101 Side Hustle Ideas to Earn Extra Money & Pay Bills
Are you looking for creative ways to earn additional income, maybe to pay down debt, buy a new car, build your emergency fund, save to buy a home, or just improve your quality of life? We all have our reasons for finding that side job, and this post will provide you with ideas for side hustles, earning more money, and work-from-home jobs, maybe that might turn into a cash-fueling business.
Before we get to the list…A word about Multi-Level Marketing schemes also known as MLM’s. MLMs are not viable businesses and are predatory; especially to women, people who are in financial straits, those eager to make money from home, or people looking to make income in their spare time. According to the FTC, approximately 99% of MLM participants experience financial losses. Under no circumstances would I ever recommend participating in or investing money in an MLM company. Here’s more information on them and how to identify an MLM. If you get offered an “opportunity” like this, run.
Back to legitimate side hustles and opportunities to earn money.
Where to Start?
First, think about what experience or talents you have that you could turn into a profitable side hustle. Everyone has something they do that others seek out for advice. What is your superpower? What skills do you have, either in your work or personal life, that are valuable to others? Could you create a class or get paid to teach others your skills?
Second, think about what you like to do. Do you have a hobby you might teach others? Do you like pets, gardening, cooking, books, or playing with kids? What could you do to turn that hobby into a profit?
Third, evaluate your time and human resources. When could you work? Do you need any training or certifications to do this kind of work? What is the ramp-up time to get started on this side gig?
Lastly, think about the start-up costs for your side hustle like certifications, equipment, and marketing, as well as any business, financial, banking, and insurance requirements. Please note that for many of these businesses insurance is important and/or necessary; please do research the requirements.
And with that, here’s the list of 101 cash-earning ideas!
No Education or Training Required:
1. Sell fashion clothing items you no longer wear on Mercari, eBay, and Poshmark. You can also check out a local consignment shop to see if they pay cash for clothes.
2. Sell stuff around your home you no longer use.
3. If you have a big collection you’re done reading, list and sell your used books on Amazon.
4. Housecleaning (research insurance and bonding). Going rate in 2023 is about $20-30/hour.
5. Mowing lawns, raking leaves.
6. Vacation rental management.
7. Airbnb manager for property owners who live out of town.
8. Pet sitting/walking with Rover.com, Trustedhousesitters.com, or Wagwalking.com. Also mention it to your fur-parents at the dog park.
9. Poop scooping. $15-20 per visit; house provides scooper/garbage.
10. Litter picking for commercial properties (make sure that you have proper insurance).
11. If you’re not using it much, rent out your car on Turo.com.
12. If you have something others want, like a pool, RV, or awesome backyard, there are Airbnb-type sites to rent out all of these.
13. Selling returned goods. Check out local Facebook groups/Next Door for items to buy and flip.
14. Babysitting $15-25/hour or more. Check out Sittercity.com, Care.com.
15. Car valet (work for a company that will insure you).
16. Deliver food with DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub, and Postmates. Deliver groceries with Shipt or Instacart.
17. When people go on vacation, they need help taking care of feeding cats, plants, flowers, mail pickup.
18. House sitting (start with friends, get references). You can house sit in other places, too, and make a vacation out of it. House sitting sites: trustedhousesitters.com, mindmyhouse.com, housesittersamerica.com
19. Donate plasma.
20. Personal shopper who picks up orders and makes returns. You can do all kinds of errands.
21. Party work: Freelance bar tend or coat check. Catering server, party helper/assistant. Great work around the holidays!
