49 Best Side Hustle Ideas to Make $5,000+ Per Month
Income Potential: $15 to $27/hr
If you love being around those tiny bundles of joy (also called babies) then this side hustle suits you well. There is certainly an all-year demand for childcare services, especially from parents having a day jobs.
This side hustle is quite popular among teens or young adults who are looking for a way to make some quick cash!
But, let me assure you that offering childcare services has nothing to do with age if you’re good with kids while keeping them safe and comfortable for the scheduled time.
So if you think, this is something that you can do as a side hustle, I say go for it and see for yourself.
45. Web Design Services
Income Potential: $51,000 to $77,000 yearly
If you have good knowledge regarding building websites and web design in general, you can offer people these services and get paid to do so.
New businesses start every single day, and to cater to their needs to take their business online to help them get their logos and design materials, they surely need someone to help them with that.
46. Start a Consulting Business
Income Potential: $30/hr to $100/hr
Consulting, in general, is quite a broad area to get started, there are consultant services for practically every topic out there.
With platforms such as Clarity.fm, you can easily get started with your field of expertise and make money.
How does clarity.fm work?
- People come to Clarity.fm and search for an expert regarding their issue
- They then find a consultant (a.k.a, You) and schedule a call
- You both receive confirmation from Clarity
- And finally, you get on-call and receive payment for your time
47. Start a Food Truck
Income Potential: Undefined
This might be a dream for a lot of people, to start a food truck or their own restaurant one day and make a good income from it. But in reality, starting a restaurant comes with a lot of investment and risks.
So starting a food truck seems like a better alternative to that.
48. Teach Driving Lessons to Students
Income Potential: $11 to $21/hr
Pretty self-explanatory, you will be teaching students how to drive.
Driving schools are always in demand as every year millions of kids approach the legal driving age. So, therefore, you will be making some side income by offering driving lessons.
49. Sell services on Fiverr
Income Potential: Depends
Fiverr is a gold mine to sell and find freelance services. People from all around use Fiverr as their means to make money.
You can provide every type of freelance service on the face of the earth on Fiverr such as Data entry, graphics design, transcription, SEO services, etc.
So there you have it, 49 side hustle ideas to choose from.
How to Develop a Successful Side Hustle
Starting a side hustle is not that hard. One can easily start a side gig out of sheer motivation after reading it in a blog post such as this one or in social media posts.
But the real struggle comes when you have to put in the actual work or investments required to make that a success.
So in order to make that happen there are a few points you have to keep in mind throughout the whole process. They are:
1. Make a list of what you’re interested in
Your interest is the single, most important ingredient to building a successful side hustle.
This is why listing only the things that excite you or something you are willing to try really helps to begin your side hustle journey the right way!
If you like and enjoy something doing, you’ll actually have fun while working. And thus you’ll be more focused and more consistent at what you do without worrying about “ugh! When will this end?“
Of course, you can try different side hustles that you have never done before. But if later it starts to give you a headache every time you think about it, it’s time you leave it and try something else.
A side hustle should be more about making money by pursuing your interests rather than getting another boring job that you despise.
2. To invest or not invest?
Starting something that will make you more money will require some investment upfront from your side, whether it is for buying tools and gears or services, certification, training, or even courses. So make sure you’re up for it.
If you have quite a bit saved up for the investment required for kickstarting your side hustle, you’re good to go!
But if you don’t have anything saved, don’t give up just yet, work your way up!
When I started this blog, I paid around $3 monthly (which was paid the annual amount taken together).
But only after making good money from this blog (through affiliates and ads), I tried to re-invested the income in bettering the blog by buying premium themes, better hosting, email services, and a few other things that would help me grow this blog.
My point is, you can always start small, and then you can reinvest your earnings to expand your side hustle even more.
If you’re in a position where you think you have to borrow money to establish your side hustle, decide if it’s worth the risk or not.
If not, then opt for some side hustles that require considerably smaller investments, work your way up, and fund that bigger business of yours on your own.
Sounds like a plan?
3. Make sure there are no conflicts of interest
Before starting anything, carefully weigh in your interests and plans because once you’re in, you’re all in!
Remember one thing, if you start working on a side hustle and later realize that this is not for you, you have to start something else from level zero. All the work and time spent on the previous gig will be for nothing.
Having second thoughts or switching from one side hustle to another every now and then can hinder you from building anything at all.
This is why I want you to take a moment to think clearly about what is it that you want to go all-in with.
Of course, there is always a possibility that you might have to switch your side hustle if it doesn’t click with you after some time. But this can significantly reduce the chances of having to switch at all and thus saves you buttloads of time and energy.
4. Schedule time for your side hustle
This is obviously a no-brainer, you want to build a side hustle, and you have to squeeze time to make that happen.
Carefully set specific hours dedicated to your side hustle that does not coincide with other essentials even during the day and utilize those hours to their full extent.
That means no scrolling through your phone or watching any web series after working for a mere few minutes.
5. Don’t forget about your day job
You might be super excited to start a new income stream and be dreaming about giving your boss the finger but you need to keep yourself grounded until you can afford to.
Don’t spend your entire time and attention on building something new that does not make you money yet when you already have something that is making you money.
Your day job is still essential for your survival as long as you are not making good money from your second source.
Till then try not to build your side hustle at the expense of your office hours because this can get you fired.
Some Relevant FAQs
Are side hustles worth it? and why should I start a side hustle?
The real question is why shouldn’t you?
