Every side hustle starts with an idea!

I put together this monster list of side hustle ideas to help get your creative juices flowing.

No more excuses 🙂

Even better, most of these side hustles don’t require a huge initial investment or even any special skills. And while not all qualify as “business ideas,” each has the potential to earn you money in your spare time.

These are worth anywhere from $50 to $50,000 a month — it all depends on your execution.

1. Food or Grocery Delivery Service

With services like Instacart, you can earn money delivering groceries and take-out orders in your town.

I sat down with one full-service Instacart shopper who made $10,000 in his first 6 months!

And you don’t have to worry about keeping your car spotless for passengers, like you would with Uber.

2. Rental Properties

Real estate investing is one of the oldest and most popular side hustles in the books … but houses are expensive!

Thankfully, new platforms like Arrived make it easy to invest in income-generating properties—with as little as $100.

The company pools money to buy rental properties, manages them, and then distributes the cash flow every month.

I also liked Austin Miller’s creative approach to building his rental portfolio, which was up to 17 properties worth $1.2 million when we spoke.

The kicker? They were all acquired “free”—without any of his own money.

3. Customer Interviews

Many companies use customer interviews to get feedback on new products.

User Interviews and Respondent.io are a pair of cool services that facilitate those interviews online and over the phone.

The best part? The average compensation is $50-150 an hour!

Here are some other companies that facilitate focus groups and paid research studies.

4. Online Surveys

These won’t make you rich, but can be an easy way to supplement your income and you can do them in your downtime (waiting in line, watching TV, etc.).

If you love this stuff, check out:

5. Flipping Items for Profit

My favorite eBay seller is Rob, the “Flea Market Flipper,” who built a 6-figure business buying low and selling high. He and his wife Melissa consistently earn thousands of dollars a month, flipping items part-time!

They put together this free training on how to get started and make your first sales in as little as 2 weeks.

6. Build a Helpful Website

Write content on a topic you care about and build an audience in your niche.

For example:

Scott earns 6-figures a year from his bird-watching blog
Shelley earns $50k a month from her travel blogs
Katie earns $6k a month from her gray hair blog

Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free 6-part video course on how to start your own site.

7. Affiliate Marketing

Refer website visitors to buy products online and earn a small commission on each sale. This is actually how I’ve made the bulk of my living over the last 10+ years, so it definitely works!

One effective affiliate marketing model is to create “comparison” content that helps readers make a buying decision. Following this strategy, a couple podcast guests reported earning $20,000 a month within the first year of launching their site.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your first affiliate website.

8. Reselling Furniture Returns

Reselling furniture returns is a unique low-risk side hustle.

How it works is you join Sharetown as a local “reverse logistics” rep. Sharetown partners with direct-to-consumer mattress and furniture brands to handle their return requests. When customers decide they don’t want to keep the item, you’ll get dispatched to go pick it up.

After that, you’ll clean it up, photograph it, and list it for resale on sites like Facebook Marketplace.

The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with target $150-250 per flip — and the kicker is you don’t have to pay Sharetown for the inventory until the item sells.

Check out my full Sharetown review to learn more.

9. “Alternative” Investing

Alternative investments include peer-to-peer lending, real estate crowdfunding, business lending, and even cryptocurrency.

This is one of my favorite side hustles because it’s automated and passive. Check out options like Fundrise, which allows you to invest in revenue-generating commercial real estate for as little as $10.

Disclosure: I’ve been a Fundrise investor since 2015. When you join through my referral link, I receive compensation.

Another example of buying cash flow is to buy an online business. For example, Stacy Caprio bought a small portfolio of sites that—after a couple early mis-steps—was profitable enough to leave her job.

10. Bookkeeping / Accounting / Tax Preparation Service

Help other businesses with their accounting and finances. This can be a great option for people with an accounting background from school, your day job, or just for people who aren’t afraid of math.

Virtual bookkeepers can earn $60 an hour or more. Here’s a free training on how to get started.

11. YouTube Channel Host

If you generate a lot of video views, you can earn money with YouTube’s revenue sharing program.

I’ve been dabbling a bit more with YouTube lately, and recently passed $500 in monthly ad income.

YouTube is an exciting platform because it’s both a search engine and a viral engine — giving you two ways to get discovered. You may not even need to be on camera yourself.

12. Selling Printables and Spreadsheets

I’m a fan of side hustles that let me get paid over and over again from work I do once, and printables definitely fits that bill.

By uploading digital files to Etsy, you can reach a wide audience of buyers—without having to fulfill individual orders.

Rachel Jones reported earning $10,000 a month from her portfolio of Etsy printables. Examples might include habit trackers, meal plans, budget templates, chore charts, intake forms, and more.

Similarly, Emily McDermott reported earning $250,000 in her first two years of selling spreadsheets on Etsy.

13. “Software with a Service” Consulting

There are consultants for practically every area of expertise. What are you a relative expert in that others might pay for your advice?

One of my favorite angles is to piggyback on the popularity of a particular software tool, like Brad Rice did with Salesforce (earning over $200k a year part time!). As adoption of the software grows, so too does the demand for qualified support.

14. Baking

Do people love your desserts? Maybe you could provide cakes, cookies, or cupcakes to some corporate event in town.

