10 Steps to Start a Successful Side Hustle Idea
In this article, we’ll break it down into 10 steps: how to start a side hustle and grow it into a reliable income stream. Plus a few side hustle ideas you can start today.
Oct 13, 2022
Do you have some time and energy to spare? Want to do something besides your day job but don't know where to start?
In this article, we discuss 13 side hustle ideas you can start easily, earn good money from, and have fun doing. We’ve also added unique success stories to inspire you along the way.
What is a side hustle?
A "side hustle" is a project you do outside of your day job to earn extra money.
Some people use the extra income to pursue their investment and saving goals while some use it for taxes. According to DollarSprout, over 41% of Americans with a side hustle rely on the extra income to cover regular monthly bills and expenses.
Side hustling is also a way for some people to earn enough money independent of their main job so they can quit afterwards. For example, 18% of side hustlers in the U.S. hope to turn their activity into a full-time business, likely motivated by a desire for more control and freedom.
Top side hustle ideas that will earn you good money
If you've always wanted to get into a side hustle, here's our pick of the best side hustle ideas to pursue.
1. Freelance food delivery person
Doing food delivery as a side hustle is a mainstream activity. The online food delivery industry is changing the way people buy, and it’s soon to be a 200 billion-dollar industry, according to Forbes.
You’ll find anyone from students to retired people doing food delivery, and it guarantees a solid stream of income. This side hustle is particularly profitable because people love the convenience of food and grocery deliveries. So, companies like UberEats, DoorDash, Postmates, GrubHub, etc., are constantly on the lookout and pay a good sum to people willing to deliver food.
For example, Chase Anderson, an MBA graduate, embarked on doing food delivery for Postmates to earn extra money. He was making $100 a day. He described the job as rewarding and liberating. Eventually, he added GrubHub and DoorDash to his delivery plate and made $1000 per week.
As long as you have a phone to install the food delivery apps, a car or a bike or scooter, and live in a big enough town to sustain it, you have all it takes to become a freelance food delivery agent.
You can do this side-hustle on weeknights and weekends. If you enjoy riding/driving around town, you’ll likely have more fun with food delivery. Keep in mind that time management is an essential component of the job—the faster you deliver, the more money you can make.
Resources to get you started:
2. Retail arbitrage—buy and resell items for profit
Ryan Grant, a retail arbitrage entrepreneur, has made over 2 million dollars in annual recurring revenue since 2013, buying products from Walmart and reselling them on Amazon.
True story, we had to beg Noah to keep being our CEO at AppSumo after he discovered the side hustle and its money-making potential.
The idea is buying cheaper products at local stores like Walmart, Costco, (and the likes) and reselling them at a higher price on another platform like Amazon.
As you go to the local stores and find products, you can use the Amazon Seller App to take photos and get their price tag on Amazon. If the price appears to be higher, that’s where you win.
You can then list the items in your Amazon stores, buy them, and resell them at a higher price. You can even get creative and only purchase items that are rare or hard to come by on the market. Then buy them and resell them at your self-fixed-yet-reasonable higher price.
Resources to get you started:
- The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Selling Online Businesses
- Retail Arbitrage 2023 – The Ultimate Beginners Guide
3. Uber and Lyft driver during weekends
Being a chauffeur for Uber and Lyft is a country-spinning side hustle idea. Chances are, some of your friends have already done this. But for the sake of being thorough, we’d still like to paint the whole picture to show how it works.
The idea is to make money out of rideshare driving. You must have a car, some free time, and be willing to chauffeur people around town—pick up and drop off passengers.
Next, you’ll install the Lyft or Uber app, sign up, check a few requirements and get in business.
Using the apps, you’ll find people needing a ride, and depending on your geographical situation, you can pick them up, drop them off, and get paid for it.
You can make anywhere between $5 and $20 per hour with Uber and $5 to $25 per hour with Lyft, according to SideHusl.com.
Case in point, Clarke Bowman, a Miami driver, registered at both Lyft and Uber, only worked on weekends and told Business Insider that he makes $257 for less than 14 hours of work—which is quite reasonable.
But Clarke enjoys more than the pay.
Here’s his take on the job, “A flexible job where you can make money and work whenever you want, with no minimum hours, no required uniform, and no angry boss.”
Here again, you need to be in a big city to sustain your side hustle. Cities with a smaller population and effective public transportation are likely to prefer public transportation, and it’ll be hard to find people to ride with you.
Resources to get you started:
4. Join a focus group
A focus group is a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, etc.
Companies, especially small businesses and startups, are constantly looking for customer insights and opinions about their products before launching them. The company’s goal is to be clear on who their best customers are, their needs, and their interests—making it easy for them to create products people want.
Based on your niche and expertise, you can sign up for focus groups. The payout depends on whether it’s done online or in person, how long it takes, and the niche or demographic they’re shooting for.
