Practical Tips and Fresh Ideas for Making Money

Money is a tool.

Alone, it holds no power for good or evil. Can money do good? Absolutely. Has it been used for evil? Of course. However, it is the heart attitudes of the people who use it that determine the morality of money’s accomplishments.

 Using the Right Tool

If I took American currency to Mexico, it wouldn’t do me any good until I exchanged it for pesos. Again, if someone gave me a hundred Cambodian riels, I could do nothing with them in the US until I traded them for our currency. (I still couldn’t do much with 100 riels— that’s only a couple cents!) The point is, money itself is irrelevant. Instead of focusing on money (and getting more of it), we need to focus on what money can do in the hands of people whose heart attitudes match God’s.

My dad used to repair cars. He was a body man. In his day, the most important tool he owned was a hammer. Whenever a car was damaged, his job was to beat and mold its panels back into shape with his collection of specialty hammers. When I was a little kid, I found one of the hammers he had just finished cleaning and polishing. It was so perfect, it screamed out to me to use it.

So, I did. I took his hammer and started beating all the rocks I could find. I even split a couple! But my dad wasn’t as thrilled with my accomplishment as I was. He was very generous with me, but I learned the value of good tools that day.

No matter what your trade, you value the tools needed for it. A teacher values her education; without it, she couldn’t get a job. A chef values his cookware because without it, he’s limited to the type of food he can make. A cabbie values his car. A doctor values her medicines. Every professional values their tools the same way my dad valued his hammers—not for what they are, but for what can be accomplished with them. We should value money the same way. Money is a tool, and in the right hands, it can accomplish amazing things for God’s kingdom.

So how do we make money work for us? In the parable of the talents, Jesus answered that question:

 For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. Matthew 25:14-18

I used to think this story was a little harsh, a bit biased. The master must like that guy better to give him more than the rest, I thought, but then I realized it said he gave to them “according to their ability.” These were the master’s servants. He had a relationship with each of them. He’d watched their work habits and ethics for years and knew what each one could handle. He entrusted money to them “according to their ability.”

Notice how the servant with five talents and the servant with two talents each doubled their money. How did they do that? The scripture says they “went and traded.”

Maybe one of them kept running his master’s business. Maybe one bought some tools and hired himself out as a laborer. Maybe they bought and sold merchandise. Maybe they invested in someone else’s venture. Maybe they lost money, and then made more. All we know is they “went.”

Unlike the lazy servant, the two good servants did something with what they were given. Neither sat around hoping their talent would split at the atomic level and miraculously create more of itself; they put it to work. Even the servant with only two talents did everything he could to give his master a return on his investment. He didn’t complain about the difference in the initial distribution of talents. He didn’t say, “That’s not fair. He got more than me. There’s no way I can make a go at this with only two talents.” He put his money to work.

Opportunities are Everywhere

No matter what situation you find yourself in, use what’s in your hand and put it to work. It will take diligence, but it will also bring great reward! For example, my daughter wanted to start a dog walking business. She did some research and decided the best way to use her time was to walk more than one dog at once. She found a coupler leash that would let her walk up to four dogs at a time. It cost $11. Hannah didn’t have $11, so she came to me looking for an investor.

“Dad, can I have $11?”

“You can make $11,” I told her. “Figure out how you can make $11.”

One day when I came home from work, Hannah handed me $11 when I walked through the door.

“Would you please get on Amazon and buy me that leash? Here’s my $11,” she said.

“How’d you get that?”

I asked. Apparently, she’d found an organic dog treat recipe online and used the flour and eggs we had in the pantry to bake them. She packaged them up in Ziploc bags, printed out a little flyer of the ingredients with an advertisement for her business, and stapled it to the bag. She then went around our neighborhood and sold each bag for a dollar. Hannah used what she had and got her leash! (I’m still thinking about how she should repay that non-affirmed initial investment from my pantry!)

Opportunities surround us; we just need the right attitude to see them. Whether we provide a service or sell goods, we must remember it is God who gives us the power to gain wealth so we can establish His covenant (Deuteronomy 8:18). The more money we make, the more money we can give. It may sound selfish, but if the motive behind our desire for money is giving, then God will give us the opportunities to make it.

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:10

People often make the mistake of thinking they have to do something completely new to make money. They read stories of multi-millionaires creating a new product or developing a new software and overlook what’s already in their hand. They think, I can’t do that, or I don’t have those kinds of skills, and miss the opportunities God has put in front of them.

What are you good at right now? What do you already know how to do? What skills or interests do you have? What is your passion? Look around you right now. The things you see are what God will use to increase and prosper you. You just need to realize that they can be opportunities. Find something you’re interested in, research it, and ask God to give you creative ideas for making that hobby into a money-making venture.

