If you need to supplement your income or just pad your bank account a little bit with another stream of income, a side hustle is the way to go. Whatever your skillset and however much free time you have, it’s more than possible to find a side hustle that’ll help you reach your financial goals.
This guide will help you understand side hustles and their popularity, give you some examples of popular side hustles, and then show you exactly how you can start your own side hustle today.
What is a Side Hustle?
A side hustle is an activity that you can do alongside your regular job and responsibilities that can bring in a little bit of extra income. Side hustles can become a primary source of income in some cases, for instance when you’re studying. They can also start to pay a whole lot more than your regular job, which may prompt you to think about focusing on your side hustle full time.
Why are Side Hustles so Popular Today?
There are two main reasons for the popularity of side hustles today.
Firstly, necessity is the mother of invention—and today, people need more money than ever to survive. That’s not to say there weren’t people working multiple jobs in generations past (because there absolutely were), but today it’s the rule rather than the exception thanks to record discrepancies between the cost of living and wages. People need more cash to live now, so they’re going to get creative and search for more unique ways.
Secondly, the internet has been a massive enabler for different types of money making, and today it’s possible to earn from various side hustles without leaving your room as long as you’ve got an internet connection and a smartphone or computer. Even if your side hustle is a physical one, the right framework of apps or a website can turbocharge your side hustle’s earning potential.
10 of the Most Popular Side Hustles
Here are a handful of extremely popular side hustles that can generate consistent income for you. They’re just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s possible, but they’ll give you a taste of what people out there are doing to earn some cash on the side.
1. Driving
One really popular side hustle out there is to drive in your spare time. It’s not just Uber, either—you can deliver orders such as food, video games, and other online purchases from a variety of retailers, and all you’ll really need is a vehicle of your own and the license to drive it. The main consideration when it comes to making a driving side hustle work is to make sure you’re earning enough to cover the cost of fuel and then some.
2. Dog walking
Given just how expensive life can be, people are busier than ever—which means that they don’t always have time to take their favorite furry family members out for the exercise that they sorely need. If you’ve got some time to spare and really love dogs, what could be better than getting to know and spend time with them and being paid for it?
Dog walking is an increasingly popular side hustle, and it’s not going to go away—busy people aren’t freeing up anytime soon, and dogs are always going to be a human’s best friend.
3. Reselling
Houses and cars are often where it’s at, but you can work up to that—it’s easier, and perhaps even more profitable, to start with goods like sneakers. They’re often considered valuable collector’s items, and if you’ve got an eye for a deal, you should be able to make scanning auction sites and sniffing out sales second nature to you.
Once you’ve made some money and are up and running, you can start looking at inventory solutions and expanding your side hustle with clearances and wholesale offers that you can arbitrage.
4. Art and graphic design
If you’re creative, you can look at web-based art or graphic design as a source of income. There’s always scope for designers, given the vast quantity of marketing materials companies require day to day, and artists have it just as sweet given the demand for book covers, merchandise, animation, and so much more. Commissions are also a huge source of income for artists and illustrators, and the cash from them can easily outstrip the salary you’d pull from a desk job.
5. Writing
Writing can be pretty time-intensive, but it’s another fantastic example of a skill that can be leveraged into a variety of profitable side hustles. Simply starting a blog and building an audience is one way to go, since you’ll be able to make money from affiliates and advertisers as you establish yourself, but you can also ghostwrite, put out eBooks, or write video scripts.
6. Ecommerce
An online business can be a fantastic side hustle, and it’s never been easier to get started. Dropshipping is a business model that you can leverage to build out a full business without actually doing anything in terms of product development or manufacturing, but there are other options if you want to be more creative too, such as print on demand. The ready availability of suppliers means that, as an ecommerce entrepreneur, the main thing you need to be good at is marketing.
7. Content creation
This is one of the most fun side hustles you can get into since, a lot of the time, it means getting paid to do stuff that you enjoy. If you can create content around a hobby, such as streaming your gaming sessions, it’s more than likely you can start building an audience of like-minded folks who enjoy your take on things.
Content creation doesn’t have to be hobby-based either—you can create just about any sort of media around any topic and turn it into a revenue stream, as long as you’re staying within legal and ethical boundaries.
8. Paid communities
This one often goes hand in hand with other side hustles such as content creation, photography, or illustration, but you can make it work in other ways too. Given the right niche, people love getting together and sharing their thoughts and opinions, and you can facilitate that with a community.
