Yesterday was my first ever real job. Some of you may recall my attempt at becoming a caddy at a local golf course which was ended with the claim of age prejudice. However this time, my age worked in my favour.
Babysitting is probably the classic job for teenagers. You don’t have to be a girl to look after kids when their parents are away - fortunately for me though, I was taking care of a young boy for 4 hours. Anyway, the hours go by quickly, there is often no manual labour involved and the pay is pretty decent compared to working at the local supermarket.
Anyway, my next door neighbour called me up to ask for a favour and I readily agreed to babysit her son. Once I arrived, the boy and I played on his Nintendo Wii. This was my first time and to be honest I was pretty amazed by how fun the games were, even though the graphics weren’t next generation. My favourite game was Tennis on Wii Sports. Whilst I won’t turn this into a battle of the consoles though, I still prefer my Xbox 360!
After playing for 1 or 2 hours, the kid ate his dinner (which his mum had pre-prepared) and we played a few boardgames. Then after 3 and a half hours I put the boy to sleep and went downstairs to do a bit of light Economics reading. His parents came back shortly after and I got paid £20 for the 4 hours - not bad considering supermarket wages are at £4.50 odd per hour here in the UK.
But was this income easier than earning online? A few points:
- You don’t really gain any knowledge from babysitting. Whilst blogging, Im constantly reading and acquiring new technical jargon and techniques to increase earnings, alter websites - heck I even managed to be able to fully edit HTML since starting last February!
- But - babysitters don’t really get burnt out. Much of looking after kids involves watching TV and playing games. And if the family are rich then the experience can be better than your own home.
- The pay is much more definite and consistent, £5 per hour is nearly certain whereas online, you never know when your more faithful TLA customers might leave you. Maybe this is part of the ride for an entrepreneur and results in more thrills on top of the spills.
Really I wouldn’t say no if another person asked me to babysit. It’s an easy job and supplements my online income really nicely. On top of this I record my income on a spreadsheet in Dollars so the conversion rate will really help my cause this month! Marketing my babysitting service is something which I thought about yesterday as well, but that will take up another post for sure!
- Subscribe to our RSS feed for instant updates!
- Receive the latest posts by email
- Add me to your Technorati Favourites
9 responses so far ↓
1 Ray Dotson // Jan 27, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Adnan, if you weren’t so far away I’d gladly pay you to watch my kids. You might change your mind about how easy it is after a couple hours with my gang!
Seriously, I’ve wondered about this, too. I can make pretty good money from teaching classes at night, but I like the idea of making money online so much better.
I’m sure my average income per hour spent is much, much lower with my internet income so far, but still it’s money that seems to have come most directly from my own efforts. It’s hard to explain, but I’m sure you get what I’m saying…
2 adnan // Jan 27, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Lol Ray! But yeah I definitely understand what you’re saying. There’s something about making money online that just makes you feel really proud about how you did it. Maybe its the fact that we’ve made $100 from home without having to travel to go to work.
Whatever it is though, Online Income is still my number 1 priority. Any other jobs are just helping to supplement my earnings and I think this is pretty cool as it allows me to boost my monthly gains!
Thanks for dropping by man.
3 cosmin // Jan 28, 2007 at 5:56 pm
i wouldn’t advise you to pursue a babby sitting career either
i can introduce you to a few friends of mine who did for a while, and some of the stories they tell… well, let’s just say they’re not pretty. it’s one thing to do it every once in a while, and is something completely different to do it on a regular basis.
oh… one more thing: some of the greatest problems come not from the kids, but from the parents.
so just stick to developing your online presence. a much better choice in the long run
cosmin
4 Allen.H // Jan 28, 2007 at 6:41 pm
It all depends on the leverage in the long-term, I never ever considered getting a hamburger-flipping or a babysitting job even why I was earning cents a day with Google Adsense. Today at the age of 17 I make 4 figures from blogging, and I’m glad I never gave up when I was earning per day what I earn per hour nowadays.
The leverage grows as you invest more thought and effort into your business, if you rather do babysitting, you missed 4 hours in which you could have added content or promoted your blog, not so bad? maybe if your content isn’t that good or your promotion efforts suck, but I don’t think that’s your case
Allen.H
5 adnan // Jan 30, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Cosmin - I wasn’t thinking about doing it full time lol, just for a but of extra pocket money which I would be purely spendable. I can imagine though that parents would be the most picky about their babysitters. What happened with your friend thats made you so against babysitting?
Allen - congrats on yor successes and I hope to earn as much as you ASAP! Yeah you’re right - time is a very valuable soure and material which you can’t fail to under-utilize. Thanks for making me realise that, because I didn’t blog during those 4 hours of babysitting.
Thanks for commenting guys.
6 Matt (mithrill) // Jan 31, 2007 at 2:53 am
I don’t think I could do Babysitting unless the kids were old enough to take care of themselves for the most part. It does sound like a nice way to supplement your income. If you’re lucky you can blog at the same time your babysitting and knock out two things at once.
In all honesty though, a young person should invest most of their time and effort gaining valuable skills and education that will help them land a sweet job that blows away the money that is made from blogging.
7 adnan // Jan 31, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Lol yeah that would be ideal actually. After the kid has gone to sleep it is possible though, although Im a bit hesitant in using a stranger’s laptop for personal use. But that would be sooo productive!
Yeah true, education and experience are extremely important in getting that ultra, high-earning job. Fortunately for me though Im able to put babysitting on my UCAS form and personal statement to show universities that Im responsable and that I have an enterprising side to me!
Thanks for the comment mate
8 cosmin // Feb 1, 2007 at 10:12 pm
adnan, you can check out my response to your question here:
http://wasting-your-time.com/2007/02/01/what-do-i-have-against-babysitting/
9 The Best Of Blogtrepreneur In 2007 // Jan 3, 2008 at 12:17 am
[...] Babysitting - Is It Easier Than Online Income? [...]
Leave a Comment