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Last Updated on August 26, 2021 by Tyler Clark
Side Hustles are awesome AND they can lead to so much more!
If you start things right, you can set yourself up for big money down the road.
I’ve listed 21 side hustles that can make you money now and potentially grow into a real money makers down the road.
Here’s everything you’ll get in this hustle list:
- We’ll start by telling you about the side hustle
- Then we show you how to go big with them
- Bonus: The fun parts of each one of the hustles. It should be fun!
There were times the business started to grow bigger than just a side hustle and it was super exciting!
Read on to find out how you can make money with your side hustle and possibly grow it into a real business!
As always, you want to treat your blog like a business so don’t be afraid to get others to help you work on it.
2. Flipping Cars
This is a great side hustle!
There’s still tons of opportunity in the used car market to make some extra money.
I’ve found many cars over my life that were priced incredibly low and had nothing wrong with them.
I paid $200 for my first car, drove it for 3 years, then sold it for $1600.
During college, I had a friend who was a mechanic and in our spare time, we teamed up and flipped a bunch of cars. I would find them and buy them and we would fix them up and resell them for profit.
The used car market is just like any other market.
There are good deals and bad deals and there are people that just want to sell their car and move on. I’m surprised to this very day at how many cars you can buy under $500 that still run.
We often looked for cars that had some small cosmetic issues but still had good bones and were mechanically sound. It’s tough to fully rebuild an engine and still profit but, if you can clean up a car, tune it up a bit and make some good side money.
How to Go Big:
I would go big by finding price points within the used car market or specializing.
For example, there are quite a few people looking for a $5000 dollar used vehicle. It’s a great price point to work from.
If I went back into this business, I would focus solely on this price point. there are lots of owners who just want to get rid of their vehicle and are willing to let it go for cheap. If it only needs minor repairs, you can do really well at this price point.
On the other hand, if you go up to $10000, your buyer is much more serious. Because most people don’t have $10000 cash to spend on a car, this is a much more challenging price point to work with.
As a result, you may have to wait with the car much longer and it will be tougher to get people to spend a larger amount of money on it.
The other way of doing well in the used car market as a side hustle is to specialize in a certain type of car.
Hondas are really good cars and they drive well forever. If you become a wiz at fixing and flipping them, you can do quite well.
You can find used cars on many online sites including Craigslist and Autotrader.
3. Online Personal Trainer
Yes, get your feet wet as a regular personal trainer but, as soon as you can, get online!
Online is where it’s at for the fitness industry.
If you want to train one on one , do it online.
There’s unlimited growth for online training.
If you’re a great motivator and have amazing energy, this can be on of the most incredible fields to work in.
I still absolutely love the fitness industry.
It just took a hit with Covid but it’s coming back strong.
Benefits of The Personal Trainer Side Hustle:
- Low barrier to entry. You can get certified and insured in a very short amount of time. Build your experience and you can really do well in this field.
- Low client acquisition cost. People can start with a free session or buy a month from you for under $100 bucks. This helps new trainers get started easily.
- You can work outside of your regular job hours. You can train clients before and or after work and on the weekends.
Side hustling as a personal trainer can be very lucrative. For the time you put in, you can get paid very well. I have colleagues that make over a $100/hr on single sessions and up to $200/hr on group sessions.
Imagine if you do two sessions after work a few days a week.
That has potential to make you some serious spare cash.
How to Go Big:Â
Once you’re comfortable, take the business online.
Build a Facebook group. Start offering a starter package with workout sheets, accountability tips and each month, start a new challenge with everyone.
Bonus Tip: I don’t see enough trainers show their own workouts.
Not just a set but a few of their own workouts. Clients can then work
out with you and bond with you. This is very powerful.Â
Once you video a bunch of your workouts, you can also package them into products.
I still love the training business and I’ve seen many people do well with it as a side hustle and as a full time job.
If you have a passion for fitness, be sure to give it a try!
4. Be an Extra in the Movies
I have a friend who makes $250+ when he heads out for a day on set.
He’s show me clips where he’s in the movies!
It’s pretty neat.
He says you can often relax on set too because they’re not shooting all the time. (This would perhaps be a good time for a second side hustle 😉
Being an extra is one of the more passive side hustles that let’s you de-stress and enjoy your day instead of doing hard work the whole time.
