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Everyone nowadays needs a side hustle that they can get some extra cash from. It could be something that you do here and there or a small part time business that you run on the weekends or in your off hours. What you do depends on how much extra money you want to make and how much time you have to devote to it. These side jobs for extra cash can work, although some of them may require you to think outside the box.
You may find that you want to try many of these or maybe just one. If you try something and then find that it’s not for you don’t give up. There may be something else that will work for you. Just keep at it. You may find that your side hustle will become your main source of income. Even if the right one for you isn’t on this list, maybe it will spark an idea for you. There are always variations of different products or services that people start and become very successful at. You may just find a better way.
Low Investment
1 Grow some plants – This could be vegetables, flowers or even trees. See what is selling in your area and what they are selling for. This will give you an idea of what to grow and what to charge. You will need to get a plant to grow and then clone it. Learning to clone is pretty easy, but may take a few tries to get it right. Some trees can go for a lot. They might be the best place to start.
2 Love parties? Plan them – This is great for those who have most of their available time on the weekends. You will need a few hours during the week for preparing new clients, but most parties are on the weekend. You could specialize in planning parties for kid’s birthdays, bachelor / bachelorette parties, weddings, special ages 21, 30, 40, 50 etc.
3 Poop cleaner – No one likes to clean up after their dogs, but if you are willing to do it there is a lot of money in it. You could also branch out to doing cat boxes. It is a quick trip to do the litter boxes so you could charge less than the poop in the yard. If a house has both it could really be worth it. Other add on options are cleaning the aquarium, bird cage, small mammal cages or even reptiles aquarium. There are so many different pets you could cover them all. Don’t forget the farm animals. Horses are a lot of work to care for.
4 If you know cars – If you are a mechanic you could make a side business of checking out used cars before someone buys them. This would include checking the engine, suspension, tires, etc. Then taking it on a road test. You could choose to also write up a report that the potential buyer could take to the seller to negotiate the price if there is something wrong with it.
5 Insurance checklist – Most people have homeowners insurance, but don’t ever think about what they will do once something happens and they need to make a claim. This service would give people peace of mind and make their life easier if something happens. You would help them go through everything that they own. You will document the item with a picture and any identifying numbers on the item. All of the information goes on a flash drive. You could give them two flash drives. One to keep in the house and one to keep somewhere else in case of a house fire. They could and should also put copies of important documents on the flash drives like life insurance policies and a copy of their will or trust.
6 Bug pro – There are growing industries for people who help to get rid of bed bugs and lice. It could be a small side gig of looking for bed bugs on the weekends or evenings. You could go all in and open a salon that gets rid of lice for kids.
7 Drive for dollars – Your car can be used in a few ways to get extra cash. You could deliver pizza; use it as a taxi for people and pets. You could advertise on your car for local companies. If you charge them $50 a month and you have ten on the car then you get an extra $500 a month for doing nothing but driving. Remember you need to drive to make it worth it to the advertiser. You will need to work out a way for you to prove it is working for them or they won’t do a second month.
Techy Ideas
8 Teach on skype – If you can teach anything then you can do it on skype. There are a few things that you need to do to prepare for this. Advertise for clients. Set up a payment processor. PayPal works, but you could also use another option. Be sure they pay before the sessions. You need to state clearly what you will do in each session and how long it will be. Then repeat.
9 Fix computers – If you are good at troubleshooting computers you could make a nice side hustle fixing them. You could specialize in either hardware or software. You could just remove viruses.
10 Scan pictures – Many of us have piles of old pictures that are not getting looked at. You could make a side business of scanning in other peoples pictures and putting the digital copies on a flash drive or even an external hard drive of they have a lot. You could offer to fix old pictures if that is something you can do. If you can’t I am sure you can learn somewhere online for free. You will need a great scanner and quick computers. Nothing outdated or the pictures won’t look good and it will take you a long time. An “add on” would be a digital picture frame that you preload for them with the pictures that they choose.
