THINK SMALL TO EARN BIG
TV MONEY MAN DAN HATFIELD TALKS TO SUSAN LEE ABOUT GETTING CLEVER WITH CASH, HIS RISE TO FAME AND WORKING WITH THE NEW PRESENTING TEAM ON THIS MORNING
AS THE resident money-making expert on This Morning Dan Hatfield’s practical, no-nonsense advice has made him a favourite among viewers, especially in what, for many, are financially uncertain times.
But Dan, who has just released a new book, Money Maker – a distillation of a quarter of a century of knowledge about how to save and make cash – is focused on taking his small-screen expertise and using it to tackle a bigger picture.
“I want to help people transform themselves from financially surviving to financially thriving,” explains Dan.
“I constantly get emails from people asking for my advice – and I think we’re going to have another rough 12 to 18 months ahead of us as a country. I can’t sit by and not do something.”
A third-generation pawnbroker, 41-year-old Dan says: “We can all get overwhelmed by the macro, by the big sense of how to earn money but we need to look at the world around us first.
“Look at the things you own, the skills you have, the hobbies you enjoy, the potential side hustles you can identify – and monetise them. It’s thinking small to earn big.”
A native of Sheffield, Dan, who shares homes in London and the Peak District with his TV executive producer husband, Joff Powell, reckons that as a nation we have around £3,000 worth of items in our houses that could be converted into cash.
And while clothes, tech and furniture might be obvious products to sell there are less obvious ones too – such as toilet roll innards.
“There’s a demand for them by people who use them in craft. You can sell them on ebay.”
Dan also suggests renting out our possessions, from driveways to laptops, bikes and even garden equipment.
“You have worked to buy goods – why not make them work for you?
“A wedding dress can bring in anything from £50 to £200 a day.
“Your drive might make you £200 a month.
“The days of a fast, disposable society are on the wane and renting goods plays into that.”
Dan didn’t grow up wealthy. His mum Heleana would do “anything and everything” to make ends meet, he recalls.
“I remember her hosting Tupperware parties and then she worked for Avon. I was eight or nine years old and my mum would get me up at the crack of dawn to go to the car boot sales.
“We’d come back having decluttered the house, but most importantly we’d earned a fistful of pounds.” He went to work in the family business, but then he was approached to take part in Channel 4’s Posh Pawnbrokers. That led to ITV’S Million Pound
Pawn and from there the
This Morning sofa. It could have all been very different, though.
“I was going to cancel taking part in Posh Pawnbrokers. I couldn’t face it. But I got my weeks wrong so the camera crew turned up.
“If I wasn’t so disorganised I wouldn’t be here now, I wouldn’t have written a book and I wouldn’t be married – I met my husband through my work in TV.”
He’s relishing working with new presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard.
“We have the nicest people in TV at the helm,” he smiles.
For now he’s focused on helping the nation – and he has one big piece of advice.
“Make the time to make money, because we’ve all got it within us.
“There are too many dark clouds around for us to simply dwell on them.
“We’ve just got to get out there and crack on.”
Check out Dan’s top money tips...
DON’T THROW ANYTHING OUT
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” says Dan.
“That goes from items kept in the attic down to stuff you might think is rubbish like broken electricals.
“I recently saw a collection of 100 wine corks sell for £200.”
Toilet and kitchen roll cores can sell for 7-8p each while egg cartons fetch around £10 for 20.
DON’T ACCEPT THE FIRST PRICE
This applies whether you’re buying or selling.
“On average we each lose about £500 a year by accepting the first price offered.
“That’s because we’re British and don’t like haggling but it can work on anything from a mobile phone contract through to when you’re selling your stuff on ebay and Amazon.”
Don’t put everything on ebay, advises Dan, who says the site “isn’t the be-all and end-all”.
He adds: “You could get more by using different selling platforms – you need to work out where the best place is to sell and gear your items to a mar
ket or audience that are most susceptible.”
RENT DON’T BUY
“I believe that in the next few years renting out your items will be as common as selling them,” says Dan. “We’re moving towards a circular society where we are repurposing and reusing.”
Top items to consider renting out include tools and clothes, with 350,000 tonnes of unwanted clothing going to landfill each year.
Dan reckons Brits could earn up to £4,000 a month renting out household items.
I want to help people transform themselves from financially surviving to financially thriving
USE YOUR TIME USE YOUR SPACE
There are 11.6 million garages in the UK, half of which don’t house cars. “Rent it out as storage – you could bring in an average of £2,200 a year,” says Dan. Or you could rent out a spare room or your driveway.
Dan Hatfield
“Almost 50% of the population will be undertaking a side hustle by 2025,” says Dan. “Brits could earn up to £10,000 a year in additional income.”
Baking and pet sitting are popular but Dan also advises becoming a mystery shopper, taking part in a focus group or becoming a TV extra.
Money Maker: Unlock Your Money-making Potential by Dan Hatfield is available now from Amazon and all good bookshops