Brainstorm with me for a minute. Divide a piece of paper into fourths and label the fourths “hobbies,” “previous employment,” “skills,” and “me.” Then in each section, record three to five different skills, hobbies, or work experiences you have: be creative. In the “me” section, describe yourself (especially relationally or in regard to previous commitments). Your paper might look like this:

Hobbies:

·         Watching movies

·         Gardening

·         Riding motorcycles

·         Decorating

Previous Employment:

·         Preschool Teacher

·         Retail Sales Manager

·         Merchandising

Skills:

·         Organizing

·         Painting and crafts

·         Good memory

·         Explaining things

All About Me:

·         Married, mother of 3

·         Stay-at-home mom

·         Volunteers at kids’ school

·         Lives in city

Using the information in our example, we can create a list of jobs and/or businesses this person is already qualified for or, with a little research, might be interested in pursuing. Taking into account her previous commitments, she would likely prefer the flexible scheduling of self-employment. Her background as a retail sales manager tells me she ought to understand customer service, pricing, and marketing strategies, which will help her sell her own products. She enjoys gardening but lives in the city where people have less space for gardening. She could develop a business around container gardening or another specialty area like xeriscaping.

 As a stay-at-home mom, she probably doesn’t have the funds or space to buy, store, and sell the actual plants, so she could develop garden plans for different size gardens or areas of the country. By including extras (like pictures of what the finished garden will look like, care instructions, recommended nurseries, and suggestions for substitute plants) and offering these items for immediate download, she adds value to her product and oversells the competition. By using the Internet for selling (on either her own website or a site like Etsy), she will have almost no overhead and will open up her customer base to anyone with access to a computer.

The possibilities are endless. Maybe instead of sales, she wants to offer a service. With her interests and skills, she could become a professional organizer. The thing with services, though, is that you often have to have referrals to generate more clients. So how do you create referrals with no clients? You offer your services for free.

She could talk to her friends and ask to help them organize part of their house. She could take before and after pictures and ask her friends to write up a testimonial or referral for her services. Something like, “Since my friend organized my kitchen, it’s cut my prep time by thirty percent. Even my husband commented on how much easier it is to find things in the pantry. She was a god-send.” Now she can advertise! She could make some business cards, put out an ad on Craigslist, and ask her other friends to help spread the word.

But what if I lose money? That’s called an education. Now you know what not to do next time. Some of the most common mistakes people in services make is miscalculating their time and underbidding projects, but that’s an easy fix. Simply increase your bid next time you work on a similar project. In sales, people often don’t make the profit margins they anticipate because they don’t market correctly. Maybe they bought something with only a seasonal market and took a loss. Next time, they’ll know to hold the snow blower they picked up last summer and sell at the right time—after the first big snow.

Learn and Grow

 Be diligent. Not everything’s going to be an instant success. Some things won’t succeed at all, but at the very least, you’ll learn. Sir James Dyson, the developer of Dyson vacuums, went through 5,126 failed prototypes before finding one that worked. Now his net worth is billions of dollars! Unfortunately, he went through his entire life savings and had to find investors before discovering the one idea that worked. We don’t want to do that; that’s why I counsel people to start businesses that require little to no initial investment. Then if it doesn’t work, their savings are still intact, and they’ve not endangered their family.

The most important thing you can do to ensure success is to not give up at the first hint of challenge. Mistakes can be a great learning platform. Learn, research, and try again. Keep a journal. Record what you’ve tried, what worked, what didn’t, why you think it didn’t, and what you’d like to try differently. Make money work for you.

The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Proverbs 21:5 NIV

By making a plan for our money and investing in what we already know how to do, or already have interest in, we can make money work for us instead of always working for money.

When our kids were little, we bought a diesel RV at an auction in England. As soon as they gave us the keys, we climbed in to inspect it and thank God for His blessing. “Thank You Jesus for this RV,” we prayed. “This vehicle will provide us with some good, memorable vacations and let us visit and minster to people.” As soon as we said “amen,” the kids were running around, turning knobs, pushing buttons, and opening cupboards. One of the cupboards they opened was hiding a half-dozen balloons that said, “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” It was fun watching the kids squeal at that surprise.

 We ended up taking that RV on a 4,000-mile road trip around Europe. We spent about a month visiting family, enjoying good restaurants and beaches, and touring France and Spain while the kids were out of school. We had a great family vacation, and at the end of the summer, sold the RV and nearly doubled our money on it. Its selling price even paid for our entire vacation!

 “I can’t do that,” you say. “I don’t know anything about buying and selling RVs.” You’re right, you may not have the knowledge it takes to do exactly what I did. But I bet you can do something. You have to discover what it is that God has placed in your hands and use that to create another stream of income for you and your family to prosper (Ecclesiastes 11:2).