Side Hustle Your Way To A Fuller Bank Account.
We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis, food prices have gone through the roof, and increased interest rates have resulted in thousands of households now having to find hundreds of extra pounds a month to be able to pay their mortgage; my sister is having to find an extra £500 a month which is awful; renters are facing steep rent increases as landlords have to pay more for their rental proprieties, and so its no wonder that so many of us are having to find ways to earn some extra money!
This blog post will give you some ideas on ways to increase your income and keep your bank account in the black through a range of different side hustles, which can be performed on top of your normal job, with some being able to be performed from your sofa, ideal for those who may not be able to partake in more conventional side hustle roles due to health issues or parental responsibilities.
An extra income doesn't mean getting a second job on top of your full-time job; there is often a high demand in your local area for side hustlers to earn a few extra quid without ongoing commitments.
Earning extra money to help towards the family budget is nothing new; however, there are an ever-growing number of side hustles these days to help out. So what is a side hustle, you may ask; It's a way for someone to make some extra money on top of their 'day or main job' or income source that may well be something they can perform as and when they need to, rather than necessarily be contracted into performing regularly.
A side hustle or additional income source can be a great thing, but a good thing to remember is that there is still a requirement to pay tax on what you earn from it; however, you are allowed to earn £1,000 without having to declare your extra earnings to the HMRC. You should always check to ensure the extra income won't impact any benefits you may receive.
It's also important to make sure that you work with a bonafide company; make sure you research a company before working with them, look for reviews or social media comments, or use a Companies House search to make sure they are a registered company,
Some side hustles will need you to leave the house to perform; some can be performed from the comfort of your sofa while you watch Bake Off! You may find that you can earn a reasonable amount from a side hustle, or it may be just a couple of pounds; it really depends on what sort of hustle you get involved in and how much time you are willing to spend performing it. You may still make lots of money from your sofa, so don't assume you can't; it just takes a bit of hard work to figure out what works best for you.
I've listed some of my favourites below. I never mention the type or potential income sources based on betting. Many other sites will go into detail on schemes such as matched betting, but I don't personally feel that betting should be promoted as a revenue source due to the potential for you to lose money rather than make it. I also don't want to encourage something where a person may become addicted, as this may well make things far worse for someone likely already struggling with money!
My Favourite Side Hustle Ideas
Rent Out Your Driveway Or Parking Space
With the rising parking costs in the UK, more and more people are making money by renting out their driveways! You can earn money by allowing people to use your driveway to park their vehicles when you aren't making use of it. This could be during the day, when you are at work, at the weekend, overnight, while you are away on holiday etc. Perhaps you don't have a car but a driveway going to waste that could be used to earn you some cash, or you have a driveway for two vehicles but only have one?
Companies such as Just Park or Your Parking Space make it simple by listing your driveway/space on their website, so people looking for a parking space can find your drive and book it online.
When it comes to what people will pay to use your facilities, it will depend on your location and availability. If you happen to be located within a close locality to a railway station, city centre, stadium, etc., then you are probably going to be more in demand and will be able to get more money for your space than if you are based in the middle of nowhere.
It's all about supply and demand, of course! You can set your own pricing if you would like to, the website shows you what the people/parking facilities close to you are charging to help you to offer competitive pricing, or Just Park will suggest a price for you based on your location and the average pricing in your area for you.
It's pretty clever; their system knows if something is happening locally, that can bump up your price and automatically change the pricing. For example, I'm located within a 5-minute walk of a football stadium, and my pricing automatically increases when there is a big match on, so I can profit from the extra demand for parking spaces during this event, which is really helpful and somewhat clever!
Renting out your driveway has zero start-up costs and can make you as much money as you like, depending on how much time you can allocate your driveway being used by others for, and local demand. If there's a huge demand for parking in your area, then you could earn a decent amount of money with little effort.
Rent Out Your Home
If you are not always at home, have an additional property, or perhaps you have a larger property with space for taking on guests, look at listing your property on Airbnb. You can rent out your whole house or just a room using the popular rental company and can earn up to £7,500 a year, tax-free if you rent out just a room, but be aware that if you rent out your whole house, you will need to pay tax on your earnings. You need to consider that you will have additional expenses such as insurance, cleaning costs, provision of parking, food making facilities for the guests, so you need to look into it properly. Still, thousands of people earn decent money from renting out their homes, so it's worth considering.
