• As consumers start feeling the cost-of-living crisis, many are looking for ways to supplement their incomes with a second income from a “side hustle.”
• Read on as our panel of experts explain how the right side hustle can benefit your pocket and your personal and professional well-being.
• They also share some tips on optimizing your side hustle’s chances of success.

Ready to make more money outside of your normal job? Spoiler alert! A side hustle might be just the thing. On this episode of the Good Cents podcast by Payactiv, Eric and Sydney talk about how to turn a fun hobby into a small-scale money-making business. While yes, being your own boss can mean putting in extra time and effort, Eric’s goal by the end of this episode is to convince you that, yes, investing in your side hustles is 100% worth it.

Looking to take your side hustle to the next level? Read our blog post ‘How to Get Your Side Hustle to Pay Your Bills.’

Have a financial question for Eric? Email us at [email protected]

Listen to the episode now on Apple and Spotify, or continue listening below:

Eric Rosenberg:

Hi everyone. My name’s Eric Rosenberg. I’m a personal finance expert. I’m not a financial advisor, however, and remember that this show is just for entertainment and education purposes. Thank you.

Eric Rosenberg:

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Payactiv podcast. My name is Eric Rosenberg. I am so happy to have you. And we’re back this week with our friend, Sydney. She has some awesome questions she’s coming in with that 20-something fresh look at the financial world. I’ve been around the block a couple of times. I’m not grandpa old, but I’m dad old. What we’re going to talk about today is something that’s actually one of my favorite topics in the whole world because that’s how my career started. I started as a side hustle, and that’s what we’re talking about today. So, everyone, let’s welcome Sydney into the studio. We’re going to be chatting all about side hustles today with her.

Sydney:

All about side hustles. Are side hustles worth it? I’m so excited to talk about this too because I feel like, again, like most of the things we talk about in the show, we’re just not taught how to run a side hustle or how to start our own businesses. And this is all something that most people who do it have to figure out on their own by Googling or talking to friends and family. So, we’re here. We’re going to drop some knowledge on you, and hopefully, by the end of the episode, you’ll feel like you’re ready to start your own side hustle.

Eric Rosenberg:

Yeah. Let’s call this one the 20-minute side hustle MBA. Let’s dive in there. Let’s do it.

Sydney:

Perfect. Let’s do it. Well, real quick as an overview, Eric. Do you want to give us some insight into why you’re so excited to talk about side hustles? What role have side hustles played in your life? Are side hustles worth it?

Eric Rosenberg:

Absolutely. Yeah. So, side hustles, if you’re not familiar with the term, it’s like a job on the side or an extra income source, and what that means to different people can mean different things. And the goal of a side hustle could be different for different people. I know some people who have a side hustle driving for a ride-share service, and they want to do that for a couple of years to pay off their student loans or something like that or pay off credit card debt. So that’s a short-term side hustle. When you’re doing a side hustle where you’re working for someone else, and it’s not your own business, it’s important to remember it’s still time for money. So, it’s good because it increases your income, and who doesn’t want more money, right? We’ve talked about that before. We love more money, but if you start your own business and build your own whole strategy around what you might want to do longer term where you’re not working for someone else, that’s the kind of side hustle that I get most excited about.

Eric Rosenberg:

Because those are the ones that can really change your life. I mean, sure, a short-term side hustle can help you pay off debt, and it can change your life. Certainly, that’s not a bad thing. But for me personally, I actually started… I’ve always been a side hustler. Let’s back up a little bit. Well, Tarantino. Let’s go back to my youth and see how I got here. I was in Cub Scouts when I was a kid, and I sold Cub scout popcorn and coupon books. That was actually probably my first side hustle, if you think about it, because of the way Scouts worked then… Girl Scouts, it was a little different with the cookies. With boy Scouts, I got a percentage of the sale in my scout account, which was like a little bank account my troop kept for me, and then I could use that to pay for campouts and ski trips.

Eric Rosenberg:

I grew up in Colorado. So skiing was part of what we wanted to do. And I thought, “How cool is this? I am paying for my ski weekend and my week of Boy Scout camp by selling coupon books.” So, I was like ten years old. So that’s how I started side-hustling. And over the years, I’ve had a few other things I’ve tried. Some have worked, some haven’t worked, but the big one is actually what led me here today. When I left my first job after college, I was a bank manager at my first day job, and I learned so much about banking and all that personal finance stuff you need to know to run your daily money life. And I was the guy approving mortgages, doing all sorts of stuff. So, I thought, I’m going to start a little blog about personal finance, and that blossomed into writing for other companies about personal finance and starting my own podcast about personal finance, and joining another podcast about personal finance.

