Home Choose a Side Hustle What Is a Side Hustle?
May 27, 2024
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The term “side hustle” is all over the place these days. It has a straightforward definition, and there’s a good chance you already have some idea what it means.
Essentially, a side hustle is any type of work that you do in addition to your main job to earn extra money.
In this article, we’ll go over why people pick up side hustles, list the pros and cons of having one, and describe some of the most common hustles (as well as several that we recommend avoiding).
Side hustles are extremely diverse. The only thing that really units them is that they all provide secondary income streams.
However, in many people’s minds, side hustles (which are also called side gigs or side jobs) are strongly associated with the gig economy. That term encompasses non-traditional and independent work, such as:
This means that many side hustles—although by no means all of them—feature flexible or part-time schedules. Many can also be done remotely.
With that said, many people also consider traditional, part-time jobs to be side hustles when done in addition to a primary job. The only thing that distinguishes those side hustles from “ordinary” jobs is that you do them to earn additional income.
There are lots of solid reasons to start a side hustle. Some of the most common ones include:
This is the most obvious reason to pick up extra work. Sometimes, people just need more money than their primary job pays.
Specifically, many people pick up side hustles to:
People who pursue side hustles with the goal of saving for retirement are often (but not always) part of the “Financial Independence, Retire Early” (FIRE) movement, which has a significant presence in online spaces focused on the gig economy.
This is another common reason for people to pick up side hustles. If you have a hobby that you spend a lot of time on, such as crocheting, baking, or creative writing, it makes sense to try to earn money from it.
In some cases, this may free you up to spend more time on your passion than you’d otherwise be able to afford. When you’re also working a full-time job, it can be hard to justify pouring resources (both time and money) into your hobbies if you aren’t getting something tangible in return from them.
A significant number of people with side hustles have the eventual goal of quitting their jobs and turning their side work into their primary source of income.
In many cases, this means starting a small business or working as a freelancer or contractor on a full-time basis.
The advantages of this are obvious; it lets you be your own boss and spend your time on something you’re passionate about. This isn’t realistic for everyone, but it’s a good goal for many people.
Of course, not everyone with a side hustle is looking to get out of the rat race. Instead of picking a hustle that’s an escape from your main career, you’re also free to choose one that synergizes with it.
For instance, if you’re a skilled professional with a good reputation in your field, you can pick up consulting work on the side. This will strengthen your resume and give you the chance to develop new skills, as well as expand your professional network.
Some side hustles also offer the opportunity to develop your personal brand. This is particularly true if you make forays into content creation or social media marketing; anything that gets your name out there can have positive knock-on effects for your career.
Picking up extra work has drawbacks as well as perks. These include:
Achieving a healthy work-life balance can be hard, even with “just” a full-time job. It isn’t easy to juggle personal time, family obligations, social commitments, and other responsibilities with a 9-to-5.
When you add extra work into the mix, time management gets even more difficult. It’s certainly possible to have a side hustle without it consuming your entire life, but it can take a lot of discipline, and if you aren’t careful, it’s easy to burn out.
Some people have a negative view of “hustle culture,” and arguably, they have a point.
Let’s say you’re one of the lucky ones and you manage to monetize one of your favorite hobbies. That sounds idyllic, but it comes with downsides: suddenly, you’re introducing practical and financial complications (like deadlines, demands from customers, and so on) into an activity you previously did purely for fun.
That can be a real shock. It won’t necessarily ruin the hobby for you—that depends on your personality and how well you cope with stress—but for some people, there’s a lot to be said for letting hobbies remain … hobbies.
If your side hustle involves working for yourself (instead of just picking up a part-time job), you’ll need to cover your own working expenses.
These can be substantial even for a relatively simple gig like driving for Uber (you’ll need to pay for your own gas, among other things).
Other hustles require specialized equipment that you’ll have to acquire, and if you want to start your own business, you’ll have to deal with a whole host of upfront and ongoing costs.
The bottom line is that sometimes, you have to spend money to make money. When you pick a side hustle, make sure you understand how much it will cost, and be realistic about whether your budget can accommodate it.