Rent Out Your Garden
If you have a big garden (0.5 acres is generally a good minimum space, but it could be smaller), additional land, or maybe a field, you could look at renting spaces for campers to pitch up and spend the night! Companies such as Pitchup allow you to list your space on their website to accept bookings from prospective campers.
You need to consider insurance, toilet and washing facilities (which can be rented), which may put a spanner in the works, but you could earn decent money if your area is large enough! You may need planning consent if you are going to convert your space permanently into a camping area, but it can operate for 56 days a year without any planning implications. You also don't need planning permission to rent out a mobile caravan in your garden.
You don't need to be in a touristy location for this to be an option; you will likely get more 'business' if you are in a popular area, though. Still, people make money from renting out their garden space to people in city centres, as well as the more scenic locations; pitching a tent in central London, for example, may be much cheaper for a tourist unable to afford a London hotel, and you could even rent out the tents as well!
It may not be one of the most popular side hustles, but it can be a successful side hustle!
Take On A Lodger
You may have a spare room that you can monetise by renting it out. Companies such as Spareroom and Airbnb offer you the opportunity to advertise your extra room to prospective lodgers who may need a temporary room, perhaps for work reasons or a longer-term lodger.
Remember that this will mean sharing your home with a stranger, and they will need cooking and cleaning facilities, but if you are all good with that, you could earn hundreds of pounds a month from a room you aren't using! You can earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free as a room renter.
The room doesn't have to be located in one of the best places in your area; people are always looking for accommodation, no matter if it's in the middle of a city centre or out in the middle of nowhere, everyone has different requirements, so don't assume nobody would want to rent a room from you!
Rent Office Space
Does your house or business have an extra room that someone might like to use as an office? Companies such as Office Riders allow you to list your space so that people needing a meeting or workspace can pay to use your facilities! It can be a good way for small businesses to earn some extra revenue, even though room renting isn't their normal business model!
You don't need an actual office to rent; a small room, outhouse, or even just a kitchen table may be exactly what someone needs to have somewhere to work for the day or longer.
The more facilities you have, the more you can charge. If you have a large room with a big table, tea and coffee-making facilities, perhaps a printer, and most certainly decent wifi, you can easily expect to earn £100+ a day, especially in cities; even just using your kitchen table could be worth £30+ a day, so well worth investigating as it could be a good side hustle!
Often market research companies look for somewhere quiet to meet up with their interviewees so they can conduct their research, and your home or spare room may be a great place for them to do this; I've had to go to coffee shops in the past to participate in a research project, and they are loud and busy places, and not ideal for chatting with someone!
Rent Out Your Home As A Movie Set/Photo Shoot Location
If you have a home that you feel might be of interest to film productions, you can look to rent out your property as a film set or photoshoot set. In my home town of Aldershot, Hampshire, and the surrounding area, we get many film productions filmed. I've seen many private homes and other properties, such as large homes, unusual buildings, plots of land and even offices, being used for filming. Even derelict buildings, gardens, garages and warehouses get used as film locations, and photoshoot scouts always look for unusual shooting locations.
Companies such as Giggster help you list your property and put it in front of the right people. Still, you need to be aware that renting your property is likely to lead to a fair bit of disruption, and you may not be able to stay in your property if it is a longer production, so you will have to factor that into your plans. However, you could earn hundreds of pounds per day, even thousands, for larger productions, so it's worthwhile for your bank account! If you rent, you will need permission!
Use Your Talent/Skills To Earn Money
Do you have a particular skill that someone might pay you to use? Perhaps you are a great graphic designer or have particular knowledge in a specialist subject such as website design, logo design, language translation, writing, a musical talent, or programming; perhaps you have a great voice that would be ideal for voice-over work. Companies such as Fiverr have vast numbers of people who advertise their skills on the company's site and get paid for using their talents from their website users worldwide and can be an easy way to get your talent noticed by those who normally may not come across you.
