Side hustles are a passion of mine. I wouldn’t be a millennial millionaire and have achieved financial independence at the age of 30 without making extra money from side hustles.
A good side hustle can help you increase your income, fast-track your financial goals, and chase your passion.
Below is a list of the best side hustles that I personally recommend to make extra money, with tips from other experts who’ve turned their passions into profitable side gigs.
31 Side Hustle Ideas to Make Extra Money
Here are the best side hustles to start in 2024:
- Deliver Food
- Deliver Groceries
- Deliver Packages
- Drive for Uber or Lyft
- Resell Open Box Furniture
- Take Online Surveys
- Freelance Work
- Become a Virtual Assistant
- Rent Your House
- Rent out Storage Space
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1. Deliver Food
Delivering food is one of the easiest and most accessible side gigs. You can easily pick and choose the hours you work; everything is done through an app on your smartphone.
Delivering food means you pick up restaurant orders that customers place and deliver the food to their home or office.
DoorDash is a solid option for individuals looking to make money fast. You select available deliveries in your area and can start making deliveries within minutes.
2. Deliver Groceries
If you don’t mind shopping for customers’ groceries, you can get paid to shop and deliver groceries. Like delivering food, you choose your hours and are your own boss.
With Instacart, you can pick up and deliver groceries to earn extra cash on the side as a part-time shopper.
3. Deliver Packages
Did you know you could get paid delivering for Amazon without driving an Amazon truck?
Amazon Flex lets side hustlers use their own vehicles to make deliveries. Designate a time you want to work using their app, pick up packages from Amazon fulfillment centers, and deliver them to specified destinations.
To become a Flex driver, you must be 21 with a valid driver’s license and be able to pass a background check. Of course, you also need a midsize or larger vehicle with car insurance.
Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft work best if you live in a major city with plenty of offices and tourists around. As a rideshare driver, you pick up riders and take them to their destination. Uber and Lyft pay a flat fee for the service; you keep 100% of the tips earned.
Some companies also allow you to rent a car on demand, so you don’t have to worry about wear and tear and servicing.
If you decide to make money with driving apps, save as much as possible to invest and earn even more money.
With little to no upfront costs, Sharetown Reps pick up, store, and resell oversized open box items such as: furniture, mattresses, and fitness equipment on platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Offerup. What makes it low risk? Reps pay for their inventory only after it has sold.
This gig does require some heavy lifting so you will need a helper and a large vehicle such as a truck, van, or SUV to transport items, but the return on your time investment is absolutely worth it. If you have an entrepreneurial mindset, enjoy selling, and are ready to start earning some extra income, Apply Now!
6. Take Online Surveys
Quick disclaimer—online surveys are not this list’s most profitable side hustle. But if you’re looking for an easy way to make a few more bucks each month while you’re babysitting and the kiddos are asleep, they could be worth a little of your time.
Online survey sites pay you to share your opinions in written surveys, taken online.
Branded Surveys is one of my top picks for online surveys. It has a loyalty program that gives you the potential to earn bonus rewards for referring friends and taking more surveys. It pays out via PayPal, gift cards, and bank transfers.
I also recommend Swagbucks. Trustpilot reviewers highly rate the platform, which pays you for everything from watching surveys to surfing the web. Branded Surveys and Swagbucks both offer signup bonuses, so you can make some cash just to get started.
7. Freelance Work
When it comes to freelance work, you can do almost anything in demand. Platforms like Fiverr or FlexJobs make it easier to find odd jobs and get paid, allowing you to focus on growing your freelance practice and making even more money.
Freelancing is the perfect side hustle for flexibility. You get to set your own hours and rates, but remember that you will be competing with freelancers worldwide.
Graphic design, editing, and virtual assisting are some of the most popular freelancing gigs on Fiverr, but the possibilities are endless.
You can earn hundreds of dollars per article as a freelance writer — anywhere, anytime. Parker King, a freelance writer and founder of The Nurse’s Purse, a personal finance blog for nurses, says freelance writing has provided her with flexibility, extra income, a great professional network, and deeper expertise.
After writing for personal finance blogs for several years, I’ve been able to translate the skills and expertise I’ve acquired into my own personal finance website and build ongoing relationships with clients.
8. Become a Virtual Assistant
Becoming a virtual assistant is one of the digital economy’s most in-demand, profitable, and best side hustles.
You can work as a virtual assistant on a laptop from anywhere worldwide, making it a good side gig for digital nomads or full-time travelers. As more people launch digital businesses, there is an incredible demand for people to help run them.
Learn how to become a virtual assistant to get your business started.