Eric Rosenberg:

So literally, the career I have today started as a side hustle. I was working in cubicle land doing the… We want to call it 9:00 to 5:00, but it was really more like 8:00 to 6:00, and you’re working long days, but I’d come home after work, and I’d pull out my laptop, and I’d write an article about something about bank accounts or credit cards or earning travel miles and points or paying off my car loan that I was doing at the time or paying off my student loans that I was doing at the time. And that slowly grew into a viable business. It was a pretty cool thing. When I started in the beginning, it was enough to pay my beer tabs going out with friends on weekends, and in my early twenties, that was saying something, right?

Eric Rosenberg:

Yeah. It was a part of my budget. I planned that that was an expense that I could have. I already knew my debt payments were taken care of. My rent was taken care of. And this side hustle gave me a little extra money that covered my weekend fun. And then it grew to the point that it covered my rent. And then it grew to a point where I was like, “Wow, this could cover my mortgage,” when I bought my first condo, and I bought my first home. And it grew to the point that in 2016, I was able to go full-time. And I’ve been doing this full time for about six and a half years now. And it started as a little side hustle.

Sydney:

[inaudible 00:05:55] Can we just give Eric a little pause because that’s such a cool story. And it’s a side hustle success story, really is what it is. Yeah. A lot of people who are maybe trying to figure out what their side hustle is, are trying to figure out how to make money. Stories like this are so important to share because it’s possible. It’s possible to be able to pay your bills using your side hustle. And we have a blog post all about this that I’ll link in the description.

Eric Rosenberg:

And it’s okay to start small. My first blog post that I made a dollar on… The first blog post I wrote, I didn’t make anything. It was a hobby. It was for free. When I started making a $1 here, $5 there, I was thrilled. I never would’ve thought I could’ve paid my rent with it. So, you never know what’ll happen with a side hustle. I never expected it to take me where it is today. I just thought it would be a fun hobby that made me a little extra money. I was like, “Hey, my hobby’s making money. That’s kind of cool.” I’d rather make money on a hobby than spend money on it, right? So that sounds-

Sydney:

[inaudible 00:06:55] About your hobby is, yeah, you like to make money, and you like to talk about money. That is the hobby that you have, an interest that you have. And that’s how a lot of side hustles start out. They start out with just an organic interest in something that doesn’t really start with, like, “Let’s make money on this.” Usually, it’s just a joy thing. Like, “Oh, I like taking pictures of people,” or, “I like to paint,” or fill in the blank. I just like to do this thing on the side in my free time. So, the decision then to take that hobby that you enjoy doing and tack on a price tag and provide a service to other people using that hobby, can be a little bit scary for someone who has never done it before.

Sydney:

So, for me, in my experience, I love to paint, but the idea of being paid to paint, which is this special thing that I like to do as a hobby, it’s scary to make that leap and to put a price tag on the work that I do and the hobby that I have. So just, thinking like that-

Eric Rosenberg:

I actually just got a paint set. It’s sitting over out of the camera in this office because I thought that could be a fun thing to try out. I’m not going to be the next Picasso, but I could be the next Eric Rosenberg, right?

Sydney:

Yeah. Totally. Yes. So, I guess my question for you that I’m kind of teeing up is, in thinking about someone who’s maybe just starting to think about turning their hobby into a side hustle, where do you recommend beginning as just a very elementary starting point for thinking about how to price your time and the work that you do in this hobby?

Eric Rosenberg:

Yeah. That is a great first question. A great starting point. So, there was actually a book I read that talks exactly about this. It’s called The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau. I know that the last name’s a little bit of a mouthful, but he’s a cool guy. I’ve met him a few times. And what he said in that book is, “You really only need three things to have a business. You need a product or service, a way to get it to somebody and someone who is willing to pay for it. That’s really it. Anything else is gravy on top.” Really, all you need to do is have something you can sell to somebody. If you’re doing that, you’re in business. So even if it doesn’t feel like a business, maybe you’re an incredible baker, and you go to a farmer’s market on Sundays and sell muffins.

