The Young Money Club

Introduction

Many young people looking to make some extra money on the side turn to the growing world of side hustles. These are ways to make money that don’t require you to work on a specific schedule. You can work on these side hustles before or after work, school, or during any free time you may have. These are 15 of the best side hustle ideas you can start right now.

Gig Apps

A great way to make some extra money is to take advantage of the gig economy. Apps like Task Rabbit and Takl (if you sign up for Takl feel free to use my code 87BE9) can be a great place to start.

These apps will provide you with odd jobs ranging from mowing a lawn to hauling off some trash. From what I’ve seen, people typically pay anywhere from $40-$100 for these small jobs that shouldn’t take more than 1-2 hours.

Food Delivery

Food delivery apps like Doordash, UberEats, and Grubhub have become increasingly popular in recent years. This has created a growing need for drivers willing to wait on-call for any orders that may come.

These services can be hit or miss for drivers because much of your earnings are based on tips and the number of orders you can complete. I’ve even read stories of people who tried this and after taking into consideration their gas, maintenance, etc. ended up paying money to drive for these services.

A fuel efficient car and high demand are a must for this option to be profitable.

Rideshare

For those of you who are 21+ years old, rideshare services like Uber and Lyft are the gold standard for side hustles. Many of the same issues that come with delivery driving like fuel efficiency and driver demand can affect earnings but in general you’ll earn more shuttling people than food.

Hanging out around airports, sporting events, concerts, etc. can be a great way to guarantee yourself some work as well as the possibility of surge pricing which can boost your earnings even more.

Dog Walking

If you’re an animal lover or just like to get outside, dog walking would be a great side gig for you. You can get dog walking work by simply asking around or by signing up for an app like Wag, which connects busy dog owners with walkers.

Wag pays out based on the walk time you choose which are as follows

• $9 for a 20-minute walk
• $12 for a 30-minute walk
• $18 for a 60-minute walk

Wag also allows owners to tip so be sure to provide good service for increased earnings.

Babysit

Babysitting isn’t just for high school kids who are friends of the family, anyone can do it and make good money on the side. To get started there are a number of websites that match families and qualified sitters.

Obviously if you hate kids, this probably isn’t the option for you but if you don’t mind taking care of children or making sure they get fed, you can take advantage of your patience.

From what I’ve read, babysitters can earn anywhere from $10-$20/hour, for just supervising some kids. Seems like easy money to me.

Tutor

If you’re academically gifted or just a good teacher, you could earn money by becoming a tutor. If you’re a student, you can ask around on campus or talk to an advisor about possible tutoring opportunities.

You may make less working for a school program but there are other options if you want to earn more. You could work independently and set your own prices or work for a tutoring company that charges more per hour.

Blogging

I’ve previously discussed blogging as an income source here. But as a side hustle it must be evaluated differently. It most definitely is a cheap and straight forward way to start working towards some extra income, but it isn’t something that can be taken lightly.

There is a very large upfront time commitment that must be given if you want to make any sort of money from blogging. Most people assume that you just set up a page, make a few posts, and throw some ads on there and just sit back and rake in the money.

In order to start “raking in the money” you’re going to have to write consistently and in depth on whatever topic you choose. That being said, there is a HUGE opportunity for growth if you’re willing to put in the time and effort. Some blogs earn millions of dollars per year while the vast majority earn nothing. If you can get your blog to even 1% of the earnings of those giant blogs, you’d be doing well for a side hustle.

Become an Influencer

Now the term “influencer” gets thrown around a lot by girls who have 1,000 followers and post pictures of their Starbucks drinks. This is not what I’m saying you should do.

By becoming an influencer I mean starting a niche social media page that you can use to generate income. This requires a lot of upfront work but can be an easy thing to do in your free time. You can spend maybe 20-30 minutes on each day working to grow your followers and post meaningful content.

If you grow your page large enough you can begin selling shoutouts, advertising, or even directing traffic to affiliate links. In the end you can sell your page for a pretty large sum on sites like Fameswap.

Freelancing

Freelancing is how many talented creatives make some money on the side. This involves developing a talent, or using one you already have, to provide a service to those who need it.

The most common forms of freelancing are typically writing and graphic design but can also include skills like coding to photography. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork connect freelancers with potential customers, taking the difficulty out of trying to find work.

Rent Out Your Stuff

Most people don’t know that you can rent out pretty much everything you own. From home appliances to your car, if you have it, someone will rent it.

If you don’t mind letting someone use your car, apps like Turo will help you connect with people who are in need of a car. The cars on Turo range from exotic sports cars that you can rent for the day, to your basic sedans that are about as sexy as your great grandmother.

There are a number of other apps and websites that are specifically for the purpose of renting out a certain item or good. If you can’t find one for the thing you’re trying to rent, there’s always Craigslist.

Flip Items

This one seems the most straight forward but in reality can be difficult to pull off. Flipping items is the process of buying items, typically improving them in some way, and reselling them for more.

You can flip basically everything that has value, you’ve probably heard of house flipping but you can also flip things like furniture and electronics.

Flipping requires specific knowledge about whatever niche you decide to operate in, if you don’t know how much items are worth and what they can be sold for, you’re likely to lose money.

To begin, you can start by looking for items on Craigslist and Facebook market place that have potential to be flipped, from there it becomes unique to whatever niche you’re working with.

Create Stuff to Sell

If you’re creative and enjoy making things like candles, jewelry, home decor, etc. you could start making money by selling these goods on sites like Etsy.

It doesn’t take more than a couple minutes to set up an Etsy store and start making money. You can mark up your items as much as you want and the only limit to how much you can sell is your ability to create.

Take Online Surveys

This is probably the least profitable of all the ideas because of the incredibly low payouts that surveys have. I’ve dabbled with surveys before and never made more than a couple cents for a 10-15 minute survey.

I’ve heard that some surveys will pay up to $5 which sounds a bit more worth it compared to the pennies I’ve experienced.

The main benefit to online surveys is the convenience and ease of doing them. You can fill out surveys on your phone while you’re on the go or while you’re watching TV in your living room.

This makes it still worth doing in your free time, but not necessarily something you want to dedicate all your time to.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you act as a middleman between buyers and sellers. Typically this comes in the form of custom links that kick back a portion of any sells that they generate.

Affiliate marketing can come in many forms and allows you to be creative about driving traffic to your links. If you want to use social media you can, if you want to text your links to all your friends you can, the skies the limit when it comes to how you convert and how much you can earn.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is one of the most misunderstood and widely pushed side hustles. Basically every internet guru has a course or something to say about it. If you haven’t heard about dropshipping, it is basically selling items without holding any physical inventory.

While it can seem like a scam, it is possible with a little bit of work. There are two primary methods of dropshipping. You can use a site like Shopify and work with suppliers who will fulfill your orders, or you can dropship on Ebay.

This method can be a great way to start because of its simplicity. You just find a product on Walmart or Amazon, make a listing on Ebay with a marked up price, and when someone orders from you, you place the order with Walmart or Amazon.

For more info on dropshipping, you can click here.

If you’re interested in reading more, you can check out our previous post here.