YouTuber Graham Stephen told his story about being part of focus groups, and he earned anywhere between $5 to $500 depending on how much time it took.
You can sign up for platforms like FocusGroup.com, Survey Junkie, and Experience Dynamic to get started.
Resources to get you started:
- Surveys For Money: The Best Sites To Take Online Surveys
- Online Focus Groups: Up to $100/hr Paid Research Studies
5. Make money flipping items
You probably have many things in your house that you no longer need or use. You’ve probably packed them away in a box or stored them on a shelf.
What if, instead, you sold them and made a few bucks on the side? You can keep the stuff you’re emotionally attached to and sell the rest.
Want to go bigger? The real flipping business is when you go out on a quest or Craigslist, buy no-longer-needed items from people, and resell them for profit on eBay or Amazon.
Take pictures or short videos of the products you bought, list them with their descriptions, and ship them as people buy. Noah Kagan and Gary Vee are two of the biggest enthusiasts of this side hustle idea. Watch Gary Vee do it here.
People often list those items and sell them from their garage (as seen in the video), and you can purchase and resell them.
Anthony Frye has been making good money flipping items. He specializes in buying electronics and reselling them for profit on eBay. He reported that he makes up to $100 in profit per item and makes over $1,000 per month. So, this is a perfect side hustle you can do in your free time or on weekends.
Resources to get you started:
- The 28 Best Items to Flip for a Profit: $50-5,000 a Month Part-Time
- 40+ Easiest Things to Flip for Profit – Vital Dollar
6. User testing
Big software companies are constantly looking for people to test their apps or websites as part of their customer/product research and pay them for it. In most instances, they want to test the functionalities of the app or website, its responsiveness, or overall performance.
Now, you can make it a side hustle being part of user testing platforms and doing testings for businesses when they reach out.
Usertesting.com is a user testing platform you can sign up to be on. The platform pays testers anywhere between $4 to $120 per test. Specifically, they pay $4 for every 5-minute test, $10 for every 20-minute test, and $30 to $120 for live interviews.
Ted Rivers, a tester on Usertesting.com, shared an incredible story on Medium, reporting that he made more than $300 per month testing websites for businesses as a side hustle. The only skill they require is sharing unbiased thoughts on the tested product and providing actionable feedback. So, you can sign up and start today.
Resources to get you started:
7. Field Agent—Become an in-store field agent for brands
Field Agent is a retail-success platform that lets brands audit stores, conduct trials, and gather insights to improve the user experience using the Field Agent app.
The app lets you sign up as a shopper and guides you to complete instructions, such as trying new products, asking sellers questions in stores, test-eating foods, etc., and report back.
For example, the most popular types of jobs on Field Agent are in the audit section. There, you may be required to check the status of a product and how it is displayed in a specific store. You may have to take photos and answer questions about products’ availability and location in the store.
They pay you based on the task and how hard it is to complete. You can expect payments from $3 to as high as $30. You can also get free items.
Charlie Lake, an agent using the app, wrote in a review article that he was able to get up to $22 for a single task along with free perks, and tasks generally took minutes to complete.
Resources to get you started:
- Field Agent App - Make $100 Per Day
- Field Agent App Review: Make Money Doing Easy Online Jobs from Your Phone
8. TaskRabbit—Doing physical freelancing jobs
The TaskRabbit App connects users with local contractors in different fields. There are several freelancing jobs available such as cleaning, delivering, laundry, yard work, moving, furniture assembling, and more. Not surprisingly, the app was purchased by IKEA.
So, if you’re a handy person, this is the app for the perfect side hustle jobs. Sign up, enter your information and start browsing freelance physical jobs. The platform lets taskers set their own rates. Jamie Viggiano, CMO at TaskRabbit reports that fully committed users make $6,000 to $7,000 per month on the platform.
Case in point, Brian Schrier lives in San Francisco and joined the platform, thanks to a friend. He told Money.com that he was once paid $70 an hour to fold t-shirts for a startup company. He learned the potential of the platform and began taking it more seriously.
For the first few weeks, his earnings averaged $1,500, and now he is fully committed and makes between $6,000 to $7,000 per month.
Resources to get you started:
9. Become a DJ
Amani Roberts started DJ-ing while working in Corporate America but then turned it into a full-time job. Interestingly, he started with almost no skills, only DJ-ed in his time off work but focused heavily on building the skills and networking in the space. He was able to earn half his 9-5 salary and decided to quit.
Now back to you. How do you feel about warming up the crowds? You can quickly build your brand, create a website to look more professional, and focus on honing your skills using DJ Apps and music mixing platforms.
After that, you can focus on networking in the space using social media. If you do well and get noticed, you’ll get invited to many events (corporate events, weddings, private parties, video making). Just be sure to charge what you’re worth.
