- Selling Stuff
- Sell Your Photos
- Become a Social Media Manager
- Virtual Assistant
- FlexJobs
- Answer Online Surveys
- Babysitter
- Delivery Driver
- Ride-Share Driver
- Airbnb
- Bookkeeper
- Blogger
- Vlogger
- Dog Walking/Petsitting
- Freelancer
- Tutor
- Customer Service
By now, most people know what the term side hustle means. Side hustles are something people do in addition to their regular jobs to make a little extra money. But if you choose the right side hustle, you can make a lot more than a little extra money. These are the 17 best side hustles to make money.
The idea of a side hustle is nothing new. In the past, a side hustle was called moonlighting or a part-time job. The term side hustle is newer but not as new as you might think.
The expression side hustle was first used in 1950, which makes the term much older than many realize. The term became popular during and after the last recession when traditional jobs disappeared and enterprising people had to make ends meet.
The interest in side hustles continues to grow, propelled by the rise of the internet and the gig economy. With a diverse array of opportunities now available, individuals can find side hustles that match their skills and available time.
Whether you’re looking to supplement your income or transition into full-time self-employment, there’s a side hustle suitable for everyone. This flexibility allows anyone to explore their entrepreneurial spirit and discover new ways to enhance their financial independence.
Best Side Hustles From Home
Working from home is great for so many reasons, but the best part of working from home is the flexible schedule. If you’re looking for a little more flexibility in your life, these are the best side hustles.
This is a broad category, and it could slot into a lot of the other sections of this article. You can sell stuff in your spare time, make it a part-time job, or grow it into a full-time side business. But for the most part, selling stuff can be done almost entirely from home. And to start, you don’t have to spend any money to make extra cash selling stuff from home.
Gazelle lets you sell old electronic devices you already have at home, including smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. You can sell almost anything on eBay and Amazon. Poshmark is the place to sell your clothes. Craigslist and Nextdoor are good places to sell large items that would be expensive to ship like furniture, appliances, and musical instruments.
Once you’ve gotten the hang of online selling and exhausted your own supply of things to sell, you can start buying items to resell. Ideally, choose things that you have some knowledge of so you don’t have to spend valuable time doing research. If you’re a crafty type of person, you can sell your own creations on an e-commerce site like Etsy.
Gazelle pays you cash for tech gadgets you no longer use without any fees (even if it's damaged). Get paid via check, Amazon gift card, or via PayPal. Answer a few questions about your device, and Gazelle sends you a free, pre-paid shipping label.
Selling your photos has two benefits. It’s a great side hustle you can do from home and a form of passive income. You only have to take and edit a photo once but you can sell that image an infinite number of times.
People need images for all manner of things, including blog posts, magazines, and websites. Upload your photos to Shutterstock, and every time that a customer downloads a photo, you make some extra income.
Even small mom-and-pop businesses recognize the power of social media, yet not all are adept at implementing its best practices. If you have expertise in this area, consider it as a potential side gig.
While platforms like Upwork and Guru offer opportunities for freelance social media management, you might find greater success and higher earnings by targeting local businesses directly. This approach allows for more personalized service and potentially more meaningful client relationships.
Look for businesses in your area that don’t have much social media presence or who have a rather haphazard presence. Reach out online or in person, offering your services as a social media manager. Come armed with some impressive statistics like these:
71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.
Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.
63% of customers actually expect companies to offer customer service via their social media channels, and 90% of social media users have already used social media as a way to communicate with a brand or business.
With social media posting automation tools like Hootsuite and Coschedule, you can create posts in bulk when you have free time making social media manager one of the most flexible side jobs.
A virtual assistant does a lot of the same tasks that a real-world assistant does, including writing and responding to emails, bookkeeping, managing calendars, and scheduling appointments. And it can all be done from home. Your boss may not even live in the same country as you.
Many people who run online businesses hire virtual assistants rather than traditional assistants. Lots of the aspects of running an online business can be streamlined compared to a brick-and-mortar business so while owners need help, they don’t need enough support to require a full-time assistant. And because many owners work from home, there is no office for an assistant to come to.
You can find VA jobs on freelancing sites (like Upwork and Fiverr), but some sites specialize in VA jobs including Time Etc and Lifebushido. Some VA companies only require you to work three hours a week so if you don’t have a lot of free time but still want to earn some side income, being a VA is one of the best side hustles out there.
