Top Side Business Ideas in 2024

Side hustle ideas are everywhere

This is the philosophy of Side Hustle School, a daily podcast that started on January 1, 2017. My goal with the show is to tell the stories of regular people probably just like you—who all found a way to create a new source of income without their day jobs.

In most cases, these people start their side hustle by using the skills they already have. And many times, the kind of hustle they do makes a huge difference. The best side hustle ideas aren’t projects that steal your time and drain your energy, they’re assets that earn you money while you sleep.

Having side business ideas on top of a day job isn’t necessarily easy, but it’s becoming quite mainstream. Whether you dream of starting a business one day and hope to turn your side business ideas into a full-time gig or want to supplement your income or pursue a passion in your spare time, a side hustle can be a great solution. 

In fact, more than 44 million Americans had a side hustle as of 2017; And thanks to an increasingly mobile or freelance-based workforce, the side hustle trend isn’t likely to abate.

If you’re looking to get into the gig game, try one (or more!) of the 25 side business ideas we’ve put together here. Many of these side hustle ideas can turn into full-blown businesses, while others are accessible, time-efficient ways you can earn a chunk of cash while you work your day job. Let’s get into it.

1. Resale of used clothing and items.

Caught by the Marie Kondo bug? Don’t trash clothes or items that don’t bring joy but are still in pretty good condition: sell them.

Reselling old stuff is an effective way to declutter and, depending on the quantity and quality of your clothes, this source of semi-passive income can be a surprisingly lucrative side business ideas—a friend of ours made nearly $19,000 selling old designer items The RealReal It’s also (seriously) easy to sell gently used clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories on sites like Depop, ThredUP, Tradesy, and Poshmark.

If you want to sell more than just clothing and accessories, consider selling on eBay or becoming an Amazon seller. Opening and managing a store on either platform takes some work, but as long as you work within the platform’s guidelines, you can sell virtually anything you want—and you can become one of the small percentage of sellers who make $1 million on Amazon or eBay.

2. Close and mobilize people’s homes.

Once you’ve cleaned out the non-joy-sparking objects in your own home, move on to de-cluttering other people’s homes (and charge them for it). Professional organizers are definitely clean freaks, but they’re also compassionate, personable, and great listeners—your clients aren’t just paying you to clean and organize their things, but they’re also trusting you with their most emotional possessions.

If this sounds like a promising side business ideas idea to you, consider signing up for a course or certification program at a professional organization, such as those offered by the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. Once you’ve established yourself, you can charge up to $80 an hour if you want to stay in the average range or a flat fee of $375 for larger projects.

3. Sell original items on Etsy.

A great side business ideas idea if you’re an artisan, maker, or craftsman: monetize your one-of-a-kind items by opening an Etsy shop, a platform that literally exists to help connect creatives with customers around the world (although you can also sell vintage and secondhand items on the platform. 

Selling on Etsy is an ideal side hustle idea as you work your day job, but with a lot of persistence and great product photography, it’s also possible to make a living selling on Etsy.

Once you start collecting some healthy traffic on Etsy, however, we recommend creating a standalone e-commerce store on Shopify or another e-commerce platform and selling on both platforms simultaneously. This way, you can have complete control over your branding, customer relations, and store management (and take advantage of another revenue stream – in this case, the better).

4. Participate in the gig economy.

Doing odd jobs during your vacation is the perfect way to earn extra money on nights or weekends. Thanks to the newly minted gig economy, which is expected to grow to 43% of the workforce by 2020, it’s easy for self-motivated people to find short-term, one-off, low-lift jobs.

Just a few gigs to consider:

• Become an Uber or Lyft driver
• Deliver food through Postmate, Uber Eats, Seamless or GroupHub
• Sign up to be a TaskRabbit and complete everyday projects and repairs for people around you
• Participate in focus groups and surveys
• Become an Amazon Mechanical Turk worker

Once you build a patchwork of gigs, understand the average rates on different platforms, and get a feel for how much time and energy you need for each task, your side hustle can even become a full-time gig.

5. Rent out your home on Airbnb.

If you live in a highly trafficked, tourist-friendly, or vacation-friendly area (and you don’t mind the possibility of strangers living in your home), your ideal side business ideas might be to become an Airbnb host.