Movies can also be a lot of fun and it’s interesting to see how the process of shooting and developing scenes goes.
This is also a gig that can lead to more if you’re so inclined.
How to Go Big:
If you’re good enough, you can become a full time actor.
Yes, this is a tough road but, if you’re serious about going big, maybe this is something to consider.
Or,
As a trainer, I knew people in this industry and they didn’t just act.
There were people in the construction side of things and those working in stunts and things of that nature.
You can also direct, produce, write and edit.
A client of mine was an editor for the movies for her entire career.
I always liked quizzing her about the fascinating world she worked in. She enjoyed a full time, life long career in the movies.
Get your feet wet with a side hustle and maybe you could do the same.
The Fun Part
- The people in the movies are so much fun. Everyone from stunts, to the cooks, actors and production is into it. It’s quite a world.
- Rubbing shoulders with famous people
- Making easy money and great food!
5. Become a Professional Organizer
Do you have a structured mind?
Do you like organizing and de-cluttering spaces?
Then starting an organizing company is a wonderful side hustle for you!
There are so many situations this lends itself to.
- You can organize people’s homes, yards, schedules and shopping lists.
- You can also organize aspects of someone’s business.
- You can jump in and start with organizing closets and build your empire from there!
The reality with organizing is that most people don’t have the time to do it.
You can be that helping set of hands and bring options and ideas to the table.
This can be a really strong side hustle for interior designers, home makers and or anyone interested in functional layouts and design.
The Washington Post discusses that professional organizers can make up to $80 to $140 an hour.
This is great pay and you’re sure to get jobs that require at least a couple of hours of work. The other bonus of this type of job is that it tends to focus on clientele with strong finances.
As a luxury service, this is a good business to be in.
You want your side hustle clients to be able to consistently afford your services if you want to organize for the long term.
How to Go Big:
You can offer a million online organizational products.
You can also do tutorials on YouTube.
Professional Organizers can also offer monthly courses or “get on track” seminars. The options to go big in this field are endless!
Working as a professional organizer can also lend itself to becoming an interior designer-which is the next side hustle we’re going to touch on.
6. Interior Designer
A simple design course or a great eye for a room can get you started in the side hustle of interior design.
Interior designers can make really good money. This side job can start low and finish super high.
I trained people in this field and let me tell you, it can be very lucrative.
Designers can travel all over the world to help their clients style a home or a chalet.
It can be a super fun job!
Another perk is the option to often stay in a client’s home if they’re not using it for the time being. I trained a client who was staying in one of their client’s homes for years on end.
How to Go Big:
Getting media exposure is one of the best ways to go big in this field. Get exposure in print magazines, on TV and online and you may see your business skyrocketing.
This can open the door for increasing your rates, starting product lines and being featured on talk shows and more.
Before you know it, you may have your own team and be featured on HGTV.
7. Social Media Manager
Can’t think of a business to start?
Start a business that helps other businesses.
There is huge demand for social media management businesses.
People will happily pay for someone to manage their social accounts.
I personally love this idea because even though I can come up with the content for my media accounts, I struggle with layout and style.
These are areas that I need help with and as a result, I’m happy to outsource them.
Social media managers also rarely need to travel.
This is a gig you can do right at home or anywhere you so choose for that matter.
If you want to go work at your favorite coffee shop for 45 minutes and get paid, you can do so.
You can offer your services on fiverr or get in touch with businesses from a simple Google search!
It’s super easy to get started.
How to Go Big:
In this case, going big is very straightforward. As you get better at managing accounts for people, you can raise your rates and take on new customers. If you continue to grow, you can hire assistants to help you with your clients.
It’s just simple math to boost this business. It’s probably one of the best hustles on this list with big business potential.
8. Bookkeeper
This is one of the best side hustles you can start.
If you like crunching numbers and you enjoy being able to work anywhere, bookkeeping can be a great side hustle.
The money is quite good too.
Book keeping might not sound all that glamourous but it can certainly make you some glamourous money.
My accountant explained to me that there’s always a need for bookkeepers. You can literally start by getting in touch with an accountant and ask them to help you get started.
If you don’t know an accountant, a simple google search can find you some in your area.