A friend of ours has built a pretty serious following for her custom cookies—and sometimes sells out in just minutes!

15. Virtual Assistant Service

Virtual assistants generally charge $15-40 an hour to provide remote administrative support to clients. If that sounds like a fun side hustle you can set up shop on your own or jump on board with an established VA company.

To learn more about starting your own virtual assistant company, check out the free video training from my friend Abbey Ashley, who started her VA business on the side.

16. Raw Land Flipping

This sounds a little crazy, but my guest Mark called his raw land investing business “the best passive income model” because he doesn’t have to deal with “problem tenants, toilets, or termites.”

His book, Dirt Rich, is free to Side Hustle Nation readers (just pay shipping).

More recently, I sat down with one of Mark’s students who’d built his land flipping business to $10k a month in his first year.

17. Book Flipping

Use the free Bookscouter app to scan barcodes and see what old books are worth. You can do this both for the books collecting dust on your shelf and for the ones at garage sales or the library book store.

One Side Hustle Show guest reported earning up to $4000 a month flipping books!

18. Notary Public Service

Notary certification is granted by your state and generally costs less than $100.

Once you’re certified, you can get paid to notarize documents, or become a loan signing agent. These mobile notaries can make anywhere from $1,000-8,000 a month overseeing mortgage signings in their spare time.

Check out some of the training resources at Loan Signing System to learn more.

19. Niche Newsletter

One of the side hustles I’m most excited about right now is curated email newsletters. Could you source the best articles on your topic of choice on a daily or weekly basis?

These are super valuable for readers since you help cut through the clutter in your niche. As your audience grows, you can monetize with ads, affiliate offers, or your own products or services.

Tools like Substack and SendFox make it super easy to get started.

20. Teaching an Online Course

Udemy is an online education platform with thousands of on-demand courses. You can create your own course around a topic you’re an expert in and set your own tuition rate.

I did this several years ago and have earned over $20,000 in (mostly) passive income from it!

If you have an existing audience, you might be able to sell the course directly (without giving Udemy a cut). In this episode with Nate Dodson, he shares the framework he used to earn $40,000 a month teaching people how to start a microgreens business.

21. Mystery Shopping

Companies pay mystery shoppers to:

verify their in-store shopping experience
rate their customer support staff
evaluate the competition

Some mystery shoppers report earning over $10,000 a year!

One easy way to get started is with the Field Agent app. The free app pays you to complete small tasks in your neighborhood, like photographing the inside of a store or checking inventory levels.

I found several of these tasks near me, from companies like Home Depot and Walmart, with the payouts ranging from $3-8 per assignment.

22. Tutoring

Put your education to use helping students learn in a comfortable one-on-one setting. WyzAnt is one of the largest marketplaces in the online tutoring world, where you can set your own rates.

Or you can apply to work with BookNook, a popular online math and reading tutoring company for kids in Kindergarten through 8th grade. Pay is $15-22 an hour.

In this post, Matt Fuentes shared how he built his tutoring business up to $1000 a week.

23. Picking Up Trash

Brian Winch has been doing this for over 30 years and calls it “America’s simplest business.” He says you can earn $50,000-$100,000 a year to walk local parking lots and clean up the garbage.

Check out the interview I did with Brian to learn more.

24. Reselling on Amazon

In this popular side hustle, you find bargain deals locally and ship them off to sell on Amazon. Thanks to the Amazon FBA program (Fulfillment by Amazon), the e-commerce giant handles all the logistics.

I even made a bit of money when I tried it myself.

25. Online Arbitrage

With a trained eye—and often some software to help—you can buy products from one website, and resell them for a profit on Amazon. Online arbitrage pros can earn $10,000+ per month from home.

26. Kindle Publishing

Selling ebooks on Amazon is one of the income streams I’m cultivating. I love the idea of having my work for sale on the world’s largest store!

From my very first author royalty check in 2012, I keep learning more about self-publishing and am hopefully getting better every time I put pen to paper … or fingers to keyboard.

Since then, I’ve earned over $79,000 in author royalties:

27. Part-Time Remote Work

With legit jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time, FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site. At press time, there were more than 30,000 openings in dozens of career categories.

They charge a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll easily earn it back (and then some!) with one job. Save 30% w/ promo code FLEXLIFE.

28. Becoming an Adjunct Professor

You may need a graduate degree for this one, but it can be a fun way to share your knowledge with the next generation of students and earn some good money on the side.

The average pay for adjunct professors is $3500 per course and some jobs allow online teaching and pre-recorded lectures.

29. Proofreading

Do you like to read? If you have an eye for detail you can set up shop on Upwork as a proofreader and bid on jobs large and small.

I actually offered this service on Fiverr for a while and made some decent money.

30. Ridesharing

Earn extra cash driving your fellow citizens around with Lyft or Uber.

One cool “hack”: Both companies offer “Destination Mode.” This allows you to tell the app which direction you’re headed—and only accept riders along your route. It’s a relatively easy way to monetize your commute!

If you don’t have a car of your own, HyreCar can help get you on the road.

31. Freelancing on Fiverr

Fiverr is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces in the world.

