The FINANCIAL — Making extra money beyond your steady paycheck may seem risky to some people but it actually pays off in Georgia.
You might be a student and can’t commit to a full time job or are now getting inadequate compensation at work. It doesn’t matter, as the tips given below can help you stumble across methods to earn some extra cash, by opting for the one that best suits your skills.
If you’re good at IT then make full use of web-business:
When Bachana Kuprashvili, 19 year old student of Free University, found it extremely hard to combine studies with a full time job, he decided to make a smart decision – to open up his own web-studio, namely – “Orange.ge”. Since then he has been making fairly good money through building websites for various companies right from the comfort of his home or even from the university campus.
As he notes, web-business is the most perspective one in the 21st century. “Companies in Georgia which build websites make their company’s brand awareness instantaneously spruced-up in the public eye. This is one of the reasons why the demand for IT specialists is high in Georgia,” claims Kuprashvili.
“Since my childhood (13 years old), I have been learning how to build and programme websites so as to make them easy to use and full of different functions. Little by little I familiarised myself with all the techniques that were necessary to independently run my own web-business. Hence when I was 18 years old I registered my own studio and I now work from home or any place I feel comfortable,” he told The FINANCIAL.
“Web-business is very profitable as all you need is knowledge of how to make a web-studio in which you can offer website creation as well as hosting. Very few resources are needed to realize this but at the same time you can eke out fairly good money.
If you’ve a server, and of course know software well you can start it right away. As most IT companies are charging thousands of USD to build a website, I’m doing it for minimum 60 USD and max. 300 USD – this is quite cheap for businesses hence the demand is high as well,” noted Bachana.
“I’ve already built dozens of sites for restaurants, hotels/guest houses, fashion websites, etc (like angel.ge, tamarioni.ge). Currently I’m working on orders from two companies which I will finish soon.”
“There are other new studios opening up because of the demand on the market which is why I’m trying my best to offer high quality technical support in order for my customers to be satisfied with the service I offer,” concluded Bachana.
Make money by asking questions:
Any time you watch TV, read newspapers/books or just hear an intriguing story, don’t miss the chance to turn it into a question which can later be posed on “what, where, when” – the popular TV programme, and make extra money for you.
This is what Giorgi and his mother do once every 3 months; collecting questions and posting them on moazrovne.net. As they told The FINANCIAL, every year they make at least 1,000 GEL, sometimes even more, depending on the complexity of the questions (one question can win 300-600 GEL).
Start a Blog:
Even if you’re not good at software but know basic computer programmes such as Word and the internet, then you can start a blog where you have space for the discussion of various issues concerning you or the surrounding environment. While updating posts on your blog regularly you can earn some money indirectly, that is to say by people putting their company’s ad banners on your blog.
Income from blogs predominantly depends on the number of unique visitors to your site whilst the visitors also depend on how useful/interesting the content you create is. As blogger Archil told us, approximately 300 unique visitors are needed to make 100-200 GEL income per month from ads.
“Online advertising on blogs can be of different kinds: direct advertising – when people put their banners on your blog; hence paying about 70-100 GEL on average per month. Then also through adspay.ge, adsboom.ge, which collect ads from various companies and then decide whether to place ads on your site depending on the popularity (number of visitors) of the blog,” said Archil.
“The most popular content management systems through which people start blogs are: wordpress.com, Blogger.com, livejounal.com, drupal.com, typepad.com. In addition there are already Georgian systems created like Blog.ge where all the instructions are given in Georgian.” added Archil.
Start working part-time at a restaurant:
Fast food restaurants in Georgia often put vacancies on the internet, notifying one of jobs of various kinds for young people, flexible for students as well.
This is how David found a vacancy for restaurant Elvis on the internet. “At first I thought it was strange to work in a fast food restaurant but when I looked at the vacancy detailing the flexible times for students I decided to try it out,” he noted.
“I sent in my C.V. giving general info about myself, my language skills and included a motivational letter, and about 2 weeks later they called me and invited me in for an interview. At the interview the manager discussed the general situation in the catering sector and their goals in the market. The very next step was for me to choose a role in the restaurant, to be a waiter, barman or cleaner. So I chose waiter and the salary was quite acceptable for a second year student at that time. 6 to 7 hours workload a day with a monthly salary of 500 GEL,” said David.
“I stayed there for a year and a few months but as I was finishing university I decided to quit the job and now I’m in a MA place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.” David told The FINANCIAL.
Become a freelance journalist:
If you’re good at writing articles/short stories then freelance journalism could be your part time occupation.
Tako Guledani, who works as a freelance journalist for monthly publication, magazine “Favorite” (in Georgian) writes 2 to 3 articles for the magazine. “I think for students, especially those studying journalism, freelancing is a good practice as well as good source of income especially if you’re working for several newspapers/journals and sell your stories there,” said Guledani.
“Now I’m getting 70-80 GEL per article but as the publication is monthly I write about 3-4 articles a month so as not to take up all the paper myself. Currently I’m not a member of the staff; although if I were then I could have a salary in addition to what I make per article,” Guledani told The FINANCIAL.
Become an online shareholder:
Trading with shares is largely presented on the internet. The only thing you need to have is knowledge of either English or Russian, a small sum of money to bid with, and good knowledge of running a shares’ business, namely knowing when to sell and when not to.
Rudolph Kartashev, 19 year old student of IBSU (Int. Black Sea University), has for four years already been occupied with trading shares on different platforms, mainly on shareholder.ru. “The system of operations there is nearly the same as on the real stock market, the main plus is that you do all the operations from home, even with “chips and Cola” in your hand if you wish. As a start, a person needs everything but a very large sum, sometimes even 10-100 GEL is enough,” claims Kartashev.
“Then you enter the website and seek the online business whose shares are of little risk, but are stable and reliable. If you wish to have long-term relationships with the business, rather good dividends are sometimes given out weekly to attract more investors,” he said.
After you have chosen an appropriate investing opportunity there are three ways of making money:
• Speculation – it means that you purchase the share at a smaller price and hold it until the price goes up.
• Dividends – you just purchase shares of businesses that seem to be of very little risk and receive dividends normally. They are paid every month but to stimulate operations some businesses give them out every week. Dividends are divided between shareholders according to the scheme Gross Profit/Number of Shareholders.
• New starting business – you just wait until a new business starts and purchase its share at a nominal price. The major risk is that compared to those existing in the market, a new one has the possibility to fail although then again its price may triple very suddenly. Therefore it is a bit risky, however can be rewarding.
“I started this shareholding business nearly 4 years ago now, with initial testing investment of 10 GEL, which brought me profit of 2 GEL in 1 month. At that time I was inexperienced but later on my operations became rather profitable, and net profit margin was 10-15%. Not to go into detail but in the last 10 days investment of 47 USD brought me 60 GEL from speculation operations,” claims Kartashev.
“With the money I earn, most of it I use for reinvesting in shares to get a higher profit or I fill my mobile account whenever I want, although I can withdraw the money any time,” noted Kartashev.
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