There are all kinds of small and medium sized businesses that require bookkeeping. They don’t require a big accounting firm to do their books for thousands of dollars. Learning to be a bookkeeper is relatively simple too.
It’s not out of reach for most people.
You want side hustles that are going to start making you some extra money fast. Bookkeeping can do this.
How to Go Big:
Book keeping can definitely lead to something bigger down the road. You can get more people to help you with your work and grow from there.
Another good thing about book keeping is that it’s somewhat of a white collar professional side hustle. It has good potential for referral and you can charge more as you get better. People take their taxes seriously and as a result, you can make good money when you file them properly for clients and do a good job.
The Fun Part
- Honestly, if you like crunching numbers, this can be a lot of fun.
- Also, this is a high paying side job.
- Push hard, make some fast money during tax season and enjoy the summer with a trip!
9. Bicycle Repair & Sales
I was an avid mountain biker in my late teens. I liked riding and I also liked working on bikes. My Dad had a little shed out back and I used to work away on my bike getting it tuned properly and ready to ride.
After awhile, I decided to try flipping some bikes to make a little extra money.
I would search in the used markets and find bikes that needed a repair or a few new parts and fix them up for resale.
On average, I made $150-$300 per flip.
As time went by, I was able to make a few bulk purchases at discount on parts to improve my margins.
I reached a point where I had 10+ bikes for sale and a Dad with no shed!
He was proud of my little business nonetheless.
These days bike riding is more popular than ever and there are all kinds of used markets online where you can search for deals. I found that there was routinely a price point at $500 and a $1000. Those are good starting points to work with.
If you can find a $1200 bike and get it for $850, you’re going to do well. A quick tune up and cleaning can net you some really good money for your time.
I also found there were often bikes stores offering discounted professional tune ups.
Bonus Tip: Get a professional tune up.
Bike stores offer these all the time. I was
able to get full tune ups done for $25 dollars.
After the tune up, the bike ran great and I sold it without having to do any of the work!
How to Go Big:
Though this is one of the tougher side hustles to scale, I would suggest focusing on the used bike stores.
Your goal would be to make any bulk purchases that you can.
Take these purchases and sell them off over time.
This is something stores aren’t really willing to do. They don’t have room because new inventory is coming in all the time.
In the case of an individual, you have the time to sell the items one by one.
The other area for building your business would be to offer maintenance services on bikes.
10. Make money on YouTube with videos
I Have a friend who makes YouTube videos just with his hands.
He shows people how to connect these little electronic pieces and he gets all kinds of views for his videos.
He’s not even in the video and he doesn’t even talk during the video.
You Can go this route if you don’t want to be in your YouTube videos.
The other route you can go on YouTube with if you don’t have an idea is creating tutorial videos.
Making Simple tutorial videos is incredibly helpful to people.
The money is in the Simplicity of them. Most people aren’t looking for an extremely Advanced exclamation on YouTube. This allows you to start with minimal experience.
Make your video with good visuals and quality audio and you’ll be ahead of many YouTube creators out there.
You can also put yourself in the videos with no more than a cell phone and a simple stand off of Amazon.
He’s a good little starter kit for making YouTube videos
Cell phone
Cell phone holder
Spider stand or adjustable stand
Lang Microphone
Green screen or muslin background sheet (optional)
Once your channel receives enough views, you can start placing ads on the channel.
Now keep in mind because YouTube is a bit more stringent with their advertising requirements, your YouTube channel will have to amass 4000 hours of overall watch time in the past 12 months and have a thousand subscribers or more.
When I first learned this I thought one of my channels would never reach these numbers. To my total surprise, I now have well over those numbers and watch times and my channel now runs ads.
you’ve got to remember how big YouTube really is.
If Your YouTube channel gets going, you can make some serious money and get a lot of subscribers.
11. Become an Investor
Investing is very challenging but, it can pay off huge.Â
I did train people that had made their millions in the stock market.
It is genuinely possible.
The other convenient aspect to investing is that you don’t need much to get started. You can read on your phone or search on your computer to gather information, study stocks, ETFs and other investment vehicles.
You can also trade any time on these apps with the touch of a finger.
Remember, investing is very high risk so educate yourself as much as you can before you dive in.
