Best Side Hustles – 150+ Ways You Can Earn $3,000/month Right Now

“Everyday I’m hustlin’” – Rick Ross

It is my firm belief every person should have a side hustle. 

Why? 

Because they help you achieve your financial independence goals. 

Want to pay off debt? Start a side hustle.

Grow your retirement? Yea – start hustling.

Purchase a new toy? I think you get the picture. 

I hope you’re fired up. You need to be because you’re not getting paid what you’re worth. Doesn’t matter what job or career you have. If you’re an employee you’re getting paid maybe 10% of what you’re worth to that company. 

A job isn’t going to help you become financially independent. 

Nah – you have to make it yourself. 

My goal is to help you figure out the “how”.

If you’re tired of being sick and tired, then keep reading. This article lists out EVERY idea I can find for you to start a side hustle. 

If you read this article, there are NO EXCUSES. 

You can do it. So many people have had worse situations than you and have become financially independent. If they can do it, so can you.

If you’re reading this, it means you want extra income. Not just pennies from doing surveys at Survey Junkie. 

No.

You want serious cash. $3,000/month or more style cash. Income that creates real movement towards your goals. 

These side hustle ideas are exactly what you need. I’ve picked them because they provide you with flexibility and good pay. Each side hustle has been picked knowing you’re working a 9-5 (right now!) and you need it to be part time. 

I’ve also bucketed each side hustle into 3 major buckets. They are: 

• Gig Economy Side Hustles
• Online Freelance Consulting Side Hustles
• Investing/Flipping/Selling Side Hustles

Each has their own pros and cons. However, they’re all flexible and pay well if you devote energy to them. Some of them you might be able to scale into a legitimate business if you so choose. 

With that in mind – welcome to the jungle.

Let’s get started.

Gig Economy Side Hustles

Airbnb

From renting out an extra room, to purchasing houses for rental units, Airbnb is a legitimate way to earn serious coin. 

For example, I live in Austin, TX  and whenever Austin City Limits starts I list my extra bedroom for rent. I typically make enough within that timeframe to pay for 2 months worth of rent. 

How much you earn depends on your housing type and location. Obviously if you’re in the middle of Wyoming you’re probably not going to earn a lot. But hey, stranger things have happened! 

You’ll get full protection with Airbnb and it’s flexible to your schedule. 

Want to kick it up a notch? Start purchasing rental properties and listing them on Airbnb.

Alterations / Tailoring

Do you have sewing skills? You’re needed! 

Rates for suit and pants alterations are not transparent. You have a prime opportunity to capture some of the market by putting yourself out there for business. 

Go on Facebook groups, put up flyers, and run a couple advertisements. You’ll get business quickly! 

Babysitting

Right now in America, 58% of all parents in the U.S. are dual income. (source) This means they work full time jobs and need the flexibility for their children. Additionally, 23% of parents are single. (source) 

A good babysitter is invaluable and you will be paid handsomely for help from people they can trust. 

You can do babysitting in the evenings when the parents want a date night. There are also sites like Care.com where you can have clients come to you. 

It only costs $20/month for the service, but you have a much higher likelihood of getting work if you’re vetted through this service. 

Baking

Do you love making people smile from your pastries? Start baking and create a service online for cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and other sweet treats. 

Start local within your community, create an Instagram page, and grow from there.

You don’t need to have a brick and mortar business to be known as the best bakery in town!

Bartender

This is the perfect job for someone who’s social and wants to work nights. Typically bartenders are going to work between 6pm-12am, but the extra beauty of this side hustle is you can easily earn between $200-$500 a night. 

Obviously you’ll be working for tips, which means your sales skills need to improve! 

If you’re a social person who enjoys the nightlife, give bartending a try. 

Become A Professor

We’re going to get into teaching in a bit (more below), but becoming a professor is a great side income stream if you have the right credentials.

You get the chance to share your knowledge with up and coming students, and you can earn good money on the side. 

Right now, most colleges are online anyways which means your courses can be pre-recorded and you just let it run.

The awesome thing about being a professor is the networking opportunities. 

You have to have a graduate degree to teach, but even with an MBA you can become a professor at a local community college. 

Car Cleaning & Detailing

Car washing and cleaning is a tried and true way to earn extra income on the side. People are always looking for ways to make their life more efficient, and paying someone to keep their car clean is one of those ways. 

This is great news for you. You can set up a mobile detailing service and go to nice neighborhoods where you’ll wash and clean the car. 

You don’t need any certifications or degrees to get started. Just make sure you understand the basics of detailing, and you’re good to go. 

Your services should include: 

• Full Wash
• Wax
• Trunk Cleaning
• Rim Cleaning
• Scratch Removal
• Carpet Shampoo
• Leather Cleaning
• Headlight Restoration 

Put up ads on Facebook and Instagram, and let the money start rolling in!

Caregiving

The Baby Boomer generation is becoming old. This is a fact. Millions of people are beginning, or have actually, reached the stage where they’ll need care assistance. 

If you have an empathetic side, a great deal of patience, and want to help your community then providing care is a great option for you. 

Often you can do it part-time and evenings. 

Just like babysitting, you can go to the site Care.com where you’ll have the opportunity to market your services and help. 

Carpet Cleaning

Have you ever seen a carpet after a dog or cat lived in the unit? Disgusting. 

And regular vacuuming will not get the pet hair, dirt, and other nasties out. You need a professional. 

And lucky for those owners, you’re available to help! 

Carpet cleaning is a low cost business to start. You can do both residential units, or commercial properties where you put them on a contract for every 6-12 months. 

On the weekends you can go to these units and complete the work. All while working a full time job. 

Catering

If you’re the best cook you know – start a catering business. You won’t need to commit your time like a restaurant, and you can make good money cooking. 

You can do it from the luxury of your home and people will definitely need your help. 

Childcare services

Much like babysitting, childcare is leveraged for when the children get a little older. Often you’ll be needed to help walk the children home from the schoolbus and make sure they don’t get into any trouble while the parents are still working. 

There are a couple sites available to make it easy for you to find quick work. Care.com and Sittercity.com are 2 good examples. 

Sign up is easy, and you’ll go through a background check and interview before you can get work. 

Make sure to ask for referrals! 