As mentioned, side hustles are extremely diverse. However, they can be separated into 8 broad categories. Reviewing these will give you a better sense of the options available to you:
Most people use the word gig to refer to flexible, short-term work. In many cases, people land gigs through apps or online platforms.
We’ve listed the most popular types of jobs in the gig economy, with links to our reviews of the biggest apps in each niche.
Ridesharing means ferrying passengers around town, using your personal vehicle to provide taxi services. The two most popular ridesharing apps are:
Delivery services will pay you to pick up food, groceries, or packages and take them to customers. There are many competing delivery driving apps, with the biggest names including:
On some apps, you can get paid to help people with physically demanding chores, such as moving house or maintaining their lawns. The apps and platforms in this space are very diverse, but some of the bigger names include:
There are also several general-purpose apps, such as TaskRabbit, that feature odd jobs of all types.
There are also apps that will pay you for babysitting, pet sitting, and other caregiving tasks. These include:
There are several apps that will connect you with one-off gigs in the retail and hospitality industries (e.g., in food service, bartending, and so on). Two of the most popular apps for this are:
Tutoring and teaching have also become part of the gig economy. There’s a particularly huge market for online English teachers, but you can get paid to teach just about anything, ranging from academic subjects like math to art and music.
Popular tutoring platforms include:
Freelancers are independent workers who offer their services directly to clients. When people talk about “freelancing,” they usually mean white-collar work, although virtually any type of skilled labor can be done on a freelance basis.
Common types of freelance work include:
Many (but not all) freelancers look for work on online job boards or “marketplaces,” which connect independent workers with clients. The most famous freelancing sites include:
Some fields and industries also have their own ecosystems of dedicated marketplaces. For instance, there are quite a few freelance writing job boards out there. If you have a skill that you’re interested in offering on a freelance basis, search the web to see if there are any websites devoted to it.
Some side hustles consist of selling products, either online (via an e-commerce platform) or in person (e.g., at a local market).
The products you can sell fall into several categories:
If there’s something you’re good at making, you may be able to make money by selling it. Popular types of handcrafted goods include:
The biggest website for selling crafts is Etsy, although many sellers also set up their own independent e-commerce stores using services like Shopify.
Many people make money by selling virtual products for people to download. These include:
If you’re a designer but you’d rather sell physical products than intangible downloads, you can do so by using a print-on-demand service, such as Printful or Printify.
You’ll list your creations for sale, and when customers buy them, the website will print them out and ship them for you.
Print-on-demand is closely related to “dropshipping,” which is another way to sell products without maintaining a regular inventory. It involves buying products in bulk from a wholesaler and then selling them at a markup, usually via a site like Amazon or your own e-commerce store.
However, in contrast to print-on-demand, as a dropshipper, you don’t have to have to actually design the products yourself.
Some sellers scour thrift stores, yard and garage sales, and online marketplaces like eBay for hidden gems that are being sold for below their market value. They buy the items and resell them for a profit, sometimes after repairing or refurbishing them.
This is referred to as “flipping” products. Popular products to flip include:
Of course, you can also sell secondhand items as a one-off instead of as an ongoing side hustle. If you have a lot of junk sitting around that you don’t want anymore, you can offload it for a profit. There are several apps that will facilitate this, including Decluttr, which will purchase your old gadgets and books.
You don’t necessarily need to part with your things to earn money from them. Instead of selling your stuff, you can also lease it out when you aren’t using it.
For instance, you can rent your:
This list is by no means exhaustive. There are dozens of other things you can rent for money, including electronics (particularly cameras and drones), sports equipment, and clothing.
It’s possible to earn money by completing “microtasks”—tiny online jobs, such as taking surveys, watching ads, or reading emails. This is one of the easiest side hustles out there, since it can be done remotely, requires no time commitment whatsoever, and takes very little effort.
There are a lot of microtasking websites, including several you may have already heard of. They include:
Note that, while these sites will pay you real money to take surveys, they usually don’t pay very much money. At their best, microtasking sites pay around $4 per hour, and often much less.
