Latest news with #GreenPal
Daily Mirror
03-06-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mirror
'Easy' remedy to kill weeds in gravel works 'almost immediately'
Weeds can be difficult to get rid of, with some gardeners even using vinegar and salt to remove them. However, an expert has shared a 'simple' and 'almost immediate' way to kill gravel weeds Weeds possess an extraordinary knack for flourishing in damp areas with minimal sunlight. Over time, gravel accumulates detritus from rainwater, dust, bird droppings and other elements (such as litter and fallen leaves), creating a fertile breeding ground for weeds. The seeds of weeds that prosper in gravel or on patios are spread by the wind, animals, or inadvertently hitch a ride on people's footwear. Once these seeds find a conducive environment - moist, warm, and humid - they begin to germinate and extend their roots. Gardening expert and GreenPal CEO shared his preferred methods for dealing with pesky gravel weeds. Drawing on his 22 years of experience in landscaping, Bryan has honed various techniques for combating weeds in gravelly spots. For those seeking a natural solution, he suggests using boiling water as a home remedy. He explained: "One method I've tested out is pouring boiling water on the weeds. The hot water burns the weeds and causes them to wilt and die almost immediately." Boiling water effectively collapses the plant's cellular structure, ultimately destroying it right down to the root, reports the Express. To apply this technique, start by boiling water in a kettle and transport it to the weed-infested gravel area. Don your gloves and exercise caution to avoid scalding yourself. Carefully pour the boiling water directly onto the weeds from a low height to minimize splashing and ensure maximum contact with the unwanted plants. Once the weeds have withered and seem lifeless, employ a screwdriver to loosen their roots before extracting them with a steady hand. Should this technique prove ineffective, Bryan recommends resorting to a chemical solution - Roundup. Roundup, which contains glyphosate, is favoured for its "effective" results, as per Bryan's assessment. Nonetheless, he consistently urges caution when using this herbicide, citing a study from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) that links exposure to a 41 percent increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
15 Side Gigs That Can Make You Richer Than a Full-Time Job
Earning extra money or having a steady stream of passive income on the side can be easy when you know what types of opportunities are out there. Whether you want to pay off student loan debt, start saving for a big-ticket purchase or build up a fund for the future, finding one of the best side gigs out there is a great way to reach your goal. Consider This: For You: Many money-makers in the gig economy pay so well that you might even consider giving up your full-time job. If you need a side gig to create extra income, read this list of viable options to create your own schedule and break out of the 9-to-5 grind. Average Salary: $55/hour Sign up as a vendor with GreenPal, a lawn care service and app that CEO Bryan Clayton describes as 'Uber for lawn care,' and make money mowing lawns. 'Many of our lawn care vendors are part-timers — some are firemen, some are teachers that use our app in the summer to make extra money; others are college students that work afternoons and weekends, and it is the perfect way for them to make extra money,' Clayton said. 'Our average vendor makes around $55 per hour mowing lawns on our system.' Average Salary: Set your own rates Become a Tasker and earn money by completing everyday errands and tasks for people in your area. All it takes is a visit to where you can select tasks you are willing to accomplish. After getting matched with individuals requesting service, you can proceed to do the job — and getting paid. When you pick a task, the website will show you hourly rates for the most qualified taskers. You will then be able to set your own price. All jobs require a minimum time commitment of one hour, and payments are made securely online. According to Time's profile of elite taskers, they have been paid up to $70 an hour to fold shirts, $65 an hour for heavy lifting and $80 for moving services. Trending Now: Average Salary: $80 to $150/project The side gig of frequent flyer specialist is perfect for those who travel often and understand how to maximize frequent flyer miles to receive the best deals. If this sounds like you, consider using your skills to help other travelers plan their itineraries. Experienced frequent flyer specialists can charge clients up to $150 for planning just one itinerary, according to a profile of a frequent flyer specialist on Budgets Are Sexy. Average Salary: $24/hour With this side gig — which typically pays $24.03 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter — your duties can include performing bank reconciliations, payroll needs and creating financial reports. Providing bookkeeping services to more than one company at once can increase your earning potential. If you have a bit more experience in this field, a senior accountant can make an average hourly pay of about $40. Taking accounting gigs can be a major moneymaker, and the job will require preparing statements and audits, documenting transactions and performing end-of-month tasks. To earn the high salary of a senior accountant, you typically need five years of experience, according to FlexJobs. Average Salary: $42/hour Share your knowledge with the world — remotely and on your own schedule — by becoming an online instructor. Computer and IT skills courses are especially in demand, according to FlexJobs. Average Salary: $32/hour Licensed sign language interpreters are