Eric Rosenberg:

That’s a business. That’s real; that’s legit. Maybe you’re really good with bikes, and you fix all of your friend’s bikes for free because you’re that awesome friend. But maybe you could start a weekend bike repair business where people… They tell all their friends, “Oh, I got to take my bike over to my friend for a tune-up.” And that is a real business. It doesn’t have to be registered with the government. It doesn’t have to be set up with a lawyer. To be a business, all you need is someone to pay you for something. It’s pretty simple. It’s a cool way to approach it. So, when you’re starting, think about what is that thing that someone would pay me for. If you’re an amazing artist like Sydney, you could start selling your paintings on a place like Etsy, or you could get prints made of them and sell the original for more and then sell prints for less.

Eric Rosenberg:

And I’ve met artists who started and work in side hustles doing just that. I met a really cool guy in Huntsville, Alabama, who works near where Space Camp is, and he makes all these paintings that look like rockets turning into trees. And that’s his side hustle. He sells them online. I have a friend who lives in Toronto, Canada. I’m actually going to go see him soon. And one of his side hustles is he’s a tour guide. He goes on a few different websites and places like Airbnb, and there are other ones as well where you can create tours and activities. And he does coffee tours and bar tours, and downtown tours for people who are new to Toronto, and he’s grown up there. He’s lived there for 30-something years, so he is an expert in the city. I think that makes him an expert; you live somewhere for 30 years.

Eric Rosenberg:

So, you might be an expert in something and not even realize it. I mean, maybe you could do bicycle tours. Maybe you’re good at crocheting. You live somewhere cold; you can sell hats and gloves. Who doesn’t love a homemade hat with a fuzzy thing on top? There are so many things you could do. And then that’s not even talking about the computer. With the internet, there are a zillion side hustles. I mean, I know zillion’s not a real word, but there are so many I couldn’t even think about it. You could create websites. You could learn how to code. You could be a writer. You could make podcasts; you could be an editor.

Sydney:

You could freelance.

Eric Rosenberg:

There are all sorts of freelance opportunities. There’s just so much you can do. And with the internet, the world is so connected you don’t even have to work with people nearby. I have hired people to help me with projects who live on the other side of the world in Asia. There were students and who had a side hustle working on websites, and I needed help with a website. So that was a business. They made some money on it, and I had a happy experience. It was a good service. Think about what it is that you can do, what you can deliver, what you like, what you’re already good at, and what someone might pay for that in the fair market. So, I would say, let’s go back to the fuzzy hats example because… And it’s harder to price art. Art can be, who knows? But fuzzy hats, you go to the department store, you go to the big box retail store. A fuzzy hat’s going to be between, I don’t know, let’s say, seven and $20, somewhere in there.

Eric Rosenberg:

So, you know that the hat you’re selling is probably going to be somewhere around that range. So, you can look at other products or services similar to give you a guideline. And something I like to do, which I’ve seen a lot of success with, start a little bit on the lower end of that to get a little confidence, get your first sale but don’t do it for free. It’s okay to discount your first sale, but don’t ever do it for free. Don’t give it away.

Sydney:

Even for friends and family?

Eric Rosenberg:

Well, friends and family, if you’re doing it any-

Sydney:

Okay. I guess so.

Eric Rosenberg:

I help out my sister with some writing projects for free because she’s my-

Sydney:

Okay. Okay.

Eric Rosenberg:

But-

Sydney:

So that’s a lot-

Eric Rosenberg:

… for real customers don’t want to work for free and maybe-

Sydney:

Pro bono. Don’t work for experience or exposure.

Eric Rosenberg:

Exactly. Because you can’t pay your bills with exposure. If you need to build a portfolio, do it for yourself. So, let’s say you want to be a writer. You can start a blog that is creating an experience right there that you can share with someone who might hire you to be a writer. If you’re a graphic artist or graphic designer, build your own website, make your own graphics, or do things on your social media channels that you can show off and be proud of. If you’re a video editor, start a YouTube channel or a video creator. Start a TikTok. There are so many different things you can do to show the world your experience and get practice without getting paid. So then, when it’s time to get paid, you can feel confident getting that first paycheck and not have imposter syndrome, which means you don’t really feel like you’re an expert in it, but it’s okay. You’re an expert. There’s a reason someone’s willing to pay you.