Cleaning houses

This is another tried and true method to earning side income. On the weekends you can drive around to clients’ houses to tidy up their place, clean the dishes, and provide an overall level of sparkle and shine to their homes. 

Computer Repair

Computers dominate the globe. The internet is only 26 years old and already there are more than 2 billion computers created and currently in use. In fact, in the United States there are more computers than people. 

That means there’s a large market for repairing computers and there’s no real large player in the space to provide help. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to earn a lot of side income by fixing computers, phones, and tablets. 

Estate Sale Services

If someone dies – the relatives typically sell their stuff to recover capital for a variety of things like the funeral costs, debt payment, and beyond. Many times the relatives are grief stricken and under heavy emotional turmoil to thoughtfully prepare the person’s estate. 

This is where you can provide a valuable service. 

You can help these individuals by managing their estate sale to make sure everything goes according to plan. You’ll even earn a percentage of the sale for helping them with this process. 

Event DJ

This might not be as true post-COVID, but as things begin to normalize you’ll find people need DJ’s for their events. 

Whether it’s a wedding, houseparty, or just a BBQ. People want quality music to drive a good time at their event. 

Field Agent

No, you’re not going to join the FBI. 

Field Agent is a cool app (a lot like Taskrabbit) where they’ll pay you to complete tasks within your neighborhood at retail locations. 

It’s a mix of mystery shopping and product insights which gives reliable feedback to retail store owners about their business. 

You can literally get paid to shop! 

Fly drones

Drones are the future! 

Real estate agents and property inspectors need drones to look at hard to reach areas. If you have one you can easily rent it out, or you can just do the flying for these clients. 

Focus Groups

Are you interested in getting paid to give your opinion? That’s what focus groups are all about. 

Companies will hire you to provide insight into their new product or service. You’ll get paid a flat rate, typically $50/100/hr for providing feedback. 

Food Truck

I live in Austin, and food trucks are big here. Often trucks will come to our main location here on the east side of town and they’ll only park for weekends and evenings. 

When people are out drinking and having fun, getting a snack to hold over the alcohol is really helpful. 

The startup cost is slightly higher than the other options on here, but your return on investment can be very quick!

Furniture making

Are you good with design and carpentry? Do you have a knack for a table saw? 

Then get started making furniture for your local community. It’s really easy to sell them at local farmers markets, and you’ll be quickly earning income with your design work. 

From chairs to coffee tables, people are shopping local for high quality furniture. You should get a slice of the pie!

Get paid to go on dates

Sounds strange right? But it’s true. 

The creater of whatsyourprice.com will allow you to get paid for going on dates with a member of the opposite sex. 

Obviously, you need to be careful, but if you’re a female it never hurts to have options!

Give music lessons

Music is the soul’s way of speaking to us. Without music, what kind of life would we have? 

That’s why if you love music, you should teach others too. You should also get paid doing it. Many parents want their children to know how to pay the piano or guitar, but they themselves don’t know how. That’s why they look to music instructors to provide guidance. 

It’s a fantastic part time hustle, and great networking opportunity! 

Home inspection

People will always need a place to live. Shelter is a base level need within our system. 

They also need the home to be up to living standard and code. That’s where a home inspector comes in. You can set up a solid side hustle by inspecting homes which are about to be closed on by real estate investors. 

Granted, you’ll need to get your certification, but it’s a very manageable task to achieve. 

Housesit

Often people consider housesitting to be a once in a blue-moon activity. That’s not necessarily true, especially with tools like House Sit Match or Nomador where you can get vetted as a professional house sitter. 

It was mainly used for digital nomads who wanted to earn a little extra cash while they travel, but it’s quickly turned into a solid gig for people looking to expand their horizons at different localities. 

You can easily make between $200-$400/week working with these companies!

Interior Decorating

Do you have a need to constantly rearrange your living space? Maybe you’re fascinated with the flow of the rooms?

If that’s the case, you need to check out becoming an interior decorator as a part time hustle. Many high level professionals are looking for the most modern and sleek ways to arrange their living space for optimal enjoyment. 

You can even get certified in it!

Iphone Repair

I crack my screen at least 2 times a year. I always hit up a friend of mine who knows how to fix screens, and does so on a regular basis when not working in his day job. 

In fact, he makes over $3,000/month helping people fix their damaged iPhone screens. 

All you need is the proper tool set, and to spend a little time watching YouTube videos to get the hang of it. 

Janitorial Services

Someone has to clean up around these parts. It might not be something you want to brag about to people, but it sure does pay the bills. 

Almost every company will pay for their office place to be cleaned on a regular basis. Productivity drops if the office isn’t clean the next morning. 

You can be sure the cleaning will happen after hours, typically around 7pm. Because of COVID things have certainly changed, but offices are beginning to open back up and these services will be in need again soon. 

Junk Hauling

If you have access to a van or truck, then you need to consider this side hustle.

The founder of Waste Management used to drive home to home picking up trash (for a fee of course) and hauling it off to landfills. 

That simple action has made him a billionaire. 

Plus there’s a neat bonus – you can sell the junk if you find really interesting pieces!  

Knife Sharpening

Restaurants need sharp knives. That’s just a fact of the business. Keeping the knives sharp is a completely different story. 

Instead of getting rid of the knife, professionals can come in and save the blade from needing to be tossed. This saves the restaurant a ton of money. 

Landscaping

Wealthy people like to have nice lawns. They’re also more than happy to pay someone to trim their grass for them. 

Take advantage of this. There are a lot of people willing to pay good money to have someone come in and provide a valuable service. 

You’ll be doing things like: 

• Trimming bushes
• Edging corners
• Mowing
• Cleaning gutters
• Raking leaves
• Fertilizing grass
• Weeding
• Planting trees

You don’t need a large upfront capital to get started either. Get started with the tools you have in place right now, and purchase better ones as you gain more clients. 

I mowed yards every weekend when I was younger to help pay for my baseball tournaments. It’s definitely doable as a part time gig.

Laundry service

Full transparency, I hate doing laundry. I’m not the only one either. 

It’s the number 2 most hated chore behind dishes! Yelp has even mentioned they’ve seen a spike in the number of people outsourcing their laundry. Which is crazy considering COVID!

Local Tour Guide

Recently I went to Fredericksburg, Texas which is wine country around these parts. We used a local tour guide company who knew everything about their city and were wine experts. 