You will be charged a fee by Fiverr for using their services, but it's a perfect way to showcase your talents and services and can lead to some really useful new customers that may well come back for more. You can take on as much of this type of work as you like, which you can do from home (depending on your talent), and earn some extra money!
You may find that some clients may turn into long-term users of your skills, and it could lead to you setting up a new business; it's a fab way to find potential customers!
Become A Tutor
Another talent-based service is an option for anyone suitable to side hustle as a tutor. Sites such as Tutor Fair allow you to offer your tutoring service to prospective clients worldwide, where you can provide such tutoring services such as language lessons, education tutoring such as maths, English, science and also musical tutoring, so if you are a whizz on the piano, there will be someone looking for your expertise. You could earn up to £40 an hour for your time!
Become A Driving Instructor
If you are a good, responsible driver and would like to share your passion and help people through the process of learning to drive, then being a driving instructor could be for you. Once you have done your training, you'll be able to set your working hours and take on as many students as you wish. As they grow in confidence and ability, you'll be able to start teaching them what they need to know in order to prepare for both their theory and practical tests, as well as guide them towards resources like this one to help them Find Driving Test Cancellations, which can be super-helpful if the next available driving tests where you are, aren't for months.
Become A Virtual Assistant
You could consider becoming a virtual assistant if you are organised, have good telephone manners, and have a friendly, outgoing personality with good all-around office skills. The Society Of Virtual Assistants offers lots of helpful information on how you could work as a VA and earn money working from home, answering calls and replying to emails for businesses worldwide.
Do You Have a Creative Talent?
Are you the kind of person who has creative talent? Perhaps you are great at drawing caricatures, making jewellery, making homemade candles, or maybe you make figurines from driftwood; then you could look at selling your products online.
eBay is a popular choice for newbies, but you also have other online marketplace options such as Etsy, Notonthehighstreet.com and Amazon. All are decent online retailers whose vast numbers of customers can turn your hobby into a small business. Remember that all these online marketplace services will charge you a commission fee for selling with them, but it's still a great way to get into eCommerce without all the hassle of setting up your own online store, but if it takes off, it could turn into a full-time income source for you and be the start of you setting up your own online business.
Start A Blog
If you have something to say, then maybe start a blog. You can monetise your blog with the inclusion of paid adverts, guest posts and advertising features, but believe me; it's not a quick money maker; it can take months, if not years, of hard work to get seen by a large enough audience to not only cover your costs, but to make a profit, but by making use of affiliate links and affiliate marketing you may be able to earn some money from it sooner rather than later, especially if you have an unusual niche for your blog, which might mean you get more visitors quicker.
Learning how to save money while running any form of business endeavour is an ongoing process. For those people who are setting up a blog, it's important to make sure that you are reducing your expenses. If you are looking long-term for your blog and you envision it being a great way to earn a passive income, it's important to know the right tools to keep your costs down. Let’s show you some methods that can help you out.
Increase Autonomy Amongst Your Followers
While presence on a blog is critical, if you plan on upgrading it to the point where it becomes a fully functioning business with merchandise, products, and a whole host of marketing tactics to sell your brand, you've got to think about how you can increase that sense of independence amongst your customers. This could include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section, but you could also benefit from online chat. The best website chat app providers always utilise a chatbot, which can be a great way to automate your communications with customers.
Cutting the Costs of Your Hosting
The more website traffic you get, the stronger your website needs to be. This means a whole host of other costs can be too much to bear. When you look for a hosting provider that provides cost-effective plans or you share a hosting account with another blog, this can be a great way to reduce your finances.
Invest in a Premium Theme
Website themes come thick and fast, and you may be looking for the cheapest options, but you have to remember that when things are cheaper, the quality is going to dip. You've got to get the balance right between cheap and what will still maintain that quality. A premium theme isn't just going to make your website look better but will cover a host of other benefits, for example, making it easier to update, more secure, and better optimised. Sometimes investing a little bit more upfront can mean reducing costs in the long run, especially when it comes to updating your website. A cheaper theme means you need to upgrade your website more often, resulting in a loss of time and expenses.
