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As the struggling economy is squeezing everyone’s budget, more and more people are leaning into their secondary set of skills, turning them into an additional income stream. If you are looking for some ideas, here are some tips to inspire your own side hustle.
Become a landlord
If you have the space or can make space – perhaps by converting your living room for a while – you can help reduce your outgoings by having a lodger. Income from renting a room is tax free up to £7,500.
However, remember there are guidelines and responsibilities with providing accommodation. Make sure you are compliant, always have a contract with your tenant, and ensure that your mortgage and insurers are aware of the extra person in your home.
Become a delivery driver
Food delivery has become the daily routine of almost every person. New companies are opening, and more jobs and delivery drivers are needed. Drivers can choose when they want to work, which makes this job very attractive, and they can use Shift App, which will make their work easier and increase efficiency.
Teach or coach
Go back to what you know even if it is not how you make your living right now. Maybe you’re good at languages. Could you teach English to foreigners or a foreign language to locals? Are you good at maths, English, geography, music, or any other GCSE subjects? There are always plenty of parents looking to get extra help before exam times.
Areas like sport are good to consider with the UK public’s increased interest in fitness. Running a bootcamp is inexpensive to start as is doing boxing fitness classes in the park.
Manage social media
A lot of us are doing this already with our own so if you have the spare time and inclination why not offer social media management to others. Small local businesses like restaurants, bars, shops, churches, etc. are customers right on your doorstep. They rarely have the time or skill to spend too much time online, after all they’re running a business, but they still need to get the word out about their latest offers.
Write
One of the tried and tested of mastering google ranking is to have relevant content on a website and a lot of it. That can be very time consuming for website (slash business) owners and they don’t always have the capability. Writing and rewriting online content can be an easy income stream if stringing words together comes easy to you. You can earn a little bit more if you understand what SEO optimised content means.
Rather than contacting individual website owners, it is much easier to get in touch with a digital marketing or an SEO consultant agency which is likely to have several clients on their books. They often work with freelancers.
Get creative
If you have a particular talent which so far you have confined to just being a hobby, perhaps it is time to take it further. There are some great platforms such as Creative Commission where freelancers skilled in music, dance, illustrations, and more can grab ad hoc opportunities and earn money from what they love.
Dog walking and pet sitting
During covid many people decided to add a new member to their family and statistics show dogs have been the firm favourite. But now with covid for most part over, many new dog owners are required to return back to the office. This has resulted in an increased need for dog walkers as well as sitters. Dog and cat hotels are hopelessly full and quite expensive.
You will need to establish trust as this side hustle includes care of someone’s much loved pet but also access to their home. A good start is a simple DBS certificate plus some personal recommendation. Finding the first job should not be too much of an issue. There are plenty of dog walking platforms and local Facebook groups are also good sources when looking for your first customers.
Evening restaurant and bar staff
A tough gig because it requires a lot of energy to be working all night and then getting up in the morning again to a day job. However, the hospitality industry is chronically short of staff right now and as a result the pay has improved.
Sell online
No doubt you are asking what and how. Firstly, decide whether it is something you can make yourself – clothes, food, decorative items, upcycled products – or source products at a wholesale price and repackaging them for retail. The two best selling platforms are eBay and Amazon. However, there are a lot of sellers and the numbers have grown during covid. You might need to identify what is trending right now and go really niche. If we were to pick the pets category as an example, we’d zoom in on dogs and the most popular breeds.
Help out with children or the elderly
Especially in cities families often lack the family network to help them out with either their children or grandparents therefore paid help is often required to babysit in the evenings, organise shopping, cook a meal, run essential errands or do little handyman job around the house
Whatever you decide to take up, don’t jump straight in and then ask questions later. If you’re looking for a side hustle to create an extra income stream then it really pays off to do a bit of planning. Speak to others who might already be doing the same. Consider the upfront investment, even something simple like dog walking might need a little bit of spend on a DBS check, leaflets and some online presence. Last but certainly not least, under no circumstances forget business liability insurance. You can never quite control the outcome of your client relationships and occasionally, no matter how well intended and organised you are, things can go wrong. You don’t want to end up worse off then when you started.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