Check out these fine Side Hustle Nation posts/interviews for more on how to make Fiverr work for you:

How to Build a 6-Figure Side Hustle on Fiverr
Rapid Side Hustle Prototyping: A New Income Stream on Your Lunch Break?

32. Print on Demand T-Shirts

Upload your clever or artistic t-shirt design to Merch by Amazon or Redbubble, and collect a small profit every time it sells. You never have to touch any physical inventory; the platforms handle the shipping and fulfillment.

For years, this had been worth $50-200 a month for my wife and I, very part-time.

Another platform to check out is Printful, which has tons of print-on-demand products and lets you syndicate your listings to Etsy and other stores.

33. Your Own E-Commerce Store

Sell products online through your own store or through Amazon or eBay. In this episode, Connor Meakin walked me through how he bootstrapped his e-commerce business to 6-figures in his first year.

Next Step: Set up your shop with a free trial of Shopify, the leading shopping cart provider.

34. Freelance Writing

With millions of websites all competing for attention, freelance writing is a service that’s constantly in demand. Someone’s got to create all that content, right?

Georgia Austin even turned her writing side hustle into a full-blown agency!

35. Sports Coaching or Officiating

School teams are sometimes in need of coaching help and this can be a fun and active side hustle.

Similarly, recreational sports leagues are often in need of referees and umpires. This can be a fun way to spend your evenings and earn a little extra cash.

36. Podcasting

A large podcast following can translate into serious sponsorship dollars. It costs less than you think to start and has honestly been a life-changing project for me.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. My friend Steve Young turned his part-time podcast into a full-time business with multiple streams of income.

37. Pool Cleaning Service

If you live in a warm climate, this could be a fun and interesting side hustle to enjoy the summer outdoors.

38. Knife Sharpening

Matt Rowell started a knife sharpening business in his spare time, and now earns $30-60 an hour.

Every house in the country is a potential repeat customer!

39. Selling on Etsy

Etsy is the world’s largest marketplace for unique hand-crafted goods. What can you make?

My friend Kara started selling wine-themed wedding décor on Etsy as a side hustle and since turned it into a full-time business.

40. Alterations

Handy with a sewing machine? The market for clothing alteration is ripe for disruption because of a lack of transparency in pricing. I’ve had some suits altered from a couple different places with dramatically different rates.

Free marketing tip: Post flyers at the gym or other places where people may have lost a lot of weight and need their clothes altered.

41. Ironing / Mobile Laundry Service

Holy crap do I hate ironing! I’m certain a decent chunk of the population is with me on this one and would be willing to pay to make that problem go away.

I actually connected with a reader who was doing this in Australia, and earning $400 a month. She didn’t mind the work and was thrilled to be “getting paid to watch movies”–how she passed the time while ironing.

According to the mobile laundry service Poplin, top “Laundry Pros” earn up to $6000 a month.

42. House Hacking

If you have extra room in your house, you can earn money renting it out to visitors on Airbnb.com. It’s a pretty cool way to make money and meet interesting people from around the world at the same time.

With a little bit of traction, you could even cover your entire rent or mortgage by hosting guests on Airbnb. Have you tried it?

43. Airbnb Co-Hosting

In addition to a small portfolio of her own short-term rental properties, Zeona McIntyre has built a side business “co-hosting” other Airbnbs.

She essentially acts as the property manager, coordinating guest check-ins, maintenance, and cleaning. In exchange, she earns 20% of the booking fees—with none of the risk or upfront cost.

44. Rental Arbitrage

A popular—but controversial—side hustle is known as rental arbitrage or Airbnb arbitrage. How it works is you enter into a long-term lease on a property, with the intent (and landlord’s consent) to rent it out on Airbnb.

One entrepreneur I interviewed reported earning almost $200,000 a year doing this, without owning any properties himself.

45. Child Care or Caregiving

Is it just me, or does “babysitting” sound amateur compared to “child care”?

There’s also an opportunity in elder care as the population ages, and sites like Care.com can help match you with customers.

46. Pressure Washing

Pressure washing is oh-so-satisfying and can be a great seasonal way to earn some extra cash. Rates may range from $100-250 or more per house, which is pretty cool considering a high quality pressure washer may only cost $400.

This is one where you can breakeven and start turning a profit pretty quickly.

47. Car Wash and Detailing

A mobile detailing service is a super low startup cost side hustle. You could get clients in bunches at office parks, shopping malls, schools, sporting events, and other places where cars like to gather.

48. Gutter Cleaning

Gutter cleaning is a relatively simple and low cost business to start. You could get clients on an annual or semi-annual recurring schedule like the dentist.

49. Personal Chef Service

Could you picture yourself making meals in someone else’s kitchen? This could be a good way to monetize your cooking skills— without the risk of starting your own restaurant.

Some friends of ours pay $180-200 a week for meals delivered to their house.

HireaChef.com connects you with families and events looking for private chefs, or you might just post on Facebook or NextDoor.

With platforms like Eatwith, you could even begin charging to host meals.

50. Residential or Commercial Cleaning Service

It may not be glamorous, but commercial cleaning is something nearly every business spends money on. And since it usually gets done in the after-work hours, it’s a good fit for side hustlers.

Anthony and Jhanilka Hartzog built their cleaning business to $25k a month — and contract with other pros to do the work!