It was one of the best experiences of my life. Not only did I get insight into the wonderful community, but I got to drink good wine with great friends. 

Do you know your city better than everyone else in your crew? Then give exciting tour experiences to visitors.

Mechanical Turk

This is a fantastic way to complete very small jobs for companies who needed extra data entry help. 

It’s gotten much more competitive over the years, and automation has slowly creeped its way into exterminating a lot of these jobs. However, it’s still a solid side hustle you can do in your spare time. 

Mobile Oil Change

If you’re comfortable around cars you might want to consider helping people with their oil changes. You’ll bring the supplies to them, and even complete the work to make sure their car is performing in top shape. 

I’ve used one before and I found it helpful, especially when I was in a pinch. 

Modeling

Are you good looking? 

Like really, really, ridiculously good looking? 

Then try out modeling in your spare time. You can get paid an hourly fee and if you get good enough you can work out royalty fees for your photograph!

Movie Extra

You probably won’t become the next A-List celebrity, but it doesn’t mean you can’t earn a little extra cash. 

In fact, movie production has moved away from New York and L.A. into a variety of other towns like Atlanta, Charleston, and even Wilmington, North Carolina. 

You’ll typically earn minimum wage, but who knows, maybe you’ll rub elbows with some big players! 

Mystery Shopping

Retail business owners need to know what their customer experience is like with their employees. That’s why they’ll pay mystery shoppers to give unfiltered feedback about their experience. 

Almost always you’ll get paid for the shopping experience, plus it helps you get out of the house for a bit.

Notary

In order to sign legal documents you have to get them authorized by a certified notary. They’re people who oversee signatures to ensure it’s a qualified person signing. 

The certification is surprisingly cheap (only $100) and you’ll be able to notarize documents in your state. 

You’ll often be called to travel where the contracts are being signed, but the pay can often be worth the travel.

Party Planning

If you’re organized and enjoy social functions, this side hustle is for you. Event planning is both an exciting and profitable business for many people. 

Obviously, you need to have an eye for design and organization skills, but as long as you stay determined you’ll make a really good income from this side hustle.

Personal Chef

So you’re a good cook? Let’s get you a little money for your time. 

Many wealthy individuals need help with their cooking because to them it’s too time-consuming. Something they’ll often do is hire a chef to cook pre-made meals for them so they can just heat it up and eat the food. 

This makes it awesome for you because you can cook 2 or 3 days worth of meals in 1 session and maintain high profitability for your time. 

You can even add in a couple extra servings for you and your family too! 

Personal Shopping

Life gets busy, fast. Just like with a personal chef, wealthier individuals are always looking for ways to make their lives more efficient. As a personal shopper, you’ll get the opportunity to help people short on time. 

There are loads of different apps available to help you on your personal shopping hustle. For example, Instacart or Shipt allows you the option to do either the full service shop and delivery, or to just pick out the items at a store for the customer to pick up. 

You can also hang up flyers around your town to help run personal errands for people. Although that’s going to be a little more difficult. 

Personal training

With most people working 9-5 jobs, they typically have a hard time motivating themselves to hit the gym. This is particularly true since COVID. In fact, obesity has increase since COVID hit. (source) 

That’s why people are turning to personal trainers to help them get out of the rut. 

Starting out is hard. Facebook is filled with old high school buddies who think they’re going to get you ripped in 30 days. That doesn’t mean it isn’t doable though!

I’m going to assume you have the background in health and fitness to make this work. However, in the beginning, you’ll want to build your client base slowly and methodically.

Start by reaching out to your inner circle to get beginning clients and testimonials. Then, work your way outward until you finally have people paying you between $8 to $15/hr. 

At that point, you’ll be able to really scale into a larger set of clients, or you can move online where you can do masterclasses for people.  

Pet Grooming Service

Grooming pets takes serious skill. I tried clipping my cats nails and almost gave up after 1 finger. 

Many pet owners though simple don’t have the time or the patience to groom their own pets. This is particularly true for dog owners. So, they seek out the help of professionals who can give them guidance and lend a helping hand… For a fee of course. 

This means you have an excellent opportunity to become a pet groomer for your community. If you love animals, and want to make a very solid small side hustle, pet grooming is a fantastic route. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, you can earn upwards of $2,000-$3,000/month for the work! 

Bonus points if you turn it into a mobile pet grooming service!

Pet Waste Removal

People are lazy. And that’s a good thing!

If you’re looking for a lucrative side gig, homeowners are increasingly asking others to help pick up the dirty poop in their yard. 

Often the homeowners will have multiple pets who leave landmines in the backyard. You can easily charge $15/month to go in and pick up the poop twice a month. 

Someone has to do the dirty work!

Photography

Are you constantly framing your surroundings? 

Do you have an eye for what makes a good picture? 

Does everyone come to you for photography help? 

Then start a side hustle with your photography expertise! Even if you’re not a pro, you can still make really good money in the space. Just be sure to go after newly engaged couples here at Texas A&M (kidding, but not really). 

There are a couple ways you can monetize your effort. 

• Take photos for clients
• Sell your photos to stock websites
• Teach people about photography

Either way – it’s a skillset that’s bound to be useful given our digital age. 

Pool Cleaning

Pools are a lot to own. I should know, I had to clean my parents pool every week. You have a good deal of maintenance from adding chlorine, scrubbing the floor, to balancing the water. The maintenance can become a headache quickly. 

If you’re especially lazy you’ll get massive algae growth which can ruin your filters and cause you to sink thousands of dollars into your pool.

That’s why a pool cleaning business is such a perfect way to make extra money. You can do it in evenings or weekends, you only need to clean pools once a week max, and you can get paid great money for little time investment. 

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, and you want a very simple business to run with low barriers to entry, cleaning pools is the jam. 

Pool Rental

When I first heard of this, I was a little skeptical. It seemed weird being able to rent out your pool, but with the gig economy, weirder things have happened. 

There’s a cool app called Swimply where pool owners can rent the pool they own to help with the expenses of upkeep (and make a little extra coin in the process). 

You’ll create listings like on Airbnb with your different features of the pool. Just list when the pool is available and people will pay you to use it. 

Not bad for literally zero work!

PostMates

The on-demand economy is growing and there’s no going back to the way things used to be. People want convenience, and with Postmates, that’s exactly what they get. 