FlexJobs is a job board that specializes in remote jobs across dozens of fields including advertising, event planning, graphic design, and business development. There are part-time and full-time jobs, employee and freelance jobs, and on-site jobs that offer flexible and alternative schedules.
A lot of people would like to work from home but are reluctant to look for a job that allows it because there are so many work-from-home scams out there. You don’t have to worry about finding a scam job on FlexJobs. Each post is researched and vetted, and all of them have an element of flexibility, whether it’s the ability to work entirely from home or to create your own work schedule.
Side Hustles To Do In Your Spare Time
Not everyone has scheduled free time. If your regular job schedule changes week to week or you’re sometimes required to work overtime, it can be hard to take side jobs that have set hours or require you to work a certain number of hours. But there are jobs you can do entirely on your schedule.
If that describes your situation, these are the best side jobs for you.
Getting consumer opinions is nothing new. In the “old day,” i.e., pre-internet, market research companies used focus groups to ask people’s opinions about a company’s products or services. People would show up in a particular location, take part in the focus group, and be compensated for their time. Now, this can be done online, which is faster and cheaper than convening a focus group.
This kind of market research is what sites like Survey Junkie, Swagbucks, Freecash, and InboxDollars do. Some websites pay users in the form of cash, usually via PayPal, and some pay in gift cards. Some sites only offer surveys, and some let you earn money doing other tasks like watching videos, shopping via their portal, and reading emails.
No one is going to earn a full-time income from these sites, but you can make a few hundred dollars a year if you use them consistently.
Earn cash or rewards like gift cards and cryptocurrency by completing online tasks, surveys, and games.
You can redeem your earnings for real money via PayPal or bank transfer, or choose from various rewards.
If you work full-time, you’re not going to be able to provide daycare for children, but parents need babysitters on evenings and weekends sometimes too. A reliable babysitter can make bank too.
According to UrbanSitter, more than 28,000 families across the U.S., the average hourly babysitting rate is $23.61 for one child and $26.51 for two children.
If you live in an expensive city like New York or San Francisco, you can make even more. If you don’t know any families looking for a babysitter, you can find jobs through Sittercity or Care.com. These are sites that connect parents and sitters.
Sittercity connects families with nearby sitters in a variety of fields. Depending on the needs, you can find nannying, babysitting, companion care, and even pet sitting jobs.
Not so long ago if you wanted to make extra money as a delivery driver, you delivered pizzas. But thanks to companies like Uber Eats, Doordash, and Postmates, coupled with Americans’ growing laziness, you can make money delivering nearly anything.
Uber Eats and Doordash drivers deliver takeaway food orders of course, but Postmates drivers deliver pretty much anything you can (legally) buy including groceries, alcohol, and personal care items.
Postmates is a service connecting customers with local couriers who'll deliver virtually anything from your favorite restaurants and businesses. Want burgers, party supplies, or aspirin? Enter your address and start browsing available merchants.
Most of us are now familiar with ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber.
Rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft are foundational to the gig economy, offering popular side hustles that provide flexible opportunities for earning extra income.
This is our guide to budgeting simply and effectively. We walk you through exactly how to use Mint, what your budget should be, and how to monitor your spending automatically.
Best Part-Time Side Hustles
Earning substantial money with a part-time side hustle often requires more consistent effort compared to other side hustles. However, dedicating this extra time can be highly rewarding and may even significantly accelerate your financial independence, potentially leading to financial independence, retire early (FIRE).
Turns out you don’t have to have a spare room or an extra house to make money, and hosts earn lots of it on Airbnb.
85% of gig economy workers make less than $500 per month. But, Airbnb hosts, on average, make more than any other gig workers and are raking in an average $924 per month. Nearly half of hosts make more than $500 per month.
We interviewed Zeona McIntyre about how she achieved FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) using Airbnb, and she explained Master Leasing.
Master Leasing means renting and furnishing an apartment not to live in but to rent on Airbnb. No strangers staying in your own home!
If you don’t have the money for Master Leasing, you can manage Airbnbs for owners.
Numerous tools automate various aspects of managing an Airbnb, such as Guesty and Orbirental. These platforms provide comprehensive solutions that simplify operations, from booking management to communication with guests.
Zeona estimated that once you have these automation tools in place, you’ll only need to spend eight to ten hours a week managing an Airbnb.
