I wanted to chat today about a side hustle that I tried out in my free time recently- driving for Favor! 

To start working for Favor you, of course, have to apply. It only took a few minutes and they asked me to pick a time to come in for orientation. I don’t know why but when I received that request it was rather unexpected- but I’m glad I pushed forward as the orientation was actually really informative and I went into driving for them with open eyes and feeling prepared.

For me, orientation was on the other side of town and wasn’t until the next day so I couldn’t apply and start driving on the same day (something to keep in mind) but I was able to get started fairly quickly in the scheme of things. I was doing my first delivery within 48 hours and had my first paycheck within the next 48.

Here’s what I learned in orientation and over the course of the few weekends I ran errands for Favor:

• Favor isn’t just for food delivery, though 80-90% of their deliveries are food.
  • I would say this is accurate as most of my deliveries have been food but I’ve also done someone’s grocery shopping for his sick girlfriend (what a nice guy!).
  • They also deliver: pet supplies, groceries, pharmacy orders (not all), dry cleaning, and will do general errands as well.
  • Alcohol is only available for delivery in some locations and does require an ID upon delivery. Cigarettes, whipped cream chargers and some medications, such as Sudafed, also can be delivered but with ID and only in limited quantities.
  • They will never deliver weapons, fireworks, or live animals. Further, we don’t offer rides.
• Once you’ve been assigned a Favor you will communicate with the client through text. This means you can send gifs or bitmojis or be funny in your replies if you'd like rather than just standard notifications and you can clarify questions about the request quickly if they come up. For instance, I had a customer who ordered wings but she didn’t say what sauces she wanted so I simple sent over a text and was done with placing the order in less than a minute- saving me time but also making sure she was as happy as possible- which can mean bigger tips.
  • Make sure the order is correct and that there are straws/napkins/sauces/etc. in the bag before you leave the store to also increase that happiness level and therefore tips!
• You are an independent contractor which means you can deduct for mileage (and the app that tracks it), gear, parking, tolls, cellphone data plans, etc.  on your taxes.
• You don’t have to set your schedule ahead of time- a must for me on some weeks- but there is a schedule if you want to get on for a specific time frame and ‘neighborhood.’
• Favor will tell you where to head within your ‘neighborhood’ for higher chances of getting a Favor assigned. These are indicated with a flame on the app.
• You can set pre-made text messages to send to your customers to save time… and call in 90% of the orders you receive so they are ready before you arrive for pick up. This is a must!
• If you are traveling you can run Favors in that area too. You aren’t limited to the area you signed up in… I moved and didn’t have to do a thing.
• They have a suggested tip of 20% for customers and if the customer doesn’t update that tip amount by the next morning you will get all 20% on your next direct deposit. On the money front- those tips are important as you get 35% of the delivery fee (minimum you will get is $2.10 per delivery for this) so most of your money comes from those tips.
• You can purchase a shirt/delivery bag combo for fairly cheap. I spent around $10 for a shirt and pizza bag. Check online for people reselling them or you can purchase at orientation.

I'm always looking for new money making apps to review for the blog. Typically I will work for about a month before deciding if I want to keep them on the list of things I will personally use going forward and I never post a review until I've come to that conclusion. I don't want to jump the gun and give you guys bad advice. If you read my monthly financial updates you will have seen that a new logo showed up for August- Poshmark. I tried out Poshmark for the blog and actually sold a couple of items! Woot! 

Poshmark is a clothing resale business with two parts- "Closet" sales and "Boutique" sales. I want to start by saying that I did not start a boutique so cannot give a thorough review of how much you could make by doing so but I think that you can get an idea of the work that would go into running a boutique on the platform to see if you may be interested from my review. I didn't start a boutique for a couple of reasons:

1. I don't have the space for storing bulk clothing items in my current space.
2. I am trying to pay down debt so am avoiding anything with large outlays of cash.
3. I am not interested in starting a clothing boutique... not just a Poshmark boutique but any brand. Clothes just aren't my thing. Looking good is my thing obviously but beyond that I don't really care to be in clothing stores browsing so I definitely don't want to sell clothes. (Shoes though... oh how I love shoes.) Most of my clothes are purchased very selectively when I need to replace something or have an event to purchase for... and most are from discount stores or clearance racks.

When I stumbled across Poshmark it was around 10:00 PM and I should have been sleeping (oh, insomnia... how are you old friend?) but of course I was scrolling through Facebook. I jumped up and decided right then that my closet needed some thinning. I've been losing weight so have plenty of items in my closet that are too big, on the edge of being the wrong size or were pulled out from the last time I was this size and aren't my current style. I found ten items that looked like they could go up on the site based on the items I had seen advertised. Posting was very easy: simply take photos of your items, fill in the descriptor boxes and you're done. I didn't have awesome lighting, mannequins, or an awesome camera but I thought that would make a great test for if the average- non store owner- could make any money reselling items on Poshmark.

I sold a couple of within the first week... and nothing after that. To be fair, I did have to put my closet on vacation hold for a couple of weeks while I was traveling for work so that may have lowered the number of people who looked at my item, Since I wasn't selling as much as I wanted to get rid of I did a lot of research while I was gone both on Poshmark and the internet in general. Here's what I learned during the six weeks, from personal experience and research:

• Photos do matter, a lot. Have good lighting, accurate colors and show any defects up front. Your cover shot should draw people in and 
• Be specific on your listing descriptions.
• Brands matter... if you are trying to sell items that are not brand names you have a lower chance of selling unfortunately (unless its a great deal... I had a belt with no brand on it that sold for $6. Compared to the $28 sale price of my white lace Lane Bryant dress that's a pretty low amount... but still more than at a garage sale! 
• Be prepared to haggle. People on Poshmark want a good deal (who doesn't!?!) so give them a great deal. Put the original sales price in that blank when you can and try to maintain a 50-60% off discount from that price for your asking price.