Postmates is an application where couriers can deliver products to customers. Couriers have been around for a long time, but it was always centralized via DHL or other large multinational companies. 

Now, you can become a freelance delivery person and work on your own time. Whether it’s restaurant orders or personal items at Walmart. 

The beauty of PostMates is you don’t need a car. You can use a bike, Vespa, or your standard vehicle to get around town and deliver for people. 

Not only can you get exercise, but you can get paid to do it!

Pressure Washing

Starting a pressure washing business is a fantastic option for new entrepreneurs or those looking to start a side hustle. 

The barrier to entry is relatively low, profit margins are solid, and the work can be quickly mastered given enough time. 

If you’re already employed with your 9 to 5, you can do this on the weekends without burning too much time either. 

People have often reported they can make $100/hr with their pressure washing business. 

Just be sure to only do driveways and other concrete areas. You don’t want to mess up siding with your spray nozzle. 

Rentafriend

This is going to sound strange. However, given the times we’re in, people are seeking companionship like crazy. 

In fact, there’s a legit website called rentafriend.com where you can pay for (purely platonic) companionship. 

If you’re extraverted, this could be a great option for you!

Renting Out Garage Or Attic Space

Want to run a mini self-storage business? 

Try out renting your garage or attic space to people who need the extra space. People will pay you every month to keep their stuff safe and secure in your home. 

What else are you doing with the space??

Rent Out Parking Space

If you live in a college town you can make serious cash with this idea. When I went to college I remember there being absolutely no parking available. 

I would pay someone hundreds of dollars a month to get a spot I know was mine, especially for classes where I had to drive back and forth on campus. 

There are apps like Spothero or Curbflip where you can rent your parking spot to people. 

It’s a fantastic way to earn a little extra income every month, especially in a high traffic area. 

Shovel Snow

Winter can be pretty brutal for people. Especially this year in 2021 the winter season has been a little wild. 

If you have a good work ethic, and you’re not afraid of the cold, earn a little extra Christmas money shoveling snow for your community. 

The best part is it’s highly flexible. You can do it after work or on the weekends. Plus, you’re providing a valuable service to the community!

Sign flipping

Businesses are always looking for ways to help market their services or products. Sign flipping, while slightly embarrassing, is an effective way to grab drivers attention. 

You can put yourself on the street corner, pop in your favorite playlist (or audiobook!), and start jamming away. 

Sports Coaching

I played a lot of baseball growing up. In fact, I was pretty good, and I was able to make some decent money helping teach little leaguers how to play ball. 

It gets even more lucrative if you can get them into private lessons!

Sports Officiating

Rec leagues need umpires and referees! 

Stage Houses

Real estate agents know a perfect house sells. In fact, they’ll go so far as to purchase cardboard TV’s so it looks like the house has a flatscreen! 

There’s a saying I really enjoy: “Perception is reality.”

That’s why staging houses is a great opportunity for a legit side hustle. 

Taskrabbit

This is the perfect solution for those who want extra income based on handyman skills or talents. 

Taskrabbit will match freelance contractors with local community clients who need labor completed in or around their home. These tasks can range from relatively simple work like moving boxes, to more complex work like cleaning gutters and assembling furniture. 

They only have about 150,000 taskers (for the whole country!) which means there’s a lot of opportunity still to make serious side income. 

If you’re good with your hands, give it a try!

Yoga Teacher

Yoga can be a rewarding practice for those who only observe the practice and for those who teach it too. In fact, it can be a lucrative side hustle for yoga instructors. 

Often people will notice they’re already spending most of their evenings or weekends doing yoga at a studio, and this will lead down the hole of learning how to become a teacher. 

If you have a passion for yoga, and you want to build a community around it, consider teaching yoga to your local community. 

Ticket Reselling

This is one of the oldest side hustles around. Doesn’t mean it’s going out of style anytime soon! 

The process is pretty simple. Buy tickets at bulk for a cheap price, and sell them for a much higher price out on the streets. 

Turo (Rent Out Your Car)

Did you know you have a money making machine sitting right in your driveway? Yes, I mean your car! 

It can be used for passive income thanks to Turo. Think of it like the Airbnb of car rental. Basically Turo will connect you with people who need a rental vehicle. 

In fact, a buddy of mine recently bought a new Tesla model S and 2 months later he flew to Costa Rica for an extended vacation. During that time he rented out his vehicle and made $600 in net profit per month. That’s including his payment and everything!

Granted, not every car will be a match for Turo, but if you’ve got a vehicle no more than 3 years old and in good shape, you should be on your path to passive income!

Uber/Lyft

Uber & Lyft basically started the gig economy. At least in my opinion. 

By now I’m sure you’ve heard of them. They’re basically the biggest tech companies on the planet. They allow regular people to leverage their cars to become taxi drivers. 

And it’s very lucrative. There are many stories of people making well over $4,000/month (after expenses and everything) driving for Uber. Especially during peak traffic time. 

If you want to work evenings or weekends, and you have a new(ish) car, consider Uber or Lyft. 

Vehicle Car Wrap

You can make up to $500/month by wrapping your car in business advertising. Businesses are always looking for ways to get a competitive edge and drive traffic to their stores. 

By paying you to drive around, they’re getting exactly that. 

Walking Dogs (Rover)

Dog lovers unite (on Rover)! 

Rover is a tech company with the goal of connecting pet owners with pet sitters. It was founded in the early 2010’s and has grown tremendously over the past decade. 

In fact, they have over 200,000 dog sitters on the site and help provide needed services like: 

• Pet sitting
• Dog walking
• House sitting
• Drop in visits
• Dog boarding or daycare

It’s not only limited to dogs either! You can also go and feed cats if the owner is away for an extended period of time. 

Watch Repair

Watches are constantly getting scuffed and scratched from day to day work. 

With a couple YouTube videos you can learn how to fix them quickly and cheaply. Then you can charge a great margin for the work provided. 

Window Cleaning

It’s exactly what you think it is. Cleaning windows as a way to earn extra income. It can be from residential to commercial properties, especially high rises, but the windows need to be cleaned one way or another. 

There’s a lot of pros and cons to this business. It’s one of the oldest side hustles around, but that doesn’t mean the well has dried up yet!

Woodworking

So, you’re pretty good at making handcrafted woodwork? If that’s the case, let’s turn it into a solid income stream! 

