Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2010 during the economic crisis; the prices and earnings it cites, such as fees for Santa, party prices and daily lottery-ticket resale income, reflect that time.
We are approaching the biggest shopping season of the year, although this year it is expected to be leaner because of the crisis. Even so, with a little ingenuity and a few good business ideas, we can make some money this Christmas. Below are some reasonably profitable businesses that need very little investment and pay back the money invested quickly.
Some of the ideas we are about to show may seem a little humiliating to some readers, depending on the country they are reading us from, but that does not make them any less effective at generating income.
Father Christmas, or Santa Claus
He is a very present figure at this time of year, so we can make him our ally to earn not just a little extra money but a rather lucrative income.
I am not talking about asking Santa for help; I am talking about becoming him for 20 days. Some people feel this idea “hurts” their pride, but look on the bright side: behind a costume, with a beard that covers your face and an enormous belly, you can go pretty much unnoticed 🙂
The job in this business is very simple. You sit the children on your lap and listen to the presents they are asking for, or collect their letters. You give each child a few sweets and that’s it. Some people charge between €1 and €3 for this. Anything more would be a bit excessive, in my view. You can always ask people to pay whatever they like, though.
Find a strategic spot, or talk to a shopping centre that will let you do this in exchange for a small rent for the space or a small commission on sales. Check your city’s rules on commercial activity so you don’t break them, and you are all set.
With this business idea, some people make a profit of around €60–70 on an ordinary day and up to €250 on an exceptional one (depending on the location). Your only investment will be the costume, the sweets… a chair?
Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
This business idea is more complex, but also more profitable if you know how to run it and are able to pull it off. Here we focus on those two nights, since they are the nights when going out to celebrate Christmas and the New Year seems almost compulsory.
I am talking about parties, or cotillones as they are known in Spain, where all you need is a venue and a fixed price per person. In the past, an all-inclusive cotillón used to cost around €50–60. Last year there were already offers for €40. Even so, if it is well organised, at €30 a head and with a minimum of 100 people, it is a perfectly profitable business.
The advantage of this business is that you can start taking bookings for the party right now, promoting it among friends and acquaintances, advertising it on social networks to people in your city, and so on.
Since bookings are paid in advance, you can start the business with the money they bring in, which keeps the investment simple. You will know beforehand how many people are coming, so you can hire staff on the basis of a market study that is already done. Still, if the date is approaching and you see you are not going to hit your targets, drop it. Back out and return the money.
Hope
If there is one thing people invest in at Christmas, it is hope: the hope of winning the Christmas lottery (Spain’s huge Christmas draw, whose top prize is known as El Gordo). Most people know there is only a tiny chance that the jackpot will fall in their own province, so they also try to buy tickets from other provinces, preferably from lottery outlets that sold the winning ticket the year before or have paid out prizes several years in a row.
See also: 8 ideas for earning extra income
Some people make extra income by buying 100, 200 or 1,000 tickets from those outlets and then reselling them in their own city. If a lottery ticket (a décimo) costs €20, they will charge you €22, and some even €23.
The problem with this business is that you have to put up the money in advance, unless you reach an agreement with the outlet to pay for the tickets once you have sold them. As long as they trust you, it is a very workable arrangement, and some outlets are even delighted with it.
You may think this business is not profitable, but I can assure you that a hard-working person can make as much as €200 in a day.
Raffles
Another lucrative business that appears at Christmas is raffles or prize draws. It is a very profitable business, but perhaps a lot of “work”, and the only option is to put up the capital in advance.
You have to go to the official body that runs the state lotteries and betting in your country, where you buy several lottery numbers and have them split into shares, so you will have the added cost of printing. You can raffle a Christmas hamper, a moped, or whatever suits what you plan to sell (or rather, what you are able to sell), and then it is a matter of working out your costs and profits. In most cases, the raffle business ends up with a positive return.
That said, I know of several cases: people who made a lot of money with this business because they sold all their shares, and people who did not sell them all (although you can return the shares you don’t sell) and, on top of that, found that the prize they were giving away cost them more than the shares they had sold.
I hope some of these Christmas business ideas are helpful to you.
Further reading
- Small business ideas to make money in summer
- 10 business ideas that need no investment
- Business ideas for making an old farm or country house pay
- How to find business ideas
Featured image: Chicken4War, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