22. Pick up a PT or holiday seasonal job at a grocery store, specialty market, farmer’s market, or retail store.
23. Assemble IKEA furniture for people in your neighborhood. Check out TaskRabbit for more ideas like this.
24. Be a Fulfilled by Amazon (Amazon FBA) seller. Be sure to calculate profits.
25. Drive with Lyft/Uber. Be sure to add the extra insurance on your car’s policy for driving-for-hire.
26. Transcription – surprisingly, not everything is done by AI yet.
27. Computer user testing/usability testing.
28. Participate in focus groups and get paid for your opinion.
29. Deliver with Amazon Flex.
30. If you have a truck, offer moving/hauling services (check into insurance).
31. School pickups and aftercare. If you are a night owl, you could provide overnight babysitting.
32. Become an elderly helper or companion. Consider being a mother’s helper for a new mom as she gets acclimated.
Monetizing Hobbies and Interests:
33. Give great gifts? Start a personal shopper business and/or gift shopping business.
34. Buy and sell vintage items on eBay and Etsy, or scout thrift stores for fashion finds and flip them for profit.
35. Flip furniture; find old curbside cast-offs and use your handy skills to bring them new life.
36. If you have the equipment, offer 3D printing and Cricut/vinyl decals services locally through Facebook Marketplace or online through Etsy.
37. If you know how to spot first editions, buy and sell rare books.
38. Create a course and sell it on Udemy, Thinkific, or Teachable.
39. Photography - offer your services to those who want family photos, product photography, head shots, or real estate photography.
40. Design T-shirts and other products to sell on Amazon and Etsy through Print on Demand (POD).
41. Sell your crafts or vintage goods on Etsy or at local holiday markets.
42. Bake and sell cookies, pies, or bread at a local farmer’s market. (Be sure to research food safety laws and food sales requirements in your area.)
43. If you enjoy writing sentiments in greeting and holiday cards, you could offer a service that manages/sends birthday cards, holiday cards, and even thank you cards. You could purchase in bulk and write by hand, or use an online service like Cardly.
44. Cat care – if you love cats, spread the word that you’ll care for people’s kitties when they’re away. Post on NextDoor.
45. If you have experience with an unusual pet, monetize on your experience! Farm sitting, exotic pet sitting, and bird sitting specialists are all in demand. Post on NextDoor and start a Facebook page.
46. Love being outside? How about planting, leaf raking, snow shoveling, weeding, yard work.
47. Vegetable garden design and planting. If you have a knack for turning brush into blossoms and like planning, offer gardening planning services.
48. Local tour guide. List yourself on Airbnb Experiences, TripAdvisor Things to Do, and Showaround. Offer tours on local art, music, or sports topics. Or historical tours, haunted tours, or food tours in your area.
49. Create and sell a creative online experience, meal, or course through Airbnb Online Experiences.
50. If you read a lot of technical or business books, there may be a market for selling book summaries on Amazon.
51. Offer knitting, crochet, or sewing lessons.
52. Offer hemming or tailoring if you have sewing skills.
53. Whatever you love, teach it to children. Teach kids how to ride bikes, play tennis, take photos, write a song, cook, etc.
Professional Skills Required:
54. Freelance your skills on freelancer.com, upwork.com, fiverr.com, remote.co, and weworkremotely.com – if your employer is OK with it.
55. Become a consultant in whatever you are good at, professional or for fun.
56. If you have started and run a business or two, teach/coach others how to start up their own companies.
57. Look into certifications to become a motivational coach to help others in whatever you’re good at.
58. Freelance content writing using your expertise to write articles online. You could also be an editor or proofreader.
59. Teach fitness classes at a gym or community center.
60. Language translation and tutoring: still a market even with AI and all the online schools out there. If you are bilingual, people want to learn and speak language with a human.
61. If you own your home, rent out rooms, storage space, or create a “glamping” space in your back yard.
62. Mobile Yoga or Pilates – If you have your certification, offer classes in client’s homes, community centers, churches, libraries, or work settings.
63. After School care/homework helper - market yourself in your neighborhood, town Facebook group, and local churches.
64. Mobile tutoring - market yourself to elementary school parents and professionals.
65. Create and run children’s activities online. Check out Outschool and HiSawyer.
66. If you like traveling, become a travel agent specializing in where you know, like Disney, islands, Costa Rica, budget travel.
67. Notary – Depending on your state, it costs about $150-200 to take a 3-hour course, take the exam, get certified, and purchase your seal. You could work with local businesses to have set hours in your community, at your library, etc. or be a mobile notary. A mobile notary real estate signing agent can earn $80k-$120k per year.
