Need to increase your income? For most people there is only one solution – work more hours.

This means giving up more of our free time and throws off our work/life balance. When work takes priority over everything else, all the other mow important aspects of life, such as family, friendships, and hobbies (and even general household upkeep) suffer. In many ways, by working more hours, you could be missing out on everything you’re working so hard for.

Fortunately, upping your hours isn’t the only way to increase your income. There are multiple ways to increase your income without dedicating more hours to the grind. Sound impossible?

Here are a few ways in which you can earn more without working more.

Ask for a Raise/Increase Your Prices

One way to earn more income is to simply ask for more. If you work for an employer, this could mean asking for a pay raise. If you’re self-employed, this could mean charging more for your services or products.

Many of us believe we deserve a pay raise but do nothing about it. If you honestly think you’re getting paid less than you’re worth, you should tell your employer. Wages may be fixed in some bigger companies, making it difficulty to get a raise without also getting a promotion (which means taking on more responsibility ), but in smaller and more independent companies, a wage can almost always be negotiated. Obviously, you need to prove that you’re working above and beyond, so if you’ve been slacking recently you may have to work a little harder to earn that pay raise.

When it comes to increasing prices on services or products, you need to be sure to tell your existing customers in advance so that they don’t suddenly feel like they’re being conned. Perhaps you can raise your price by a smaller amount as to not be as burdensome to the customer?

While price increases are a natural part of retail and is something to be expected when a company starts to get successful or has been going a while, when they come on suddenly and in big amounts, it can be a turn off to customers. Hopefully, you shouldn’t have to justify the increase in price too much. 

Don’t fret if some customers leave. So long as you haven’t hiked up your prices by a ridiculous amount, and you still provide the same quality product or customer service, the majority of customers will stay – and it shouldn’t affect you finding new ones either.

Find Sources of Passive Income

Another way to earn more without working more is to find sources of passive income. This often involves an initial investment, after which you’ll make a return over time without having to put in much work.

Investing in property can be a good source of passive income. The most common way to do this is to rent out a property to tenants. By charging more rent that’s more than your monthly mortgage payment, you can start making a profit right away. Of course, you do need to be able to afford the down payment for a property first, and owning a home or rental is a lot of work. You’ll be responsible for repairs, up-keep, and keeping your tenants happy.

Another way to make passive income is by investing, most commonly in stocks and bonds. Stocks and bonds provide a passive income in the form of dividends (payouts paid to shareholders, sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly) and value increases. Whenever the company pays a dividend, you get money directly deposited into your account. When the value of the share price increases, you make money too!

Those wanting a more stable form of passive income without having to invest too much money in the market should consider putting money into a savings account, CD or bond. These are all ways to make income passively, as it will naturally grow interest. CDs and government bonds provide some of the highest interest with the lowest risk. You could even get into peer-to-peer lending – this involves giving money to someone as a loan and making your money back plus interest you charge to the person.

The great thing about passive income is that you don’t have to do much once the initial work is over – you just sit back and watch the money come in.  The more sources of passive income you set up, the more you’ll earn – and you’ll barely have to lift a finger to earn it.

Sell Your Clutter

This is another easy way to make money when you need a quick boost of income. Many of us have unwanted possessions that are valuable – these could be unwanted gifts, old hobby equipment, inherited belongings, or items that we’re simply hanging onto out of sentimental value. By selling these items, you can turn that junk into a decent sum of money.
There’s an almost unlimited amount of ways to sell your clutter. You can start locally, by holding a garage sale or estate sale, or try selling them at an auction or consignment store. Even easier, you can sell your stuff online through sites like the Facebook Marketplace, or eBay, or Declutter – even Amazon! Why limit yourself to local customers when you can sell to people all over the country – even the world!

Make Money Doing Things You Love

Many of us have hobbies that we could monetize if we wanted to. A level of skill may be needed to turn a hobby into a profession, but quite often it’s not as much skill as you may think.

If you play a sport and you’re passionate about it, you could make money teaching this sport to other people, or maybe coaching in some way.  Say you play a musical instrument – you could try making money performing (this could be anything from a dive bar to a local venue), or you could become a tutor.  If you’re good at making things with your hands, like baking, or making jewelry, you can easily make money selling the things you create locally or on stores like Etsy.

You don’t have to turn these hobbies into fully-fledged businesses – it could just be a side hustle to make a few extra bucks here and there. However, if you do decide to turn it into a business, it could be a way to make a decent income doing something you enjoy. While you may be dedicating lots of hours to it, when it’s something you enjoy, it may not always feel like a job.

After all, if you like doing something, is it really work?

Leverage Time to Find More Passive income Opportunities

The best business owners are able to cut down their hours by simplifying tasks and what’s needed from them. This could include things like simplifying administration tasks, to using accounting software to automate the process of book-keeping – maybe even outsourcing a company to take care of marketing.

The point is, with less time needed for you to be at work, you can use this free time to follow through on more passive income opportunities without disrupting the overall work/life balance.

Conclusion

The message that can be taken away from all of these earning strategies is that it’s not how hard you work that determines how much you earn, but how you work. And the how makes all the difference.

Whether that’s asking for a raise, selling your junk or buying stocks, there are multiple ways you can earn some side income while doing very little work.

By implementing different income earning strategies, some of them passive, you can accomplish a lot without doing much at all.