First, you need to get proper permission from your landlord, co-op board, homeowner association, or other organization to make sure you are allowed to rent out your house/apartment/guest wing/pool house/houseboat and that you are in your city, county or Don’t fall under any legal restrictions on short-term rentals within the municipality. Once you’re all cleaned up, you’ll need to create an Airbnb host profile and clean, organize, and stock your home for guests. During their stay, you should be readily available to your guests should they encounter problems or requests, and be prepared to deal with the occasional less-than-cooperative guest.

Renting out your home on Airbnb or other short-term rental platforms isn’t necessarily the easiest aspect, but Airbnb hosts have the potential to earn an average of $924 per month. That’s a good chunk of change, especially considering overhead costs are low or non-existent.

6. Become a dog walker.

Becoming a dog walker is a no-brainer for animal lovers looking for side business ideas.

Depending on how strong your self-marketing skills are, you can either join an existing dog-walking/pet-sitting organization or strike out on your own. If you join an agency, you’ll have to give up a portion of your rate, but the agency will do all the heavy lifting for you — like finding dog walkers and pet sitters. 

If you choose to start your own dog-walking business, you’ll be in complete control of setting your rates, pocketing totals, and organizing your schedule according to your bandwidth, but you’ll need to find customers yourself. For this, we recommend setting up a small business website and social media platform, reaching out to your personal connections, placing flyers in your neighborhood, and letting word-of-mouth marketing work its magic.

How much you can walk the dog also largely depends on where you live. According to Care.com, the average hourly rate for dog walking ranges from about $15 to $18, depending on where you live. But once you build a clientele (assuming you’re alone), you can expand your side hustle into a full-scale business. You can even consider pet grooming and pet sitting at your work.

7. Open a babysitter or daycare.

Many of us grew up babysitting neighborhood kids after school, on weekends, and in the evenings—and that’s what makes babysitting an ideal side hustle for adults with full-time jobs. Here again, average babysitting rates mostly depend on where you live and how many kids you’re watching, but one survey shows that hourly babysitting rates are $16.75 for one child and $19.26 for two.

Luckily, finding babysitting gigs is pretty easy if you harness the power of the Internet: Create a profile on sites and apps like Sittercity, Care.com, and Sitter, which securely connect you with parents looking for babysitters in your area.

 But it’s also worth tapping into your personal network for babysitting gigs, such as word-of-mouth recommendations. You may also consider stacking flyers at your local school, library, house of worship, pediatrician’s office, or other local gathering places with proper permits. And if you’re serious about building a childcare business, you can build your experience and clientele on starting a daycare center down the line.

8. Start a home business.

Since most of us consider cleaning our house a necessary evil, being a house cleaner means you won’t be short of customers if you start a housekeeping side business ideas. The amount you can clean depends on the rate your clients are willing to pay, but on average, house cleaners earn $530 a week; And, as is the case with most good side hustles, housekeeping requires very little overhead, as most clients will provide their own cleaning.

To find clients for your cleaning business, you can list your services on websites like Angie’s List, Care.com, and HouseKeeper.com, as well as conduct your own marketing efforts, such as creating a business website and Facebook page. To differentiate yourself from the competition, you may also consider incorporating other services into your cleaning business, such as carpet cleaning and light landscaping, and home repairs.

9. Become a tutor

Whether you’re a teacher looking for an additional revenue stream, a former teacher interested in reconnecting with students, a grad student with time to burn and bills to pay, or if you’re just good at a specific subject and have the GPA to prove it. If so, then tutoring could be a rewarding direction for you.

You can choose to create an independent tutoring agency—either with or without ambitions to add other tutors to your roster and grow into a multi-employee business—or you can search for local tutoring agencies (a simple Google search technique can, (or you can check with your local schools and libraries). Successful tutors specialize in specific subjects or standardized tests, but many adults beyond school age haven’t written a thesis paper or taken the SAT in years—so be sure to set aside a few hours a week to brush up on your skills. Create lesson plans.

 Mobile car wash and detail

Washing cars is another low-cost side hustle and an ideal gig for those who like to work outside. You can offer this service to individuals in their homes, or contract with local businesses that operate fleet vehicles or that want to offer weekly car washes as an employee benefit.

You can think of a career coach as a hybrid between a life coach and a tutor: You consult with your clients to assess their work-related goals, preferences, and strengths to find the right career path for them, then get nuts. and bolt their resumes and cover letters, practice their interview skills, and help them find and apply for jobs.