This hobby is one you can quickly turn into a profitable side hustle without much effort (outside of creating the woodwork items). 

Online Freelance Consulting Side Hustles

We’re now at one of my favorite parts when it comes to side hustles. Because of the internet there are so many opportunities to do consulting gigs on the side after (or during) your day job. 

I’ve scoured the internet to find all of the available skills and activities you can do online. Below you’ll find the jobs and work that can be completed online at any time. 

Accounting

Accounting is the lifeblood of business. With accounting you’re keeping a formal record of all financial transactions for a business or organization based on the regulations or laws within a given country. 

You can do accounting online and you can even get started with very little certification or degrees!

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is a subset of accounting where you’re actually tracking the financial information and activities within an organization. Bookkeeping is best for those who are beginner accountants and want to get their foot in the door in this realm. 

Business Analysis

This is the process of identifying business problems and then finding solutions to those problems. You’re going to be tasked with analyzing business processes and determining how to improve them. 

Financial Analysis & Modeling

Create financial models based on forecasts or budgets provided by the business. Financial analysis will help businesses make better strategic decisions over time, and you’re going to be tasked with building these models for c-suite executives. 

Financial Management / CFO

You’re the big dog when it comes to finance within a business. You’ll handle all the planning, coordination, and organization of financial related tasks within the finance function of a business. 

HR Administration

As an HR admin you’ll be managing employee expectations and company policies. You’ll also be tasked with implementing all the tasks associated with building a great company culture. 

Instructional Design

This is a subset of HR administration, but ideally you’ll be designing and developing online training and manuals for all employees. You’ll be tasked with creating standard operating procedures (SOP’s). This helps the business scale and achieve more autonomy over time. 

Management Consulting

Are you able to help companies improve performance and grow? Do you have a management background? Provide management consulting where you’ll be tasked with getting companies to the next level in their growth pattern. 

Recruiting

Attract high quality candidates for jobs within the company you’re consulting for. You’ll be tasked with making sure candidates fit the criteria for becoming an employee and will be able to accomplish the job they’ve been assigned. 

Tax Preparation

Help businesses or individuals prepare their taxes. 

Training & Development

Companies are always looking to uplevel their employee skill set. In this consulting role you’ll be tasked with training employees to increase their efficiency with high quality training. You’ll develop effective approaches to building high team performance within an organization. 

Data Entry

Help companies by entering data into a computer system that can’t be automated. Data keeps a company alive, but if the data isn’t properly processed then no business decisions can be made. It requires a high level of detailed focus to be good at this side hustle. 

Online Research

You can provide data mining or data scraping using search engines to collect relevant info online. Many business owners don’t have the time to perform online research, so they like to outsource it to people with a better skill set who can perform the job quickly and efficiently. 

Order Processing

When orders come into shopify stores online, someone needs to handle the administration task of selecting, packing, and shipping the items to the customer. You would be tasked with this job, and it makes for a solid side hustle. 

Project Management

One of my personal favorite side hustles. With project management you’ll be asked to keep projects moving forward. It involves managing the process of resources, tasks, and other admin related work to ensure a project gets completed. 

Transcription

Convert audio and video data into text for users to read. There are multiple kinds of transcription types which include medical, legal, and general transcription. It’s very popular because of the rise of video caption requirements on Facebook!

Virtual Assistance

One of the most sought after side hustles on the internet. Virtual assistance is where you provide administrative help to clients remotely. You’ll be tasked with performing many functions of an executive assistant, but you can do it part time. It’s a perfect side hustle for those who are organized and detail oriented. 

Customer Service

When customers have questions or problems about the product or service, a customer service member is there to provide assistance and answer any questions. You’ll get the opportunity to help people with a number of problems, and you’ll learn about a lot of cool products along the way. 

Technical Support

Support consumers with their technical problems. A good example is my Macbook was restarting without any explanation. I got on the phone with an Apple genius (technical support) and they fixed it right away. It’s great as a part time gig. 

Data Analytics

Inspect and model data in order to uncover hidden information for better decision making. This typically involves split-testing, or A-B testing, to find the correct data. Data analytics also includes the process of mining, processing, and visualizing the data. 

Data Engineering

Design, build, and maintain large data infrastructures.

Data Extraction

You’ll be tasked with retrieving data for a variety of sources. Often larger companies have access to data they have no idea how to pull. You can consult with them to help the businesses gain access to this data. 

Experimentation & Testing

Do you enjoy tinkering and experimenting? Then you should do it as a side hustle. Many companies need help with people who can provide high quality testing with the goal of innovating for the marketplace. 

Machine Learning

One of the hottest consulting gigs available on the internet. Machine learning involves using statistical models to develop algorithms for software so they can learn and improve on their own. You’re teaching a machine to learn without your help!

2D & 3D Animation

Animation has the ability to capture the public’s imagination in a way no other form of media can. You’ll be tasked with creating entire landscapes, characters, storyboards and beyond. You can create in either 2D or 3D space depending on your skill set. 

Audio Editing / Post-Production

Editing and mixing audio for music, videos, and other forms of audio media. You’ll be a mix-master and you can clip the audio with a variety of editing software. 

Audio Production

You’ll help people with the process of recording and producing music. The cool thing about this side hustle, you’ll get the chance to view the newest films, television, or videos coming out to the web. 

Brand Identity Design

Do you have an eye for design? With a brand identity design side hustle, you’ll help companies design their brand and how it’ll be viewed by millions of people. 

Brand Strategy

Develop the long-term strategic plan for a brand. You’ll help them achieve their specific goals related to brand recognition. 

Cartoonist

This is great for whiteboard animation videos! As a cartoonist you’ll be tasked with creating cartoons for individuals or companies. The activities involve sketching and drawing cartoons. 

Editorial Design

Help magazines, newspapers, and even books with their visual representations. You’ll be asked to design the layout and landscape of the entire publication. 

Fashion Design

If you’re a fashionista you’ll love this. You can get paid to help companies with their designs for their clothes. If you have an eye for style, consider this side hustle.

Graphic Design

One of my personal favorites as a side hustle. You’ll be tasked with creating all the visual media a company needs to really make a splash in the marketplace. Graphic design incorporates the following aspects: 

• Illustration
• Image Editing
• Motion Graphic Design
• Presentation design

If you’re artistic and want to make a little extra money on the side, consider graphic design. 