Rent out a room or an entire home to travelers. Airbnb hosts, on average, make more than any other gig workers and are raking in an average $924 per month. Nearly half of hosts make more than $500 per month.
Bookkeeping is an essential service for any business but technology has made the task so much faster and easier that small and medium-sized businesses can often get by with a part-time rather than a full-time bookkeeper. That makes bookkeeping one of the best side hustles for those looking for part-time work.
While bookkeeping is a definite skill and pays well, most companies don’t require their bookkeepers to have a bachelor’s degree making it a great side job for those with a high school education.
I know blogging is a great part-time side hustle because I did it for years before becoming a full-time freelance writer. When I worked a demanding job, I wrote in the evenings, and when I worked a more laid back job, I wrote at work when things were quiet.
Overnight success stories take years.
Tweet ThisIf you lack experience, consider reaching out to the owners of blogs you admire and offer to write for them for free. Although everyone deserves to be compensated for their time, writing for free initially can help you build a portfolio.
Another way to gain experience is by making low-ball offers on projects found on freelancing sites. If you prove to be good and reliable, you can eventually start charging what you’re worth.
Thanks to YouTube, anyone with a camera and an internet connection can put themselves on the internet, and some vloggers make hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you’ve been with LMM for a few years, you know Thomas Frank. He was our co-host for a few years and has his own empire over at College Info Geek.
Best Full-Time Side Hustles
If you’re looking to quit your regular job and side hustle full-time, you can do it! It may not happen immediately. It can take time to build up a client base, but there are side hustles you can do full-time from the jump.
A friend of mine started a
If you don’t know many people with pets, go hang out at the local dog park and offer your services, or at least post a flyer offering them if there is a place to do so. Social media sites that have local pages like Facebook and Nextdoor are good ways to find clients too. If you have no luck with those options, Rover is a marketplace where people can hire dog walkers and
When people think of freelance jobs, they often think of freelance writing or graphic design, but there are hundreds of jobs that can be done on a freelance basis. We’ve mentioned FlexJobs, Upwork, and Guru as great resources to find freelance gigs and Fiverr is another.
Before you decide that your skills aren’t conducive to freelancing, take a look at any of those sites. You’ll find nearly every job that has already been mentioned on this list and dozens more.
Sell your skills and get paid using Fiverr's platform. It's free to join, has no subscription cost, and has over 200 marketable service categories. Create a gig, do the work, and earn money.
Becoming an online tutor is a flexible and rewarding way to share your expertise and earn money. Start by choosing a subject you are proficient in and passionate about. Create a profile on popular tutoring platforms like Tutor.com, Wyzant, or Chegg Tutors, highlighting your qualifications and experience.
Develop engaging lesson plans and utilize video conferencing tools to conduct interactive sessions. Building a good reputation through positive reviews can help you attract more students and increase your earnings over time.
Several legitimate companies offer this kind of work, including VIPKID, and Wyzant.
Maintaining offices for thousands of customer service representatives is expensive and more and more companies are moving to a work-from-home workforce to fill these jobs. Employees do things like handle reservations for Hilton Worldwide, reserve trucks answer questions for U-Haul customers, and do phone or online chat customer support for Alorica.
Some of these jobs even offer work-from-home employees the same benefits provided to those who work onsite, including paid vacation, medical and dental insurance, and 401k plans.
Get Side Hustling
Some people start side hustles due to financial difficulties. They might have lost their job and are struggling to find another, or they could be dealing with thousands of dollars in credit card debt they need to pay off.
People often find they enjoy their side hustle and appreciate the extra income it brings in, motivating them to continue. Sometimes, this side hustle evolves into a full-fledged business, allowing them to quit their day job and work for themselves.
A side hustle can provide financial stability, personal satisfaction, and the potential to turn your passion into a profitable business. By diversifying your income streams and gaining new skills, you open the door to greater financial independence and the possibility of becoming your own boss. Consider a side hustle to enhance your financial security and explore new opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Best-selling author Chris Guillebeau presents a full-color idea book featuring 100 stories of regular people launching successful side businesses that almost anyone can do.
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Mark spent over 30 years as a senior finance executive in Private Banking, Asset Management and Alternative Investments. Mark holds a BS in Accounting from Brooklyn College, an MBA in Finance from Pace University as well as being sponsored to attend The Wharton School Executive Development Program.
