Most of us find it difficult to make the ends meet with the income earned from the primary job alone. The cost of living keeps climbing up at breakneck pace while the meager incomes crawl lazily. As a result millions of Americans have now become creative and have devised ways to earn those extra bucks. It seems like every one is doing one side job or other to keep their lives going with the extra income.

One simple way to augment your income is to invest your money in mutual funds and annuities, as the financial experts would advise you to do. But how can you invest if you don't have enough to pay for your current expenses? However, some people have come up with the idea of running errands to earn the extra money to invest.

That's right: making money to run errands. Grocery shopping, gift shopping, running movies back, picking up dry cleaning, and a host of other rather tedious activities can all handled by you, for a profit of course! While some people simply do not have enough money to do the things they want in life, other people just plain do not have the time. If you are one of those people with time to spare and not the cash, then you need to get out there and start tending to the errands of those without the time to run them.

The best part about this is that you will not need to invest much to start your business. All you need is a computer and a cell phone. The computer is necessary to help track business expenses, generate invoices, and perform general bookkeeping duties. And, the cell phone is important so that your clients can access you. You have to obtain the necessary business license, and some business cards and you are ready to start your errand service!

Remember, it takes time to build your clientele. Basically, you will have to rely on word of mouth because initially people may not be willing to pay you to run their errands. You have to be patient and persevering. Your honest and sincere efforts will help you succeed. In addition, you can try marketing in fitness clubs, coffee shops, and beauty salons where you can leave a business card for people to look at and get in touch with you.

You must carefully study the demographics of the market to know who you need to target. Then only you must try to build a customer base. The likely customers for an errand service are business professionals and small business owners. These people have enough money but no time to run their errands. So you can focus on targeting these people.

It's a good idea to start off by offering your services to friends and family for little to no charge. It will help you gain experience and build goodwill. It pays in the long run as you can then use these people as potential references to get more business.

Not many of us can think of running errands as a profitable means of earning money and making big bucks. But ask anyone with established errand service. They make an easy $15 to $100 for an hour for their services. It is a growing field with lot of untapped potential for unlimited income. What may start up as a part time profession for extra income might just end up being a full time business giving you enough money for complete financial independence that might be difficult to come when your are into a job.