68. Perform mobile phone repair or troubleshooting if you have the knack for it! See if you can work with a retirement community to set up hours to help residents with their phones.
69. If you are musical: offer mobile music/voice lessons.
70. Sign up with your local YMCA to become certified to teach swimming. Take a lifeguard course to become certified to lifeguard – highly in-demand.
71. Teach your favorite sport or game: chess, pickleball, golf, archery, poker…If you know it, chances are someone will pay to learn it.
72. If you have a bachelor’s degree and have full days available, sign up to be a substitute teacher.
73. Personal assistant, remote/mobile personal assistant, virtual assistant.
74. Offer mobile fix-it and handyman services (check into insurance). There is a market for “light fixing” of household items like bikes, small appliances, vacuum cleaners, etc. Things that are wobbly but not worth throwing out. Check into having hours at a local community center and putting the word out on Facebook.
75. Teach community college courses if you have an advanced degree.
76. If you love putting on a party, try event planning and wedding planning.
77. Wedding calligraphy services on local wedding vendor sites, Facebook Marketplace or on Etsy.
78. If you are artistic, draw caricatures or do face painting at local community events and birthday parties. Look into insurance requirements.
79. Freelance your creative skill (graphic design, PowerPoint presentations, writing) on freelancer.com or fiverr.com.
80. Resume writer in your field – this talent pays around $200-400 each.
81. Contact your local school district to become a substitute school bus driver.
82. If you’ve got what it takes, consider being a trivia night host.
83. Freelance as a DJ if you love music and have talent for keeping the dance floor filled.
84. Fractional C-level or maternity leave fill-in executive if you are senior in your field.
85. Office temp – these office jobs still exist!
86. Whatever you're an expert in - be a coach and help others. See about obtaining a certification to help with your credibility.
87. Personal organizer (go through files, clean up, clean out).
88. Social media manager (post/answer DMs and questions for small businesses).
89. Tutor kids in your favorite subject. Get the word out on Next Door or Facebook.
90. If you have had success getting your kids into college or to play college level sports, become a college essay editor or help families navigate the college process.
91. Be a virtual assistant (VA).
92. Create downloadable templates to sell on Canva and Etsy.
93. If you’re a teacher and have done the work, create and sell teacher worksheet templates online.
94. Have a great story to tell? Write and sell eBooks.
95. Write a blog on specific subjects you know and/or enjoy and monetize it through Amazon Associates and/or Google advertising. The same goes for starting a podcast. Be aware that both take time to build a following.
96. If you have some videography and editing skills, you could also consider editing videos for small businesses to help them improve their social media presence and sales. Market locally, or check out Fiverr.com, where you can offer your services to a broad audience.
97. You could teach kids’ English classes online on the VIPKid or GoGoKid platforms.
98. If you have a great voice, investigate narrating audiobooks or doing voiceover work.
99. If you take great photos, you could sell them to stock sites like Burst, Shutterstock, Getty Images, and Foap. To get some exposure, you can also upload for free use on Pexels and Unsplash. Users will donate if they like your photos.
100. Referee, umpire, or coach sports. At the high school level private teams pay for coaching, and refs/umpires are always in demand for middle school and high school sports.
101. Through customer interviews you can also earn cash. Check out Userinterviews.com and Respondent.io.
How Do I Get Started?
So if you’re not exactly sure how to get started, how do you learn how to do these side hustles? Do what you do with everything these days: Google “How to get started in X”. Most likely there will be some basic information on the work, how much it pays, what it entails, and what you need to get started. And if you’re interested in some of the more skilled side hustles and want to improve your job market value, look online for Coursera or online certification programs.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that you shouldn’t be shy about marketing your skills and services. Using your personal and professional networks to promote your offerings is the best way to get business!
If you are looking for the perfect side hustle to create your economic gap, there are so many opportunities to suit everyone's talents and skills. All you must do is identify what you enjoy doing, offer the service to your community and people who will benefit from it, and let your talents shine!
Need More Resources?
Check out these websites with even more side hustle ideas and tactics:
Sidehustleschool.com podcast, Side Hustle Nation podcast
Remotely Possible newsletter and community