11 Photography – There are many options with this. You could sell stock photos. You could do weddings, birthdays or even boudoir photos. If you are good with a camera this could be for you. It is very flexible with hours and if you already have the camera you could get going with very low startup costs.
12 Good at design – If you can make graphics and can come up with some funny sayings then you could sell products on sites like Cafepress and Zazzle. They can make your design into almost anything from t-shirts to mugs and even laptop skins. This is semi-passive income. Once you make the design you are pretty much done and the money can come in day or night.
Cash Needed
13 Restricted hours restaurant – This could be only after the bars close for those drunks who need to sober up. You could try only Saturday and Sunday mornings for breakfast or for brunch. Maybe you only open for lunch during the week and serve office workers. This would be something that will stand out and is great for creating buzz.
14 Safe UPS & FedEx deliveries – Theft of these deliveries are on the rise. It is gamble for those who aren’t home when the package comes. You could rent a small office and allow people to deliver their package to your office when they know they won’t be home for the delivery. For a small charge of course. They can either come to the office to get it or you could have it delivered later in the evening when someone is home for another small charge. This is a little more than a side hustle, but maybe you could start it from home.
15 Open a store that rotates what it sells – With this could be where you sell your own stuff or someone else’s. It could be that you just rent hours for others to use the space to sell their own goods. You could allow someone to have the store for a few hours, days or even a week. Then someone else would come in. You could do this for local small businesses. Contact your local news, they love these stories, get on the news and explain what the store will do and where it will be. Be sure to have a website that will list the upcoming sellers and when they will be there selling. Obviously you need to get the store going and have sellers lined up before you go to the news, but this is a “win win” for everyone.
16 DIY art building – This is something that could be done with relatively little work on your part. If you rent a warehouse sized building you could set it up in different sections for DIYer’s. This could be sewing machines, woodworking tools, glass blowing, maybe welding or painting supplies. This could set up on your end with the main equipment and you could sell the supplies if they don’t have their own. You can rent the use of the equipment in the area on an hourly basis. You would need someone to watch the time and make sure they clean up after they are done. This is a great way to make use of an empty warehouse and help a local art movement.
17 At home vet – As an owner of many pets I would love this service. It may exist, but if it does it’s not near me. When a pet is sick you need to take it to the vet, but it is really hard on the pet to go into the car and then into the vet’s office. They don’t understand it is good for them. Then they could also be exposed to other animal’s germs. Not good. If there was a service where the vet could come to the house with some equipment in a van that would great. Of course it couldn’t work all the time if the pet was in need of major care. Maybe just the vet tech could go to give meds or to take blood. You don’t need to get a vet or vet tech. Just hire them.
18 Daycare service, well kind of – This would be a variation on the normal daycare. You could set up a daycare business that employs stay at home moms as a daycare facility. They would need to get licensed like any other daycare in your state. Then you can have multiple locations to handle the kids. You would handle the business end that gets the kids signed up and choose the daycare location that is closest to them. Hire other people to work at the daycare so you wouldn’t have to actually work there. You could set up random checks of each house to be sure that they are up to your standards. There could be a potential for licensing with something like this. It is definitely an idea that you could play around with.
19 Licensed fitness instructors – Make a boot camp. Avoid overhead by running it in a local park. You could have morning and afternoon classes. You could do it three days a week for 3-4 weeks. Then you could add on private in home classes for anyone who attends, for them to do after they completed the boot camp. You could also do in home lessons over skype with them.
20 Personal chef – You could start a service where you cook twice a week at someone’s house for them. You bring your own equipment and the food. You cook at their house and then leave the food for them to reheat until you come back again. The perfect client for this is someone who works long hours and wants a nice home cooked meal, but doesn’t have the time and doesn’t want to go out to eat.
Some of these jobs for extra cash are new ideas and some are a twist on old ideas. I am sure that there are some of them that you can turn into your own. I would love to hear if you have tried any of these already or if you try them after reading let me know how it goes.