Sydney:

Right. Sometimes it just takes building up that confidence a little bit and building a portfolio; working for friends and family maybe to help build the portfolio itself. Yeah, is a really great place to start. And then shopping and looking at what does the market look like for the product or service that I’m offering and pricing a little bit below that just to get your foot in the door.

Eric Rosenberg:

Then the next trick, once you’ve had that first sale, raise your price, and keep raising it until someone says, “No.” That is one of the best secrets of freelancing and side hustling. Just keep raising your-

Sydney:

That sounds so scary-

Eric Rosenberg:

… until someone says “no.” And eventually, someone will say “no,” and that’s okay. And then you say, “Oh, well would you do it for this rate?” It’s okay to negotiate. Negotiating is a hard thing in the world. But when you’re a business owner, including a side hustler, negotiating might be part of it. There are a lot of hats you have to wear when you’re running a business, even a little side hustle. So, you have to go into it with your eyes wide open and feel prepared for all of those opportunities and challenges. And you’ll probably find sometimes you feel a little uncomfortable. You don’t like things, but sometimes you find things that you love, and you’ll learn a lot, and you might meet great people, or who knows what’ll happen.

Eric Rosenberg:

There are so many opportunities, but that won’t happen unless you get started and try to get that first sale. So those are my main thoughts on how to get started with a side hustle. Hopefully, that’s helpful for you out there. Also, remember when you’re getting started, it’s important to pick something people actually want to buy and pay for. There are some hobbies. I know one that comes to mind. I found out there is something called competitive duck herding. It’s a real thing. If you start a competitive duck herding business, I don’t know how successful it’s going to be. It’s just a tough market for competitive duck hurdlers right now. But there are many businesses that are booming. So really do think about that as well. Just because you’re into something doesn’t mean everybody’s into something. But if you’re into something, chances are there is a community of people into it. So, you have to find and tap into that community. But if the community isn’t there, if the buyer’s not there, it’s okay to test and try different side hustles. The first one might not be the one that sticks.

Sydney:

It’s true. So, once you have something that sticks and you feel good about it, what about the admin side of things? How do you start thinking about the financial side of your side hustle?

Eric Rosenberg:

That’s a great question, and I’m a finance guy. I love all the accounting stuff and getting into the numbers. I’m a numbers nerd. So, hopefully, I don’t out-nerd you guys while we’re talking about this, but here are the basics that you really need to know. So, one, you don’t have to register your business with the state to be considered a legitimate business. If you’re making money doing anything, according to the IRS, according to the United States government, you’re a business. So, when that happens, it’s really important to keep track of all of the money that comes in and out. And the way I think is best to do that is to open up a dedicated bank account. Chances are, it will probably just be an account in your name that works for the business in the beginning.

Eric Rosenberg:

But as you grow, you might decide to register with the state. And if you do that, you can actually do it online yourself. There are a few forms you can fill out in any state. I’ve done it myself a bunch of times. But if you’re worried about it, you can pay a lawyer or an online service to do it for you. But it’s pretty easy. As long as you can read well, you should be able to handle it. So, if you register, there are ways you can do that. I won’t go too far into the details, but the most common way to do that for new businesses and side hustles is an LLC or limited liability company, and the benefit of that is they’re usually really cheap and easy to get started unless you live in California like me, then they’re very expensive.

Eric Rosenberg:

And when I lived in Colorado, I think it was $50 to start one. So, it wasn’t a huge expense to register a business. In California, the minimum is $800 a year. So, where you live has a big influence on what you might want to do or not want to do. If you live out in California, you might want to delay registering a business because of that big cost. But if you live somewhere where that’s cheap, you might want to just go ahead and do it because when you do, there are a few benefits. One, if you keep all the finances separate when you run an LLC, there are some legal protections you get. So, if someone buys your product and gets hurt with it and decides to sue you if you have an LLC and you’re running it properly, they can’t go after your personal assets. They can only go after your business assets.

Eric Rosenberg:

So, they might be able to take your sewing needles, but not your house or your car. So that’s an important thing as your side hustle grows. Or if you have a side hustle that has any kind of high risk that anyone can get hurt. That’s just something to think about along the way. But again, you don’t have to be a registered business when you start. Next, as I mentioned, you want to track your finances separately from your personal finances. Even if you don’t have a registered business, you’ll want to do that because, at the end of the year, you’ll have to file taxes. And with your taxes, basically, the important thing to know is you take all the revenue that your business made, that is money people paid you for your product or service. So, if someone pays you a few hundred dollars 10 times, you made $1,000 or so in revenue. Then you look at your expenses, which is money you spent directly on the business.