51. Cracked Screen Repair Service

People play $150-300+ to replace cracked screens on their phones, but the glass itself usually costs less than $25. Could you teach yourself this in-demand skill?

52. Cover Letter and Resume Service

There is a massive opportunity to help job seekers with their resumes and cover letters, especially if you have HR experience. Since the payoff of landing a new job is so high, it’s worthwhile for applicants to get some professional help on their documents.

53. Small Business Marketing Service

Many small companies don’t have the staff or know-how to do all their marketing themselves. Could you help them put their best foot forward online and on social media?

54. Dividend Investing

This has been one of my favorite ways of “buying cash flow” lately, and is a simple way to get paid over and over again from work you do once.

I’ve focused on companies that have a long history of paying—and increasing—dividends, and slowly built up my portfolio. Every quarter they come in like clockwork. Dividends are one my most passive income streams.

Set up a free brokerage account at M1 Finance and get started right away.

55. Pet Sitting and Dog Walking

When homeowners travel, it opens up an opportunity to come by and take care of their animals.

To set up shop, try Rover.com. Several Side Hustle Nation readers report earning $1000 a month watching other people’s pets!

56. Pet Waste Removal

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it!

More and more homeowners are outsourcing the chore of picking up the dog’s back yard deposits. In just a few months, Erica Krupin had landed 80 recurring weekly clients at around $15 apiece.

57. Pet Grooming

Just like their owners, pets need haircuts too. A mobile pet grooming service can be a low-cost part-time business.

58. Private Labeling

In this side hustle, you identify hot-selling products and try to improve them.

On The Side Hustle Show, 7-figure Amazon seller Greg Mercer shared his top 3 Amazon FBA product sourcing guidelines and tips.

59. Renting Out Your Car

In select markets, you can rent out your car on a daily or hourly basis to earn extra cash through companies like HyreCar.

The average car sits idle 22 hours a day, so this is a unique opportunity to capitalize on those idle hours. The company handles all the insurance.

Similarly, a couple friends used the Turo platform to essentially get a free Tesla!

60. Local Rental Business

High school teacher Steve Nadramia began renting out portable hot tubs, and now does $1000s a month in bookings.

These types of “unconventional” rental businesses are exciting because the return on investment is so much higher than traditional real estate. For example, in Steve’s case, he might buy a hot tub for $2000, and rent it out for $400-500 a month.

61. Craigslist Gigs

There’s a little-known section in the bottom right corner of Craigslist specifically for side hustlers. It’s called “gigs”:

Check it out and see what kind of gigs you might be able to find nearby or online.

62. Doula Service

Doulas can earn $500-$1000 per birth.

63. Drop Shipping

Drop shippers set up their own storefront, but never touch the actual product. Instead, the items are shipped directly to the customer from the manufacturer or wholesaler.

I had the chance to sit down with Rene Delgado to learn how he sold $300,000 worth of bounce houses in his first year in business.

64. Brand Ambassador

Big brands are always looking for assistance with their on-the-ground marketing efforts, and pay pretty well for the help.

Kenny Azama explained it’s a relatively easy (and fun) way to earn $1000 a month part-time, and could even turn into a full-time gig. When we spoke, he was earning $2k a week on a cross-country RV road-trip as a brand ambassador!

65. Estate Sale Service

Estate sales are often managed by third-party companies, who take a percentage of the proceeds in exchange for handling the event.

66. Event DJ-ing

Is DJ-ing a lost art in the era of pre-made playlists? Either way, there are still plenty of events that hire live DJs.

Check out sites like GigSalad to set up your profile and get booked.

67. Furniture Flipping

This popular side hustle involves sourcing inexpensive dressers, desks, and tables from yard sales, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist. Next, you fix them up and resell them for a profit.

With a little effort you can turn a $30 dresser into a $200 Pinterest-worthy piece.

68. Graphic Design Service

Quality graphic design is always in-demand, and there have never been so many outlets on which to sell your skills. The most popular design-focused site is 99designs, but you can also check out Crowdspring, DesignCrowd, or other freelance marketplaces.

69. Web Design Service

There’s no shortage of crappy-looking websites out there. Pitch the benefits of good design and help them out.

In an inspiring Side Hustle Show episode, Chris Misterek shared how he taught himself the necessary skills and began earning $3000 a month.

70. Handyman Service

This is certainly not a great option for my less-than-handy self, but I’m positive someone else with the right skills can make it work.

You might try setting up a profile on TaskRabbit (where I connected with an on-demand handyman) or Thumbtack.

71. Home Inspection Service

Certification is required, but inspections can be scheduled at your convenience and only take a few hours.

72. Mobile Mechanic

Matt Bochnak of Chicago started fixing motorcycles in his garage to earn extra money. It was a good gig, but it became a great one when he started filming his repairs and putting the videos online.

Eventually, Matt turned this classic blue collar hours-for-dollars side hustle into a $20k a month online business.

If you’re comfortable fixing cars, check out YourMechanic.com, which helps match you with customers in need of car repairs — and pays up to $70 an hour.

73. Local Newsletter or Facebook Group

Could you start a small email newsletter or Facebook group for your hometown? Could you sell advertisements or directory listings to local businesses?

