Ways To Make Money

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Whenever the economy moves southwards, most companies will downsize their workforce. People have to think of something to stay afloat. Those enterprising ones, including some that are still gainfully employed, build businesses from their home.

Sell cup cakes

Farhana Hussin, a 27-year-old assistant producer, decided to look for extra income by opening her cupcake blogshop in January 2009. Prior to this, Farhana has been selling cupcakes for more than two years.

She sold them to relatives and close colleagues at first. At her department’s gatherings or potluck parties, she’d bring something homemade. Her colleagues were intrigued and asked her to sell her cupcakes to them. So she decided to advertise her product on Mudah.com, 88DB and e-homemakers. It really helped a lot. She gets at least two business enquiries and one cupcake order daily.

While baking cupcakes takes around half an hour to 40 minutes, to decorate about 20 to 30 cupcakes takes 11/2 hours. The business supplements her income by 50% and allows her to live without worrying too much about cutting costs and setting aside money for her baby.

The cost of production is not very high. One only need effort and time. Her mom used to make kuih and from her, she learnt that the profits in the F&B sector can easily be 50%. She did some  research and found that a small (21/2oz) cupcake costs at least RM2. She charges RM1.50 now because she is still new. She need more demand.”  

Sell stickers

Jolene Lai Pei Shan, 22 is not your regular university student. She has been making extra pocket money through blogging and selling stickers online. It was early 2008 that she visited sticker wolesalers, and decided to test the market. She picked out mobile-phone and scrapbook stickers and uploaded pictures of them on a blogspot blog.

When she buy the stickers, she will label each piece with a code. She will then enter the amount of stock she has into an excel sheet, complete with cost price, quantity, pricing, sales and list of buyers. This really aids her when it come to taking orders. The stickers are placed into sandwich bags and kept in a box until someone orders them. She also sells her stickers at bazaars occasionally.

On the difference between selling offline and online, she likes selling at bazaars/flea markets more because she gets the cash immediately. With online transactions, it would take buyers days to complete the transaction. Sometimes, they would even back out from their order. She points out that for most blogshop owners, online sales are always better than the sales at bazaars.

Lai has a blog that sees pretty healthy daily traffic, so she linked her blogshop to it to gain publicity. She used forum to promote her stickers too.

Selling on eBay

Another alternative is to sell stuff via an auction or listing site, According to a survey conducted by ACNielsen International Research, there are some 4,000 Malaysians selling stuff on eBay as their primary or secondary course of income. eBay Malaysia’s website states that there is a Malaysian selling an item of clothing or an accessory every six minutes. Daily, 250 toys or hobby items are sold.

You can also get help selling. “Everything can be sold, as long as the price is right,” says Victor Chong, managing director of Quik Consign, which sells products on eBay International on a consignment basis. Since its inception in January 2008, sales growth was almost in the triple digit. The company is an authorised DHL Express reseller.

If you want to sell an item via Quik Consign, go to its outlets in Bukit Bintang or Plaza Mon’t Kiara. The product needs to have market value of least RM300. After making sure the item is in good condition and identifying any small flaws (for used goods) and taking down your contact details, Quik Consign will handle the rest. Its services include a sales write-up on the product.

The product is usually listed for 10 days. After the buyer has completed a feedback form and made payment, Quik Consign will arrange payment for you. It takes a 25% commission from the selling price and operates on a no-sale, no-fee policy.

Chong says there has been a slight drop in selling prices since the start of the year but stresses that there are still plenty of buyers out there. There are about 80 million active eBay users, the majority of whom are in the US.

  

Blogging

The Internet offers several ways to make extra cash. Top bloggers can make thousands of ringgit a month. University student Jolene Lai Pei Shan not only sells stuff online but also blogs at jayellenelial.com which has garnered more than 300,000 view. Although Lai has been blogging for the past six years, things only started to take off four years ago. She gained a few hundred loyal readers over the years. Her traffic was definitely higher a few years back when there were fewer blogs to stalk. She also feel less compelled to blog about every single thing that happens in her life.    

Local companies were the first to notice that blogs could be good for their business. In 2006, one of the first few companies to approach was a photobook company. She was given a free  photobook after blogged about their product. May be other bloggers took a fee, but she was too much of a novice to demand anything, she was getting free things! What more could she ask for?

Things however started to change when NuffNang, a blog advertising company, came into the picture in 2007. She couldn’t believe it at first. People would actually pay her to write. She made almost RM6,000 from NuffNang.

She now enjoys the various perks that come with being one of the more well-known bloggers in Malaysia. On top of being paid to blog about products and services, she has received a free phone, free makeover, a free trip to Singapore, just to name a few. She have reviewed a notebook, broadband services, education institutions, mobile phones and more.