Day 2: Vagrant-esque

As summertime draws to a close, its most notable feature, heat, often follows – at least in the northern United States. However, if you live in a year-round warm region, I have bear news (northerners, come back next summer). While it may appear overly simple, lowly, or desperate, the sale of water is a particularly easy way to earn some additional income for our day 2 strategy.

We've all seen them as we stop at an intersection – seemingly homeless people beckoning for passersby to purchase a cold drink on a hot day. But the business is not just for vagrants. Here's how it works (you might have heard of the water experiment, which is closely related to this method):

Buy bulk bottles of water, generic brand if possible. For a 24-pack it $3- $4 dollars is reasonable. Assuming a conservative estimate of a $5 cost, selling the water bottles individually for a fair $1 will yield a quick $19 profit.

Not so fast – we need to get hounded with expenses, first. Most most of us have a cooler lying about somewhere, so let's utilize it. Unfortunately, that means we need some ice to go with it. Either we can salvage some from our freezer (as many refrigerators offer easy access to their ice chunks), or we can pay $.99 for a bag of ice. Let's shave off another buck or so, and we're left with $17 - $18 per 24-pack.

But how long will it take to sell? In my experience, on days >90 F, 24 sales should take roughly ten minutes on a rather large street. >80 F, and it may take an hour. It all depends on numerous factors like the humidity, the day (weekends vs weekdays), and the time of day. If possible, vie for a busy traffic time like rush hour to trap as many customers as possible.

There's one more factor: advertising. This can be a sign on the shirt or a sharpie to the shirt, but either way, make it crude or lose some money.

Logistics: On hot days, carry three bottles in one hand to optimize carrying capacity. Alternatively, fashion some sort of fanny-pack or perhaps mobilize your cooler. This will help insure no potential buyer leave empty handed.

Now then, the profits aren't great, but if it's a scorcher, you can make quite a bit with the proper materials. Here's to earnings!