Melissa Fassel-Dunn did this for her town (a Boston suburb) and turned it into an almost 6-figure business.

My friend Bill Nowicki took this idea one step further, and started a local podcast for his town.

74. Home Organization Service

After you’re done Marie Kondo-ing your own place, maybe others would hire you to “spark joy” in theirs. With some creative local marketing I bet you could build a client roster and help other families declutter their space.

75. Renting Out Your Attic or Garage

The Neighbor self-storage platform connects people with storage needs with those who have extra space. If you’ve got some excess storage capacity in your garage or elsewhere, list your space here to fill it and get paid.

According to the site, top hosts are earning up to $10,000 a year running their own mini self-storage operations. Check out our full Neighbor.com review to learn more.

76. Junk Hauling Service

This is a great side hustle business if you already have access to a pickup truck or van. Bonus points if you can re-sell some of the junk!

I sat down with Brian Scudamore, the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, to learn how he took the business from a summer gig to doing around $1 million a day in revenue.

77. Transcription Service

Transcription—turning audio recordings into text—is often a part-time work-from-home position. Many transcribers specialize in a given industry, like medical, legal, or podcast transcriptions.

Several sites, including Rev.com, hire transcribers. If you’re fast, you might be able to earn up to $15 an hour.

To learn more about transcribing work, check out this free 7-day mini course on how to get started.

78. Flyer Distribution Service

One listener wanted to find a way to get more FitBit steps—and get paid for it. So he approached a local business and offered to distribute flyers door-to-door.

Then he realized it wouldn’t really be any more work to drop off 3 or 4 flyers at each house, effectively earning $75-100 an hour for taking a walk!

79. Modeling

Stock photographers are sometimes in need of subjects for their work. Strike a pose!

80. Movie / TV Extra

Your odds are better if you’re in LA, New York, or Atlanta, but there can always be “on location” shoots nearby.

Check out Central Casting or Auditions Free to see if there are any movie extra jobs near you. Bonus points if you can get your Screen Actors Guild credentials or IMDB credits!

Movie extras typically earn minimum wage, but then again, you might have a brush with celebrity.

81. Moving Service

Moving is never fun, but can be a good way to earn some extra cash on the weekend if you’re strong and don’t mind carrying other people’s stuff.

Sites like Dolly help connect you with nearby moving jobs.

82. Host Trivia Nights

Bars and restaurants are always looking for creative ways to get customers in the door, especially mid-week. One compelling option is an entertaining trivia game, that you can get paid to host.

83. Party Planning / Wedding Coordinator Service

Put your organization skills to good use. Build relationships with venues, wedding photographers, or other service providers in the space. You might need to do your first couple of gigs for free or a low cost to establish yourself.

84. Personal Training

People are always looking to get in shape and if you have a passion for fitness, this could be the perfect side hustle.

85. Photography Service

Turn your photography hobby into an income stream. This is my wife’s favorite side hustle, and earns her an extra $10,000 a year.

Side Hustle Show guest Vincent Pugliese shared how “freelanced his way to freedom” and went from earning $30k a year to $30k in a day.

86. Product Licensing

With product licensing, you sell the rights to your idea to large companies, who then pay you royalties for every sale they make from that idea.

For example, Nate Dallas earned $300,000 from Mattel after licensing them an idea for a Pictionary spin-off.

87. App Development

The mobile app market is hot, but one developer likened it to the gold rush—where the ones who made the most money were the ones selling the gear and the shovels.

Still, if you can learn to code apps or jump on the fast-growing “no code” trend, you’ll have a in-demand skill you can use over and over again.

88. Real Estate Wholesaling

In this side hustle, your job is to connect motivated sellers with real estate investors. You earn the difference between your negotiated contract price and the eventual sales price.

The best part? It doesn’t put your cash or credit at risk. On the podcast, J. Massey shared some more tips on how to find distressed properties.

89. Snuggling

Yes, this is a real thing, and it has some proven health benefits. So, naturally there’s a business angle.

Sam Varnerin’s snuggling side hustle has turned into a pretty lucrative business. She told Student Loan Hero, “I work around 18 hours a week, charging between $80 and $100 an hour, and make between $3-4k a month.”

90. Teaching Music

With a love for music, teaching, and working with kids, you could start a part-time music teaching business. In our town, we see instructors setting up shop at children’s fairs and the weekly farmer’s markets to advertise.

91. Music Licensing

Singer-songwriter Cathy Heller found a unique way to “reverse-engineer” her dream job by licensing her catchy tunes to big brands and TV shows.

Alternatively, licensing stock music is a bit of a numbers game, but can be a cool way to earn passive income from your art.

92. Teaching Yoga

Becoming a yoga instructor could be a fun and healthy side hustle.

93. Local Tours

Do you want to show off your city to visitors? You can create your own unique tour experience with the help of websites like ToursByLocals.com.

For example, Alexandra Kenin leads urban hikers through the hills of San Francisco at $50 a pop.

94. Pallet Flipping

Flipping liquidation pallets is a unique “treasure hunt” of a side hustle. How it works is you buy pallets of returned merchandise from local liquidators and resell the individual items for a profit.

For side hustlers like Jamie and Sarah McAuley, this translates into $500-2000/mo in profit.