Gating a community, or a part thereof, with a paywall needs to be done judiciously and with good reason, but folks will pay if they’re getting value from it or can see that they’re supporting someone they value.
9. Selling templates
Ever wanted to give your resume a refresh, but get stuck looking at a blank white page? The best way to get going is to pick a template and start filling it out. Similarly, templates make a whole lot of stuff easier, and there are people out there who are good at making and then selling those templates. If you’ve got an eye for aesthetics and know a little bit about things like UI, you could design and sell a whole bunch of different templates, such as for programs like Notion and Figma.
10. Selling online courses
Online tutoring can be pretty tough, and you’ve got to tailor your process to individuals. Online courses, on the other hand, allow you to set out your resources exactly how you want to. They also allow you to get your knowledge and experience out to learners without having to be present—it’s a great way to build up a passive revenue stream since there’s no work to be done once the course is created and uploaded.
If you’ve got a skill to share or knowledge to impart, selling online courses is a very profitable side hustle.
What’s a Good Side Hustle?
A good side hustle isn’t a universal thing, since what works for you may not work for someone else—if you’re afraid of dogs, you probably don’t want to become a dog walker or sitter, and art and graphic design may not be for you if stick figures on MS Paint is the extent of your skillset.
The best side hustle, therefore, depends on the skills you have and what resources you’re able to leverage. No car? Then you probably shouldn’t consider a driving gig. But if you’re a good video editor, then you might consider creating on a platform like YouTube or TikTok since editing really is half the battle.
Your occupation could play a role here too—students, for instance, tend to have a whole lot of free time compared to, say, nurses. There’s a side hustle for everyone, though, and we’ve got a huge selection of resources no matter who you are and what sort of side hustle you might fancy trying your hand at:
- Side hustles for nurses
- Side hustles for teachers
- Side hustles for stay-at-home moms
- Side hustles you can do from the comfort of your own home
- Side hustles you can automate using AI
- Tech-based side hustles with huge earning potential
- Side hustles for the upcoming holiday season
- The best online side hustles
- Side hustles for students
How to Start a Side Hustle in 8 Steps
So, how do you go about actually starting a side hustle? Let’s break it down with a quick, step-by-step guide.
1. Answer this question: Why do you need a side hustle?
The main reason to do this little exercise is to identify your goals. People who start side hustles can have vastly different goals and expectations, and that leads them to take different decisions and directions with their side hustles. Making sure that you know exactly what your goals are can help you make clearer decisions in the long term and set achievable expectations.
The type of side hustle you choose to do will also be drastically impacted by your goals. For instance, let’s say you want to make as much money as you can right now while searching for a new job. That means you’ve got a lot of time and perhaps a few resources (like a car) that you can use to earn money right away. So, driving and dog walking might be on the table since they represent instant cash, but a blog (which will need a while to get going) may not work if you think you’ll have to stop your side hustle once you find a 9-5.
Likewise, your goal might be to start a side hustle while working but grow it to the point where it brings in enough income before you quit. In that case, a blog might be just the ticket, along with a couple of other slow-burn content creation options such as podcasting.
2. Consider how much money, skill, and time you have
Now that you’ve got your goals identified and perhaps even written down somewhere, it’s time to think about what resources you have available to you. For most of us, time is the big one—whether or not you have a full-time job will drastically impact the amount of time you can devote to your side hustle, and then there are family considerations and other responsibilities.
Whether you have any capital to invest can also change things quite a bit. Some side hustles, such as reselling or flipping, need some level of investment. If you’re going into content creation, you might want a decent camera and mic setup. Others might require you to subscribe for access to software, and some ecommerce models also come with up-front costs. If you don’t have capital to invest, some of these side hustles may not work.
Skill is also a big consideration here since choosing side hustles that fit your natural skillset will always work better than just picking the fad of the moment. Be honest with yourself about what you’re good at because you’ll lose out in the long run if you bite off more than you can chew.
3. Explore side hustle niches and ideas
With your goals set and an honest assessment of your skills and resources at the ready, it’s time to filter through the different side hustles out there. Make sure to explore all avenues and see what people are doing—some side hustles very much fall into the fad category and aren’t worth investing in, but others are likely to be very good long-term options. Every side hustle is worth a bit of research too, so you know what the industry is all about and what pitfalls you need to look out for.
