Summer's here, and opportunities for quick money abound. If you're a recent graduate, a teacher or student off for the summer , or anyone else looking for some quick cash, summer's a great time to start a business.

40+ Legitimate Ways to Earn Money as a Stay-at-Home-Mom - Red and Honey

With a little money, some hard work, and a lot of entrepreneurial spirit, you can start turning a profit immediately. And all of these ideas are things you can still walk away from in September if you want to. There are plenty of public places that don't have snack bars, and even the convenience store's just not convenient enough.

Bottled water, sports drinks, visors, cheap sunglasses, and battery-powered fans will sell anywhere there's sunshine.

Try parks, the beach, baseball practice field, or even a busy street corner near popular summer destinations. Transportation, a decent cooler 28 quart or larger , four bags of ice, two cases of bottled water, two cases of sports drinks, a half-dozen sunglasses, a half-dozen visors, and a half-dozen battery-powered fans. Buy the sunglasses, visors, and fans at your local dollar store for starters.

How much you can make: Even buying at retail prices, you should be able to charge double or triple your cost, or even more for the bottled water. Once you've figured out which products are moving best, you can order them wholesale at a fraction of the cost.

Things to watch out for: Check into your local sales tax requirements. Also, permits may be required at beaches, parks, and other public areas. People who care for their own yard the rest of the year may not want to keep up with it in the summer, when it needs to be mowed every weeks at least where I live.

And full-time professional yard maintenance services want to set up regular contracts. Offer a low price and don't try to push the ongoing contracts. Drive through neighborhoods looking for yards that need mowing and leave a flyer. It's hard work, but decent money if you control your costs. It will take a couple of dollars of gas per yard, and figure another dollar or so for trimmer line, mower blades, etc.

If you don't have too much travel time, you should be able to do each yard in less than an hour. Hire a friend to help.

Offer additional services, such as weeding, planting, landscaping, etc. Equipment maintenance can eat up all your profits very quickly.

13 Great Ways to Make Extra Money this Summer | Sprout Wealth

Keep it well-oiled, clean, and sharp. Also, don't chintz on the equipment. The right equipment will allow you to work twice as fast. The wrong equipment will make some yards impossible.

Summer is family vacation time, and someone has to watch the pets and take the mail and newspaper in when everybody leaves for a week or two. If you can target your marketing to families, that will be most effective. Flyers and a couple of classifieds in your local papers, insurance, transportation. Offer additional services such as house cleaning and pet grooming that can be done while you're there.

Trust is everything in this business. Be prepared to provide personal references. Network with everyone you know to let them know you're looking for this kind of work. Referrals will be your best lead source. Transportation, business cards to leave on windshields, portable vacuum, a bucket, sponges, chamois, cleaning supplies.

Know the Environmental Protection Agency regulations on the chemicals you use and local water usage rules. For working parents of school-age kids, summer presents a real challenge.

Summer camp may take care of a few weeks, a family trip another week or two, but then what about the rest of the summer? Find two or three families, or one with several kids, and take care of the kids during the day. Clean, reliable transportation, some classified ads, a love of kids. It's less money than some of the other options, but it's generally easier work.

Take in more kids and turn into a home day care. Or, charge more for added services, like pet care or light house cleaning. Caring for multiple children not in the same family will generally require licensing and will require the facilities to meet certain requirements.

There's a big step from watching kids from families in one of their homes to watching kids in your own home. Some states have licensing requirements for nannies, as well.

Lots of free articles, plus information about government regulations for all U. Opportunities abound for the entrepreneurially-minded person with knowledge to share.

Some kids need help catching up on one or two subjects, homeschoolers usually school year 'round, and many parents put their kids in summer classes on a fun topic like science, drama, or creative writing.

You can tutor individual kids, or put together a group workshop or week-long class. Some advertising and a facility, if you want to do group classes. For a facility, check local community centers, YMCA, etc.

It takes the same amount of time to teach 20 kids as Generally, teaching short classes that are not for credit doesn't require any kind of special licensing, but check your local regulations to make sure that you don't end up falling under the day care regulations if you have multiple kids.

All of the above business ideas can be started on a minimal budget and bootstrapped by reinvesting some of your profits. While they have a seasonal element to them, they also all offer the potential of growing into a full-time, year-round business if you choose, but they're all also things you can walk away from in the fall. Search the site GO. Updated March 23, Tutoring and Teaching Opportunities abound for the entrepreneurially-minded person with knowledge to share.

Get Daily Money Tips to Your Inbox Email Address Sign Up. There was an error.

Please enter a valid email address. Personal Finance Money Hacks Your Career Small Business Investing About Us Advertise Terms of Use Privacy Policy Careers Contact.