How to Go Big:
I would highly suggest checking out some of my favorite investing books on Amazon:
For Trend Trading:
William O’neil was one of the best trend traders of all time. This is by far my favorite book of his on trend trading.
For Long Term Investing:Â
Buffett and Lynch are investing Gods. Everyone should have a read on their tips and tricks for the market.
Lynch is really funny too. He’s got great jokes about trading that take the edge off and keep your stress down.
Best Stock Trader Story I Ever Read:
Jesse Livermore was a genuine career stock trader. This story tells how he figured out patterns in the market and became one of the most successful stock traders of his generation. This is a rollercoaster ride telling of his life and how he repeatedly beat the market.
If you have any interest in stocks, read this book, you’ll love it.
The Fun Part
- The fun part is studying the market. I love being plugged into the financial pulse.
- Sharing your hustle with others. There are so many people online in the markets. You can make friends with this hustle.
- Get some really good charting software. The details today are awesome on TC2000 and on Lightspeed.
- This side gig can hit big and have you retiring really early. That’s lots of fun!
12. Lawn Care
Yes! Lawn care is one of the best side hustles on this entire list!
- First, there’s almost no barrier to entry.
- Second, it’s completely outside of someone’s home so they don’t need to be there when you work.
This means you can go and cut someone’s lawn during your lunch, after work or on the weekends.
You’re really just looking at the cost of a lawn mower and weed eater to get started and you might already have them so you’re already good to go!
If you don’t, guess how you can pay off your new lawn mower?
How to Go Big:
Cutting lawns pays well but if you do a good job, your customers will start asking for other yard services.
Some of these services will be higher ticket items.
You can rent an aerator and charge more to aerate someone’s lawn. You can also spread lime for them, trim trees, put in new trees, whatever!
There are lots of options.
Think of cutting lawns as the entrance service to the bigger and more profitable services.
As time goes on, you may even find yourself doing some basic landscaping.
This can really bring in some serious money.
For Example:
I had a friend who started a lawn care business on the side. Eventually, he and his dad built up the business into a solid enterprise. They worked on condo complexes and were offered to landscape some new homes being built nearby. The job was for seven homes in total and each home required $25-30 thousand dollars in landscaping. After I heard that, I never thought of lawn care as just a side hustle again.
13. Sell Products on Etsy
If you’re good at design or making things with your hands, Etsy can be a great place to sell your creations. I have a friend who makes $2000+ some months selling her crafts on their platform. I have another friend who sells T-Shirt designs on the site.
Etsy has grown into a giant marketplace where you can offer a really wide variety of products for consumers.
Etsy will also handle all of the marketing and payment processing for your products.
All you have to do is post your products for sale and they do the rest!
They also partner with various printing companies if you’re planning on making clothing so take advantage of the huge platform they’ve built.
Start designing and making some money from your handmade designs and products today.
How to Go Big:
Everything from expanding your product line to growing your online store are possibilities to take your Esty side hustle to the next level.
Just because you sell on Esty doesn’t mean you can’t sell somewhere else too.
I always advise that you should have your own website as a home base for your business. You can sell specialized products there that aren’t available on Esty or simply use your site as an additional place to promote your products.
14. Sell Services on Fiverr
Fiverr helps connect businesses with consultants that offer all kinds of services including web and graphic design, writing, coding, making music or jingles and more.
I’ve used Fiverr as a customer many times and it’s a great service.
You can make much more than $5 for your services too.
If you have a skill of any kind, you can offer it on Fiverr today!
Just visit Fiverr.com and sign up.
If you don’t have a skill to offer, you can work as an assistant too.
This can be performing online searches, clerical work or doing basic tasks for people.
How to Go Big:
Once you’re comfortable on Fiverr, you can begin bidding on projects for extra money.
As you get more familiar with the system, you can start to look for other people that offer similar services. With an understanding of the services offered, you can bid on larger projects and have other service providers do the work for your clients.
You want to become the middle business for these clients and service providers.
Instead of just hustling as a single person, why not build your business beyond yourself?
This will take some of the hard labor pressure off of you and allow you to expand.
Go slowly and don’t take on projects you can’t handle too soon but, definitely look to expand in this way.
