How to make money while working in a shop

A self employed friend of mine runs a shop but has a lot of free time when there are no customers. Is there anything that is income generating she could do while waiting for customers to come in.

Sell on EBay?

Online poker?

research new suppliers, products and markets ?

Write a novel ?

Study for some professional exams in accounting / business or open university which could increase her earning potential eventually?

Exercise on a static bicycle ? health is the best wealth

Ring her elderly aunt/grandma/cousin regularly and butter her up for an eventual inheritance ? lol

Restock the shelves?

Thanks for all the advice, any more ideas, shelves are fully stocked Clubman I think it's a quiet time before Xmas. She has gone down the route of new products. Don't understand about ebay, you mean sell stock on ebay? I'll discuss that with her but her area is not suitable for that I don't think.

Separate all the BOGOF items that are packaged together and sell them separately despite the 'not to be sold separately' print on the labels. This is done constantly in my local symbol store.

Bronte said:

A self employed friend of mine runs a shop but has a lot of free time when there are no customers. Is there anything that is income generating she could do while waiting for customers to come in.

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Typing or data input work?

Maybe she should reduce the opening hours of the shop?

Maybe focus on the business she has and try and get more people through the door?

If you give an indication of what type of shop maybe we could come up with some ideas?

Bronte - it sounds to me like it is not 'free' time to be spent on other endeavours, but 'under-utilised' time to work on initiatives to support the core business.

If there are no customers physically walking in, or that can't be coaxed in through sales/marketing initiatives, then here are some ideas she may consider (please forgive me if I am way out, but I don't know the exact type of business - am assuming something retail like a gift shop or fashion store etc.):
- utilise some methods to level out demand to fill the troughs: alternative product offerings; change range of stock on a more frequent basis to create fresh/surprise look; develop complementary service offering (e.g. repairs/ rework/ after sales support such as follow-up communication or offers to existing customers/ sell insurance or financing options...)
- go down the "experience" route in the store which may keep existing customers there longer (provide coffee area; internet access...)
- develop web site, and sell from that. Utilise spare time maintaining the site, and running operations from it;
- 'insource' as many activities as possible. For example, is she outsourcing her accounts? Perhaps paperwork, accounts, budgets etc. can be done at that time?;
- spend time focusing on backend activities (non-sales), which might reduce cost, e.g. better sourcing, negotiation with existing suppliers, tranportation/distribution cost management...
- share capacity with related businesses in the area (common stock areas or maybe they all share off-peak sales times and can pool sales staff?)
- read around the topic. Some good ideas on this site: ... in paricular, the Zara case study Retail @ The Speed of Fashion: Case Study

I know someone who had a small shop like that....a lot of shops in Ireland, especially in seasonal rural locations eg seaside town, are quiet in the off season. The owner used to suppliment his income by writing books ( I heard they were books aimed at the childrens market ). Amazing what you can do if you put your head to it. It reminds me of someone else I know who used to have spare time at her job in the eighties - she was a civil servant then - and she used to do knitting at work , and make a few extra bob that way.