This is a very simple side hustle to pick up, but not a particularly rewarding one. Still, it might be worth it if you’re looking for something relatively mindless that you can use to earn a few extra dollars during slow moments (like when you’re riding the bus or train).
A significant number of apps feature variations on classic games, such as solitaire, and will pay you cash prizes if you win. These apps describe themselves as “skill-based games” to differentiate themselves from purely luck-based gambling apps (which aren’t allowed in most app stores).
Skill-based games can be fun to play, but in general, they aren’t a practical way to make money. The apps strongly incentivize users to plunk down their own cash to enter tournaments. In practice, most of the time, they’re indistinguishable from gambling apps, and your odds of winning usually aren’t great.
If you find these games fun and want to play them for money, that’s your choice, but they aren’t reliable side hustles. You can read our reviews of several apps in this space below:
Most of the side hustles we’ve listed so far are nontraditional or independent work, meaning they don’t involve a standard employment contract.
Again, this is often the type of work that comes to mind when people talk about side hustles, but it isn’t the only option. Millions of people who need extra money simply work second jobs. That isn’t as exciting as working for yourself, but it’s often the most practical way to boost your income.
You can pick up any type of work you’re qualified to do, although many people gravitate towards the following industries, which are easy to break into and feature plenty of part-time jobs:
The last type of side hustle on our list is also the most ambitious: starting your own small business.
In many cases, this means scaling up one of the side hustles we’ve already described. For instance, if you’ve spent a while picking up dog-walking gigs and you enjoy it, it might make sense to start your own operation instead of relying on an app to land work.
Starting a business is challenging, but can be very rewarding, both personally and financially. It’s a natural place to end up if you originally picked up your side hustle with the goal of quitting your primary job.
Many people are interested in content creation as a side hustle. This is a broad term, but it often refers to one of these activities:
People don’t always think of online creators as business owners, but that’s essentially what they are, and being an influencer or creator comes with many of the same challenges as starting a company.
This is a viable side hustle, but it’s highly competitive, and it’s worth noting that many creators never actually manage to make much money. If you’re interested in getting into this space, that’s entirely your choice, but make sure your expectations are realistic.
We’ve listed quite a few different side hustles. We’ll give you a few tips on how to choose between them, as well as what to do once you eventually settle on something.
When you consider what side hustle to pick up, ask yourself the following questions:
Think about which of the goals we mentioned above most strongly resonates with you. Do you …
As mentioned, some hustles—especially gig work—are quick to get off the ground. This is good if you have urgent expenses on the horizon and need money fast. The downside is that they often have poor long-term potential; the money you’ll make on day one as an Uber driver, for instance, is essentially what you’ll make on day one thousand.
Conversely, other side hustles (such as selling crafts on Etsy, freelance writing, or starting your own business) take longer to get going. However, if and when they do, they tend to have better long-term potential, so they’re a good option if you’re looking to escape from your current career.
Whatever your goals are, the important thing is to pick a side hustle that matches them. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to pick just one. If you need a side job that will bring in money quickly but also want to pursue something else as a passion project, that’s fine.
Note that once you decide broadly what you’re hoping to accomplish, you should also set concrete, measurable targets so that you can evaluate how your new side hustle is going. We’ll talk about this in more detail further down in this section.
Before you choose a hustle, do a little research to see what niches are open in your area. If your dream is to take on babysitting jobs with the end goal of opening your own daycare center (to give one example), it’s important to find out whether that market is already saturated in your neighborhood.
You can investigate this by conducting searches on Google or simply asking around. You can also keep an eye on local message boards (e.g., Craigslist and Nextdoor). You may spot people complaining about their unmet needs, and every complaint is a potential opportunity for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Ideally, you’ll pick a side hustle that you’re good at and think you’d enjoy (or at least tolerate—there’s no law that says your hustle has to be a passion project, although it’s great if it is).
If you’re quick with a keyboard, consider becoming a freelance transcriptionist or pursuing another side hustle that will pay you to type. If you’re in good shape and prefer working outdoors, you could start a lawn care side hustle, and so on.
If you’re really having trouble deciding, take our one-minute side hustle quiz to get an idea of what might be a good fit. Alternatively, you can explore the lists below, which feature side hustles that are particularly suited to people in different life situations.
