Working from home is flexible and can be a great way to boost income or even to pursue a full-time career while staying close to family. It emerged last month that the best-paid Avon Lady Debbie Davis makes £250,000 a year from commission on cosmetics sales — at the age of 29.

Here Times Money rounds up some of the easiest ways to earn money outside the office.

Home sales

Several companies, including Avon, recruit people to sell their products at “parties” held at the homes of friends or acquaintances. The agents earn commission of 20 to 40 per cent on the items sold and can go on to recruit and manage teams of local agents.

People who are starting out receive a kit of products to show at parties. This may be “free” or require a deposit. Either way, the agent, who is self-employed for tax purposes, has to cover its cost, usually between £100 and £500, from his or her sales.

Jacqui Barham, 45, from the Isle of Sheppey, has worked as a party organiser for Ann Summers since 1996. Only three months after starting, she gave up her full-time job when she realised that she was making more money from the parties.

Mrs Barham now manages a team, or “unit”, of 50 organisers and has earned various bonuses including a Mercedes Benz CLC coupé. However, she continues to hold parties one or two evenings a week. “I love it,” she says. “It’s basically a great girls’ night.”

She adds: “Organisers make about £60 per party and can work as much or as little as they like. I know at-home mums who are very involved and younger women in full-time work who want to make a little extra to pay for their weekends.”

She says that she has not been hit by the downturn, adding: “People want to stay in and have fun, so they are requesting more parties. In fact, this August was my best to date.”

The Direct Selling Association (DSA) says that this sort of work can net between £1,000 and £50,000-plus a year, depending on the time and effort put in. It adds that start-up costs are low, often less than £100. The DSA’s website, dsa.org.uk, has advice for people considering taking on work in direct sales, plus contact details for member companies.

eBay

Websites such as eBay and Amazon Marketplace enable anyone to set up an online shop with only a computer, a broadband connection and some storage space. Traders pay commission to the host site, but benefit from access to a vast global market.

An advantage of trading through these sites is that it is possible to start small and to build a business if the demand is there.

Ian Peel, the author of The Rough Guide to eBay, says that online trading offers a good way to profit from a serious hobby. For example, a record collector can spot and sell rare vinyl.

He advises people selling online to ensure maximum exposure for their products by listing them at several websites, including eBay, Amazon Marketplace and Gumtree. The Inland Revenue has a guide to the tax implications at hmrc.gov.uk.

Services

For a quick income boost, it can be easier to sell a service rather than goods. For example, dog-walking requires nothing more than sensible shoes and a poop-a-scoop, and there’s also the bonus of free exercise. Rates start at about £8 an hour in London and £6 elsewhere.

Skilled work is more lucrative. For example, foreign language tuition from a native speaker with some teaching experience can net £25 an hour.

Childminding in your own home pays much less — the average hourly rate in England and Wales is £3.61 a child. However, there is plenty of scope for regular work. Childminders must be registered with Ofsted. The National Childminding Association has details at ncma.org.uk.

You can advertise services at free listings websites, such as Gumtree.com, as well as in local newspapers and newsagents’ windows. The competition for jobs is fierce, so don’t be shy about exploiting friends of friends and word-of-mouth to bring in new work.

Clinical trials

Volunteering for clinical trials helps to advance medical knowledge and can be a fast track to good money.

Pharmaceuticals companies such as Roche and AstraZeneca pay healthy volunteers “expenses” of £100 to £300 a day to take drugs not previously tested on human beings. The “guinea pigs” are monitored, but are otherwise free to relax.

Most participants experience no side-effects. However, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry puts the incidence of “serious adverse events” at 0.02 per cent — one in 5,000. If in doubt, speak to the trial provider and to your GP.

You can find details of trials at entertrials.co.uk. Examples include a trial in Manchester for post-menopausal women, which pays £1,490 for a ten-night residential study with one follow-up check.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations also lists trials at clinicaltrials.ifpma.org.

Case study: “We made more from eBay than from our day jobs”

Cheryl and Patrick Duffy, of Biddick, Tyne and Wear, traded on eBay at evenings and weekends before they quit work to sell online full-time.

Mrs Duffy, 42, says that she became hooked on the website after she used it to sell excess stock in her previous work in sales for a fashion supplier.

She says: “I made the company £5,000 in three months and saw the potential for quick profit. So Patrick and I bought our own stock of homewear and started selling in our spare time. Soon we were earning more from eBay than in our day jobs.”

The Duffys, who trade as PCJ Supplies, expect to turn over £500,000 in the next financial year and say that their sales have continued to climb despite the downturn. They have recently purchased a warehouse and may soon employ full-time staff to help with the orders.

Mrs Duffy adds: “We make more money and have a much more flexible lifestyle than before. And being based at home means that I spend more time with my husband and stepson.

“On the other hand, we put in long hours and the work can be stressful. We have a mortgage and other commitments, and can’t be certain how much we’ll make in any given period.

“In addition, eBay’s commission costs about £300 a day, which is extortionate. It is a difficult situation. We pay them too much, but depend on them for our market. We have our own website at pcjsupplies.com, but that gets much less traffic.”