12 Side Businesses You Can Earn Extra Money From
Even working a full-time job, it can seem almost impossible to make it from payday to payday without running out of money. Forget having money for any expected expenses, you’re just trying to cover your current bills. You’re not alone. According to the Federal Reserve, just 61% of households would be able to cover an unexpected expense totaling $400.
In the same report, 17% of adults said that they expected to only partially pay a bill due to not having enough money. Of this 17 %, 7% say that part of their mortgage, rent, or utility bills would go without full payments for the billing cycle. This is where a part-time side hustle comes in, and 37% of Americans report having them.
But, how do you find part time business ideas that work around your schedule? We’ve picked out a few side businesses to make extra money that could work for you.
Print On Demand
Setting up an e-commerce store allows you to work around your busy schedule within reason. You do have to be mindful of monitoring your products and adjusting them accordingly, but it’s easy to do. With so many platforms available to help you build your e-commerce store, why go Print on Demand? It’s easy to set up and maintain, it doesn’t take a lot of time, and you get an app that gives you constant access to your store.
Freelance Writing
If you like to write, you can make money from it around your schedule. You can look over job sites like Textbroker dedicated to freelance writing and apply through there. Content platforms are another idea. The platform acts as a broker between you and the client. The money goes into an escrow account, you write the order, and the platform releases the money when the client accepts your article. The platform takes a percentage of each order.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is another extremely popular avenue for earning money when it’s convenient for you. There was a recent Oberlo review that highlighted how easy it was to pair their app with your Shopify e-commerce store to connect you to people who sell the products you’d like to feature in your store. It streamlines the process and makes it fast, easy, and convenient.
Creating Websites
You don’t have to know how to code to create a fast and beautiful website for people and businesses. Platforms like Wix and WordPress make it as easy as dragging and dropping the features you want into a website. You also get gorgeous pre-made templates to use, and they’re easy to maintain and change as your customer’s needs change.
Driving
Ridesharing has become extremely popular all over the world, and companies like Lyft and Uber let you work around your schedule. It does depend on where you live, and you need a valid license, but you can make money by taking people from point A to point B. You’re free to work as little or as much as you’d like, and it fits in beautifully around your schedule.
Pet Walking
As ludicrous as it sounds, people will pay you to take their dogs for walks. As busy as some people are, they simply don’t have time to come home during the day and talk their dogs out for regular walks. Platforms like Wagwalking and Rover connect dog walkers to clients.
Miscellaneous Tasks
TaskRabbit is a popular app in larger cities. People list small jobs that they don’t want to or can’t do during the day, and they pay you to do it for them. It could be anything from picking up their dry cleaning to doing their grocery shopping for them. Cleaning, general maintenance duties, and helping pack for moves are the most popular tasks.
Teaching
You can make a decent amount of money by teaching through platforms like Skype or Slack. Most of the time, you don’t need a degree. You can teach anything from another language and mathematics to knitting and organizing your home. It can take a while to develop your first outline, but you can use it as a template for your next course to save time.
Surveys
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and ClickWorker allow you to fill out short surveys, look at product reviews, recommend products, and much more for a few cents per task. They usually take seconds, and you can earn up to $1.00 per task you take on. Other tasks are more involved like transcribing documents, and these will pay more. They pay to your PayPal each week.
Deliver Products
With the rise of companies like DoorDash and UberEats, more and more people are using their free time to deliver products. You can work around your schedule, and you get money to deliver things to people’s doors. InstaCart is another option, but you deliver groceries instead.
Sell Items
Do you have a lot of designer clothes lying around that you’ll never wear again? If so, Poshmark allows you to create a virtual closet and sell your clothing. LetGo lets you create a profile and sell your unused household items, and Facebook even implemented the Facebook Marketplace to connect local sellers to buyers for all kinds of items.
Get Creative
Maybe you’re a crafty person who loves making items or painting. You can set up an Etsy store to display and sell your items. If you don’t have time for that, Zazzle and CafePress will take care of everything from the shipping to the printing for you once you submit your design to them.
These 12 side businesses to make extra money can be the perfect avenue to get yourself set up with a booming side hustle. You control when you do and don’t work, and you can fit it in around your schedule. Experiment a little and see which one works best for you!
