{"id":6665,"date":"2016-11-29T19:56:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T19:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/?p=6665"},"modified":"2025-09-03T15:25:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:25:36","slug":"ditch-santa-suit-get-real-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/tips\/ditch-santa-suit-get-real-job\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Ditch the Santa Suit &#038; Make Some Real Money"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>It was around this time a couple years ago that I struggled to rub two dollars together.<\/h2>\n<p>I was trying to ride the train of seasonal work and cash in like most post grads. I applied for all the normally seasonal jobs but the thought of standing in a retail store with people asking me about Troll dolls sounded like the worst idea in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, a friend of mine who had previously hooked me up with a Big Dog mascot gig, called me up, wanting to know if I wanted some extra cash playing Santa in a Gold Coast shopping mall. I remember being Big Dog was some of the easiest money I\u2019d ever made. I just stood around all day waving and hugging people. So, how hard is it to play Santa?<\/p>\n<h2>Turns out, it was the worst four days of my life.<\/h2>\n<p>I realise now that if you\u2019re going to play Santa, it helps to be an older man (or woman), bearded and to enjoy kids. I was quite the opposite: 28. No beard. Didn\u2019t like kids. This had Bad Santa written all over it. Just imagine sitting in a full Santa costume, baking in the Gold Coast sun, with parents leaving their screaming kids with you like you\u2019re a free babysitter. What made me really chuck a berko was when my rugby mates found out where I was, each taking their turn on hungover Santa\u2019s knee to tell me what they wanted for Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, I got cash, but after those four horrific days, I pledged never to make the same mistake again. Extra cash for minimal effort was my new theme.<\/p>\n<h2>With Christmas and New Year\u2019s coming up everyone is looking for an easy alternative to make that extra cash. Luckily, 2016 has been the year of the sharing economy.<\/h2>\n<p>What\u2019s the sharing economy? If you\u2019ve ever bought and sold on eBay or Kogan.com (now worth $315 million), or even used Airbnb to find a cheap place to stay while traveling instead of a hotel, well, you\u2019ve used the sharing economy. The online market is hot and Australians are purchasing more products online than ever. All the purchases have to get from point A to B and now the sharing economy has evolved to moving things. Simple.<\/p>\n<h2>Become a part-time courier on uShip! I don&#8217;t have a holiday house I can rent and I don&#8217;t have anything to sell, but I do drive a lot. Mostly with an empty Ute.<\/h2>\n<p>Ever since I bought my Ute I receive calls from my mates on the weekends asking for help to move as they are sick of removalist prices. Sometimes the jobs are small like moving a fridge or dishwasher, but other times it was a full move. Depending on the friend they would pay me for the help, that&#8217;s when I started to look for spare jobs that could do on the weekend, holidays or after my shift.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/learn\/carriers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">I stumbled on uShip<\/a>, it has everything large and crazy that needs transporting. I fill up the extra space in my Ute and that pays for the petrol and other times I&#8217;ll borrow a friends truck and move a car or a big load interstate for more cash. People use uShip move everything like cars, motorbikes, pets and household items, it\u2019s a site based on normal people looking to save some money (and I\u2019m looking to make some).<\/p>\n<p>There is a change happening in Australia where people are tired of paying for services at ridiculous prices and people are looking for choices, hence the boom of UBER in Australia. It won&#8217;t be long before the sharing economy takes to transportation and enables normal people to make cash for something that they are doing anyway.<\/p>\n<p>When I started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">uShip<\/a> I was looking for weekend work. Now I use uShip full time, it has given me the financial freedom and the choice to run my own business in my time doing what I am good at.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, if you have to see your in-laws for Christmas, then you may as well make money on the way. It definitely beats the Australian Summer Santa.<\/p>\n<h3>Drive safe out there.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was around this time a couple years ago that I struggled to rub two dollars together. I was trying to ride the train of seasonal work and cash in like most post grads. I applied for all the normally seasonal jobs but the thought of standing in a retail store with people asking me&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/tips\/ditch-santa-suit-get-real-job\/\"> Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":6668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips"],"acf":{"blog_post_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"blog_post_entry_footer","blog_post_entry_footer_cta":[{"blog_post_entry_footer_cta_url":"https:\/\/learn.uship.com\/au\/carriers\/#getting-started","blog_post_entry_footer_cta_text":"Become a Carrier Today!","blog_post_entry_footer_onclick":""}]}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}