Use Free Images
Stock photos look fantastic, but they can be very expensive. A lot of bloggers look for great free images, and there are plenty of stock websites to take advantage of, but if you're looking for something more personable, you may think about taking images yourself. This may mean a bit more time and investment upfront, but taking great images can elevate your blog in many ways.
Hiring Freelance Content Creators
A cost-effective way to create high-quality content is to scour freelance websites. This option allows you to spend more time making the website as functional as possible.
Optimising the Blog in Other Ways
There are a variety of rules to SEO in relation to the functionality of your website. Increasing the performance of your website will make a massive difference, and in addition to your hosting, think about minifying HTML or compressing images and other aspects that take up a lot of juice.
Gig Economy Roles
There are plenty of other gig economy roles you could consider participating in to earn extra cash. All have their points to consider, such as having your own vehicle, additional insurance needs and fuel costs, but you could always look at:
Working as a delivery driver for Amazon via its Amazon Flex programme
Become an Uber Driver
Work as a Deliveroo or Uber Eats food delivery driver
Work for Beelivery as a delivery driver
Market Research
Market research is big business in the UK; several market research companies will pay you to speak about your views on a range of different subjects, products or ideas, and the rewards can be pretty good; some companies will spend a lot of money on the right candidate.
You don't need to have previous experience, a particular skill set, formal qualifications or technical skills to take part; often, they prefer newbies for new research projects; the most important thing is to be honest about what's being asked and it can turn into a profitable way to make use of your free time.
I've made £100 for a one-hour market research study in the past, and £40 to £50 for an hour of your input is far from unusual these days!
Since Covid, most market research projects have moved to online platforms to be conducted, such as Zoom, where you may speak to a researcher via your PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet from the comfort of your sofa or your desk at work during your lunch break! Some projects may be focus group orientated, so you may meet up with others to discuss a particular subject, either online or via group chat format.
Payment is often made by gift card these days, with most major retailer gift cards being available, but the gift card most frequently offered is from Amazon. Therefore you need to be aware that you might well not receive cash for your input, but the gift cards can be helpful to put towards items such as groceries that you might typically have to use cash for, meaning you are still better off!
For more information on how market research projects are conducted and which companies to sign up with, you can find out more in my market research blog post.
Become An Extra
In the Hampshire area I live, we have an unexpectedly large number of filming projects, ranging from TV commercials up to big-budget blockbuster movies, with very big-name actors taking part. On local social media, we are constantly asked if anyone wants to be an extra for local and national filming projects.
Now I've not yet answered the call to be an extra, but at between £50 and £120 a day to be one, I might start looking!
You may make more than that if the camera crew/director likes your look and feature you more in scenes or even ask you to speak, so there is an opportunity to earn more.
The extras are usually kept fed and watered and may well mingle with some celebrities, but the days can be long and tiring, and you may get cold and wet and be on your feet all day. You can expect numerous re-takes, which can be very repetitive and get a bit boring; having watched a few movies being filmed, plus filmed with a few TV crews for shows I've been involved in, I can confirm its a lot of standing around and general boredom for a few seconds of actual screen time, so don't expect too much, you likely won't get famous, rich or get to sit with your favourite actor in his trailer, chatting, it's not going to happen, so it won't suit everyone, but many people love it, so worth looking into!
I can't recommend a company to sign up with, having not taken part, but a quick web search brings up many companies to look into. Try and avoid any company that charges you to join them; many don't; there is little point shelling out cash just on the off chance you might get some paid extra work.
Survey Sites/Apps
Similarly to market research projects, you can make money from survey sites and apps. Most of these sites/apps will pay a small amount to answer quick questions, polls or perform quick tasks, usually via online surveys.
You might be selecting your favourite sandwich flavour for a food company, answering a quick current affairs question, filming and uploading a 30-second video answering a specific question, or any other reasonably quick and easy task.
Most of these tasks are performed on the phone or via an app.
Now it's worth mentioning that more often than not, you may only be paid under 50p a task, usually far less, and so you won't get rich quick! The benefit can be that you might be asked several questions daily, and the funds start to build up more quickly.
Most of these services require you to build up your payments to a certain amount, usually around £10, before you can cash out, so it may be a while before you actually get paid. Most payments are made by gift card or PayPal.