95. Vending Machines

Matt Miller’s vending machine empire started with just $36 and a bag of gumballs. He’d been flipping used books, but found it took too much time. Looking for something a little more automated, he settled on bulk vending.

96. Voiceover Acting

Companies are always on the look for professional voiceover talent. Once you start listening for it, you’ll hear voiceover work everywhere.

One Side Hustle Show guest reported turning her voiceover side hustle into a full-time gig in just 4 months, earning up to $3000 an hour in the process.

97. Window Cleaning Service

Window cleaning can be a nice little weekend side hustle with low startup costs; you may already have a ladder, a bucket, and a squeegee.

Johnny Robinson built his window cleaning service to $700k a year — while a full-time college student!

98. Mechanical Turk

99. Yard Work Service

Nearly every yard in the country requires some sort of maintenance.

Plus, more and more homeowners have started outsourcing this chore, which means there’s a side hustle opportunity.

100. Storage Unit Auctions

Popularized by TV shows like Storage Wars, bidding on abandoned storage lockers can be a viable side hustle—and a bit of a treasure hunt.

101. Amazon Influencer Program

If you have a bit of a social media following, I recommend applying for the Amazon Influencer Program.

Once approved, you can upload simple product review videos, and get paid for every sale you help Amazon make. With very little effort, I’ve been earning an extra $50-100 a month, and some “influencers” are earning $2k a month or more!

102. Reader’s Choice!

Help me out by adding your part-time business idea in the comments below!

Your Next Move:

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a side hustle?

A side hustle is anything you do to earn money outside of your day job. However, side hustles carry a more entrepreneurial connotation than merely taking on a second job.

What’s the best side hustle for me?

The best side hustle for you depends on your skills and experience, the time you have to devote to it, and your overall interests and goals. Check out our full list and you’re sure to find a side hustle idea that sparks a flame!

What are the most popular side hustles?

By raw numbers, the most popular side hustles are freelancing, network marketing, real estate investing, and participating in the “gig economy” through apps like Uber and Lyft. Be sure to check out the full list of ideas to see which one could be a fit for you.

How do you start a side hustle?

To start a side hustle, I recommend the “lean startup” model. That means keeping upfront investments low until you find paying customers. Then, use their feedback to change and adapt as needed. But all side hustles start with an idea. Check out our full list of side hustle ideas for more!

Why should you have a side hustle?

A side hustle can be a great way to build extra income and extra skills outside a traditional job. It can be a way to escape a job you don’t like, a shortcut to financial independence, or just a way to practice entrepreneurship in a low risk manner.

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Starting a side hustle is all about finding new ways to make extra money outside of your regular 9-5 job.

And in today’s digital world, there are two primary paths people take — starting a local business or building an online business from your computer.

But which strategy should you pursue to start earning real income as a side hustler?

That’s the discussion in which Nick Huber, co-founder of Storage Squad and host of The Sweaty Startup podcast, and Miles Beckler, an online business expert, share their perspectives on both approaches.

Tune into episode 578 of The Side Hustle Show to learn how to:

Leverage your existing skills and interests
Identify underserved needs to fill
Commit for the long haul
Delegate extensively
Provide real value to others

The Case for Online Businesses

According to Miles Beckler, we live in an unprecedented time where anyone can publish content without gatekeepers. With over 5 billion internet users constantly searching for solutions, there is a massive opportunity to build an audience by creating helpful content and positioning yourself as an authority.

Some key benefits Miles highlights include:

Huge audience of content consumers to tap into
Ability to publish freely without gatekeepers
Potential to reach millions with scalable content
Leveraging technology over labor to grow

In summary, the sheer size of the online audience and possibility to scale with content makes building an online business extremely lucrative in Miles’ view.

The Case for Local Service Businesses

On the other side, Nick makes an impassioned case for local service businesses.

He encourages budding entrepreneurs to “close your computer, look around you at your town” and observe the brick-and-mortar businesses already making money all around you.

Nick argues convincingly that many local businesses are behind the times technologically, woefully underserving customers, and presenting a prime opportunity for tech-savvy entrepreneurs to outcompete them.

Some benefits Nick sees in local service businesses include:

Huge array of business types to choose from
Less competition in niche local spaces
Low startup costs in many categories
Hands-on work trading time for money
Your geographic region can be a defensive moat

For Nick, keeping costs low while meeting demands for services in your town is the perfect recipe for a profitable local business.

Ideal Business Idea Generation & Niche Selection

Whether you decide to go local or online, the first step is generating potential business ideas and selecting the right niche. So what should you focus on during the idea generation process?

Nick stresses the “long tail of opportunities” available by simply observing businesses everywhere you look. He recounts an enlightening example of a highly profitable Kentucky company that makes millions a year driving around to pick up dead horses.

Beckler agrees niche opportunities abound, but encourages entrepreneurs to “go inside” and focus on problems or interests they are already passionate about. He points to the wisdom of “paying attention to what you pay attention to” over the past 3-5 years as a starting point for identifying promising niches.

Both guests warn about the risks of choosing niches that are too competitive. Nick cautions against businesses others are passionate about, since “people work for free” in those fields.

Miles uses the loaded make-money online niche as a prime example, describing the “assassins” that make it brutally competitive.

