Every day opportunities are missed because people who want to make extra money aren't paying attention.

Consider this conversation at a local post office.

"Beautiful day, isn't it," Ben said as he pulled out a grocery sales flyer from his post office box.

"Yeah, just gorgeous," Ron inserted his key and looked at his bills.

"One of these days I'm going to have to get my hedges in shape. What with spring coming on and all," Ben said.

"Oh, I don't envy you one bit, I have to do that every year," Ron said.

"So you have the tools?" Ben asked.

"Sure," Ron said. "Well, you have a good day, Ben. See ya tomorrow."

Now, Ron has bills to pay and every penny counts for his family, but he missed an opportunity. He has the tools and the knowledge to trim hedges. He had an acquaintance that needs help and would likely be willing to pay. Ron seemed to dismiss the encounter as small talk at the post office, but what if he had seized the opportunity - even in his spare time?

Ben would have found someone to trim his hedges and Ron would have had extra income. I have to believe that there would have been other opportunities to continue this type of work when others saw what a great job Ron was able to do for Ben.

It could be that the thought of trimming hedges never did sound fun to Ron so it was easy to dismiss the conversation as idle talk, but when there is a financial need there are many ways to look at opportunities. It's possible you might even feel like you are searching for nickels and dimes, but they do add up.

Every town in America seems to have at least one handyman. This is an individual who knows enough about a lot of things to make him useful in a variety of projects that others don't want to do. More than likely these handy folk got their start by paying attention to the fact that someone needed a skill they possessed.

When these individuals successfully complete assignments they may have been asked to attempt another project. Most handymen have more work than they know what to do with. Why? Because they have discovered that by living by the old motto, "No job is too small" they are likely to have an abundance of work and multiple satisfied customers who do a pretty good job of word of mouth advertising.

This article seemed to point in one particular direction for coming up with a moneymaking idea, but the same would hold true if you were a seamstress and overheard someone needing help with a dress for prom. It would work if you are 14 years old and you're looking for summer mowing jobs. It would work if you are fifteen and overhear someone talking about the need for a babysitter.

In every instance the same rule applies - pay attention, there's opportunity out there.