You can see a selection of my favourite survey apps here
Become A Mystery Shopper
You can earn extra money by becoming a mystery shopper. Mystery shoppers take on specific tasks set by the mystery shopping companies, often on behalf of the companies you are conducting the mystery shop at, as a way for the company to make sure that the standards they expect from their staff are being correctly used.
For example, you might be asked to go to an electronics shop and ask about a specific range of products. The salesperson would be expected to steer you toward a product by asking you specific questions to match your needs to a product. You would then report whether the staff member asked the right questions and came back with the expected result.
Depending on the task, you will generally earn around £15 to £20 for a mystery shop visit; although it will vary depending on the complexity of the task, a very basic task would be paid less.
You can view mystery shopper companies here
Sell Your Stuff!
A potentially fast way to earn a few extra quid is to sell your excess stuff! We've all bits and bobs in the cupboard that we don't use and are just gathering dust! If you haven't used it for 3 months or longer, consider selling it!
Selling sites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace are great ways to clear your no-longer-needed items and make some extra money. You need to be aware of selling fees on the bigger sites, but sites such as Facebook are free to sell on, and this means you get to keep every penny you make from your sale. It's a great way to make some space and make a few quid. If you enjoy the selling process and its rewards, you could become a reseller by picking up products you think may sell from other sellers, charity shops, car boot sales, or even friends and family. You could set up as a small business, these days more and more people are buying 2nd hand as they can't afford to buy new, so that is a good financial opportunity for a budding entrepreneur!
Online you'll find many suppliers of boxes and packaging materials, which can be useful as companies such as Packaging Chimp provide a wide array of shipping boxes for niche items, such as cardboard tubes for cylindrical items
Open Your Eyes!
Some companies will pay you to report empty properties, or bits of land, to them that might be suitable for re-development, buying or opening a business on. So if you are out and about and notice an empty house or a piece of land in a good location, you could be quids in by reporting it.
You Spot Property will pay you to help them find empty property for them to buy and then sell on. They will pay you £20 if you find them a potentially suitable property, and if they buy the property, they will give you 1% of the sale price, so a £300k house purchase would earn you £3k, just for reporting the house to them!
Supermarket Lidl will pay you a fee if you find them their next supermarket location, and the fee is either 1.5% of the total freehold purchase price or 10% of the first year’s rent for leaseholds, which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5m site purchase!
Majestic Wine will give you a free year's worth of wine if you can find them a site for their latest branch location! It's not cash, and I don't know how they work out how much wine they give you, but in my case, I suspect they couldn't keep up with my wine consumption requirements!
Sell Your Photos
You don't have to be a professional photographer to sell your camera or mobile phone photos. If you've taken a great picture, you can use a dedicated photo upload site, such as Alamy, Etsy, or Shutterstock, to upload your photos where they can be viewed by photo lovers, bloggers, advertising companies, stock image companies and websites. You will be paid a commission for any sale, up to 50% of the purchase price. You could set up your own website for your photos and sell from that to maximise your income, but it's hard to get the same number of visitors as the big sites unless you have a particular niche or following.
If you happen to come across something newsworthy, Alamy has an option for current and high-interest news images, and these could be picked up by newspapers, TV and news websites for broadcast/publication and could be reasonably well paid, depending on what your image portrays, be it current event based or pictures of celebrities etc.
Dog Walker / Pet Sitter
If you are a lover of our furry friends, then perhaps look at setting up as a dog walker or animal sitter. You have to be realistic about how much time you can give this type of side hustle, as it is labour-intensive, and you need to have the time available to walk the dogs or sit with them. If you can commit, look at asking neighbours or friends if they are interested in your services or use a service such as Bark to help you generate leads. (no pun intended), for people looking for your kind of services.
You may want/need to get insurance to ensure you are covered in case of any issues. If you are house/pet sitting, many people will expect you to have had a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check, which you can conduct yourself, and costs £18, which will show a prospective client that you don't have any unspent convictions or cautions on your record.
