and four nurses for tomorrow—they have to fit these sizes and be this ethnicity,’ and we rush to find those people.” The pay ranges from minimum wage if you’re nonunion up to $130 a day plus overtime if you’re SAG. Also try: Extra Talent Agency (212-807-8172, extratalentagency.com), NY Castings (nycastings.com) and Back Stage’s casting search engine (casting.backstage.com/jobseekerx).
Prerequisites: A willingness to sit around and wait

WALK DOGS.
You’ve got two choices: You can look for a gig with any number of organized companies, or go it alone, just you and the dogs. Petaholics (646-732-1282, petaholics.com) is hiring poochophiles who are available between 11am and 4pm, and who have experience with animals, either walking per se or working at a shelter or vet. Expect to bank $100 to $250 a week. NYC Dog Walkers (917-912-3968, nycdogwalkers.com) is also hiring—it prefers employees who’ve owned a dog. Those who go the indie route and post flyers in their neighborhood charge $20 to $30 an hour.
Prerequisites: Comfort with poop pickup

Do voiceovers.
If you’ve watched Saturday morning cartoons like G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Viva Piñata, you’ve no doubt heard Tom Wayland. The 35-year-old works full-time as the voice director on Pokémon, but also freelances as a voice actor himself. “Compared to other acting gigs, like theater, voiceover work is the best bang for your buck,” he says. “If you book a national union spot with residuals, you can make thousands and thousands of dollars over time.” Wayland recommends signing with an agency like CESD Talent (257 Park Ave South between 20th and 21st Sts; 212-477-1666, cesdtalent.com), which vets hopefuls by listening to their vocal demos. “[A demo] is your calling card in the voice world,” says CESD agent Tom Celia. But he doesn’t think you need to spend a fortune to have it professionally produced—editing together clips on your home computer will work just fine. And if you’d rather try to find work without an agent, Voice123.com has a database of casting listings.
Prerequisites: acting skills, standout voice

Paint apartments.
You can post flyers until the cows come home, but your best bet is to befriend supers. Brooklyn part-time painter Peter Williams says he charges $200 to $300 per day; a studio apartment takes him a day and a half, and a two-bedroom, two to three days. Take care to wow your clients with your Michelangelo-like abilities (and your anal clean-up skills), so they’ll recommend you to everyone in the building.
Prerequisites: painting aptitude, duh

Start a “business.”
Any hobby that could potentially make money can be considered a business for tax purposes. File a Schedule C and you can deduct expenses considered “ordinary or necessary,” says CPA Neil Schloss of Castle Consulting. If your business is a band, that includes the cost of equipment, practice space, transportation to gigs, even concert tickets and CDs. You’re allowed two years of loss with your business, so even if you don’t sell any discs, you can still save on taxes.
Prerequisites: tax-form savvy, ,a legit idea

Join Amway.
Become an Amway (amway.com) “Independent Business Owner” and hawk beauty, health and home-care products to earn proceeds from the markup—the suggested retail price results in about a 29 percent profit. But the big bucks are made by recruiting others—each month you get a bonus of 3 to 25 percent of the volume sold by all the recruits you’ve brought into the fold. The average Amway seller makes $115 a month, but many earn much more. Former midtown accountant Charlie Durso, 53, has been in the game for 27 years and has recruited thousands of sellers, making enough to leave his number-crunching job 19 years ago. He now supports himself working 15 to 20 hours a week.
Prerequisites: interest in sales, friends to sell to

Take head shots for broke actors.
Professional head shots can cost $600 and up, so charge around $100 to take photos with a decent digital camera. Have your clients do their own hair and makeup, always shoot them in natural light (it tends to be more flattering) and offer a discount if their friends book sessions with you. Oh, and black-and-white shots make the photos look more legit. Place a basic listing on backstage.com (for free!) or distribute flyers at local acting studios.
Prerequisites: camera

Write an op-ed.
Metro New York pays up to $200 for the pieces that run on its My View page (submissions should be 400 words; send to Ron Varrial at letters@metro.us). “We like columns about life, columns that make you laugh—but don’t try too hard—and columns that force you to think,” says editor Ron Varrial. “The vast majority of our pitches include the words Obama, Senate and Bush; those are a dime a dozen. Give me something offbeat and it’s got a much better chance of reaching print.” If you can get published in the Times, meanwhile (good luck; the paper receives more than 1,200 submissions weekly), you’ll get $450 (e-mail David Shipley at oped@nytimes.com or fax to 212-556-4100).
Prerequisites: good grammar, thoughtfulness

Create an online store.
At CafePress (cafepress.com), you can create shirts, posters and bumper stickers and sell them to the site’s 11 million users. Each item has a base price; you decide the markup. When someone buys a product, CafePress prints it and ships it, and you get a check for your total markups once a month. Tamara Remedios, whose day job is running Restaurant Week in Hoboken and Jersey City, started a popular customized T-shirt store on CafePress called Wear My Name in 2001, on which she spends about 25 hours a month. Her average markup is $6, and her busiest months net about and about 300 sales. “I put everything I make in a bank account and go on two to three vacations a year,” she says.
Prerequisites: creativity

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