9. Rent Out Your House
Renting out a spare room, apartment, or house can help you pay the bills and save money. You can easily see the going rate of similar places in your area and price yours accordingly.
If you have multiple properties, Airbnb can be even more profitable as the economies of scale kick in to increase your earnings.
Where you’re hosting on Airbnb matters a lot – some cities have a much higher earning potential than others.
10. Rent Out Storage Space
Neighbor is an online peer-to-peer platform that’s been dubbed the “Airbnb of Storage.” It allows hosts to easily rent out extra storage space for everything from cars to overstocked inventory.
You can turn your garage, spare room, or closet into a profitable side hustle, earning several hundred dollars a month.
Josh Robbins, a Neighbor host on Trustpilot writes,
I've been a Neighbor host for 4 years. It's honestly the easiest money I've ever made. Neighbor does all the work. I just accept the invite when someone is interested in my space and then make sure I'm available for the renters to get into my garage when needed.
With apps like Turo, you can share your car with people looking to rent one and make a bit of money.
Turo accepts many different vehicles, from family cars to classic and exotic ones. Listings are free, and you get to set your own daily price and availability, so your car will still be available when needed.
If you have a spare car or barely use yours for multiple days, look into this hustle idea for quick cash.
12. Style Hair for Special Events
If you have your cosmetology license or experience as a stylist, you can make money styling hair on the side. For example, a friend who is a teacher says she sometimes makes more money doing hair and makeup for weddings a few hours on the weekends than she does teaching for a week.
Just make sure you know your state’s requirements and are properly licensed before offering this type of service.
13. Become a Makeup Artist
If you have a knack for creating beautiful makeup looks, you can make money as a makeup artist on the side. You can work weekends or special events, charging clients a flat fee or per hour. Most customers will also pay tips, increasing your pay.
Like hair stylists, make sure you understand your state’s requirements, as many require a special license to work as a makeup artist.
14. Do Odd Jobs
If your heart isn’t set on one particular side hustle and you’re open to doing a variety of gigs to pad your wallet, consider taking on some odd jobs. You can do many one-off jobs to earn extra cash, from running errands and cleaning to putting together furniture or doing yard work.
The Steady App is a great resource if you plan to do odd jobs. Steady connects you to gigs based on your skill set, experience, and interests.
It also has an income tracker tool that keeps all your earnings organized in one place and helps you set income goals. You can even earn incentive bonuses from Steady’s partners when you carry out certain tasks.
15. Do Handyman Jobs in your Town
If you are good with tools and don’t mind doing odd jobs around people’s houses, you can make good money as a handyman. This may include things like hanging TVs or shelves, fixing roof shingles, repairing decks, or helping people move.
TaskRabbit is a great app to advertise your services. You set your rate and can accept/decline offers. There is a registration fee to get started, and TaskRabbit charges a fee for each job you complete, but you are in charge of how much you make and when you work.
You can also advertise your services on your social media page or by distributing flyers to neighbors.
16. Clean Houses
If cleaning makes you happy, why not turn it into a side hustle? You can get paid to clean other people’s homes or offices. The great thing about this gig is if you are good and your customers like you, you’ll have repeat business and won’t have to constantly look for new work.
Decide what services you’ll offer and what you’ll charge and advertise on your social media pages, or on various apps, including TaskRabbit. Just make sure to account for the fees apps charge when you successfully complete jobs.
17. Mow Lawns or Do Yard Work
If you love being outdoors and don’t mind mowing lawns or handling other lawn tasks, such as clipping bushes or cleaning up yards, you could make money with your own lawn care business. All you need are the tools you likely already own to care for your own lawn and the time to tend to your customer’s lawns.
If you live in an area that gets hit with a lot of snow, you can also turn it into a snow shoveling business in the winter, targeting the same customers you already have to keep your income stream year-round.
18. Pet Sitting or Dog Walking
If you’re an animal lover, this side job should be fun and rewarding. Apps like Rover offer several dog-related services, including dog walking, boarding, pet sitting, and house sitting.
You can choose the services you’re most comfortable with to enjoy every hour you work.
While walking dogs is not going to make you rich, it’s a great way to fit some regular exercise into your schedule while earning some extra cash.
19. Babysit
If you enjoy working with kids, babysitting, or nannying can be a rewarding side hustle. Mary Grace Gambrell, who has nannied both as a side gig and a full-time venture, started out babysitting in high school to get experience, then nannied during her university’s summer vacations.
After graduation, she built a profile with her experiences, the age groups she’s worked with, and the types of activities she enjoys doing with kids on sites like Care.com, where she now earns upwards of $30 per hour for her sitting services.