Job coaches don’t need certification to legally work, but it’s a good idea to get training or higher education if you’re serious about building a trusted coaching business. To get started, check out career coaching courses on Udemy, an online course through a major university, or seek certification through the International . Federation of Coaches or the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches. How much you can charge your clients depends on a number of factors, but according to Payscale, the average career coach salary is $43,725, or $24.80 an hour, making this gig a perfect fit as an ultimate full-time career.

11. Offer freelance creative services.

If you want to flex the creative muscles you don’t get to work at your day job, consider offering any skills or craft you have as a freelancer. Writing, editing, proofreading, graphic designing, web designing, translation, and illustration are just a few in-demand creative services, and they all lend themselves nicely to hourly or contract work that you can take on as a  side business ideas.

There are tons of digital resources you can use to market yourself, list your services, and find freelance work that fits your schedule—check out Upwork, Freelancer.com, and Fiverr to get started.

12. Book for local businesses.

A great side business ideas for Type A’s with a love of numbers is becoming a part-time or freelance bookkeeper for a small or local business.

As a reminder, accountants are not the same as accountants: for one, accountants do not need a bachelor’s degree to work as accountants; They are not responsible for providing tax planning and tax advice, such as accountants. Rather, bookkeepers record, organize, and maintain a business’s key financial records, transactions, and processes. 

While it’s possible your client uses a physical ledger, it’s more likely you’ll be working on accounting software.

While becoming a bookkeeper doesn’t require advanced training or a degree, we still recommend seeking credentials so you can market yourself well to employers and charge a higher rate.

 According to Upwork, bookkeepers listed on their site in North America charge from $10 per hour for basic data entry, to $150+ per hour for certified bookkeepers or accountants.

13. Dip your toes in the food industry.

While starting a restaurant is notoriously risky, foodies don’t need to risk breaking into the hospitality industry for extra cash—try a side business ideas instead.

For example, either trained chefs or excellent self-taught cooks can become personal chefs who prepare large-scale meals for private or corporate clients’ parties and special events, prepare meals for their client’s homes, or both. If that seems like too much of a commitment, start by catering for your friends, family, coworkers, and friends of friends when you have time.

Do other foodie-approved  side business ideas hustle? If you’ve developed a recipe for a packageable and shippable food item, consider selling your products at a farmer’s market, specialty food store, and online, either through an e-commerce platform like Etsy or a standalone online store. And if you find yourself in possession of a full menu, startup funds, time, and a truck, you may be ready to start a food truck business.

14. Do home or technical repairs.

Drains freeze, drywall cracks, computers crash—things break, but most of us don’t know how to fix them. If you’re one of the gifted few who do, consider becoming a freelance handyman or, if gadgets are your thing, offering tech repairs as a side business ideas.

Here are my thoughts on Side Hustles: Income-Generating Projects That Make Your Life Better. My book, Side Hustle, will provide a step-by-step, 27-day action plan so you can choose your own. I hope you will pass through me to work with you and many other people in the network. One thing I’m learning after starting a podcast and meeting an audience after more than one domain group is that I sometimes find it hard to bring myself.

 Well, this report has 48 of them, all taken from the show’s foundational episodes. Won’t work for you – but something might. If you’re at it, side business ideas go to Side Hustle School to listen to the episode you like, which explains it in more detail. The show notes page for the episode includes links to general reading. I hope to publish your story. Until then, I will steal you! Oh, and not to subscribe to the show… it’s free too. 

Planning parties, events, or weddings.

Are you known for throwing epic-themed parties among your friends? Do you love a highly detailed schedule? Are you passionate about logistics? 

Starting a wedding planning business or other event planning company doesn’t require any special training, but it does require a healthy book of contacts, in-depth knowledge of vendors in your area, and plenty of extroversion. Marketing is very important, and word of mouth will likely bring you your first customers.

To get started, you first need to create a side business ideas website and create dedicated social media channels for your side hustle so that potential clients can easily find you. Consider sending a mass email to your contacts to get the word out about your services, and visit shows and expos so you can connect with vendors and start building your infrastructure. 

Expos are an opportunity to meet other party planners, so you can start doing some market research on what services you can offer and at what price point to set yourself apart from the local competition.