Musician

Make music as a side hustle. You’ll either use instruments or your voice to help express a brand’s company. You could be tasked with making the next hit jingle, or with helping movie producers get quality audio. 

Typically freelance musicians are asked to do both the composition and production of the music. That means being able to create the music itself, and then record and produce it for the client. 

Scriptwriting

Write scripts for many kinds of media. If you can tell a story, you’re needed. Help video games, movies, and even businesses produce amazing video content with deep and intriguing plots. 

Social Media Strategy

Social media is the future of marketing. As a social media strategist you’ll be asked to plan and execute for a brand’s social media. Are you good with memes? Should you use Facebook or Twitter? These are all questions you’ll answer as a strategist.

Videographer

Much like a photographer, a videographer is tasked with creating professional video footage for clients. The footage is typically used for marketing campaigns with the goal of creating audiences for brands. 

As a videographer you’ll be tasked with additional responsibilities like:

• Video editing (post production editing of footage)
• Video production (actually creating the content via shooting the video)

VR & AR Design

Create entire worlds with VR & AR design. If you’ve ever seen Ready Player 1 you’ll know exactly what I mean. With Augmented reality, you’re adding a digital filter to what’s actually occurring in reality. Think Pokemon Go. 

With Virtual reality, you’re actually creating fully immersive experiences. From scuba diving under the sea, to floating through space. Your goal is to design and create entire worlds. 

Most VR & AR designers are capable of 3D modeling, rendering, and visualization. This means you’ll create the mathematical representation of the objects and then render it from 2D to 3D for viewers. 

BIM Modeling

Building information modeling is the process of creating digital representations of buildings. From their physical to their functional characteristics. 

Think of BIM like building a digital blueprint. You’ll often use computer aided design (CAD) to help with this process. 

Engineering Tutoring

Provide online tutoring for students to help them learn the basics of engineering concepts. Help them pass their homework, exams, and classes with online assistance. 

Jewelry Design

Design bracelets, rings, earring, necklaces and all other kinds of jewelry. Bet you didn’t know you could do this as a side hustle!

Landscape Design

Instead of having to do the down and dirty work of the actual landscaping, you can design an attractive garden for someone! 

Sourcing & Procurement

Find, or source, materials for an organization.

Product Design

This is the process of designing new products for organizations. I can tell you from first hand experience I’ve hired product designers to help with creating offers for my copywriting clients. It’s a very lucrative side gig. 

Science Tutoring

Tutor students to help them excel with their science and math courses. They need to pass their exams, and they’re more than happy to pay you for guidance!

Database Administration

Do you love data? Do you have a knack for organizing data? If so, you should consider a database admin side hustle. Businesses around the world need help with making sure their databases are neat and organized. 

Paralegal

Lawyers need a lot of help. That’s where paralegals come in. You don’t need to have a specialized degree to be a paralegal. In fact, the lawyer will help supervise you. Basically your job is to look up law codes and do a lot of reading. It’s the perfect side hustle. 

Business Development

Help organizations get more business and secure more deals! As a business development consultant you’ll pursue strategic growth opportunities. Best part, you can do it part time in the evenings or during low times at work. 

Content Strategy

Brands constantly need help with their content strategy. With content strategy you’ll be asked to help consult brands on what kind of content is necessary to grow their marketing efforts. You’ll perform actions like planning, developing, and managing all the content within the organization. 

Digital Marketing

My personal favorite side hustle! Digital marketing means you’re helping companies and brands reach an audience through online channels. Here are a couple examples of digital marketing tasks: 

• Email marketing
• Lead generation
• Marketing automation
• SEO 
• SEM
• Pay Per Click
• Content marketing
• Social media marketing

There’s a good deal more to the mix, but those are the basic functions. I personally love this side hustle because it’s one of the most valuable skills in the world right now. If you can actually help people grow their business or brand, you’ll quickly become a very wealthy person!

Marketing Strategy

Design a marketing plan for businesses to sell more products or services. You can be a consultant for many different brands and if you have the skill set you’ll make great money with this side hustle. 

Market Research

Market research focuses on gathering and processing information related to consumer trends. It helps fuel the marketing strategy and execution. 

Public Relations

Do you view life like a series of chess moves? Then public relations might be a great side hustle for you. Public relations is the strategic approach to communication for building positive bonds with the public. 

In our current culture, public relations is more important than ever. In fact, business schools will be talking about Robinhood’s epic PR disaster after they prevented the trading of Gamestop shares on their app. 

Telemarketing

You can sell millions of dollars worth of products or services by getting on the phone and reaching out to prospects. 

Telemarketing is the process of connecting with prospective clients. The goal could be to book a meeting, or to sell them a service. Either way you’ll be tasked with making phone calls with the goal of creating brand exposure. 

Language Localization

This is the process of helping businesses adapt their marketing content to a specific language. A good example is a brand like Coca Cola. When they want to enter a new market in South America, they’ll hire language localization help for creating and adapting the content to meet the specifications of the culture. 

Language Tutoring

Help students learn how to speak a different language. It’s a fantastic side hustle for those with the unique skill set of being multilingual. 

Often people try to use apps like Duolingo to help them in the beginning, but they quickly learn it’s more efficient to get a live tutor who can provide them with expert guidance. 

That could be you!

Legal Translation

This is the process of taking legal texts from one language, and translating it into another language. 

Medical Translation

Medical translation is the practice of translating documents for marketing, training, clinical, and regulatory purposes, into another language.

Technical Translation

Technical translation is the process of translating texts on technology or on the application of science and technology, into another language.

Translation

Being a translator is a really interesting side hustle. You can do it all online, with the goal of translating words and meanings from one language to another. People who don’t speak the language won’t understand the nuances needed for a correct translation. 

There are many options for this: 

• Legal translation – taking legal texts and translating from one language to another.
• Medical translation – taking medical documents and translating from one language to another.
• Technical translation – translating technical textbooks from one language to another. 

The work can be very fulfilling and you’ll get paid handsomely for it. Plus, you can do it in your offtime after work. 

Quality Assurance Testing

Help businesses make sure their software is performing correctly with quality assurance tests. You’ll help by writing scripts to stress test apps based on certain metric criteria. 