4. Decide on the right side hustle for you
Once you’ve filtered through the many side hustles out there, it’s time to get serious and pick the right side hustle for you. Your goals and the resources you have available to you, including time, will dictate what you can and can’t do, and the research you’ve done in step 3 will have given you a good feel of what side hustles you might enjoy taking on.
You might also have surmised from parts of this guide that it’s a very good idea to complement a good side hustle with others. A lot of side hustles work very well together and have lots of overlap, and while you should definitely plan for this in the medium to long term, make sure you know what you’re going to start with. Casting too broad a net at the beginning will spread you too thin, so you need to pick the right one for you and go all in.
5. Get your resources ready
All the big decisions have been made, so it’s time to take stock of your resources again. First of all, decide how much time you’re going to dedicate to your side hustle every week and try to stick to that. There’s no bigger resource you can put into your side hustle than time, so budget it as realistically as you can.
The second one is money. Work out how much money you need to get started. For a blog, it’s hosting. For a YouTube channel, a high-quality mic and some lighting. For reselling, a few hundred dollars in cash. Whatever the side hustle, it’s time to get the budgeting side of things sorted out and either put the required cash aside or start ordering the stuff you need.
6. Set up your systems
Before you can launch your side hustle, you should check out what sort of systems you’ll need to put in place to make it work. If you’re driving, for example, you’ll need to get signed up and registered on apps like Uber and Doordash, and follow any procedures they have. You’ll also want to make sure that your license, vehicle registration, and insurance are all in good order.
The same goes for other side hustles like ecommerce or content creation. With the former, you’ll need to check out some of the top ecommerce platforms to see which ones meet your needs the best. With the latter, you’ll want to create accounts on the various platforms you’re going to use and get to know what the monetization requirements are. You can read about how to get started on YouTube, and we also have a guide that tells you all you need to know about monetizing TikTok.
Remember to leverage the internet and social media as much as you can—even if you’re doing something local, clever use of social media or having a website where people can book your services easily can turbocharge your income.
7. Launch your side hustle
All that’s left to do now is launch your side hustle! In many cases, it might just be a case of getting out there and taking your first clients. But don’t forget to lean on whatever social media channels you’ve set up for yourself, especially if you’re doing an online business of some sort—you’ll want as many impressions as you can get!
8. Keep track of payments, taxes, and overheads
It can be really exciting to launch a new business venture like a side hustle, and it’s all too easy to dive head-first and get caught up in things. It’s great if you enjoy your side hustle and are happy to put the time in, but don’t forget to keep an eye on the “boring” stuff.
Remember that any sort of income you make needs to be reported. Just how you go about doing that will depend very much on where you are in the world, but the information’s easily available. Read up on how taxes work in your area, and if you’ve got any friends or acquaintances running side hustles of their own, get in their DMs and ask them to help you out.
As a basic rule of thumb, try to set aside a portion of the payments you take in from your side hustle for the tax man. That way you won’t be left empty-handed by the time your tax bill is due. And yes, that means tracking your payments—many of the platforms you might use for your side hustles can do this, and it’s something to keep in mind when choosing the right platform.
Also, remember to track your business expenses. Whatever you spend in service of your side hustle should be deductible, but you’ll need to save all of those invoices!
Start Your Side Hustle With Whop
Starting a side hustle can be quite a bit of work, but the right platform can make your new business a lot easier to manage. Payment processing, for example, is a big consideration if you’re going to be dealing in anything beyond cash, so you’re going to need a platform that handles payments for you in a safe, secure manner.
Beyond payments, you’ll also want a partner that provides you with all of the functions you need to run your side hustle—whether that’s sharing photos, doing video calls, building and uploading courses, managing your Discord server, tracking your metrics, and much more.
Whop can do all of this for you, meaning that you can put all of your precious time into your side hustle and not have to worry about the nitty gritty. Customer service that responds to issues in minutes? Check. Free to use? Check. Lets you sell any sort of digital product and assists you with marketing? Check and check.
You might think that Whop might be best suited to ecommerce business models and online courses. While it’s true that those are perfect here, any sort of side hustle becomes so much easier if you use Whop. Even if your side hustle is a physical one, such as dog walking, you can use your Whop hub to schedule appointments, take payments, chat, share files (such as doggy photos!) with clients, and much more.
So, if you’re going to start a side hustle, make things easier for yourself right from the get-go by creating your own Whop. It only takes a few minutes, and it’s free to use, so give Whop a try today.