Eric Rosenberg:

So, if you’re doing a sewing business, that’d be your sewing needles and yarn. If you’re a painter, it’s your paints and canvases. If you work on the computer, it could be your keyboard or your laptop. There are different things that you might be able to deduct. And what that means is you can subtract it from your revenue when you’re calculating your taxes. So just like a business, because you’re a business, you only have to pay taxes on your profits. And that’s a really fun thing that just makes a side hustle different from a hobby. With a hobby, all of your expenses are just expenses. You don’t get anything back. When it’s a side hustle, not only can you make extra money from it, but you can also deduct expenses to lower your taxes. And I’m not going to go too, too deep into that.

Eric Rosenberg:

Maybe we’ll do a tax episode sometime. You can use your tax software. I know Payactiv has a partnership with Turbo Tax for a discount if you want to use that. So, however you do your taxes, if you have a side hustle, you just want to make sure you have tracked that income and expenses separately from your personal income for those taxes. But unless you’re registered as a business, you don’t have to file a separate tax return or anything like that. So, when you’re starting out, again, I’ll just summarize it to keep it easy, you don’t have to register with the government right away, though you may want to later. You should have a separate bank account for your business, whether it’s a personal account or a business account, once it’s registered. Or if you run mostly in cash, it could be an envelope or something that you use just to keep it separate from your personal finances.

Eric Rosenberg:

That separation is the key. And as you grow, you might want to start doing a little bit of accounting and bookkeeping, and there are some free apps you can use when you’re a side hustler. One is called Way of Accounting. You can go on there, and it will walk you through what you need to know to get started tracking your extra income and expenses for your business on there. But if you do that, it actually makes it a lot easier and faster to prepare your taxes when that time of the year comes because Uncle Sam wants his part of your income. That’s the one big downside. You have to pay taxes on it, but you only pay taxes if you make the money. So, you don’t pay taxes if you’re not profitable.

Sydney:

And the Payactiv app is free to download, it’s free to sign up for Payactiv, and it’s a great place if you’re just getting started to house your first $10,000 that you’re making. After that point, you’ll have to find another place to put your money, but the Payactiv account is super quick and easy to set up. So highly recommend that if you’re shopping.

Eric Rosenberg:

And if you’re thinking about turning a hobby into a business and you need supplies, let’s say you want to start a business taking people fishing in your area. Maybe you’re an expert fisherwoman, and you’re awesome at fly fishing, and you want to teach others how to go fly fishing. So, you have to buy a few extra fishing poles and another tackle box, a big set of lures, because you want to look professional. It’s not just the ones that you’re used to using yourself. You want to have those really fancy flies as they have on TV.

Sydney:

Really nice ones.

Eric Rosenberg:

I don’t know exactly what fishing stuff costs. I’m not an expert. You are, right? You’re starting the fly-fishing business. So, when you’re doing that, if that’s your side hustle and this would work with any business, you can add up what it costs to get started and set that as a savings goal.

Eric Rosenberg:

So maybe you need $500 to buy the gear to take people out on a fishing expedition. You have everything else you need. So, you want to save up $500. A good way to do that, actually, is also the Payactiv app. If you’re getting paid using direct deposit to the Payactiv card, you can automatically split off a portion of your income into a savings goal. So, whether that’s $5 a paycheck or $10 a paycheck, or $20 a month, whatever you want to set up, there are flexible rules in there. And that can get you to the point where you can start that side hustle. And before you know it, that $500 you spent, you’ll make that back and more, hopefully if you run a good business.

Sydney:

And then later, you can write it off, right, after you’ve gotten started?

Eric Rosenberg:

Absolutely. Yeah. And as we said in that $500 is a business expense. So that means if you, let’s say, your business makes $600 that year, and you had $500 in expenses, you only have to pay taxes as if you made $100 because that’s your business profit, and you get to keep those fishing poles. So, bonus.

Sydney:

Not too bad, not too bad at all.

Eric Rosenberg:

That’s a good way to help write off your hobby, right?

Sydney:

Absolutely. Yeah. So, I guess just my conclusive question is to you, Eric, is this side hustle worth it, like worth all that time and energy that it’s going to take to set it up?