Additionally, you can run what are called functional tests where you manually check for applications stress load. 

Back-End Development

With back-end development you’re mainly focused on database level operations. Usually it involves software like SQL where you can retrieve data from the server side. 

Back-end development usually involves database development, where you’ll help IT professionals create company infrastructure. 

It’s a really great side hustle, especially if you work within databases full time. 

CMS Customization & Development

This is the process of creating and developing content management systems. As businesses grow they need places to house their content. There are other options like Content Distribution Networks where you help content get noticed by servers. 

A lot of technical aspects go into this, but if you have the chops for it, running CMS’ makes for a great side hustle. 

Desktop Software Development

You can develop specific software for desktops like Windows, Linux, or Mac. A good example would be the application Slack. 

Slack started out as a side hustle which turned into a billion dollar company!

Ecommerce Development

Build and deliver ecommerce platforms for clients. Ecommerce is the biggest revenue driver for commerce in general now. 

You’ll be helping small to medium businesses with their ecommerce needs. 

Not only is it a seriously fun side hustle, but you’ll be learning a lot about the space so you can create your own ecommerce store!

Front-End Development

Front-end development is the process of creating user interfaces with HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Typically front-end development is what you see day to day with websites. 

This is one of the easier coding languages to learn and it pays very well as a side hustle.  

Full Stack Development

Full stack is the process of combining both front-end and back-end development. You basically have the whole package for coding! 

It’s recommended developers try to become full stack because it increases your earning capacity. 

Game Development

You can create video games for phones, desktops, and other consoles as a side hustle. Angry birds was a side hustle created as a fun project which ended up making the owner millions. 

Game development includes mobile apps, mobile design, desktop design, and much more. You can create fully immersive worlds for people, especially if you attach AR or VR to it.

Product Management

Manage the process of developing a product. You’ll assist by creating the strategy and implementation roadmap for features the product needs to be successful. 

You can do this all from you home and after work which makes it a perfect side hustle. 

Scripting & Automation

Help make people’s lives easier with automation. You can write code which can be used to automate processes within a business to help make them more efficient. 

The code could be as simple as automatically creating an invoice anytime a product is sold within an ecommerce store. It could also be as difficult as using OCR technology to automatically match invoices for cash application. 

Either way, automation is the future and if you have this skill set you’ll be paid well for it. 

Scrum Master

A scrum master is a person familiar with advanced project management techniques. You’re typically going to leverage agile development programs to make sure the building of software products becomes efficient and effective. 

User Research

Do you have a need to understand human psychology and behavior? Are you interested in why users choose one button style over another on a sales page? 

If so you could do really well within a user research role. You’ll be responsible for handling the process of understanding behavior trends, needs, and motivations with qualitative and quantitative measuring standards. 

UX/UI Design

User experience and user interface design is the process of building software and other applications with easy flow and understanding. You help make the web and its applications easy to use. 

Business Writing

Communication is the most important factor for successful c-suite executives. As a business writer, you’ll be asked to focus on proposals, reports, PR statements, and other business communication. 

You’ll most likely be tasked with writing to external audiences, although often writing to internal audiences will be necessary. If a large corporation is firing 10,000 employees, you can be sure they’re going to hire a business writing expert to soften the blow for the employees. 

Career Coaching

Help professionals make important decisions about their career. Often these coaches are used for help with getting hired into certain roles at organizations. 

Content Writing

Blogs, articles, ebooks, whitepapers, and much more. That’s what content writing is all about! 

I personally love content writing as a second source of income. In fact, I’ve written a number of blog posts detailing out why you should consider it as a second source of income. 

You’ll have super interesting projects to work on, and you can complete them in your own time. Expect to spend time researching, writing, editing, and proofreading your work. 

The best part is a lot of people will see your content and you can charge upwards of $500 per post! 

Copywriting

This is my all-time favorite side hustle. Hands down copywriting is the most transferable skill you’ll ever learn. 

What’s even better is you can actually get paid to learn copywriting when you’re beginning, and then you can jump into creating your own product when you get good enough. 

Copywriting is the process of persuading a reader to take action. Sounds simple, but it’s bloody hard. 

I have an entire post on how to learn copywriting. Check it out to learn more! 

Creative Writing

If you enjoy reading fiction then you should consider writing it. Creative writing is the process of writing storylines for readers. It doesn’t have to be books either. You can write scripts, web content, animation video content, and beyond. 

Editing & Proofreading

You can get paid to read and critique writing. Seriously. 

With editing and proofreading, you’ll help writers make changes to their writing to improve the quality of the content. Editing is the critique side, while proofreading finds and corrects grammatical errors. 

Ghostwriting

You know all those books celebrities write? Yea, they used a ghostwriter. That’s when a person will hire you to create articles, books, and other content for them without you getting credit. 

In school they always taught you plagiarism was the worst sin you could commit. I guess in the real world as long as you pay enough it doesn’t matter. 

Grant Writing

Help people who are applying for grants from governments, trust funds, or foundations. If you have experience with grant writing you can create this side hustle for extra cash. 

Technical Writing

You’ll be tasked with helping people create documentation and standard operating procedures for their products. 

Not many people are willing to take the time to write manuals, which is why you should seriously consider it.

Writing Tutoring

Help students develop their writing skills. In my opinion, writing is the most important skill a person can possess. It helps clarify your thinking. Plus, being able to communicate proves to be handy when doing business. 

That’s why parents will pay big money to have their kids get taught by an excellent tutor. 

Investing / Flipping / Selling Side Hustles

I’ve saved the best for last. 

These ideas are for those people who have careers with a little nest egg, and you’re ready to step on the gas pedal to increase your earning potential. 

With these side hustles you’re playing in the biggest pond available. You’ll be building not only a side hustle, but a legit business. 

Stay focused on these for at least a year and you’ll see serious dividends come back to you. 

Create A Blog

Here’s the truth. Blogging is one of the most rewarding side hustles you can build. 3 years ago I built a blog related to the survival niche and it’s generating $5,000/month consistently now. 

I started it with the goal of learning how to blog, and I had no idea how life changing it would be. Granted, I still work a career (which is totally different from a job by the way), but at the end of the day I don’t need to work in this career. I choose to work. 

It’s been the most freeing experience knowing my income isn’t tied to a single source. 