Good news? Party and wedding planning requires almost no overhead, and except for day services, you can do these research- and communication-heavy tasks from your home.

 Become a fitness instructor.

If you have a passion for health and fitness, becoming a fitness trainer is a side hustle idea worth pursuing. The barrier to entry is pretty low, there are no startup costs if you’re employed at a studio or gym, and you can stay active while working out.

Of course, you’ll need to acquire the proper certification and training to become a fitness instructor or personal trainer, but plenty of gyms and studios offer teacher training. Whichever approach you choose, teaching fitness classes makes an excellent supplement to another part-time job (or several of them), since you’ll likely be working around the clock.

 Become a doula.

Doulas are trained to provide emotional and physical support to mothers during labor and generally act as advocates for mothers during labor. Although they are often conflated, doulas differ from midwives in that the former do not require medical training—which makes becoming a doula somewhat less time- and labor-intensive than being a midwife. 

According to Natural Healers, doula training typically consists of seven to 12 hours of childbirth education, 16 hours of birth doula training, and two to five births attended.

Although they are now under the radar, overall employment at doulas is expected to grow by 15% from 2016 to 2020, making it a promising side business ideas. There are plenty of places to find doula training programs, so start by checking out DONA International to find one in your area. Typically, doulas can earn between $250 and $1,000 an hour.

Start a dropshipping business.

Dropshipping is also somewhat under the radar, as this side business ideas concept is a subset of eCommerce: dropshippers sell products to customers that are shipped directly from manufacturers or suppliers. Right now, about 33% of online stores fulfill orders through dropshipping, and with the e-commerce industry growing at 17% every year, dropshipping is also expected to gain popularity.

Maintain the lawn in your area.

If you live in the suburbs or a rural area, starting a landscaping business can be a seriously lucrative proposition—in fact, 24% of landscaping businesses grossed more than $1 million in 2018. 

While it may take some time for that revenue to build, you can start charging around $30 to $50 per hour depending on your location and your services to stay within the average range. You may also consider adding snow removal and various yard maintenance tasks to your list to avoid seasonal sinkholes.

 Become a virtual assistant.

Thanks to an increasingly mobile workforce, virtual assistants—those self-employed, remote workers to whom companies outsource their administrative tasks—are a fast-growing trend. In fact, the virtual assistant market is projected to grow from $1 billion in 2017 to $11.5 billion by 2024.

 This makes it a promising side business ideas for full-time administrative assistants to work on in their off-hours or for seriously organized freelancers. Work within their schedule.

On average, virtual assistants earn about $16 an hour, but of course that varies dramatically depending on where you live and what company you work for. To find virtual assistant jobs, you can check job boards like Indeed, FlexJobs, and Upwork, but some on your own.

 Become a life coach.

Unlike therapists, who are educated, trained, licensed, and regulated, life coaches only need to be trained and certified, although they are not state-regulated. There is also a difference in their practice: as a rough generalization, therapists are trained to identify and work with patients to improve mental health, emotional, relationship, and substance abuse problems. 

Life coaches, on the other hand, help clients identify areas in their lives that need growth and development—be it career, relationship, or spiritual growth—and they work together to reach those goals through effective action.

Personal coaching can be one of the fastest-growing industries for entrepreneurs, and coaches can typically charge between $75 and $1,000 per hour for their services.

 Manage a local business’s social media channels

Social media marketing is an integral part of a well-rounded small business marketing plan, but not every small business owner has the knowledge of social platforms or the bandwidth to stay on top of it—so if you’re particularly good at creating and gathering social profiles and engaging followers, your skill set There is a huge market fo

Even if you’re a social media native, know that there’s a difference between maintaining a personal social media presence and a business social media presence, so you may want to take an online class in business-specific social media management. If you’re serious about this side business ideas, check out the course offerings on Udemy to get started.

 Monetize your own social media channels

Love them or hate them, social media influencers are onto something: A sponsored Instagram post can pay anywhere from $50 to $50,000, depending on how “influential” the influencer in question is. 

Becoming a social media influencer isn’t necessarily a reliable source of income, especially since it takes time and dedication to find your niche, develop your personality, and build your following.

But if you’re constantly on your phone anyway and you’re looking for a low-lift side hustle (and you’ve got charisma to burn), why not monetize that time?