Set Up A Print On Demand Business
You may well have bought a product such as a T-shirt or a mug with a personalised image printed on it, and setting up your own business selling personalised or digital products is pretty easy to do! Use a service such as Shopify Print On Demand which will set you up an online shopfront and will allow you to upload images to add to clothing, mugs, calendars, books, photo albums, wall art and loads more options, and once you make a sale, will organise all the printing and shipping for you, so you sit back and earn cash!
Its big business, so if you have a particular interest or niche, then that's good to focus on; even better if you are an artist or perhaps know one looking to monetise their work, so you can offer unique products not available elsewhere, giving you a commercial advantage.
Set-up costs can be pretty low, but you might need to spend a bit on advertising but use local social media groups or Facebook Marketplace to sell your products, with no advertising outlay.
Freelance Content Writing
If you have writing skills or an interest in producing content, you may be able to earn money by writing content for blogs, magazines, papers or even scripts for podcasts or training videos. Use services such as Fiverr to advertise your writing skills, which would be visible to those looking for your kind of services worldwide. It is a much better option for someone starting out as it can quickly give you lots of work without spending on a website, domain name or advertising. There is certainly a need for freelance writers these days as many people move to reading digital articles over paper ones, increasing the need for creative writers to add their writing skills to publications, even if you don't have a lot of time spare, as some publishers only need short articles, sometimes even just quotes.
Cleaning Roles
There are often lots of cleaning companies looking for people to help with their clients. This could be working in a home or possibly an office environment, often on an ad-hoc basis, so you work when you are available, and this is a great opportunity for companies to cover staff on holiday or extra work, as you can fill in gaps on their rotas. Alternatively, you could set up your own cleaning business, but this can be costly, so it's worth working for someone else for a while to learn the tips and tricks and get an idea of what sort of equipment you may need.
Translating
Do you speak another language? If so, you may be able to earn some extra cash by translating other languages into English or vice versa.
You may be able to earn good money from this as there are often organisations looking for Adhoc translation services, be it documents or audio, and I've personally paid someone to translate product labels from English into German and Polish in the past, and that was hard to find someone to do, so that might be a good niche to look into, especially for food importers and exporters, both in the UK and worldwide.
It's cheap to set up as you generally just need a pc, and it can quickly be done from home. Advertise your services on Fiverr or mention it on local social media, and certainly contact your local council as they sometimes struggle to find translators, especially social services. The police also need translators who can guide you on how to get onto their calling list.
Green Fingers?
If you love gardening, then maybe offer yourself for gardening duties. Weeding and grass cutting are most people's pet hate, so if you are up for it, you can market yourself as someone to help to get rid of those pesky plants and grass. If you're good at gardening, you could offer more in-depth services, but you may need to get insurance for this and invest in more professional equipment.
If you like growing things, why not plant seeds in the Spring and then, once they have started to grow, sell the plants locally BUT you are supposed to get a plant passport licence from the Animal and Plant Health Agency if you are going to sell what you grow, or give to charity, for any other sale other than face to face purchasing, and the handing over of the plants (e.g. not selling online or by post), and this plant passport registration is expensive, and so unless you are producing vast numbers of plants, its not worthwhile!
Bake Off Wannabe?
Are you a star baker who produces fantastic cakes and treats? If so, you could set yourself up as a side hustle baker, offering bespoke celebration cakes to order, or perhaps home-produced products such as confectionary, biscuits, jams, brownies, specialist bread, gift baskets or perhaps products such as Keto-friendly products or yummy gluten-free offerings. Even in these tough financial times, there is still a demand for these products, even more so at Christmas. Look at the option of attending Christmas fairs to sell your wares or approach local businesses to see if they would be willing to sell your products, perhaps on a sale or return basis initially, to see if they are ways to build up your hustle and potentially make it a full-time business.
You need to have access to a kitchen for these types of ventures. You will need to register with your local Environmental Health department and have your kitchen inspected before you can begin trading, which may sound scary. Still, it's very straightforward, and if they are happy, they will give you a food hygiene rating to reassure your customers. It's also advisable to take a food hygiene course first, to make sure you know what you are doing in regards to food safety, although this isn't compulsory, as you can take the course online, and they aren't that expensive, it's well worth doing, and the Environmental Health Officers will be happier if you have a food hygiene qualification!
