Driving around any big or even small city during the summer you will very often run into young men on street corners selling this substance, which is also known as water.
They stand on the side of the road or in an island in the roadway next to a big cooler full of ice cold water bottles. You give them a dollar and they give you a bottle. If you have ever been stuck in traffic on a hot day with an under-performing air conditioner, you know these guys are lifesavers.
They generally look like they are having fun and are doing swift business. Why can’t you do that?
The beauty of this second job is that it takes virtually no start-up money. You probably have a cooler. You can make ice or buy it for a buck or two. As for the water bottles, they can be cheaply purchased from any grocery store. Look at for specials. Trader Joe’s, for example, often sells their brand of water at a steep discount, sometimes for under 20 cents a bottle. Going to a warehouse club also makes sense. Buy in bulk for best prices. The internet is also a good place to look, but watch out for shipping costs.
While the free exchange of money for goods or services may be a natural right that all people ought to enjoy, your state or local governments hate you for your freedom. It is possible that they may require that you obtain some sort of peddlers license and collect sales tax.
It is worth going up to the people on the corner in your community selling this substance and asking them if they have ever been bothered by the police or other authorities. My experience seeing these guys sell water has been in Baltimore. I have never seen or heard of the police bothering these people because they just have more serious things to do. From my prior experience working in the courts there, I have never seen anyone prosecuted for engaging in this sort of trade. But while the relaxed attitude toward this unlicensed business may exist in some big cities, in smaller communities the authorities often enjoy hassling people for every minor infraction.
If you are made to get a license and collect a tax, find out how much it is. If you are buying the bottles for 25 cents and selling them for a dollar, you are making 75 cents per transaction, minus your other minor costs, such as ice. If you have to pay 5 to 10 cents in tax per transaction, you are still making 65 cents per transaction. If you sell 100 bottles a day, you are still bringing home $65 just for standing around. Of course, if you are collecting sales tax and have a license, be sure to declare this as income on your taxes. After those parasites get their cut you may find that it was not worth your time. Still if you can do sales at a big volume, there could be some money in the trade left.
I should also say, even though they will only waste your money doing harmful things and even though you could probably get away with not paying any taxes on your money if you used some basic common sense, it is my official advice that you do not hide any income and pay taxes on it.
Another thing to consider is whether or not the corner or intersection you want to work at is already occupied. Drug dealers are notorious for blowing off the heads of people who tread into their territory. I’m not saying that anything that violent will necessarily happen to you, but you ought to take precautions. Find an intersection that does not usually have other merchants out there. Also, protect yourself with a gun or other weapon, as allowed by law. Even if you don’t have competition out there, you also have to worry about robberies since you are dealing with cash. Obviously don’t work much past dark and keep an eye out for trouble.
Save up your cash and put it aside. You’ll be using that money as you move up to get started on some of the other, more advanced plans, in this book.