A good friend of mine has built his entire career on this very style of business. He gets projects from clients and has other people do the work.
It’s a great business model and after a little experience, this is something anyone can do.
15. Sell on Amazon
You can literally flip or sell anything on Amazon. Retail arbitrage, (where you buy something at a regular store at discount and resell it on amazon for a higher price) has become very popular.
Arbitrage can come in many forms and this style is relatively hands free.
Instead of making the product or fixing the product, your goal is just to get a good price on it. Stores routinely discount their inventory and you can benefit from their sales.
You can download the amazon barcode scanner from the app store and price compare on Amazon instantly.
If you’re a pro at spotting deals, this can be a great little side business.
And like I said, the beauty about this gig is that it’s hands off.
There’s no development on your part at all!
This is huge, you just pack and send.
The other big bonus of this style of work is that you make money when you buy. By buying low and confirming the higher price on Amazon, you’re almost guaranteeing your profit.
This puts you in a good position to make money consistently.
How to Go Big:
Many people have made massive amounts of income with Arbitrage.
The key is to figure out where to buy your products.
You know you can sell it on Amazon but you may not always get it at discount on Amazon. Keep your eyes peeled for wholesale sites like Alibaba and other places you can find a good products to sell.
Here’s a book by Legendary Publishing on Arbitrage if you want to know more about it.
The Fun Part
- You know you’re going to make money when you buy the product at discount
- Big orders are a ton of fun. I’ve had orders come in before. Trust me, it’s a rush!
- Finding deals has will always be rewarding and fulfilling.
16. Become a Writer
Writing is one of the most powerful skills you can develop in the world.
You can start a blog, write articles for other people, create an Ebook or start a content website.
As you write more, your skill should improve greatly and this will allow you to charge more for articles and other written works that you do.
Many top writers charge upwards of $35-50 cents a word.Â
This means that one good sentence could add up to $10 and $500+ per article for you once you’re a more established writer.
How to Go Big:
The best way to go big as a writer is to start your own online platform. Create of some kind online platform where you post your written material for the masses.
You can still make money for clients by writing articles for them but on the side, you need to develop your own project too.
This project can be your eventual big business.
17. Build an Online Course
If you don’t have time to build a site, just put your content on Udemy or Teachable.
If you have an area of expertise that you’d like to share, you can offer a starter, basic or intermediate course on your topic.
Udemy and Teachable are fantastic online platforms to host your course and handle the payment processing for you. All you do is create the course and they handle the rest.
Here are their sites:
Don’t worry if you’re not a complete expert either.
People are looking for many different levels of instruction and most people want the basics. Visit Teachable and Udemy to get more information on this great side hustle.
How to Go Big:Â
If you can create a great online course, that’s fantastic. If you can help other people put their online courses up on the web, that would be even better. There are still lots of people who aren’t tech savvy or have no interest in putting their products online.
If you’re good with audio visual equipment and have an interest in a side hustle, I think creating a business that helps people put content online would be a great business you could scale.
Bonus Tip: If you know someone that has a great skill,
approach them and see if you can film them and put the
content online. Work together and split the profits!
18. Free Section on Craigslist
This is probably a no brainer but there’s all kinds of free stuff in the Craigslist Free Section that has value.
The fact that it’s free means you can’t go wrong when you buy it.
People are giving away many things that still have good resale value.
So why are people giving away FREE Stuff?
The reason people give away something for free isn’t because it’s no good, it’s because it will benefit them or someone else in some way.
It will save them time or they need to get rid of it quickly or they don’t like selling it or they don’t want to waste it.
Often, they’re willing to trade the item for free if someone comes by to take it off their hands.
There are tables, chairs, TV stands, exercise equipment, gardening tools, electronics and more you can pick up for free.
The list is endless and always being updated.
Find something good, pick it up for free and sell it on Craigslist, at your local craft fair or consignment store.
How to Go Big:
You could literally go big just by working on everything that’s for sale on Craigslist.
Why hasn’t someone done this yet anyway?
There are so many products that you can easily flip to make a living selling items on Craigslist.
19. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is stronger than ever. As an affiliate marketer, you promote and provide links to products you believe in or have used.
In return, you make a referral commission when one of the customers you refer makes a purchase.