hired by businesses and other entities to facilitate communication for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The average pay is $31.59 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter. Average Salary: $33/hour If you're a teacher looking to start a side gig outside of the classroom, consider becoming a curriculum writer. These professionals are hired to develop curricula and teaching guides. It's a gig that can pay $33 per hour, according to FlexJobs. Average Salary: $30/hour This gig involves conducting or teaching workshops, seminars or courses, as well as evaluating participants and developing the curricula for what you teach. According to FlexJobs, the pay starts at $30 an hour. Average Salary: $28/hour It's possible to find executive assistant positions that are remote and part-time if you already have a few years of experience under your belt, according to FlexJobs. You can often work as an in-house or virtual assistant and duties can include setting up meetings, responding to emails, tracking appointments and more. Average Salary: $100/hour Turn your area of expertise into extra money in your pocket with consultant work. These professionals are hired by an organization to review its processes and provide advice to improve its performance. According to FlexJobs, IT is a particularly lucrative field for consultants. Pay varies widely between industries. Average Salary: $49/hour You don't need a full-time job to put project management skills to use. Seek out freelance positions that take advantage of these skills, such as overseeing timelines, tracking budgets and coordinating team members. You can make close to $50 an hour without going into an office every day, according to ZipRecruiter. Average Salary: $26/hour Social media has become a powerful selling tool for businesses and brands, and these companies depend on marketing specialists to make sure their social media campaigns are successful. These individuals create campaigns, develop strategies and write social media content. Average Salary: $54/hour These developers are responsible for maintaining and updating apps, testing automation design and troubleshooting software issues. This tech side gig pays an average of $53.77 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter. If you want to stay in tech, but in a broader field, web designers can make an average of about $45/hour. An eye for design and a background in tech come together with this gig. Web designers will generally need knowledge of platforms such as CSS, WordPress or jQuery, according to FlexJobs. Average Salary: $45/hour Many individuals and businesses use WordPress for their websites, so having a mastery of the platform can make for a high-paying side job. These developers create and edit themes, set up and utilize plugins, and write code. The average pay is $45.26 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter. Average Salary: $40/hour Having an eye for a bargain can make you rich as a reseller. Whether your passion is clothes, shoes or something more obscure, selling items for more than what you paid for them on eBay, Craigslist or apps like Poshmark can be a lucrative side gig. Alexandra Marquez, a thrift store pro who resells the items she finds on Poshmark, told Business Insider that she left her $50,000-a-year corporate job at a marketing company to focus on her reselling business full time. She now makes $5,000 a month. Caitlyn Moorhead, Autumn Rose and Nicole Spector contributed to the reporting for this article. More From GOBankingRates Surprising Items People Are Stocking Up On Before Tariff Pains Hit: Is It Smart? Are You Rich or Middle Class? 8 Ways To Tell That Go Beyond Your Paycheck This article originally appeared on 15 Side Gigs That Can Make You Richer Than a Full-Time Job Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Uber-like lawn care platform launches in Austin. What to know about GreenPal.
Growing up, Gene Caballero would go door-to-door offering to mow lawns for his neighbors, hoping to make enough money to buy video games. He continued working in the landscaping industry from middle school through college. His first job post-grad was in sales for Dell Technologies, covering the West Coast. He was there when Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and Vrbo began to take off. "I just kind of had this inkling that, if somebody was going to allow a stranger to pick them up and take them somewhere, or allow a stranger to live in their extra bedroom for a weekend for money, then at some point I would hope that they would do the same with home services," Caballero told the American-Statesman. Caballero and his friends — one of whom is Bryan Clayton, who previously founded landscape company Peach Tree Inc. — wanted to do just that: create an "Uber-like" way to connect consumers with landscapers and lawn care professionals. In 2012, they founded Nashville-based GreenPal, and the online freelancing platform is now launching in Austin. Users on the platform, which is free to join for both customers and landscapers, can order "contactless" lawn care by posting what service they need done and the preferred day for service. From there, nearby lawn care professionals freelancing on the app can "bid" on the lawn, and users choose the best option for them. The vendors take a time-stamped photo at the end of the service to show the completed work, and users use the platform to pay and set up additional appointments. The prices are set by the lawn care professionals, not with fixed pricing like Uber, and GreenPal takes a 5% cut. "There's no convenience fees or any charges or anything like that," Caballero said. "If the homeowner is quoted $35, that's what they pay." The app is operating in 48 states and in 250 major markets, with more than 