 Become an SEO consultant.

SEO strategy is also crucial to a successful small business marketing project, but understanding SEO is probably more niche than a strong social media presence. So if you’re a disciple of Neil Patel and Mary Haynes, you should definitely consider setting up shop as a freelance SEO expert for small side business ideas owners as a side business. And since SEO consultants are in such high demand now, you can charge a pretty good fee for your services; On average, SEO consultants can earn up to $27 per hour.

Go freelance.

If you love your day job but don’t like the 9-to-5 lifestyle, consider turning your day job into a side business ideas and become a freelance consultant in your area of ​​expertise. Or, if you’re looking to expand your work hours outside of your day job and your field (and your contract) allows for it, you can work freelance after hours to earn some extra cash.

Side hustles are a great way to increase your income, plus they allow you to explore potential business ideas with little upfront cost or major time commitment. Whether in person or online, there are a variety of successful side hustle opportunities, so chances are a side hustle could work for you.

Freelancing

Freelancing is a tried and true way to make extra money and deserves a top spot on any list of easy side hustle ideas. Freelancers provide work for one or more clients on a per-project basis and you can schedule it in your spare time. Cost and Platform: Market your freelance skills to your personal network for free via email and social media accounts. 

You can also reach out to potential clients using freelancer portals, such as Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com, which handle project management and payments for you. Marketing Skills adds professional polish to your own website, plus offers you convenient online invoicing and payments through Square or another online payment provider.

 Pet sitting and dog daycare

A pet-sitting side hustle is ideal for animal lovers and is easy to set up and promote. You can provide in-home care for pets while owners are at work or on vacation, or keep pets in your home for daytime or long-term care. Some states and municipalities require permits, so research your area. You can earn extra income by marketing pet insurance to your clients.

Cost and Platform: Costs are minimal for in-home care but initial setup in your own home may require an investment in a kennel or gate. Find clients and manage gigs using popular pet-sitting apps like Rover or Care.com, or set up your own booking and payment system using Square’s free tools.

Walking the dog

Love dogs but don’t have enough free time or space to commit to a dog daycare setup for pet sitting? A dog-walking service could be the right hustle for you. This side hustle is easy to fit into a busy schedule and offers the added benefit of getting exercise while earning extra cash.

Costs and platforms: Costs are minimal because owners usually provide the lease, but you may want to invest in a few leashes and waste bags. In urban areas, you can find dog walking gigs using Wag!, TimetoPet, and Rover, or manage your own bookings and payments using Square’s free tools.

Tech Setup Services

Are you a techie when it comes to setting up home networks, smart home devices, computers and cell phones? You can easily earn extra cash by marketing these skills to your community through social media and handyman apps. You can also seek tech certification, and provide insurance and bonding to increase your credibility for in-home services.

Cost and Platform: Startup and running costs are minimal, however, you may need to invest in a few tools to help with installation. Find and manage gigs using handyman apps like HelloTech and TaskRabbit, or set up your own bookings and payments using Square.

Blogging

If you like to write and share information with people, consider starting a blog focusing on a particular area of ​​your interest, such as travel, food, beauty or fashion. When someone clicks on an affiliate link, you get a commission if they complete a purchase.

Cost and Platform: Expect to spend $50 to $100 per year to run a basic blog. You need to buy a domain and create a blog website using a WordPress hosting service or web builder platform, such as Wix or Squarespace. All offer user-friendly design tools and attractive blog templates so you don’t have to pay a designer or developer.

Babysitting and childcare

Babysitting and in-home childcare are in demand and this side hustle is a great way to earn extra income in your spare time or on a fixed schedule. Although certification is not required in most cases, the American Red Cross offers online and in-person babysitting certification courses that cover CPR, first aid, and behavioral techniques that can boost your credibility.

 Personal Assistant

Busy professionals need help completing day-to-day tasks, and many prefer to have a person handle it rather than rummaging through different service apps. This is a great opportunity for a side hustler who likes to check off all the boxes on the to-do list, from grocery shopping and dry cleaning pickup to walking the dog and taking the kids to their destinations.

Cost and Platform: You can start a personal assistant side hustle for a little. However, in non-urban areas, you will probably need a car. Top gig and payment apps for personal assistant services include Thumbtack.com and TaskRabbit.com, or you can set up your own bookings and payments using Square.