The list of side hustles you can perform could go on for pages and pages; I think that if you take a step back and think about what you are good at or what you enjoy doing, a side hustle opportunity will likely pop into your head!
Explore your idea using a search engine as, more often than not, you aren't the first person to have thought about it, and you will often find valuable information on how to pursue your hustle.
You don't have to think big; even filling out a survey for 50p is 50p more in your pocket than you had 10 minutes earlier; it doesn't have to be a career starter; it can simply be a way to earn a few extra pounds when you have a few minutes spare on an evening, or equally, it might turn out to be something that changes your life forever, it just depends what you want from your hustle!
One in five (19%) adults in the UK have started a 'side hustle' since March 2020, and almost one in six (16%) claim to earn upwards of £1,000 a month from their new venture, according to research from the insurance provider, Aviva. The pandemic and especially lockdown gave people more time to focus on alternative ways to make some extra money or expand their hobbies into a monetised hustle, and, like myself, many people took up part-time furlough jobs to top up their income, and many still have these extra side hustle jobs now.
I stopped working for a supermarket in 2022 after starting during the first week of lockdown. I stayed working there for 2 years, as did many of my colleagues, as it was a handy job to earn a few extra pounds every month, even after I went back to work full time, it allowed me to meet new people, earn extra cash and also get staff discount, which really made a difference to our family budget.
So even working for a few hours a week in your local supermarket is a side hustle, or being a leaflet distributor, takeaway driver, shop assistant, car washer, window cleaner, food sampler, personal shopper, bin cleaner, parcel deliverer, litter picker, graphic designer, voice-over artist logo designer, proofreader, You Tuber, digital marketer, DJ, shoe shiner, painter, labourer, fruit picker, warehouse worker, all these hustles help bring in that little bit of extra cash when times are tough, and these days, more than ever, we all need that bit of extra income to keep the lights and heating on!
How To Have Success With Your Side Hustle as a full-time business.
There are many reasons to start a side hustle, and if you’re looking for a way to make some extra money and supplement your income, a side hustle does tick a lot of the boxes. It’s also a good way to start a business that you intend to become your full-time job without risking your income by giving up your current career. Many people have turned to side hustles in recent years for all kinds of personal and business reasons.
However, if you are going to set up a side hustle, you’re going to want to ensure – as far as possible, at least – that it is going to be a success. This won’t always be easy, but if you want it to do what you planned for it to do, you’ll need to put some of these ideas in place. Read on to find out more.
Test The Waters
Not all businesses, whether they are huge or micro, are going to be successful because not all businesses are going to be needed. If you want success and you want to make a profit, you’ll need to pick a niche that people are willing to spend money on, and that fills a gap in the market in some way. This is not easy, and a lot of the time, it’s only when you have launched your business that you find out whether it’s viable.
Don’t let this happen. Even a side hustle that just sits alongside your current workload needs to make some money, otherwise, there is no point in it existing. This is why it’s important to test the water first to make sure your idea is a valid one that will be of interest to enough people. Before you launch your business, ask around on social media and in your local community to see if there is a need. You can also do more in-depth market research, perhaps with the help of a marketer. If your business is of interest to people, you can start it and know that it will be successful.
Open A Franchise
Starting from scratch is very challenging, and these are the side hustles that can disappear into thin air after a while because they are just not successful. One way to ensure that you’ll have some success is to go to Franchise Direct and choose a business that already exists but that you can run in your own area. There are dozens to choose from, and the great thing about a franchise is that the business model is already there, and you can see that it makes money.
Of course, you will need to invest a decent amount of money into the franchise to begin with, as well as a percentage of your sales (this might be done monthly, quarterly, or annually). However, if you have chosen well, you should be able to recoup that money easily once the franchise is up and running.
Have A Good Brand
Branding is crucial in business, and it is crucial when you start a side hustle. Unless you have a good brand, people won’t be able to remember you, especially if you are operating in a crowded marketplace.
Take the time you need to come up with a brand that really tells your story and is memorable. In that way, more people will know about you, and more people will spread the word that you exist!