This dress sold for $28. I earned $22.40 from the sale from Poshmark.

Now into the process of getting a sale. Here is what the app looks like. Once you post an item for sale you will begin "sharing" it to your followers and in "Parties" for people to find and contact you about. Followers aren't just people you know. There are requirements for boutique and ambassadors to meet for number of shares, follows and etc. so you will get an initial influx of followers right away and many will share your items. Sharing someone else's items may inspire them to return the favor as well. Putting a discount on your closet for multiple item discounts may also garner views and increase purchases. The main way of getting attention to your items though is simply sharing them yourself. I was in the app several times a day sharing my items as well as joining parties to share my items too. Long term this isn't something I want to be doing so, while it will stay on my phone and I will continue with a once daily share, I won't be making Poshmark into a large side hustle for myself.

Once you make a sale you simply print off the prepaid label (the buyer has purchased shipping of your item through Poshmark), wrap the item in pretty paper for a better review, possibly add a quick note to the the buyer and send it off through priority mail. The most money you will spend here is in the wrapping and note as everything else is paid for. Make sure that you use a priority mail box so that it doesn't get sent back or you have to pay for a box. Priority shipping boxes are available for free at the US Post Office. 

 TheYou have three days to ship your items but I suggest you do it as soon as possible so that you get a higher review. Nobody wants to wait longer than they have to for something they bought- myself included!

You do not receive your part of the purchase price until it has been received and accepted by the buyer. They have three days from receipt to do this or Poshmark will automatically accept it for them. This gives the buyer a change to inspect your item(s) for damage and ensure it matches the description. When they accept it they will give you a 5 star review that will let other buyers know that you are a good seller to buy from and funds will be available within about 24 hours for you to either purchase clothing from the app or request a direct deposit to your bank. Sneaky sneaky Poshmark, you know that we like clothes so you let us use our earnings in app... nope, not me! I had them send me the money so that it could be used  towards my financial goals. The whole process from purchase to money in my bank took a little over a week due to shipping and waiting for the buyer to accept the items.

I wouldn't use this method if you need money tomorrow but if you have clothes that you need to get rid of and don't mind giving it a little time and effort its certainly worth a try! 

If you want to try out Poshmark please use my referral code "songbirdheather". You and I will both get $5 to spend in the app when you do. It's not cash in our pockets but it is free money towards already discounted quality items. Yes please! They have cute stuff on there (after all, its people like you and me on there selling) and I keep finding stuff I want, I know you will too. Until next time, ciao!

Chances are you have a smart phone and spend quite a bit of time on it. In this series we're going to be going through some ways to make your smart phone pay for its own data plan. Over the next few months I'll be trying out money making apps, coupon apps, and other similar programs that can either save you or make you some extra cash. The first app we're going to be chatting about it Easy Shift, one I've been using on and off for about two years now.

Essentially, its a market research app that pays you to complete small tasks at various retail stores for a few dollars each. Typically the tasks, called "Shifts" will involve taking photos of an aisle or aisles and/or finding specific items to see if they are being sold at that location. You may also be checking prices, promotional materials, or noting what items are grouped together. The average time to complete a task ranges from 10 to 30 minutes (based on the shifts in my area) and pay is $2 to $20 per task. I've never been asked to make purchases at a store to complete a Shift but some people have and have stated that they are reimbursed once the shift is processed. 

Easy Shift was created by Quri, Inc. and is available for Apple and Android devices. Go to www.easyshiftapp.com to download the app. Now for the review...

This can vary quite a bit unfortunately. If there are only a few shifts available near you on a specific day then it will be difficult to get enough well paying shifts to make it worth your while but then other days you may open the app to see dozens within a few blocks of where you're going shopping anyways. Those are the days I reserve as may as I can and spend a couple hours knocking out shifts. For example, I just opened the app and only see a few shifts near me currently... not really worth the time to run around and try to make $25 over the two hours they would probably take based on locations but there's one with $6 plus $0.20 per display found just a few miles from me that I could easily grab on my way home from work with fairly little effort or time. That will pay for my gas to/from work easily.

Easy Shift is one of my go-to apps if I need to make a little bit extra money to add something small to my budget without shifting priorities. Its a quick way to make $50 extra on a day off if there are shifts near locations I'm going to be already. Last time I used the app I made $68 for an afternoon of taking photos of drug store shelves for market research.

This is the big perk as far as I'm concerned... unlike with other apps there is no minimum payout amount so you get paid only 48 hours after your shift is processed! Processing can take a few days but is often done within just one so you can get your money before the next weekend pretty easy. It may take a little longer for reimbursements from purchases (I've never had to be reimbursed so I'm not 100% here) but with my experience with their payment time I would highly doubt it. All payments are made to PayPal so you don't need to give them any banking information and you won't pay any fees to then transfer it to your bank account (or use it for your Netflix bill the next month straight from PayPal!). 

Anyone with an iPhone or Android phone who is at least 18 years old (some Shifts may require you to be 21 or have a printer but they seem to be fairly infrequent from what I've been able to get Reserved),

This is one of the ones that I've never taken off my phone and fall back on when I need a little extra gas money. I made $108 in my most active two weeks and the shifts were all along my route to other places I wanted to go. Like I said, I made $68 in a few hours when I put my mind to it a few weekends ago so I think its really what you make of it (and if they have Shifts available near you at that time) and definitely something to keep in your back pocket in case those concert tickets you've been wanting go on sale.