There are many companies and platforms out there that offer affiliate programs and all you have to do is sign up with them and start promoting.
You can promote products on your website, through your social media accounts, on your blog or all of the above.
Affiliate marketing can be a great option if you don’t want to create the products yourself.
In this case, the work is done for you.
Yes it may take some time to develop a platform to sell from but, it can be quite lucrative if you’re thinking a bit more long term.
Affiliate Platforms You can start on:
How to Go Big:
In the affiliate marketing world, the trick to going big is being in an industry that’s big enough. You don’t want to be an affiliate for a tiny product. You want something that’s big enough to bring you a substantial income if you’re going to put the time in.
Good Affiliate Industries include:Â
- Online Dating
- Business & Entrepreneurship
- Personal Finance
- Pets
- Travel
- Health & Fitness
- Product Reviews
- Education
20. Start a Membership Site
One of my favorite side hustles is starting a membership website.
The first membership site I built was for a sport I’d competed in and coached.
I like membership websites because you can hide a great deal of your content from the net.
At the time, I wasn’t keen on putting myself all over the web so this was a perfect side hustle to make money.
To start the site, I used a WordPress template and built a basic member’s section with S2Member (free WordPress plugin). I made some free content for the front end of the site and posted articles online to drive traffic. Some months the site brought in over $700 dollars for the month in completely passive income.
You can do the exact same thing.
There’s also nothing more exciting that waking up and seeing another member has joined your site.
It’s great to connect with others that share you interests and passions.
This can make your membership site side hustle a very fulfilling little project.
How to Go Big:Â
First, pick a bigger niche market than I did for my first site.
Your niche should be popular enough to support a decent to large sized audience.
Next, you’re going to want to make sure people are willing to pay for a membership.
Lots of sites have large audiences but the audiences aren’t willing to pay for access to the site.
So, when it comes to going big with a membership site, it’s more about making sure you pick something with enough paying interest among your members.
Figure that out and this can become a massive business.
21. Small Moving Services
Small moving services are a great side hustle. There just aren’t enough movers to go around in major cities.
This is an industry where there’s lots of room for someone who can coordinate things.
If you don’t have much money, that’s not an issue.
You can put up an advertisement, drive people to a site, get a client and book the rental truck for the day. You can literally be up and running for no costs at all.
There are lots of people looking for movers to move small amounts of stuff.
I’ve marketed a small moving company before and there are always people who need help moving a mattress, cupboards or a few things out of a studio apartment.
Hourly rates for moving these kinds of items often start around $85/hr or more.
Google Ads for moving companies are still very affordable in many major cities.
Bonus Tip: Google Ads for moving companies
are still very affordable in most major cities.
They can often run as low as $2 a click.
If you move a mattress in the morning and 3 sets of cupboards in the afternoon, the money can add up really fast.
There are also times where someone will need furniture moved or re-arranged inside their home.
We moved couches and beds around for people right inside their homes. If you’re looking for employees, hire your friends or run a job posting on Craigslist.
As for renting a vehicle, it takes a little bit of coordinating times for a truck but that’s not too challenging a task. You can also buy a small moving truck when you get a bit more busy.
How to Go Big:
First, hold off on buying a large truck because this can be quite costly. I’d only consider a truck if you’re really serious about the business.
Second, figure out some additional services you can offer as well.
There are lots of additional services that pair well with moving companies. You can offer junk removal, furniture repair work, arbitrage the goods that people no longer want and much more.
There’s a lot you can do in this industry and it’s an evergreen industry. People will always need help moving things and dealing with all of their belongings.
I often think about going back into this industry again myself.
It has all kinds of big business potential.
Final Thoughts
Whatever hustle you choose, know that it will be a fun experience. You’ll stand to make a little extra money, try something new and maybe even get a whole new business out of the deal.
I’ve always enjoyed side hustles throughout my life and I encourage young entrepreneurs to give them a try whenever they get a chance.
Side jobs are fun mini businesses that teach us all kinds of valuable lessons that also work in big business. Don’t over extend or try to go too big too soon but on the other hand, don’t be afraid to try something you’re interested in.
Good luck in your side hustle and enjoy that sweet side hustle cash.
Best of Wealth,
Tyler.
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