As a side hustle, nannying is a great fit for college students and workers who have a consistent opening in their schedules, for example, if your classes or shifts end early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you could get paid for pickups or after-school care.
20. Tutoring
If you are highly educated, then becoming a tutor could be a great side hustle.
Several online tutoring platforms can help you find work. For example, Chegg facilitates online tutoring via video call in various subjects, and pay starts at $20 an hour.
Another option, Studypool, focuses on homework help – students post questions they need help with and offer a price, which varies depending on time and difficulty. Studypool claims on its website that you could make up to $7,500 a month.
21. Become a Photographer
If you have an eye for photography and a high-quality camera, there are several ways you can put your skill to use to make more money, including wedding photography, selling stock photos, and mini sessions.
Katie Jaynes, a professional photographer in South Carolina, started by taking senior photos for friends in high school, then continued to shoot for family and friends. To build her side business, Katie says,
I began learning more, second shooting with established photographers, and eventually booking my own wedding clients.
Once she started making as much with photography as her job, she was able to transition into her photography business full-time.
22. Sell Baked Goods
If you love spending time in the kitchen and want to earn more money, you can sell baked goods for a profit.
We talked to Carli Campbell, a full-time nursing student who’s built a lucrative baking business on the side. She grew up baking with her mom and continued it as a hobby before starting her business. She got a mentor and watched YouTube videos to hone her craft, using trial and error to get her recipes and decorating techniques down.
According to Carli, one of the biggest advantages of selling baked goods is that “while it’s tedious work, baking lets you show your artistic skills and express your creativity.”
Carli also pointed out that there’s a high ROI:
Because baking custom cakes and cookies is a really involved and skilled process, people are willing to pay a lot for a quality cake. Fortunately, ingredients and materials are super affordable.
23. Wash Other People’s Clothes
Believe it or not, you can get paid to wash other people’s clothes with the hampr app.
Hampr lets you choose which jobs to select. You simply drive to the customer’s home, pick up their laundry, wash it according to their instructions, and return it 24 hours later. With this side hustle you can get paid with weekly direct deposits, and hampr claims its washers make an average of $2,000 per month with the app.
The hampr app also allows customers to favorite the washers who impress them and block the ones who don’t. Once you’ve been favorited, you’ll be one of the first to get notified when a customer has another order available.
24. Wash and Detail Cars
Everyone can wash their car pretty easily, but most people don’t actually enjoy it. If you’re looking for a manual side job with low upfront costs, washing cars could be your go-to. All you need is access to running water and basic supplies like soap and microfiber towels.
While you can get your side business up and running on your own, we recommend using an app like Steady or TaskRabbit to find customers in your area who are looking for car washes.
To increase your profits, you could offer more extensive detailing services, where you not only wash cars but restore them. Car detailing professionals offer services like light paint touchups, waxes, and other protective coats, and interior cleaning and spot treatment.
25. Start a Blog
A successful blog can make over $10,000 per month on advertising and affiliate revenue. When readers click on links to try a product or service, you get paid.
I didn’t launch Millennial Money to make money fast — I launched it because I really like thinking and writing about money and feel it’s my personal mission to share sound personal finance advice and spread financial literacy.
The money from the blog is simply a by-product of my passion for writing.
Blogging Resources:
- How to Start a Blog [Guide]
- How to Launch a Profitable Blog [Free Email Course]
26. Start a Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping offers an easier way to get into the online retail business. You don’t have to hold any stock; you simply take the order and let the manufacturer do the rest without any of the risks usually associated with purchasing and holding stock. You’ll earn a nice commission for your work.
You will need to build your own eCommerce website, which you can easily do with WordPress and other CMSs (content management systems).
To maximize your sales, make sure you have a strong marketing plan with a strong enough advertising budget. You can leverage the power of social media to boost those numbers. Your website can also bring you passive income via affiliate marketing.
27. Start a YouTube Channel
If you want to be a content creator and earn money while connecting with an audience, you may want to start a Youtube channel as a side hustle.
As a YouTuber, you can make content on just about any topic, from travel vlogging to baking tutorials to mechanical how-to videos. YouTubers earn money from Adsense (getting paid for display ads), paid partnerships, and affiliate links.
If you’re promoting a business that extends beyond YouTube, you can also use your channel to grow your audience and get more clients.
28. Start Your Own Podcast
Starting a podcast is as exciting as it can be financially rewarding. You will need to focus on growing your listener base to a good number before you start seeing serious money coming in, with sponsorship making the bulk of your revenue.
Podcasts come in all shapes and sizes, so you can be as creative as you want. Podcasts have huge earning potential – and, according to Bloomberg, top podcasts can bring in more than $1,000,000 per year in revenue.
