With the holidays quickly approaching, you may be worried about funding the expense. While the holidays can certainly put a strain on the pocket book, there are things you can do to help cover the costs. Whether you start a gift basket or T-shirt business, you can make extra cash for the holidays. Here are five awesome seasonal business ideas to help raise holiday cash.

Gift Basket Business

A gift basket business is wonderful for those who love to be creative and know where to find great deals. The idea is to find small items that can be used to create gift baskets in local discount stores and on clearance racks. You then add all the goodies to a beautiful basket (which can be purchased wholesale) and wrap the basket to fit the occasion. For example, you might purchase a large popcorn bowl and fill it with movie-size boxes of candy, microwavable popcorn, bottles of soda and a recent hit movie and charge $50.

Craft Business

If you’re the crafty-type, why not start a craft business? There are a number of companies devoted to crafters – the most popular being Etsy. Here you can post and sell your crafts for an extremely low price. Choose something that is easy for you to make, load your store full of goodies, and watch the money roll in. Taking advantage of holidays with themed merchandise (Chinese New Year lanterns anyone?) can also increase traffic.

Costume Business

There are a number of reasons people need costumes in the fall and winter seasons. First of all, people need costumes for Halloween. Offering custom-made Halloween costumes can bring in a great amount of money and all it requires is fabric and sewing skills. People will also need costumes for Christmas plays. You could even mend and hem clothing as a side business.

Gig Business

Are you good at graphic designing, marketing, blogging or offering advice? Then you may want to consider posting jobs through companies like Fiverr. These websites allow you to make money offering quick and easy gigs. For example, if you’re good at graphic design, you might create logos for companies.

T-shirt Business

Last, but not least, if you’re good with catchy phrases, you may want to consider starting a T-shirt business. Thanks to companies like CafePress and Spreadshirt, you can easily create T-shirts, mugs, tote bags and more. This will require hard work marketing your products, but it can be a great way to make extra money for the holidays.

Don’t let the holidays get you down. Even if you’re strapped for cash, you can create a business that will help you cover the costs.

About the Author: Quinton Norrix has worked hard to start his own business and finds that one of the most difficult aspects is financing, no matter how small or large your business. He has worked hard on finding ebay sellers funding and has grown his store to something that can help to sustain him all year, not just during the holidays.

Photo: Bic Stock Photo

Tags: crafts, entrepreneurship, holidays