Side Hustle.
It’s a thing you do, outside of your regular job, to make money.
I had no idea that I had side hustles over the years. Heck, I hadn’t even heard the term until a few years ago. Turns out, I’ve been side hustling most of my life.
While in college I had a regular job, and I mowed yards on the side. Once I graduated and got a full-time job, I picked up extra money by doing odd jobs and woodworking. My wife and I even did yard clean up, trimming and hauling brush.
Later, I manufactured wiring harnesses and pick up bed floor kits for an antique truck parts company (American Classic Truck Parts), at the same time building vacuum form molds for a plastic molding company.
Why did I work outside of my 9 to 5 job? It was definitely for the money. I wanted more than what our jobs provided. So I hustled, without even knowing what it was called.
Actually, I don’t think the term Side Hustle was around back then.
I still Side Hustle, kind of. My wife and I are both retired but on fixed income from my retirement and our investment portfolio. I like the idea of making money for my projects, instead of using the family funds, so I side hustle.
At this time, my hustles are freelance writing and web editing. I have two clients, which is enough right now, with other things going on in life. Oh, I have another hustle. It’s this website. I’m not doing it for the money though. I’m doing it to help folks get ahead sooner than I did.
Heck I haven’t made a cent off of Money is not Taboo yet, but maybe someday.
So, why do people have side hustles? Here are the three basic reasons, revolving around money. There are other reasons but we won’t go into those today.
Why Start a Side Hustle?
These are not all-inclusive, but just how I see them.
Make Ends Meet
I’ve been there before, having more month than money. For some, this happens month after month. For others, it might be a month here, a month there. Any way about it side hustles can help fill that money gap at the end of those months.
I’ve listened to Dave Ramsey off and on for a number of years now. I can’t count how many times folks would call in, telling Dave how they couldn’t make ends meet, asking him what they should do.
More times than not, he told them to sell this or that, but most of the time he also told them to get a part-time job. “Go deliver pizzas,” he’d say, or find some other part-time job.
I had never heard of Dave Ramsey in the early years of my teaching career, but I already knew what he was talking about. I’ve never delivered pizzas on the side but that was one of my college jobs. I didn’t make as much money delivering pizzas as Dave says one can, but hey, that was 1978.
Pay Off Debt
I’m not going to bore you with statistics, but the majority of adult Americans are in debt. Some a little, some a bunch. Credit cards, auto loans, college loans, home loans, and other, are common these days. Debt limits your ability to save and invest, sapping your income.
We have a home mortgage, which we’re trying to refinance to a shorter term and lower rate. We have a bit of consumer debt, but no car loans and I’ve never had any college debt, which for some is quite a chunk of change.
I know of several bloggers who have slogged out of college debt or are slogging out of college debt, by side hustling. David Carlson, of Young Adult Money, and his wife had a combined school debt of almost $100,000.00 when they got married. He’s been hustling, very successfully, for years to help knock out their debt.
Maybe you don’t have college debt, but how about that other debt? If you want to knock it out quicker, side hustling will help. Use your day job to provide for your living expenses and savings, and your side hustle to pay off your debt.
Discretionary Money
Even if you’re making enough to cover living expenses, pay off debt, and put money away, you might be interested in extra money for discretionary spending. That’s the boat my wife and I are in. We have enough to pay everything, and have some saving and spending money, but I like the idea of having more.
Say you have enough for living expenses, debt payments, and saving, but want to take a trip, side hustling can provide the money that you need to travel. The neat thing about side hustles, you can do them as long as you want.
Make enough money for the trip, but like the idea of extra cash, keep on hustling.
The holidays are times of extra expense. Many folks plan these expenses in their budgets, but if you’re not one of those people, then a side hustle can help. Many businesses employ extra staff during the holidays, so it should be easy to pick up a part time job. Once again, like the idea of extra cash? Keep on hustling.
Types of Hustles
Okay, so now you know what a side hustle is and what you can do with one, what are some types of side hustles? Glad you asked.
Physical and Online
There’s two ways you can set up side hustles, physically and online. If you don’t mind going places to make extra money or doing things at your own place, then physical side hustles are for you.
On the other hand, if you’d rather hustle when you want, where you want, and wearing what you want, then online hustles will be your thing. I do both.
I have two online hustles, web editing and freelance writing. I also do woodworking as a physical hustle. I have a small woodworking area in my equipment shed, so I’m just steps away from the house. I quit doing on-site woodworking years ago.
Let’s look at some examples of side hustles.
Some Physical Hustles
- Part time job – Pick up some hours somewhere on a fairly consistent basis
- Product ambassador – Do product demonstrations or hand out samples at businesses
- Gig personel – Work temporarily at various venues when extra help is needed
- Product parties – Host product parties, such as Scentsy, Pampered Chef, etc.
- Sell products door to door or through appointments
Some Online Hustles
- Become a Virtual Assistant – Help an “employer” with tasks, managing projects, etc.
- Web editing – If you’re into web work, there are numerous opportunities to help business owners and organizations take care of their websites
- Freelance writing – Many website owners need folks to provide content for them, be it blog posts, product evaluations, etc. There are also other gigs, such as writing E-books for others
- Sell online without handling products – Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, and others offer opportunities to sell products online. Amazon even has Fulfillment by Amazon, where you don’t have to warehouse, make, ship, or simply deal with products, other than picking them out, ordering them, and having them sold. Drop shipping through other venues is also an option
- Sell online while handling products – You can sell on Amazon and handle your products if you want to. If you want to sell your handmade items then Etsy and Shopify are avenues, as are others. Ebay is a great place to sell your unwanted stuff, as well as stuff you might pick up here and there
There you have 3 monetary reasons for starting a side hustle and 10 ways to do so. But wait, there’s more! How about some resources?
Stuff to Help You Hustle
Hustle Away Debt, by David Carlson – David Carlson, DC as I call him, has been hustling for years and wrote his book about hustling. His book is an awesome resource of possible hustles and is informative and entertaining. I really enjoyed David’s playing poker as a hustle in college. He still does, too.
7 SIDE JOBS TO MAKE YOU MORE MONEY, from Your Average Dough – Courtney’s article provides 7 options for making more money, including driving for Uber and even starting a blog.
12 Ways to Make Money Online, Rachel Slifka – Want to work from home in your jammies, like I do? Check out Rachel’s article, it’s chock full of great ideas. You can’t lose with this article.
Budgets are Sexy’s Offerings – If you search Hustle at Budgets are Sexy, you’ll get a number of results. DISCLAIMER: Some are about hustles that did not go well, but they’re still good ideas. Plus, there’s a number of positive ideas, too.
21 Legit Ways To Make Money Online – This one is from Forbes. Yep, Forbes. They’re a well-known publication. You’ll find some more great ideas here, like offer your services on Fiverr, find work on UpWork (Where I do my Freelance Writing), and more.
Whew!!! That’s a lot of info.
Hope you hung until the end. Anyway, if you’re needing some extra cash, you should look into some of the ideas above. I’ll be you’ll find somethings.
I’m a Side Hustler, how about you? If you hustle, please share what you do. If not yet, let us know what you end up doing.
