Side Hustles That You Can Do from Home

AD| With the increase in the cost of living only set to get worse, more and more people are looking into doing side hustles to supplement their income.

Before we get started, we need to be realistic. Starting a side hustle is not easy. You have to put in a lot of work. It often takes a while to get a steady income and it is sensible to pick something that doesn’t cost a lot of money to start the business.

At all costs, avoid MLMs. Multi-level marketing schemes are bad news. They prey on people who are desperate and vulnerable. Almost ALL people who join these schemes lose money, time and dignity (from pestering friends/family for sales and to signup). If you are approached about joining a business to be a rep, consultant or similar, search the company. It’s likely an MLM.

Now let’s look at some side hustles you can do from home.

Start a blog

Lots of people make money blogging. I know because I am one of them. If you’ve ever considered starting a blog then just do it. Blogs are like a fine wine and get better with age – so start right now! You can learn on the job!

Picking a niche is important as you want to become an expert within your area. Start with a narrow niche and write as much as you can about this topic. For example, if you want a blog about fashion – focus on a particular fashion style or type of clothing.

You can always expand out later, but having a niche is the best way to get traffic from Google as the search engine will recognise what your website is about, rather than being a bit of everything and vague (says me, with the lifestyle blog!).

Making money blogging isn’t instant and expect to earn nothing for the first year. Use this time to grow your blog, network with others and expand your knowledge.

Once your blog is established, has a Domain Authority, aDomain Rating and is getting traffic – you can start applying for jobs on blog websites and expect to see some emails coming in.

Use social media to help you. Twitter is great for networking with other bloggers and sharing your blog posts. Instagram is good for sharing images or videos that compliment your blog posts to help grow an audience.

There are lots of tips and guides in my blog tips section.

Start an online boutique

Using wholesale clothing, you can start your very own boutique. In this type of business, you buy clothes in bulk from a wholesaler, then you sell them separately at a profit. This means there will be initial startup costs. Start with a few lines and then expand at a later date.

The best thing to do is pick a niche within fashion. For example, you may want to focus on wholesale dresses or swimwear. Fashion wholesale items are easy to get hold of but you should be on top of the fashion market and able to identify trends and what will sell for your boutique wholesale clothing company to be a success.

Once you have your items, you need to have somewhere to sell them. Setting up pages on Instagram and Tiktok is a great way of getting noticed with the potential of going viral. Taking lots of photos and videos of the dress using treading sounds can get you the reach you need to make some sales.

You can sell the clothes on places like eBay or Facebook Marketplace and also set up your own website that is carefully optimised for search. At first, it will be difficult getting traffic to the website, then getting that traffic to convert to sales but that’s where the social media and market place websites come in handy. You can also look into Google Adwords for promoting your new website.

You also need to consider packaging – start with the cheap and simple option (consider eco-friendly – not only is it better for the environment, but it’s also a great selling point). Later down the line, you can look into bespoke packaging, parcel tape and stickers. A little ‘share on social media and tag us’ business card is always a great idea, too.

If you take this approach, it’s important to keep on top of what you spend and earn. Not only for your taxes, but so you can keep track of your profits and ensure you are not spending too much without seeing a return.

Copywriting

Copywriting is another way to make money that doesn’t have lots of startup costs. You should consider setting up social media, LinkedIn and a website to attract clients.

Although you don’t need any formal qualifications to be a copywriter, you do need to be able to write and write in a way that influences readers. You can take courses to support you in this.

When you get a copywriting job, it usually gives you a brief of the article, any keywords, word length and tone of the article – it needs to be in an area that you know or you could see yourself spending a lot of time researching.

Many agencies hire copywriters on a freelance basis and send them work that matches their knowledge and writing style.

Fiverr and Upwork are good places to start, although these generally don’t pay a lot, they are ideal for getting a bit of experience and starting out.

Also look to network with other copywriters on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook groups and message boards.

Dog walking/sitting

Dog walking or dog sitting is a great way to earn extra money. Many people hate the idea of leaving their pets at kennels, so having someone look after them while they are away is a great alternative.

Social media and Facebook is a great way to get your name out about this. I see people ask about dog sitters and dog walkers all the time on my local community page. We even have a group in York just for dog sitters!

If you love dogs and walking, this could be an easy way to make extra cash!

Delivery jobs

Not technically from home but you can do delivery work such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats or become an Evri self-employed courier. This is a great way to earn extra cash without having to build your own customer base.

These are jobs you can do when you want. Evenings, weekends, anything in between. It’s flexible and an ideal way to make some extra money instantly with little startup costs (assuming you already have a car!).

How you had any success with making any extra cash?