Obviously you’re not guaranteed success with blogging. But I urge you to read this really interesting article “1000 true fans.” You don’t need millions of people to follow you to become financially independent. In fact, you really only need 1000 people willing to support you. 

As a blogger, you’ll only get out what you’re willing to put in. Dedicate just 90 minutes per day to creating and growing your blog and I promise you’ll be in a better position than where you are now. 

Create A Course

You’re qualified to teach someone how to improve a skill in this world. It doesn’t really matter what you teach, but I guarantee you have skills other people would like to get. 

Maybe you’re a rockstar photographer and know angles better than anyone else, or you’re good with tonality and you can teach people pitch inflection. It doesn’t matter what you teach. 

With an online course you’re putting yourself out there to the market to determine who bites. Make sure you’re providing value and there will be people who will take a chance on you. 

Write An Ebook

Much like a course – writing an ebook is about getting the words to paper. There are a lot of stories during the kindle days where writers made 6 figures from writing horror stories and charging $2 per book sale. 

Produce An Audiobook

Audiobooks and podcasts have steadily gone up since 2010. Almost every year there has been more listeners of audiobooks and podcasts. 

Capture just 1% of a billion dollar market and you’re sitting pretty good!

Flip Items On Ebay Or Craigslist

Gary V talks about this all the time. Find items for sale on places like Offerup, or even garage sales, and then flip them for profit on listing sites like Ebay or Craigslist. 

You never know what kind of treasures you’ll find. 

What makes this idea so valuable is you can flip literally anything. You can find old baseball cards, furniture, books, jewelry, and beyond. 

Create YouTube Tutorials

There are countless stories of people making millions teaching others on Youtube how to do simple things like change their oil. 

Do keyword research and find unique ways to position your content for maximum viewership. Then monetize and expand that side hustle from there. 

Affiliate Marketing

This is another one of my favorite side hustles. Affiliate marketing is best described as being a commission only sales person. 

You attract visitors with high quality content, and then you send them to landing pages where they convert into customers for the products you’re selling. Instead of you having to jump through the hoops of fulfilling the order, you’re just getting paid a commission from the company for producing sales for them.

It sounds easy, but it’s very hard to master. There are literally hundreds of affiliate programs out there, and companies love them because it helps grow their bottom line without needing to spend on sales reps. 

Invest in Lending Club

Lending club would be considered a peer-to-peer lending company. Basically you loan regular people money with an interest rate and a guarantee they’ll pay you back in the future. 

Many people enjoy it because banks can be fickle about who they lend to. Often though, there’s a reason a bank won’t provide a loan, so be careful. 

Sell On Etsy

Etsy is the market place for everything DIY. There are millions of products which are all homemade and typically custom.

Products like: 

• Drink Coasters
• Notebooks
• Planners
• Book Sleeves
• Business Cards
• And much more

What’s even better is you can get started immediately. I’ve heard many stories of people making serious money selling bedazzled masks during COVID. 

Seriously.  

Try it out as a side hustle. 

Dropship

Dropshipping is the process of creating a storefront and selling a product you don’t actually have. After you sell it on your site, you would then go directly to the original retailer and purchase it at a cheaper price point then what you sold it for. 

I’m sure you’ve seen the Youtube ads out there talking about all these dropshipping success stories. What you need to pay attention to is you don’t really control anything in the process except for the traffic generation. 

There are a lot of courses on how to be successful with dropshipping, but those are the basics.

Rental Property Investment

I’m not an expert in this area, but what I do know is real estate is cited as the number 1 vehicle for creating massive wealth. 

The process is relatively simple, but difficult to execute. Find properties that fit certain criteria for being good rental units, purchase the property, fix it up so it’s good enough for living standards, then rent it out to tenants. 

I’m sure I’ll get told there’s more detail and it’s not that simple, but those are the basics. Real estate is a great game to play, but it requires larger upfront capital. 

Amazon FBA

If you don’t have a warehouse to hold product, you can use the Amazon FBA service as a way to scale your product business. Amazon will handle your items for you while helping take care of returns and other shipping functions. 

Basically this means all your storage issues can be solved, leaving you more time to focus on getting more sales. 

Private Labeling

Private labeling is the process of putting your own brand on a product or service. Sometimes it’s called “whitelabeling.” 

A good example is skin care. Did you know most skin care brands are private labeled? Most often chemical companies will create a product, let’s stay a moisturizer, and then instead of selling the product themselves they’ll convince many different brands to sell in their own name. 

It’s a win-win for everyone involved which is why they do it. 

On Demand T-Shirts

If you’re funny and can think of great designs for t-shirts then this side hustle is perfect for you. 

You can throw up a shopify site in a matter of minutes, and then link up Printify who will do all the hard work of creating the t-shirts for you. All you need to do is make the designs and away you go!

Podcasting

I had a colleague of mine who was an avid golfer. Let’s just say he was basically 1 level away from being a scratch golfer. 

He started a podcast talking about the golf world, and he’s met a series of celebrities along the way. Not to mention a number of sponsorship contracts. 

Flipping Websites

I LOVE this side hustle. It’s right up there with copywriting. 

I’ve done this a number of times and it’s proven really profitable for me. Because of my blogging background, I’ve learned some quick tricks and ways of scaling blogs without too much investment. 

You can find websites on Flippa or Empire Builders. It’s a lot like real estate flipping, only online with digital real estate. 

What Is A Side Hustle?

In my opinion – a side hustle is any money generating activity you perform outside of your day to day job or career.

How Do You Start a Side Hustle?

You start a side hustle by breaking the task down into its simplest parts. Let’s use the example of copywriting. 

Before you get started all you want to do is create a plan where you figure out step 1. Step 1 with copywriting is practicing and publishing advertisements. That’s how you get real feedback about your ads, by putting it to market. 

Once you learn the in’s and out’s of publishing ads, you can start reading to learn all the tricks and tips by the masters before you (remember – you’re always standing on the shoulders of giants). 

From there you need to get clients and repeat the process. 

Don’t let the mountain scare you. At the end of the day you have to put 1 foot in front of the other and eventually you’ll reach the summit. 

Best Side Hustles 2021 – The Final Word

I’ve given you everything I could think of when it comes to the best side hustles available. Even with these 150+ ideas, I’m sure I’m missing some lucrative ones you might be doing right now. 

Feel free to share your story below in the comments!