Regardless of what side hustle you pick, it’s worth sitting down and listing your goals, making them as concrete and specific as possible. For example, you might want to write down:
Tailor your goals to your chosen side hustle, and try to make them both ambitious and realistic. The key is to establish hard metrics that you can use to measure how your side hustle is going—and evaluate whether you picked the right one.
The process to start your hustle will depend on what you actually end up doing. That said, here are the steps you’ll generally need to follow for the most common types of side jobs:
It’s up to you what side hustle you want to pursue. They all have their pros and cons, even ones that pay very little (like microtasking) or that are extremely competitive (like being a social media influencer).
However, there are a few hustles that the vast majority of people should avoid, simply because the odds of losing money on them are very high.
At their best, these types of gigs are extremely risky, and at their worst, they’re outright scams. Here’s a list of side hustles that we strongly recommend staying away from.
Multi-level marketing refers to a sales and marketing strategy that some businesses use. These companies are referred to as “MLMs.”
Workers for MLMs are independent salespeople. They generally buy products from the companies they’re working for, then try to resell them for a profit. MLM workers are paid by commission, which means that if they aren’t able to move enough products, they don’t earn any money.
MLMs also encourage their workers to recruit other people. They incentivize this by promising a cut of the new worker’s profits to the person who recruited them (as well as a cut from any workers they go on to recruit, and so on, ad infinitum).
The problem with MLMs is that very few people who work for them make any money.
Many people consider MLMs to be pyramid schemes (i.e., scams). While the companies themselves deny this, they do have pyramid-shaped structures; founding members and very early recruits (the people at the top of the pyramid) are able to profit off of the people beneath them, but most of the company’s salespeople will never successfully recruit anyone, and consequently make almost nothing.
Moreover, MLM products are usually substantially marked up, so it’s very hard to make money simply by selling them. The bottom line is that most people who get involved in MLMs end up operating at a loss.
There’s a good chance a company is an MLM if it:
Both of these are warning signs, and we recommend staying away from any company that fits that profile, even if their marketing pitches are persuasive.
You’re probably familiar with at least a couple of MLMs. Some of the most well-known examples include:
Some of these companies treat their sales representatives better than others, but regardless of which MLM you work for, you’re unlikely to make money.
In addition to MLMs, there are other (even less legitimate) “side hustles” that operate like pyramid schemes.
This is particularly prevalent in the online course market. There are many courses that claim they’ll teach you how to make very large amounts of money, but when you purchase them, it turns out that all they teach is how to make an online course exactly like the one you just bought.
In other words—stay with us here—this scam consists of selling a course that teaches people to make a course that teaches other people to make a course that … you get the picture.
This isn’t a practical way to make money for a very simple reason: there’s a limited market for this type of product. As a latecomer to the game, your own course is unlikely to get much attention (and even if you do manage to sell a few courses, all of your customers will become your future competitors!)
To avoid getting taken in by this type of scam, never buy a course if the creator:
In a similar vein, if you’re interested in making an online course of your own, make sure it teaches a genuinely valuable and hard-to-acquire skill. Selling courses is a legitimate side hustle, but if yours is indistinguishable from hundreds of others, no one will buy it.
Not everyone considers investing (e.g., buying shares of companies on the stock market) to be a side hustle, but it’s one of the best ways to grow your money over time—at least when you do it responsibly.
That’s an important caveat, because it’s easy to get carried away and make poor choices when you begin investing. There’s a lot of bad advice floating around out there, and there are more than a few investment vehicles that are borderline scams.
Outlining a safe investing strategy is outside the scope of this article, but in general, you should avoid:
In the long term, investing has the potential to be more lucrative than any other side hustle we’ve discussed, but only if you take it seriously. Otherwise, there’s a good chance you’ll lose money instead of making it.
Be particularly cautious about investing in:
These aren’t always bad investments, but they often are.
Put another way, while all investments come with at least some element of risk, these are more likely to lead to poor outcomes than more conventional ones. Particularly when you’re relatively new to investing, it’s a good idea to stay away from them.
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