29. Social Media Influencer
Influencers are social media royalty who make money from the posts they upload. The amount of money you make depends on how many followers you have. The unwritten rule is that you can make $10.00 for every 1,000 followers once you get past the 100,000 followers benchmark.
The amount of money you can earn varies depending on the platform, whether you’re an Instagram influencer, Twitch streamer, TikToker, or a successful YouTuber.
As an influencer, you can pick any niche – from sports to philosophy to food to makeup.
30. Start a Coaching or Consulting Business
If you have a lot of expertise in a given area, consulting can be a very lucrative side hustle that allows you to help people in need. Executive coaches tend to make the most money, but you can also become a life coach, sports coach, health coach, or anything in between.
How much money you’ll make will depend on the nature of the problems you solve, with more complex problems demanding higher hourly rates. There are also different certifications available that can increase your credibility.
To succeed as a consultant, look for areas experiencing growth and figure out how to add value.
31. Buying and Flipping for Profit
I have been buying and selling both VW Campers and mopeds since I was in college. This is probably the side hustle I have the most fun doing.
I sell a lot more mopeds than VW campers, but when I find a good camper deal, I don’t hesitate. I love VW Westfalia Campers from the 1970s and 1980s and have owned 2 over the past 10 years.
They have gone up a ton in value over that time, but you can still find deals on them locally.
I also buy and sell mopeds – little 49 cc Italian and Austrian mopeds made in the mid-1970s to the 1980s. These are super cool and command premium prices in cities since they are easy to ride and get 100+ mpg!
I have Craigslist alerts set up in Chicago for mopeds and pounce quickly on the deals. I actually have a storage facility just for my mopeds, and still love buying and selling them.
How to Find the Best Side Hustle Jobs For You
Choosing a side hustle may seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.
To get started, make a list of what you are good at doing, and what you love. Then see if there is a corresponding side hustle. If the market is already saturated, figure out another pain point you can solve to discover side hustle.
The nice thing about side hustles is there isn’t anyone telling you that you can or can’t do it, unless, of course, you don’t have the proper credentials.
The key is to pick something you enjoy because you’ll do it in your free time. The more consistently you work the side hustle, the more money you’ll make, so make sure it’s something you don’t dread, and instead have fun doing!
You could even make money on the side offering similar services to your full-time job, but as a consultant or a ‘side job.’ For example, if you’re an electrician and work for someone, you can run your own side hustle, helping locals on the weekends or at night when you’re off work.
3 Tips Before Starting Your Side Hustle
1. Figure Out What You Want to Do
Because you’re your own boss, you can test out many different ideas to find the one you really love and/or that makes you the most money. That’s the beauty of side hustling – you aren’t stuck with any one idea.
2. Open a High-Yield Savings Account
Starting with the very first penny, your side hustle money needs to be stored in a safe place, earning as much interest as possible, even while you sleep. Learn more about top online high-yield savings accounts.
3. Keep Track of Your Net Worth
Manage your finances and keep track of your side hustle money in one place while tracking your progress towards retiring early. My favorite FREE tool is Empower, formerly Personal Capital.
How Much Money Can You Make Side Hustling?
I launched my first business at the age of 5 when I started a newsletter for my neighborhood. Selling subscriptions for $10/year to my neighbors, I promised to keep them informed of the happenings in the neighborhood.
They paid up-front, either with cash or check. I sold 18 subscriptions and made $180 in one weekend at the age of 5.
Now, it’s pretty easy to make at least an extra $1,000 – $2,000 per month side hustling in your first few months and if you keep at it and look for opportunities to grow you can realistically get to $10,000+ a month in side hustle income.
I’ve earned enough side hustle money to buy my condo, buy my car, and travel to over 25 countries.
Learn More:
- Side Hustle Statistics for 2024
- Best Side Hustles to Start with No Money
Do I Need to Report My Side Hustle Earnings on my Taxes?
Yes, it’s important to report all income you make, including money from your side hustles. Since you aren’t working for someone, you’re responsible for both sides of the taxes. However, as a business owner, you can take many deductions that lowers your taxable income, and potentially your tax liabilities.
Side Hustles by Niche
To help you further narrow down your search for the perfect side hustle for you, here are a few more lists of the best side hustles for different people:
- Sides Hustles for Men
- Side Hustles for Women
- Side Hustles for Couples
- Side Hustles for Single Moms
- Side Hustles for Teens
- Side Hustles for College Students
- Side Hustles for Outdoor Lovers
- Side Hustles for Introverts
- Side Hustles for Teachers
- Side Hustles for Nurses
- Real Estate Side Hustles
- Side Hustles for Engineers