Eric Rosenberg:

Well, I think you all are going to know what I’m going to say here. I think a side hustle is totally worth it because that is really, as I said, what led me here is what created my career totally changed my life. And I started writing as a side hustle because it was something I enjoyed. So I was able to take a hobby in something that I liked and turned it into a little bit of money and then a little bit more money and then a full living. And even though I have a full-time living and I don’t necessarily need outside funds, I still keep side hustling because I still think it’s fun. And I still want to keep making more money. Actually, right next to the desk here, I have a stack of Funko pop toys from the Ghostbusters movie that I’m going to sell on Amazon. It’s-

Sydney:

Another side hustle.

Eric Rosenberg:

It’s one of my side hustles. There’s a toy distributor not too far from me. So, I’m able to buy wholesale and mark it up a little bit. And I think sci-fi and nerdy, Ghostbuster things from the eighties are fun. So that’s something I thought, “Hey, I could buy them and sell them. And for a couple of weeks, hopefully not too long, they sit in my office, and I can look at them, and then I ship them off to whoever buys them.

Sydney:

Unless you really, really like them, right. Then they just end up on your shelf at home.

Eric Rosenberg:

There’s one that I … I haven’t done it yet, but I was eyeing this one from the… Have you seen the new Ghostbusters movie? The little state puff guys? They have these little lighter things that are cute, but it’s kind of scary. I thought about putting one of those on my shelf, but it’s listed on Amazon. If you know how to find it, you can find it.

Sydney:

That’s super funny. Awesome. Thank you so much, Eric, for your time. We really appreciate it. And now I’m feeling inspired. Honestly, you’ve given me so many steps that I can take today to start moving my little painting side hustle business up to the next level. So, I really am appreciative.

Eric Rosenberg:

I’m actually even teaching my little kids right now how to side hustle. I have a two-, four-, and six-year-old, and I built them a lemonade stand. Because you got to start young. You got to start right. So, I built them a lemonade stand. They helped me and picked the colors and helped me paint it, and cut all the wood. And now summer vacation is actually just starting this week as we’re recording, and we got to get out there and start selling some lemonade because I know they want to buy some Pokemon cards and whatever the kids are into these days, and they know they can do it if they side hustle and they make their money because their main day job is school right now. But their side hustle can be selling lemonade.

Sydney:

Absolutely. Awesome. Well, with that, thanks so much, Eric.

Eric Rosenberg:

Thank you. This was a lot of fun. I always love chatting with you, Sydney. It’s always great to have you on the show and listeners, I hope you enjoyed it as well. If you have any feedback, any comments, make sure to head to Payactiv.com. You can click on the blog section, and you’ll find all of our past episodes. You can also subscribe on Spotify, and we’re working on making sure you can subscribe everywhere else you listen that’s coming down the pipeline. So be sure to follow along if you haven’t already hit subscribe.

Eric Rosenberg:

Also, if you haven’t already, as we mentioned, we’re obviously fans of the Payactiv app. It’s free. It has a ton of helpful features. It’s a whole financial wellness platform to help you get on track to improving your finances, and my favorite feature, it’s kind of a secret feature. A lot of people don’t use. It shouldn’t be a secret. I’m telling you right now, you can get a free financial counseling session. And normally those cost… Rich people pay $10,000 for one of those. You can get it for free from the Payactiv app. All you have to do is sign up, and you can ask them, “How do you put that side hustle money to good use? How do you use it to pay off debt, build an emergency fund or start saving for retirement,” or whatever else is important to you.

Eric Rosenberg:

So definitely make sure to check out the Payactiv app and subscribe to the podcast and tell a friend so they can listen to it too. And that’s all we’ve got for today. So, thank you so much, everyone, for listening. Thank you, Sydney. And we’ll talk to you all next time. Have a great rest of your week, and keep living that life you’ve earned.

Side Hustle FAQs

To sum up, let’s answer some of the most frequently asked questions about side hustles:

What is a Side Hustle?

A “side hustle” is a money-making pursuit that you do in addition to your regular day job. Side hustles can take the form of anything from freelance photography, blogging, and painting to dog-walking or running an ecommerce shop.

What are the Main Advantages of Side Hustles?

Side hustling is growing in popularity for several reasons, including:

It Puts Extra Money in Your Pocket

One of the most obvious advantages of side hustles is that they give you a means to make more money. Many people who start side hustles earn rather limited amounts in their regular day jobs and gravitate towards side hustles to supplement their income.

