Side Hustle Ideas

In a recent post, I highlighted a few tips for getting more out of life, and one of the things I focused on was getting a job. After that post came out, a reader reached out to me and mentioned that his son was still in school, and was having trouble finding an employer that could work with his schedule. He and I emailed back and forth ideas for various jobs that he could make work with that schedule, and most of them turned out to be ones where he could actually work for himself and set his own hours. After our conversation was through, I thought about all of those jobs again, and how a lot of young men could benefit from hearing our ideas.

His son isn’t the only young man in this world whose school commitments make it hard to find work that can accommodate him and his schedule. I’m sure a lot of you are in the same shape, so I thought I would share with you all of those ideas that we came up with.

I call these jobs part-time jobs or odd jobs, but I think they are referred to as side hustles these days. Side hustle is a good name for them because even if you already have a job, these jobs would work for making even more money, so you men reading this who are already steadily employed may find ideas here for ways to make more money too.

With that said here are seventeen side-hustle job ideas.

- Mick

Uber Driver

I’m going to admit right up front, that I don’t know a lot about ride-share programs. In my rural area, there aren’t really many people who offer the service, and I’ve personally never had the need for one anyway. But what I do know is that Uber is an uber-popular (see what I did there?) service, and there are many folks who make their full income from it alone.

If you’re low on options as far as work goes, this may be something that works with your schedule. Or maybe you already have a part-time job and want to make even more income, and this could be what you do on your off days from your regular gig.

Door Dash Delivery Driver

Much like Uber, I’ve personally never used this service…but my daughters have. It blows my mind that they would pay the service charges on top of the cost of the food instead of just going out and getting it themselves, but they use the service on a semi-regular basis. Which just goes to show how in demand this service is. Even people fully capable of getting their food themselves are paying other people to bring it to them.

Slice is another similar service that focuses mainly on just picking up pizzas and delivering them. If this is the kind of gig that interests you, I’d suggest signing up for both Door Dash and Slice since they are pretty much the same thing, and increase your chances of getting deliveries. Matter of fact, both of these services would pair really well with the Uber gig. Tripling up on your earnings potential is a great idea, and if one service is slow, you’d still have opportunities to earn.

Personal Shopper

Keeping with the theme of people paying other people to bring them stuff, we have this idea for personal shoppers. I don’t know if there is an app for this kind of service or not. The idea mainly comes from knowing some people who have others go do their grocery shopping for them and pay them a nice little sum per hour for the service.

Think about shut-ins mainly, but also realize that there is a growing number of people who are outsourcing more and more of their lives. If there’s not an app, or even if there is, a good way to get started as a personal shopper would be to print up some flyers around town or have some business cards made up advertising your service and put them out around the town you live in.

Deliver Packages for Amazon

Amazon Flex is a service where you work directly for Amazon delivering packages. Here is the scoop directly from Amazon:

It sounds like a good opportunity to add some work from Amazon to your schedule. And again, it would probably pair really well with the other gigs I’ve already listed.

Gofer

Much in the same vein as the personal shopper gig, being a gofer could offer chances to make some income. But instead of just doing someone’s shopping, you could be performing any number of services for them.

I used to work for a man of means, and he hire gofers for all sorts of things. He kept a few gofers handy that he used on a frequent basis. He would pay them to do things like ride with him to the airport, and then drive his car back to his house, and meet him with his car on the return. He also paid these gofers to do his shopping at places like Lowes and paid really well for the services being performed.

Laundry Service

We’re sticking with this theme for a bit, and much like a gofer or personal shopper, you could perform a laundry service for people who don’t like to or don’t have the time, to do their own. You could advertise your service, pick up laundry from the customer, take home to wash and dry, and then return it.

Dog Walker / Pet Sitter

Rover is a popular dog walking/dog sitting app, and I know the sitters get paid pretty well. A man I know at work doesn’t have the opportunity to go home at lunch, so a couple of days a week he uses the Rover app to have someone go to his place and take his dog out for walks.

I did a quick search and found that there is a service for cats as well called Meowtel. If you’re a dog or cat person, this may be something worth looking into.