 Local handyman

Are you the first friend to call to fix a light switch or hang a ceiling fan? Cash in on your handyman skills in your spare time as you help your neighbors check home improvement tasks off their to-do lists. To protect yourself and your clients and increase your credibility, you may be insured and bonded, but in most cases, this is not a requirement.

Costs and Platforms: Costs for this side hustle are minimal, especially if you already have the tools of the trade. Handyman apps, like Thumbtack.com, TaskRabbit, and Angi, help you market and manage gigs and payments, or set up your own bookings and payments using Square.

 Virtual assistants

Virtual assistants provide personal assistant services in the digital world and handle tasks including appointment scheduling, customer email, travel booking, data entry and more. If you’re organized and tech-savvy, this side hustle is an ideal way to make money from home in your spare time.

Sell at local markets and festivals

Many product-focused side hustlers profit by selling unique products that they create themselves at local markets and fairs. Also, you can use this personal selling to promote your online store and social media platforms to build brand awareness and attract sales within the market presence.

Cost and Platform: Startup costs for selling personal products can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands because you need to stock your booth. You can reduce your initial investment by sticking with suppliers that support returns of unsold products or by offering custom-order items that don’t require deep stock. 

The Fair is an excellent source of unique resale and private label items and supports the return of unsold stock. You can also open a free Square account to accept card payments in person, track sales on a sleek mobile POS, and integrate with online sales on your own Square e-commerce website.

Tutoring and Instruction

Do you have academic, musical, artistic, or sports skills? Tutors and personal trainers are always in demand, opening up all kinds of flexible side hustle opportunities. 

You can market in-person and virtual tutoring services to parents looking for convenient sessions for kids but don’t forget about adult learners. Adults like to expand their horizons and can often attend sessions during school hours if that works well for your busy schedule.

Costs and platforms: Startup costs are mostly minimal, and apps and online platforms, such as Wyzant, Skooli, and TakeLessons.com, help you market services and manage gigs and payments. Manage bookings and payments yourself using Square.

 Self-published eBooks

Self-published e-books are another side hustle idea that’s perfect for writers, but you don’t have to be a master wordsmith to cash in on this opportunity. If you can create a creative story or explain how to do something, you can hire ghostwriters and editors to complete and polish your work. 

Then, you simply publish on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and other ebook platforms, such as Smashwords, Barnes & Noble Press, Lulu, and others, and wait for the royalties to roll in.

Cost and platform: Self-published ebooks can be very inexpensive if you write your book and develop your own cover art. But most serious authors tap the benefits of cover design and editing for the finishing touches and spend upwards of $100 per title to publish. 

Ghostwriters can cost $200 or more to produce a complete manuscript based on book length and subject matter. Publishing on most ebook platforms is free, but these outlets take a percentage of the sales price, as well as adding marketing costs.

Online Courses and Coaching

Do you have an area of ​​expertise? You can gain knowledge by creating and selling online courses and coaching programs in your spare time. Thanks to the user-friendly, low-cost online course platform, this is another side hustle idea that’s easy to launch. 

Also, social media marketing, ebooks, YouTube promotion, and blogging, combined with online courses and coaching side hustles can turn into a profitable business.

Cost and Platform: Online course platforms, such as Udemy, Thinkific, and Podia, walk you through the course creation process and help you pair courses with personalized coaching.

 Most have a monthly fee or retain a portion of the fee when you sell a course. You can add online courses and members-only content to website platforms including WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and others to create your own branded platform.

Sale of Digital Products

Do you have a creative streak? You can earn cash by creating these digitally and selling them through your own website, social media platforms, and downloads on countless digital product marketplaces.

Cost and Platform: You’ll need a reliable computer and internet connection, but that’s your only cost for the puzzle. Manage bookings and payments using Square.

Learn more: Check out more top virtual assistant platforms to help you find clients and gigs .Some side hustles seem like great money-making opportunities. But in reality, many require huge investments of time, money, or both, and offer limited returns without serious commitment. Here are some red flags when considering side hustle opportunities and gig work.

Hustles that require licensing or certification

Salon services, real estate sales, and certified accounting and tax prep services are often cited as top hustle ideas. Although these fields can be very lucrative, you must have the necessary education and licensing or certification. 