This initial guidance holds true whether you want to start pressure washing houses in your neighborhood or launch a YouTube channel about mountain biking adventures. Lean on your passions, talents, and knowledge as the genesis for your business concept.

Balancing Passion & Business

Nick and Miles diverge a bit on whether you should directly monetize a hobby or passion.

Nick advises against basing a business solely on personal passion. His core argument is that emotional attachment clouds business judgment. When money is involved, you need to evaluate opportunities objectively, not based on passion.

Miles has a more nuanced perspective, arguing passion and business can co-exist under the right circumstances.

In Miles’ view, starting with a passion you want to share with the world is fine. But you need to apply business acumen with production volume, conversion optimization, and financial diligence at sufficient scale.

This contrast shows that different philosophies on this issue can still work. Know yourself, and think critically about whether a hobby-based business aligns with your temperament or not.

Beyond personal interests, an ideal niche also needs sufficient market demand and low barriers to entry. As Nick explains:

“I see industries where the person who’s doing this business and making a lot of money, they’re not that smart. Look at real estate. Real estate is the highest concentration of wealthy, dumb people. If I’m going to become an influencer and I’m going to get that following, there’s also something that’s really important about that is that people want to follow people who are successful and kind of already have done something.”

For local services especially, picking an unsophisticated niche with customers willing to pay simplifies the path to profitability.

Meanwhile on the online side, Miles suggests:

“I mean, do you constitute like these two pieces that cost less than $20 capital? Because if you look at the empire that Mr. Beast has built, it really came from him just cutting videos and there is a creator path today that you can start.”

With a smartphone and free software, the barriers to launching an online business are lower than ever.

Evaluate your personal skills and interests, market demand factors, and startup costs to zone in on the optimal niche for your first business.

Gaining Initial Traction – Achieving the First Money Milestone

Once you’ve identified a promising business concept, the next step is getting it off the ground by attracting your first paying customers.

Earning those initial sales or revenue is a major milestone that boosts motivation and validates your business model. For both local and online businesses, how can you most efficiently gain that initial traction?

According to Nick, starting a local service business can generate revenue quickly by tapping into needs right around you. He says to look at what you have and what you can buy without spending too much money.

For example, he had a car and a spare room, so he used them to deliver and store boxes. He didn’t spend a lot of money at the beginning. After two weeks of work, he made a few thousand dollars. This shows that you can earn money by offering services that people around you need.

Leveraging skills with minimal startup investment is the best way to get a local service business off the ground. Get creative providing services around your neighborhood to hit that first dollar milestone.

On the online side, Miles emphasizes the importance of consistent publishing over a long time horizon:

“Shortcuts create long delays, my man. And the shortcut is to start right now, publish your first thing today, and then stick with it for 3 to 5 years and publish somewhere to the tune of 500 to a thousand pieces of content.”

This long-term content production flywheel generates the necessary data to identify what resonates with your audience — and starts bringing in revenue.

But rather than perfecting your first pieces of content, Miles suggests:

“What are you doing? So there has to be a frequency and this furbish kind of pitch to it. So if somebody hasn’t published 150 or a hundred, Roberto Blake has his a hundred rubbish videos idea.”

The key is to build your content catalog quickly based on a publishing schedule, not endlessly perfecting each piece. This velocity is required to get meaningful traction data to refine your content.

For both online and local businesses, avoiding lengthy planning delays is critical to getting started. As you achieve those first sales, the positive feedback loop of progress kicks in.

Growth and Scale – Building an Asset vs. a Job

Once you’ve achieved initial traction, the next consideration is growing beyond a one-person operation to truly scale.

Nick boils down the requirements to scale a business into three key factors:

Operational skills – sales, marketing, delegation
Capital – Funding to expand operations
Network – Employees, partners, investors

As he expands:

“The first company, in my opinion, company number one. It needs to be about acquiring those three things and less about acquiring money. Do your first company to learn operations, to learn sales, delegations, and these things that are just totally unique to a normal life that most people don’t get exposure to.”

Mastering the skills and processes required to run an actual business is a prerequisite for long-term success.

From there, you can leverage capital and network connections to fuel expansion. But without operational proficiency first, rapid external scaling will likely fail.

This truth applies equally to local services and online businesses. But how do the scaling trajectories typically compare between the two models?

Local service businesses grow primarily through increased labor and locations:

Hiring employees to serve more customers
Opening locations in nearby towns and cities
Adding vans, trucks, and equipment

Effectively managing processes, people, and logistics across geography becomes very complex at scale for local service businesses.

Meanwhile, online business have inherent technology advantages:

Content scales with zero marginal distribution cost
Highly leverageable technology platforms
Virtual team support across regions

Once the content production and monetization engines are built, online businesses can scale revenue rapidly at very high margins.

As Nick notes regarding local services: “Yeah, geography can be a pretty serious moat.”

Rapid national or global distribution online disrupts traditional geographic limitations.

Overall, the consensus is that online businesses are inherently more scalable than local service businesses. The table stakes for operational skills may be similar across models, but the growth trajectories diverge considerably.

Delegation Pivotal for Growth

Expanding on operational skills for a moment, our experts emphasize delegation ability as perhaps the most important entrepreneurial skill.