Basic Handyman

You might be surprised to learn that there are far more people in this world who don’t know how to do simple things like hanging a picture, putting a new desk together, or even hanging curtains than there are who do. That’s where you could come in. Some basic skills could set you up to make some good side money just by doing simple handyman tasks like this.

Lawn Care

Lawn care has been a side hustle of choice for men for many years. You can get started with equipment as simple as a push mower and a weed eater. Advertise your service, find some customers, and go start mowing lawns from the spring through the fall. And when winter comes along, try to keep the same customers by offering a snow shoveling service as well. before you know it, You’ll have advanced to a riding mower that you can put a plow blade on and really start raking in the green…pun intended.

Window Cleaner

People don’t usually think of a window cleaner when they’re trying to think of ways to earn extra money. Or if they do, their mind conjures up images of cleaners on scaffolding cleaning the windows of a tall building somewhere. But being a window cleaner isn’t as hard as you think, and can be very profitable.

Many years ago, I ran an office in a shopping center. We had a window cleaner who came by every week and for a cool ten bucks, he cleaned our windows inside and out. And all the gear he carries was a 5-gallon bucket of soapy water, a squeegee, an extension handle, and some towels. And before you think that ten bucks aren’t all that much, remember that this was twenty years ago, and it only took him ten minutes to do our windows. That’s a dollar per hour. Work out that math and you’ll find that he averaged $60 per hour. That’s a great rate of pay even today. Now think about the fact that there were 23 offices in this center, and he cleaned the windows in all of them. Three to four hours of work grossed him over $200 dollars. And he cleaned windows five days a week. He did ok for himself, and you could too with this side hustle.

Trash Pickup

While it may not be the most desirable idea on this list, you can make money hauling other people’s trash away. In my small rural town, municipal trash pickup costs $8 per week. I know a guy who does it for $5. He has a pretty large client base, hauls trash two days a week, and pulls in over $100 each day. That’s $200 a week and five more days to go out and earn more money doing other jobs.

eBay Reseller

eBay has been around for over twenty years now and has proven itself to be a valuable marketplace for people looking to make some money on the side. If you make it a point to actually make an income with it, you can hit up thrift stores, pawn shops, and Goodwill stores to find stuff to resell. Buy it cheap from those places, and sell it higher to turn a profit. You could also sell items for other people on commission. Average commission rates are 25%, so the potential for nice income is high. If you decided to do the trash pickup idea, there is a chance you could be getting some good stuff to sell for free on your trash route!

Auto Detailer

If you have an eye for detail and don’t mind doing a little cleaning, then you’ll find that there is good money to be made in detailing cars and trucks. Washing and waxing a vehicle, doing a bang-up job on the tires, and making the inside shine like new is a service that people are always willing to pay good money for. You can detail cars at your place, or if you are really opportunistic, you can offer to come to the customer’s place and do it there. Either way, you can score a nice payday for every car you clean.

Music / Instrument Teacher

If you’re one of those young men who’ve been blessed with the talent to play guitar or piano or any number of other instruments, you can parlay that skill into money by teaching others how to do what you do.

People who don’t have those skills will sometimes pay good money to learn them. And on top of that, there are a lot of parents out there who would gladly pay to get music lessons for their kids.

Tutor

In the digital age we live in, tutoring has never been easier. Aside from doing it in person locally where you live, Zoom makes it possible to tutor people all over the world. For every subject you excel at, there are many students who struggle with it. You can charge per hour or by session. The Wyzant App makes it easy for you to get started and gets you in touch with students in need of your help.

Computer Trouble Shooter

For you young men out there, you’re the best-equipped generation for helping older generations with their tech issues. From troubleshooting computer issues to teaching them how to use a smartphone, to other tasks like setting up their smart TV, you’re in a great position to be of assistance and charge for your skills.

Graphic Designer

I know a great deal of you reading this have the style and the skills to make logos and the like. There are a lot of small business owners out there who lack that skill, and a lot of times the know how to make their own. You can help these small business owners enhance their image by designing then a flashy new logo, and you can charge for that service.

So there are seventeen quick ideas for making money. Not all of them will be for you, but I’m pretty sure everyone can find at least one of these ideas useful. The main takeaway though is that if you’re serious about getting a job, and committ yourself to it, you can find ways to earn income no matter what you’re schedule looks like. It may take a little imagination, but there’s something out there for you.