60,000 contractors on the platform. According to Caballero, more than 30% of the app's customers are over the age of 60, a "demographic that is particularly vulnerable to health risks and greatly benefits from the added safety and convenience provided by our platform." GreenPal prescreens all the vendors, which must be 18 years old with a valid driver's license and Social Security number to offer services on the app. Caballero said the most significant benefit of the platform is that it allows vendors to promote their businesses without spending extra time or money on marketing. "If I could go talk to my 20-year-old self and say, 'Hey, what landscaping tool box would you want at your fingertips? And that's how we designed it," Caballero said. "They don't want to go knock on doors. A lot of them aren't aware of how to promote a business or anything like that, and so GreenPal kind of takes care of that. And there are scheduling softwares that they can pay for, there's route optimization software that they can pay for and there's also payment processing that they can pay for, but we do all that for them in house." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: What to know about GreenPal, the Uber-like lawn care platform launching in Austin
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 Best Ways To Turn $1K Into $10K
The opportunity to multiply an initial investment by 10 is one that most people wouldn't pass up. However, the truth is that turning $1,000 into $10,000 is probably not going to happen overnight — or even in a few weeks. And while achieving this financial goal is definitely doable, you might wonder which way is the straightest path there. Find Out: For You: Before you take your grand and blow it on a chance that could pay off big but is extremely risky — like investing in the latest meme coin or trying to hit a 10-leg parlay — take a look at these ideas that could turn your grand into 10 grand in as little as a few months. It's possible that you could learn something that will allow you to increase your earning potential by $10,000 per year. 'Try hitting the books and picking up an online course, which will allow you to earn more money,' said Brian Meiggs, an entrepreneur and the founder of My Millennial Guide. 'This could involve an investment of time and money — but it could be worth looking into if you're serious about increasing your income. 'The best way to do it is to find someone who's an authority in your field of interest and has a course you can purchase. It's a great way to learn directly from an individual in a position you'd like to be in, and the upside is there's a high potential for return on investment.' Read Next: 'When starting a reselling business, your options for getting products are virtually unlimited,' said Matt Robbs, founder of Smart Saving Advice. 'You can buy items to resell at places like flea markets, yard sales, thrift stores, AliExpress and eBay.' According to him, 'the reselling business all comes down to knowing what the true value of something is and being able to purchase it for cheaper and resell for a higher amount. That is what will allow you to turn $1,000 into $10,000.' Seconding that notion is Roy Morejon, the president and co-founder of Enventys Partners. 'With the absolute takeoff of clothing resale platforms… it could pay to invest in buying and reselling clothing,' Morejon said. 'Like any business, big or small, this avenue takes work — building an audience, taking product photos, increasing your reach — but clothing resale is an incredibly lucrative industry and could be an excellent investment.' There are plenty of side hustles to pursue — from baking dog treats to selling printables — but Bryan Clayton, CEO of GreenPal, is partial to lawnmowing, which is something you could potentially start doing tomorrow. 'The best way to turn $1000 into $10,000 is to start your own lawnmowing business side hustle,' Clayton said. 'You can get into the lawnmowing business for less than $500, and you can even spend $1000 if you want to buy a little bit better equipment.' When it comes to profiting, Clayton said, 'You can make $10,000 in your first month if you hustle.' He also noted that during the labor shortage, vendors on GreenPal could make $75 an hour and added, 'Simply put, the lawnmowing business is the best side hustle there is.' Good To Know: 'Home-based businesses are just as credible as large-scale businesses,' said Charles Tran, the founder of CreditDonkey. 'Putting in the work to create and sell something that people will value is no joke. Soy candles, bath bombs, slimes and selling stationery are just some of the ways to get started,' he continued. He added that aside from investing in resources and capital, you should make sure to add money for posts and listings. 'Maximize platforms like YouTube and TikTok to harness the superpower of digital marketing,' said Tran. 'Investing in real estate is an excellent avenue to increase your wealth, but it often requires a lot more than $1,000,' Morejon said. 'This is where crowdfunding real estate could be an excellent option to flip your $1,000 to $10,000. He explained that platforms like Fundrise allow you to invest any amount of money into private commercial and residential properties through a crowdfunding model, pooling assets. He said, 'If you're thinking long-term, crowdfunding real estate is an excellent option that anyone can take part in.' More From GOBankingRates 6 Used Luxury SUVs That Are a Good Investment for Retirees How Far $750K Plus Social Security Goes in Retirement in Every US Region 7 Overpriced Grocery Items Frugal People Should Quit Buying in 2025 12 SUVs With the Most Reliable Engines This article originally appeared on 5 Best Ways To Turn $1K Into $10K Sign in to access your portfolio
