A 100%+ Return On Investment

With the stock market being so uncertain of late and me being without a job, I've been looking for options in the event that I may not find a job before my unemployment runs out or if I'm forced to take a lower paying job. Since I know it's most likely that I will find a job with less pay than I'm used to, I've been trying to think of some way to supplement my income aside from my usual investments.

I did a little research and found that I could purchase a professional steam carpet cleaning machine for around $500. I have cleaned carpets in the past both on the job and as a favor to friends and family members. So this would not be a new thing for me, however I would own the machine instead of renting it.

Going by the number of carpets I usually clean in the spring of each year, it would be no problem at all for me to average at least 3 jobs per month. My average net per job, after expenses, is usually around $50. If I did 3 jobs per month and cleared $150 total, I would make $1,800 per year. Not a life changing amount, but it would fund my IRA or would pay a couple of my bills per month.

Knowing that I may not always do 3 jobs per month, I re-figured the return on investment if I averaged less than 2 jobs per month. If I only manage to do 20 jobs per year and clear $50 per job, I would still make $1,000 total. With an initial investment of $500, that works out to a 100% return on investment for the first year. If I continued to do 20 jobs per year after the first year, I would make a 200% return on my initial investment each year. If you figure the life of the machine will be at least 10 years, my $500 investment would grow to a whopping $10,000! Still not a life changing amount, but it's nothing to sneeze at either. With just a little extra effort I could easily earn as much as $20 to $30 thousand over the same 10 years.