We were at a skating party for my grandson, and a small crowd was forming near the concession stand.

At the center of the group was someone in a life-sized Elmo costume, red fur from head to foot.

On the way in, Elmo had handed my husband his business card. I read the card and realized dressing up as Elmo was somebody’s job.

The owner of the suit proclaimed he could show up at a company event or birthday party as everyone’s favorite Muppet.

In these days where traditional jobs are getting harder to find, many people have decided to pave their own way for jobs a bit out of the ordinary.

My entrepreneurial nephew has a bitcoin machine mining money. The last time I visited their house, he smiled the whole time.

He said while we were watching the football game and eating mini hot dogs, he had a machine churning out money.

I’m not sure how much he’s making, but he loves believing he’s his own boss and following his own destiny.

One of the smelliest, but lucrative, odd jobs out there is picking up dog feces. They call themselves “scoop soldiers” and “pet waste removal specialists,” but don’t laugh. They’re making $40 to $45 an hour as a pooper-scooper.

I passed a house the other day and there was a van in the driveway specializing in mobile car washing service. The homeowners had three cars in the driveway in different stages of getting washed.

I Googled the business, and the basic wash and dry was $50 with prices going all the way up to $219.

That’s the price for a “vehicle enhancement service” for one car. SUV’s and trucks are easily $50 more.

You can also get paid to stand in line for people. Nobody wants to wait in line, especially in the Texas heat.

I recently passed the DMV office, and the line was out the door and down the sidewalk past four or five offices.

Somebody had the ingenious idea of renting themselves out as a line holder for people. They might be getting the last laugh. Line holders can make up to $40,000 a year.

If you love seeing life color-coded and organized into see-through boxes and baskets, you can get paid to declutter someone’s house.

You’ll never run out of work because most of us have a tough time getting rid of “stuff.”

Along with decluttering, people pay big bucks for someone to organize their bathrooms and kitchens.

You can tackle the job yourself, but buyer beware. You’ll easily spend hundreds of dollars for fancy see-through containers, a Cricut labeling machine — $200 on Amazon – and woven baskets.

And your kids will still stand in front of your perfectly organized pantry and proclaim there’s nothing to eat.

If you like working in the kitchen, there’s a couple of jobs for you. One of the most popular is a sideline cake baking business.

You need a fancy mixer, counter and refrigerator space and the ability to create The Hulk or Elsa out of butter and sugar.

You also need to know what the following words mean:  fondant, buttercream icing, royal icing, ganache, marzipan, and gum paste.

This home business might not be for you if those words sound like a foreign language.

If you can whip up a delicious King Ranch Chicken casserole dish, throw together a tossed salad and bake a pan of brownies, people will compensate you to make their dinner. Not bad if you like spending time in the kitchen and getting paid for it.

So if you’re looking for an outside job, consider dressing up as one of your favorite superheroes or rolling up your sleeves and throwing away people’s junk.

Who knows? In the words of organizing guru Marie Kondo, you might spark joy in your customers’ lives and your own as you follow your sideline job dream.

 

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.