Nick emphasizes the absence of delegation education both in schools and sports. He points out that the concept of delegation is not covered in school curricula or sports training.

For instance, he highlights that no high school athletic coach would ever suggest having someone else perform your workout to achieve fitness, and similarly, math teachers wouldn’t advise delegating an exam to be completed efficiently by someone else.

Nick underscores that the skill of delegation is lacking in people’s life education, as it is not taught or emphasized in any context.

Teaching employees to successfully complete tasks (task delegation) is a relatively straightforward first step.

But the real advancement is training your team to independently make decisions (decision delegation).

This is how businesses can scale — by removing the founder from the critical path of every business decision.

Nick uses a “monkeys on the back” analogy to illustrate effective decision delegation:

“When an employee has a problem, they walk into my office. Their problem is that monkey, that monkey jumps on my desk. And all of a sudden it’s my problem as soon as they tell me about it. The good business owners make sure it [the employee] walks out with that monkey back on their back.”

Business education traditionally focuses on production, products, and profits – not people and teams. Developing management and delegation skills takes proactive practice and mentoring. But it pays huge dividends as you shift from technician to executive.

Both local and online businesses require delegation proficiency to expand, hire teams, and build assets. Mastering delegation unlocks the true potential in any business model.

Other Key Success Factors to Consider

Heed the responsibilities that come with leadership.

As Miles notes, to deserve and attract an audience long-term, you must put in the hard work up front:

“A leader is not someone swinging in the hammock, passive income, telling other people what to do. No, a leader is there with the spoon in front of the pile of manure, shoveling the manure day after day after day after day.”

Don’t expect quick, passive results without first establishing your authority.

Start hyper-targeted locally.

For local services especially, dominate one narrow niche in one geographic area first. Wider expansion comes later.

As Nick says:

“The best way to get a big following if you want to be known for building businesses or making money is to stop tweeting and like actually go out and make some money.”

Proving your concept locally reinforces credibility.

Delay immediate gratification.

Miles emphasizes that real traction takes consistent effort over years, not days:

“We’ve all done things that we had to do. We had to get through. It sucked in the moment. ‘Embrace the suck’ because the success that you desire is on the other side of a lot of little failures and people are trying to avoid fail.”

Stay persistent through early struggles to build momentum.

Diversify online revenues into physical assets.

Once you build robust online cash flow, Miles suggests diversifying into real estate:

“Invest in real estate. Once you get the cash flow going, a bunch of digital money coming in like get some physical tangible things. Don’t be all in on digits and bits and bytes like get you some tangible cash flow.”

Balance digital assets with physical ones.

These closing pieces of advice apply useful perspective to guide your success.

Nick’s Takeaways

Nick’s closing advice is simple yet profound:

“Ignore the noise, start something small. Set a small goal.”

The most surefire path is methodically validating a concept through initial traction. Fancy proclamations and rushing to scale can be perilous.

Nick emphasizes that the path to entrepreneurship involves a five-year journey to gain momentum and a decade to achieve generational wealth.

He underscores the need to prioritize delayed gratification and wise decision-making to avert failure in the long term.

With local businesses especially, build your skills steadily with modest goals at first.

Miles’ Parting Guidance

Miles reiterates the importance of playing the long game, being consistent, and letting delayed results compound over years:

“Don’t compare your step number four with my step number 778. Okay. That’s just a recipe for you getting your ego mind engaged for a toxic internal conversation, which is going to stop you from taking any action at all.”

In closing, persistently publish content for years, learning and optimizing as you go. Stay consistent, ignore quick fix promises, and achieve mastery one day at a time.

Start Small and Embrace the Journey

While local services and online businesses have their unique pros and cons, Nick and Miles agree that mindset and execution trump any inherent superiority of one model.

Stay humble, start a niche, delay gratification, and always be learning. If you choose a path that leverages your skills and interests, then pour your heart into mastering it, the financial results will follow in due time.

Ignore the hype of overnight success or passive income promises. Take it step by step, building real skills through practice and experience. If you embrace this daily progress, increasing impact and income earned from the expertise developed will be inevitable.

Recap and Next Steps

Local services – Leverage existing skills to meet consumer needs in your town
Online business – Build scalable content to serve the billions online
Idea generation – Start with your interests and experiences
Niche selection – Low competition and barriers preferred
Initial traction – Consistent publishing of local services or content
Growth – Operational skills plus capital and network
Delegation – Both task and decision delegation
Mindset – Delayed gratification and persistence

For further guidance on launching your own successful local service or online business, check out:

sweatystartup.com – Join the newsletter and follow @sweatystartup
milesbeckler.com – Subscribe on YouTube at youtube.com/milesb

With the right priorities and perseverance, you can build a profitable business that aligns with your life. Now that you understand the landscape, it’s time to take action on your entrepreneurial dreams.

Nick’s Other Businesses:

#1 Tips for Side Hustle Nation

“Set a small goal.” – Nick

“Don’t compare your step number four with my step number 778.” – Miles

Links and Resources from this Episode

Storage Squad
The Sweaty Startup podcast
Miles Beckler
Blogging vs. YouTube: Which Platform is Best to Grow an Online Business?
Mr. Beast

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.