A good side hustle has the potential to not only replace your current job but also provide you with financial freedom that couldn’t have been possible otherwise.
A job can provide you with money but it can never offer you freedom. A side hustle, on the other hand, can potentially provide you with more money than a regular job and time and location freedom.
Having a secondary income source also acts as a safety net if something ever happens to your primary source.
Just imagine, if you lose your job tomorrow, for how long will you be able to rely on your saving? (Assuming you have a big chunk of money saved, which most people don’t!)
I am certainly not trying to scare you in any way, rather you can call this a reality check!
For example, in April 2020 alone, 20.5 million jobs were lost in the US due to mandated shutdowns, according to CNBC. Job security is a myth!
So, in conclusion, it is a rather wise decision to have additional sources of income regardless of how much you make off of your primary source, which can save you in unfortunate and desperate times.
Start a side hustle, folks!
Moreover, starting a small-scale business has never been cheaper. You don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a small-scale business.
There are a lot of gigs you can start with for less than $5 a month. All you have to do is putting in the work, which is required to build anything of greater value.
So to answer the question above: Yes, side hustles are worth it!
Initially when we think about starting something on the side, a business or a side hustle, one of the first things that come into our minds is, “This will be hard to build from the ground up!”.
And this usually holds people back to start!
Just remember, it is not hard to put in small efforts daily, it’s just the overwhelming feeling when we realize the overall work needed that scares us.
This is why it is so important to start something (presumably with lower risks involved) without thinking much!
To start something, anything, keep trying until everything works out. And if it doesn’t, start something new, there are a lot of gigs around that are worth pursuing.
How do I start a side hustle?
When it comes to starting, there are so many options with varying income potentials and the pace of overall growth with different areas of interest.
This is why sometimes people tend to fall deep into this whole analysis-paralysis trap, preventing them from starting anything at all.
- Identify your skills and areas of interest:
- Set realistic goals with deadlines
- Prepare for the long haul
- Build consistency
- Track your growth
- Improvise if necessary
How much investment does it require to start a side hustle?
In short, it depends.
It really does depend on a lot of factors such as the type of side hustle you want to enter, the niche of your side hustle, whether any certification or experience is required, or any heavy investment you need to make beforehand or you need to buy the necessary tools, etc.
For example:
On the cheaper end of the scale, there is “Blogging”, where you’ll be needing less than $3 to start and run the business all by yourself.
Of course, it might increase later as your business grows but we are talking about the investments you need to make as a beginner.
In terms of moderate investments, for starting a YouTube channel, for example, you’ll be needing a good quality camera and proper editing software so that you can create good videos for people to watch.
Which is going to cost you a lot more than $3!
If you’re not using your phone as a primary camera, a good camera can cost you anywhere from $500 to $3000 and for editing software (such as Adobe Premiere Pro) it might cost you another $20 a month (cost based on annual plans).
And on extreme-high ends, such as it is with owning a rental property, which takes a lot of money to even begin with. To buy a property valued at $100,000 you need at least $20,000 upfront to get it.
So the investment really depends on the type of side hustle that you want to pursue.
What’s the best side hustle for me?
Not every single side hustle idea mentioned in this post is going to align with your interests and time availability.
So it is better to list out your interest and or potential interests first and then see if you can give it enough time to build the side hustle if you have a pretty tight schedule.
Notice how I mentioned “Potential Interests”, what does it mean?
You know, before starting this blog I have never heard of the term blogging up until my college years. And since I didn’t know what it was, blogging was never on my list of career interests.
But as soon as I came to know about it and realized how interesting that sounded, I started my own blog immediately.
Through trying different things and gigs from time to time, you come to know a lot about the things that you wouldn’t know otherwise.
How much money can you make with a side hustle?
This is another question whose answer is: It depends!
Different side hustles have different income potentials. And their rough estimate has been mentioned with each side hustle idea in this blog post.
As mentioned before, even though there are a lot of areas where the income potential is crazy high, you shouldn’t always use that as a deciding factor for your side hustle.
Why?
Because building a side hustle takes a considerable amount of time and energy. Once you’ve started a side hustle or a side business, you’re in it for the long haul.
This is why it is better to pursue something that you actually like instead of blindly chasing the high-income criteria.
Doing something that excites you not only helps you stay consistent in your work but also it’ll also eliminates any chance of
How can you find the time to work on your side hustle?
Working on your “side hustle” can turn into a “side struggle” very easily if you fail to manage your time well.
The majority of the side hustle mentioned in this article are the ones that you can do in your free time or at night so you can definitely spare a few hours a day if you have a day job.
You can’t afford to spend hours scrolling through social media when you should be working or resting after a long day.
What are the most popular side hustles?
Simply based on numbers, the most popular side hustles are freelancing, and participating in the “gig economy” works through apps like Uber, Lyft, Task rabbit, etc.
But this surely doesn’t indicate higher income potential compared to the rest, this is merely an overview of where the majority is, i.e, the popular side hustles.
Conclusion
There you have it!
The above-mentioned are some of the best side hustles you can try starting today.
So, take your time, bring out a piece of paper and a pen to list your interest, select one (or a potential few ), research them thoroughly about their income and growth trends, and act accordingly.
Also remember that building something as significant as a new income source can take a long time, just don’t give up if you don’t see desirable outcomes right away.
Keep hustling and keep pushing even though you don’t see results and soon enough, everything will pay off and you’ll be grateful that you started a side hustle in the first place!