Resources to get you started:
10. Start a consulting business
If you’re an expert in a field or have a day job specializing in a business area, you probably have insights that may be valuable to someone out there. So, starting a consulting business in your area of expertise can be an excellent way to capitalize on your knowledge, for good money too.
You may have to create a professional website and leave your contact information. Then build awareness through your connections and social media. People will hop on phone (consultation) calls to discuss ideas and get insights from you.
David Kelly, our General Manager at AppSumo Originals, does this very well. He created a quick landing page that showcases his area and level of expertise in startup marketing and charges $80 for 30 minutes of consulting and $160 for an hour.
Resources to get you started:
11. Become a private tutor
Let’s take math, for example.
Are you good at math?
Yes?
OK!
Can you teach math?
If you can replace math with any activity(ies) people will be willing to pay to learn and answer yes to both questions, then you can promote yourself as a private tutor, teach your skills in your free time, and get paid for it.
You can embark on freelance tutoring online and even get clients on the international level (teaching a language for example) and work with them through platforms like Zoom or Skype. Or, if you prefer, you can sign up with companies like VIPKID or Brainfuse to help you get clients. The only catch is that they pay you by the hour or per contract.
Trevor Klee is a student who has an incredible success tutoring online. He is a GMAT, GRE, and LSAT tutor in Boston. His tutoring business started as a side hustle, but eventually, he was able to turn it into a full-time business that earns more than $90,000 a year. At that point, he was working 2-4 hours a day, seven days a week.
You can start with a few hours a week and see how it goes.
Resources to get you started:
12. Rover—Be a pet sitter
Do you love dogs or cats? Then sign up for Rover and get paid to hang out with your favorite pet animal.
Rover is an app that connects busy people looking for people to watch their dogs or cats. Most pet-sitting gigs on the platform are priced between $15 and $35. So it can be a well-paying side hustle, and you can easily sign up to be one of the pet sitters.
Ragan Riley was a senior in college who started pet sitting on Rover as a side hustle. It took her a few weeks to begin making clients on the platform. She made a video about her experience on Rover.
She lowered the price to be competitive and asked for reviews in exchange. Today, her Rover side hustle makes her over $400 a month. Melanie Lewis also had a fantastic experience, and she was even able to turn it into a full-time business.
Resources to get you started:
- Ultimate Guide to Earning Money with Rover [2023]
- How to Make Money on Rover: How Much Can You Really Earn?
13. Sell templates and downloadables online
Etsy is popular for anyone with a handy skill to create a product of their own, market, and sell it. A good idea for a side hustle on the platform is to create templates and printables and get people to buy them.
Companies, students, freelancers, and many people are constantly looking for templates to facilitate their work process and save time. Choose a niche and create your templates. Next, shoot breath-taking pictures of your product and list them on your Etsy store.
Alissa Rose made over $25 000, selling only one digital downloadable product. So, the potential on Etsy is huge. She made a video about it.
Resources to get you started:
- How To Make Money Selling Printables On Etsy | I Made 86K On PASSIVE INCOME & You Can Too!
- Passive Income With Printables
4 tips to help you choose the best side hustle for yourself
Here are a few tips you can use to choose and focus on the right side hustle for you.
1. Decide how much time you can dedicate to it
Ask yourself a few questions. Do you want to do the side hustle only at night or during weekends? Can you afford to do it every day? How much time do you want to dedicate to it?
No two side hustlers are alike. Some of your friends may spend just a few hours a week to make their sidle hustle work while yours may require entire weekends and weeknights. So be sure to choose a side hustle that work with your current availability.
2. Decide how much money you want to make from your side hustle
Knowing what you want to do with your side hustle money will help you decide how much money to aim for.
Do you want to cover your monthly groceries with it? Your utility bills? Do you want it to meet your goal of investing $200 a month?
Only after setting these expectations can you estimate how much you want your side hustle to generate.
3. Make sure you’re comfortable doing the side hustle
There’s no reason to keep doing something that doesn’t make you feel good. So ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I comfortable doing this job?
- Do I feel OK when people see me do [insert side hustle]?
- Is it a great use of my time?
If you answer YES to these three questions, then you can keep doing that side hustle.
4. Follow your passion
The idea behind following your passion is that you are always motivated to get the job done. You'll also find it fun to earn money doing something you enjoy.
Take the job of a pet sitter, for example. If you love animals, then just by signing up for Rover, you'll find people who are ready to pay you large sums of money to do something that you would have done for free because you love it.
Start making money hustling!
There you have it. Everything you need to find, choose, make money pursuing a side hustle idea. If you still want to explore more side hustle ideas, here is a YouTube video by Noah Kagan you might find helpful.
Meanwhile, we encourage you to check out the resources we’ve provided to help facilitate your onboarding process and make it feel less like hustling.
