A side hustle is something you do to earn extra money alongside a daily job. According to Zapier, 40% of Americans have a side hustle, and another 36% plan to start one in 2022.
Those with a side hustle spend 13.4 hours a week working on it, earning $12,869 annually from their side work. You can use the money you earn to pay off debts, invest, or treat yourself to something nice.
Beyond the financial benefits, pursuing a side hustle idea gives you the opportunity to build a new skill set. Entrepreneurs also enjoy the satisfaction of creating a business while carving out a new career path that provides more security during layoffs.
Interested in starting a side hustle but not sure what you can make money from? Here are 22 side hustle ideas you can start today.
1. Start a Photography Business
Turn your passion for photography into a side business. Promote your photography services in your local area and earn several hundred dollars per photo session. Alicia Ho from Precious Ones Photography transformed her hobby into a profitable business. She says, “The ability to ignite creativity while creating timeless artwork for families is an incredible feeling.” You can follow in her footsteps and:
- Photograph newborns
- Work with local businesses to photograph their store or products
- Start a successful wedding photography business
- Collaborate with event planners to photograph local events
Broaden your horizons (and earn more money) by selling your photos online. Sites like Stocksy, Shutterstock, and Alamy pay photographers when their images are commissioned, downloaded, or sold. It can be a very lucrative business if people in your area aren’t usually paying for photo sessions.
2. Start a Clothing Line
The clothing industry is a big business. Global consumers spend $775 billion on fashion e-commerce every year. Get a piece of this spending through a print-on-demand model.
Platforms like Printful, Lulu Direct, and Printify allow you to upload your designs onto t-shirts, jackets, hats, and more.
The best part about this side hustle idea is that you don’t need to invest a lot of money upfront. Each time you receive an order from your online store, the print-on-demand suppliers will print your design and ship it to the customer – no need to keep inventory yourself.
3. Sell Your Skills
Selling your skills is a winning idea if you’re on a tight budget. Most skill-based businesses are free to start because you don’t need inventory. You can also do free marketing by asking if anyone in your network needs help.
Look at the skills you already possess and explore if they’re in high demand – whether as a service or as advice through a consulting business.
Common side hustle ideas you can start alongside a full-time job include:
- Freelance writing
- Design work
- Online dating consulting
- Personal training
- Landscaping
Ashley R. Cummings followed this approach when she started her side business. She says, “I was working as a full-time corporate training coach while also studying Russian at university. My background was in English, and I’ve always loved writing, so I started to slowly accept projects. Eventually, I had enough clients to replace my entire income from my 9 to 5 job and teaching. So, I quit and started my freelance writing business.”
Terry Schilling shares his best advice for starting a side freelance business.
4. Become a Virtual Assistant
Are you
Do you have incredible organizational skills? Put them to use by becoming a virtual assistant. You will manage the administrative side of businesses remotely, making it one of the best home business ideas to pursue alongside a daily job.
Responsibilities of virtual assistants include:
- Scheduling appointments
- Arranging travel
- Managing emails
- Making and receiving phone calls
Ariana Rodriguez started her work as a virtual assistant in April 2021. It cost her $2,000 to start her side hustle. This included a website, a business training course, and the technology she would need to run her virtual assistant business.
Ariana says, “In April, I started earning $700 a month. By December, I was making $6,000 a month and working full time. I was able to hire a contractor to make the work more sustainable.”
5. Teach a Language
The online language learning market is expected to reach $25.73 billion by 2027. If you speak two (or more!) languages, leverage your skill by starting a side business teaching others how to do the same.
The most common languages include:
- English
- Chinese (Mandarin)
- Hindi
- Spanish
- French
Create your own website and offer personal virtual lessons. Or join an online language learning platform like Skooli, VIPKid, or Qkids. Teachers can earn up to $23 per hour teaching English on the side.
You can also host group lessons in a free space for rent, such as a community center – many are looking to make education accessible to locals.
According to Statista, English and Chinese (Mandarin) are the most spoken languages worldwide.
6. Start a Cleaning Business
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that there were nearly 800,000 maids and cleaners in the United States during 2020. It’s a low-cost business idea that’s easy to start. A $100 investment in cleaning supplies can be quickly recouped.
Take a cue from Brian Winch, author of Cleanlots, who started a side cleaning business “with little money, few skills and little education, but a lot of passion, patience, and perseverance.”
He offers trash cleaning services at property management locations. “My service is carried out on foot using simple hand tools. We can walk outside of commercial properties and gather up trash into our collection tools and then dump it in on-site waste containers.”
Brian spent $250 to start the company. After eight weeks, his side business began earning more than his full-time job. Now he earns between $650,000 and $700,000 a year.
Brian says, “I started my side business because I wanted the security of the income from my daily job to pay the bills while gaining experience in growing my business. The income I earned on the side was invested back into it.”
7. Be an Event Planner
People spend more than $3 billion annually in the event planning sector. From weddings and holiday parties to corporate events, you can make extra money by taking on the organizational side of hosting an event.
Amber Sironen-Massey followed this approach when starting her side business, Epic Elopements. She manages wedding planning, taking care of everything from marriage legislation to organizing vendors and signing contracts.
Amber says, “I knew I wouldn’t be able to continue earning a full income and needed more money to start the business, so quitting my daily job wasn’t an option. I also wanted to make sure I was on track with my target market and building a client base before diving headfirst into the water.”
Amber’s event planning company is doing very well, and she plans to quit her full-time job in a few months: “By the end of this year, I will have doubled our sales from the first year, so our growth rate is strong. I know I won’t be able to maintain this level of growth while being dedicated to someone else’s full-time job.”
It’s
It’s a little scary to jump, but I have the request and I know that thanks to focusing on my full-time job, I will grow more.
8. Start a Home Care or Pet Sitting Business
Over 80 million people in the United States own pets. Many of these people also take vacations without their pets, meaning they need someone to care for them while they are away.
Pet owners often look for dog walking or pet sitting services on platforms like Rover. It’s an added bonus if you have pet-related qualifications, such as first aid or animal behavior. But most importantly, you need to reassure potential clients that their pets will be safe in your care.
If you aren’t confident dealing with pets, offer to house sit for someone while they’re gone. House sitters can earn between $25 and $30 a day, although this increases for overnight stays and the size and location of the home. Combine this with a full-time job that allows you to work remotely to earn extra income with minimal interference in your job.
9. Be a User Tester
A user tester provides feedback on a website, app, or product. Companies look for testers to improve software before releasing it to the general public and offer compensation for their time.
Become a user tester through platforms like:
- Wynter
- UserTesting
- Userlytics
Tests can take between 10 and 30 minutes, making it a side business idea worth pursuing if you have some free time. A single user test each day can quickly add several hundred dollars a month to your online earnings.
10. Be a Dropshipper
Dropshipping is an e-commerce business model with minimal startup costs. Find products to sell through dropshipping apps like DSers or Spocket. Then create an online store to sell them. Your provider will automatically pick, pack, and ship products to the customer every time an order is received.
Thomas Sleeth, founder of Dropshipping Hustle, “worked full-time for 14 years as a disability support worker before trying dropshipping as a side business. I was fascinated by the business model and immersed myself completely and spent all my spare time and even some work time learning everything I could.”
It took Thomas five months to start seeing regular profits from his small business. “However, I didn’t leave my full-time job for about a year,” he says. “At that time, I found it very difficult to leave my long-term job, but in hindsight, I should have.”
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/113274373-7-ways-to-start-a-business-without-quitting-your-day-job
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