If you are hoping to pursue a career in these fields, this investment may be worthwhile. However, this is a substantial time and expense commitment with no guarantees if you want to make extra cash.

Multilevel Marketing (MLM) Schemes

MLM companies are good at convincing you of easy money and big profit potential, and certainly do very well in this model. However, you should examine the costs and product investments required by any MLM opportunity – which can be hefty – and their sales and profit models. 

In most cases,  side business ideas will only be profitable if you build a large group of downstream salespeople, and this takes ongoing time and effort.

If high-pressure sales are your thing, an MLM side hustle might work for you. But if not, you could end up with a pile of unsold items that you can’t return and make no profit to speak of.

Side Hustle Coaching Program

As you explore different side hustle ideas, you’re sure to stumble upon coaching programs that claim untold profits and promise to help you succeed quickly. While some coaching programs offer good strategies and good advice, none are tickets to quick riches.

Before paying for any coaching program, explore YouTube, Google, and Kindle Unlimited to find free videos, how-to articles, and e-books for ideas that interest you.

Sale of handicraft products

 If you love painting, woodworking, baking, sewing, knitting or other handicrafts, you can cash in on your passion by selling artisan products in your spare time. To make money with this side hustle idea, sell the handicrafts you make or make online and at local fairs and markets.

 Cost and Platform: This side hustle idea has upfront costs for supplies and equipment, but you can market and sell online using Etsy, your own e-commerce website, and social media accounts with little to no upfront cost. 

If you plan to sell online and in person, consider Square or Shopify. 25. Sell products through dropshipping Dropshipping allows you to build a powerful e-commerce store without having to worry about purchasing, stocking, and shipping the items you sell. 

With dropshipping, you only pay for items when a customer makes a purchase. Dropship sellers take care of all the storage, packing, and shipping details, then charge you the wholesale and shipping cost per item ordered.

 Dropshipping can be a time-consuming side hustle as you manage your own website and customer service, but it’s the cheapest and easiest way to break into e-commerce sales. 

Cost and Platform: To hustle in this direction, you need a good e-commerce platform that integrates with dropshipping vendors, such as Shopify, WordPress with WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Proven dropshipping providers including Doba, AliExpress, and Sprocket are the best places to start building your product collection. Learn more: You can start a dropshipping side hustle in just 6 easy steps. 

Sell print-on-demand (POD) products

 Do you want to create fun graphics and text or have a talent for illustration or photography? You can turn your creativity into extra cash by adding your creations to various POD products such as t-shirts, mugs, pillows, wall decorations and more. 

This side hustle idea is a cousin of dropshipping because the POD seller takes care of all the details for you. You simply upload your artwork and add to the various items available for printing to create a product collection. Once ordered, your POD vendor prints, packs, and ships the item and charges you wholesale costs and shipping fees. 

Cost and Platform: As with drop shipping, you need an e-commerce platform that integrates with POD vendors, such as Shopify, WooCommerce with WordPress, and BigCommerce. 

Self-published print-on-demand (POD) books Are you a writer or illustrator interested in capitalizing on the latest innovation in self-publishing? Then POD books might be the right direction for you

 POD Books covers the entire spectrum of printable books, from novels and nonfiction to notebooks, planners, cookbooks, coloring books, puzzle books, and more. You can create books using free or low-cost online tools, and then upload the digital files to the POD book-selling platform. 

To avoid side hustle

When a customer purchases your title, the sales platform prints and ships the actual books and pays you a royalty. Cost and Platforms: Several free and low-cost platforms make it easy to create POD book files, including Canva, ReadC, and BookBolt Studio. 

There is no cost to list your titles with leading POD bookseller platforms such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Lulu, and IngramSpark. 28. Sell products using retail arbitrage Are you a savvy shopper who can sniff out a deal and isn’t afraid to do a little price research?

Costs and platforms: Retail arbitrage side hustles come with upfront costs in purchasing and shipping products and some time commitment to running stores and comparing prices. However, free and low-cost price checker apps including Amazon Seller App, Profit Bandit, and Scoutly help you shop smart.

bottom line

Ultimately, the side hustle that works for you comes down to your bandwidth, interests, and skills—since most successful side businesses start as passion projects. So pick a side business ideas idea that you’re willing to dedicate your free time to, have fun with it, and you’ll see your side hustle turn into a full-time career.