Who couldn’t benefit from a little more money in their pocket at the end of the day?
In fact, 37% of Americans have a side gig to help them bring in some extra money.
Whether you need money to pay your bills at the end of the month or want a way to build up your savings, it may be time to invest some of your spare time in a side gig.
How do you choose which are the best side hustles for you, though? There are a lot of things to take into consideration and an infinite number of ways to make some extra dough on the side.
We’ve made it easy for you by compiling a list of ten side hustle ideas that you can use to get started.
How Our Side Hustle Ideas Can Help Make Ends Meet
You’re about to read our list of ten creative side business ideas that will come in handy when your bills are piling up. But how can you use these ideas to create extra income?
First, choose one of the side hustles below. You don’t want to try and do all ten, especially not at once. It’s better to do one job very well than to only perform at 50% at several. Not to mention that ensuring you’re doing a great job can mean more money for you in the long run.
Once you’ve decided which job you’re going to start with, do some research. How much money can you make driving for Uber or how much should you charge per hour of house cleaning? These are questions you need to know the answer to before you begin any of your side hustle jobs.
1. Drive for Uber or Lyft
Uber and Lyft are the two most common peer-to-peer ridesharing companies in the world right now. If you like the sound of becoming your own boss, choosing your hours and meeting new people every day, you’ll probably love this side hustle.
It’s difficult, but not impossible to make driving for Uber or Lyft full time if you have the desire to do so.
2. Rent Out Your Space
If you have a spare bedroom in your home, you may want to consider renting it out. You can advertise on websites like Craigslist or even Airbnb if you prefer your visitors stay for shorter periods.
If you don’t have a spare bedroom but still like the idea of having people rent in your home, you could build a shed in your backyard. This will be a costly endeavor as you’ll likely need to outfit it with plumbing and electrical while ensuring you’re meeting all building codes. But for the social extrovert who loves to meet new people, it might be a worthwhile investment.
3. Start Petsitting or Dog Walking
If you’re an animal lover, dog walking or petsitting is probably an obvious choice and one you’d get a lot out of. You can advertise your services on online marketplaces for free. Once you’ve had a few clients, word of mouth advertising works well for side gigs like this.
4. Manage Social Media Accounts
If you consider yourself to be a bit of a social media mogul, advertise your services to local businesses. There are plenty of companies who can benefit from having a social media presence but don’t currently have one. GenX folks may be resistant to the idea of creating accounts for their services but are missing out on a great deal of free exposure.
This is one of those side hustles from home that you can use to generate some serious income. You can easily become a social media manager for more than one client, boosting your income potential.
5. Create an Online Course
Websites like Udemy or Teachable will help you to leverage your know-how and skills by creating an online course. Depending on how much time you have to put into the creation of your class and how well it does, you can make a substantial passive income revenue stream.
6. Become an Instagram Influencer
There are a lot of benefits to leveraging the Instagram market in your favor. How you make money as an influencer will depend upon who you partner with and what they expect out of you.
Depending on how many followers you can garner, you may get special treatment from some of your favorite brands. If you’re able to pair up with your favorite companies, they may give you a discount code to give to your followers. When your following uses your code, you’ll be able to earn a percentage of their purchase price back.
7. Clean Houses
If you have a keen eye for cleanliness, you may wish to leverage your skills as a housecleaner. You can create your hours and decide what your hourly rate will be.
Similar to petsitting, word of mouth is a great way to get free advertising for your house cleaning side gig. As long as you’re doing a great job, your clients will spread the word about you.
8. Leverage the Gig Economy
If you have skills as a graphic designer, writer, editor, programmer, video editor, or anything in between, you can use your know-how to make extra cash.
Websites like Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer are full of clients looking for someone to perform gigs for them. You can pick up one gig at a time or, if you do a great job, you can get consistent clients and have a steady flow of income.
9. Use TaskRabbit
If you consider yourself to be a bit of a handyperson, signing up for TaskRabbit might be right up your alley. Folks who need assistance with tasks around the home post their projects online for you to choose from. Whether it’s mowing the lawn, assembling complicated Ikea furniture or assisting with a move, you’ll have no shortages of tasks you can help with.
10. Become a Virtual Assistant
If you know your way around the internet and can make sense of Google docs, spreadsheets, and SEO, you might make a great virtual assistant.
Busy companies hire virtual assistants to help them with certain aspects of their business. A day in the life of a VA might include things like customer support, website maintenance, content creation, and data entry.
Take a Load Off
Now that you’re familiar with ten popular side hustle ideas, you can decide which will work best for you. Take into account your skillset and the time you have available to commit. Once you start receiving a steady flow of income from your side gig, you’ll be able to breathe easier knowing you can cover your bills.
Be sure to check out our Toolkit for more money-saving and making tips.