You Can Usually Work from Anywhere

Thanks to digital technology and the internet, you can run most side hustles from anywhere, provided you have a reliable internet connection.

Side Hustles Can Boost Your Career

When you’re focused on a single career for months and years, you’ll develop similar skillsets and ways of thinking to many others working in that field. Side hustles encourage you to look at challenges and opportunities differently and learn new skills. All this can make you stand out in your regular day job as you’ll bring those new skills and perspectives to your primary role.

They Can Make Your More Resilient

Everybody goes through the odd bad patch at work. During such times, it’s easy to feel down and disheartened. If things aren’t going well at work, but your side hustle is ticking along nicely, you’ll find it easier to cope with your work-related frustrations and setbacks.

You’ll Grow Your Personal and Professional Networks

When you start a side hustle, your personal and professional networks will grow, and you’ll interact with different personalities and new ways of thinking. Over time, this could even lead to new job opportunities.

You Gain Independence from the Rat Race

Many people start side hustles as a first step in breaking free from the daily corporate grind. Side hustles give you an opportunity to build something entirely on your own instead of having to rely on your company. Many people start their side hustles small and gradually build them into full-time businesses sooner or later.

They’re Easier to Step Away From

Side hustles are more flexible than regular full-time jobs. In the event that your personal circumstances change, it’s easier to scale down or even step away from them entirely than it is with full-time roles.

What are the Disadvantages of Side Hustles?

Of course, there are potential disadvantages associated with side hustles to be aware of. Here are a few of the most common:

They’re Hard Work!

Many people also greatly underestimate how much time and effort they have to put into their side hustles to make them successful. There are also administrative elements like self-employment taxes and declarations, accounting, and paperwork to take into consideration.

They Can Put a Strain on Your Relationships

Most people start side hustles because they want to do something they love and make extra money from it. As a result, once their side hustle starts taking off, they end up spending any free time engaged in it. If their spouse or partner isn’t also involved in the side hustle, they could end up feeling neglected or resentful.

They Can Stop Feeling Like Fun

When side hustles that started as hobbies become wildly successful and grow quickly, they can start to feel less like fun and more like hard work.

You Could Start Neglecting Your Regular Job

Since having a side hustle can consume a large portion of your mental and physical energy, it’s possible that your performance in your regular day job could suffer. If your work suffers enough, you might even end up losing your job. Unless your side hustle is already bringing in enough to support you and your family, you could end up in dire financial straits.

Your Company May Not Allow It

Following on from our previous point, many companies simply won’t allow their employees to take on side hustles. In many employment contracts, it’s stated that you have to apply for permission if you want to take on an additional job. So, if you start a side hustle without notifying your company, you could be putting your job at risk.

Which Side Hustle Should I Launch?

Understanding which side hustle is best for you comes down to understanding your personal needs, motivations, strengths, and constraints.

Earning extra money might not be your only reason for considering starting a side hustle. Many people go this route to use skills that they don’t get to apply in their full-time job.

You also need to consider how you’ll stay motivated. Remember, there’ll always be upsides and downsides to your side hustle, so it’s a good idea to ensure it’s something you’re deeply passionate about to keep you motivated during those rough patches.

Before starting a side hustle, you also need to be sure you’ll be able to balance your time and energy between your regular job, your friends and family, and your side hustle. Set up a schedule that will allow you to perform both jobs while still leaving some time for yourself and your loved ones.

Regardless of your interests, motivations, and schedule, there’s a side hustle out there for you! Here are some popular options:

• Ecommerce: Why not start selling collectibles or crafts on Etsy or eBay or just about anything on Amazon?
• Babysitting or dog sitting: A great option if you love children and animals.
• Photography: Turn that knack for taking greoat photos of your family and friends into a business by offering to take photographs at weddings or local events.
• Teaching: If you enjoy playing the piano, dancing, or doing yoga, share your expertise with others and earn good money doing it.
• Tour Guide: If you live in a city that attracts tourists, consider offering your services as a tour guide.
• Writing and Editing: Use your flair for writing and editing to make money by offering your services as a freelancer, starting your own blog, editing student essays, or even writing resumes and college applications.

Check out our other blog posts to learn more about spending, saving, and working toward financial freedom.