Side Hustles can make you money
”Side hustles are a great way to make yourself extra money”
Eman – Founder OnestopSave
Making extra cash from work or sales outside of your regular job can boost your income and may even help you to develop skills or turn a hobby into self-employment. There really is a way that most of us could make a bit of extra cash, depending on what time, skills or resources we have available. Find your best side job and start hustling today.
SELL ONLINE FOR CASH
Got piles of old clothes, furniture, books or homeware? Someone might buy your old stuff. Getting started on Vinted or Gumtree is super easy, all you need is your phone and an email address and you can start listing straight away.
As Vinted doesn’t charge sellers any fees, it’s a great way to clear out and get some cash for stuff you don’t need any more, but as money-making goes, you aren’t likely to be making a profit selling your old clothes and it’s limited to whatever you actually have available to sell.
Sign up to Vinted to sell clothes and small homewares, or Gumtree to sell larger items locally:
FLEXIBLE & LOCAL WORK
If you have some free time you’re looking to hustle in, using services or apps like these will make getting started as easy as possible, by taking off the pressure of finding customers and advertising your services to the people who need them.
Babysitting doesn’t require any specific qualifications, but you will need valid ID and references and are likely to get more work and better rates if you are also DBS checked / have childcare experience or qualifications. You can find out more and get started here.
Tutoring requires certain levels of qualification, but you don’t need to be a certified teacher to get involved. This is a good one for younger people and students, as many providers accept people aged 16/17+.
Dog walking / sitting lets you earn money, with the added bonus of time spent with furry friends! You may need to look at insurance, but some services that connect owners and walkers will cover this.
DIY skills can earn you more than just kudos! Sites like airtasker or taskrabbit list practical jobs that are local and easy to do – a great place to get started and earn some extra money.
USE YOUR MOTOR
If you own a car, van or bike you’re in a good position to take on food delivery driving (UberEats, Deliveroo, JustEat), parcel delivery (Yodel, Amazon Flex, Evri) or taxi driving work for companies like Uber.
Before you get started, weigh-up the pros and cons. For example, if you don’t have enough hours free to work, or a company doesn’t pay enough per drop / ride, you may end up out of pocket after insurance or fuel costs. Make sure you compare insurance if you need to take out a new policy or add to your existing one – you’re likely to need hire & reward and public liability cover if you’re couriering food, parcels or people.
As many delivery drivers work on a self-employed basis, that means they’re picking their own hours and therefore may be averaging higher or lower rates of pay. There’s more chance of earning bigger sums if you’re willing to work weekends and holidays, when demand is highest.
Side Hustles Extra
BEST SIDE HUSTLES
MAKE £200 EXTRA
You can earn up to £200 extra a week if you drive, own a car or have a room to rent. Use your expertise and skills to pick up freelance work that pays well.
”When you use your skills you could earn even more money”
Eman – Founder OnestopSave
RENT YOUR CAR
Don’t just strut your stuff – try renting it instead to make yourself extra money.
Rent your car out if it spends most of the week sitting in your drive, when it could be earning you extra money. Look up car sharing apps like turo.com and start renting out your car – no need to worry about insurance, it’s covered by them.
Rent your spare room out and help cover your mortgage if you’re a homeowner suffering from higher monthly payments. Sites like SpareRoom make it simple and t’s a great way to earn over £200/week and have someone contribute to your household bills.
Rent your driveway as a parking space – particularly if you live near a football ground. Check out justpark.com
BLOGS & SOCIAL MEDIA
If you can write well and you’re good with tech, then there are lots of ways you might earn extra money – look for opportunities to get started by reaching out to businesses who may need help with website or digital content in your professional or local community.
Blogging – start your own online blog and use affiliate links to help you monetise. It isn’t for everyone and takes some time to build up site visitors and content, but some have literally made millions from this kind of thing.
Content writing – freelance content writing for websites can earn you £50-£200 for long page articles that are well written. If you have some experience and expertise on a certain topic of industry, you’ll probably earn more. Having a small portfolio or examples of your work will help get you hired.
Manage social – If you’re a natural at social media, hen why not get paid to do it for someone else too? If your own social accounts look sleek and you have a good following you can use this as evidence of your skills. DM small business owners and offer websites your services to get started.
BE THE BOSS
If you’re already working in an industry that lends itself to freelance work, you may find you can sell your skills to other clients in your spare time. Careful not to breach any contract you may already be under with an employer though, you could be tied by a clause that says you can’t work for other businesses in the same industry whilst employed.
Alternatively, if your hobby is something you could monetise, go for it! Anything from cake baking to fitness training can be offered as a service, if you’ve found your niche then you’ve taken the first step.
If you do start up on your own, you’ll probably need to register as self-employed, get yourself some insurance and make sure you fill out a tax return every year. There are likely to be some set up costs (e.g. materials / rent) depending on your line of work and you’ll need to start marketing your services to gain clients or customers.
Social media is a great place to start, and sites like Treatwell, Etsy or Upwork can help you showcase your services to a wider audience, depending on your trade. Once you’re in business you may benefit from your own website and email address – look for deals on sites like GoDaddy who will let you buy a domain, host and build a website and set up a unique email address all in one place.
More about side hustles
Find out how to build your websites, get paid & set up an account for your side hustles
LET’S GET STARTED
Here are some tips to get you going with your first side hustle. Once you’ve started there’ll be no stopping you!
“Just do it – to get into the side hustle game”
Eman – Founder OnestopSave
USE YOUR SKILLS
Sit down and write out what you can do, to see how it could be applied to other jobs or side hustles.
We all have transferable skills. These are skills we have in one job that can apply to another one.
For example, if you deliver parcels during the day, you could apply your skills i.e. driving and delivery to being an Ocado driver in the evenings.
FRIENDS + BENEFITS
Ask friends what side hustles they’ve tried and you’ll be surprised how much you can learn from them. This will boost your confidence to get started.
We know friends who have made money from surveys (like YouGov) where just by giving your opinion you can earn extra cash. Sites like these need representation from all parts of society and no knowledge required, it’s simply what you think.
Friends are also a great place to start when it comes to making the most of referrals bonuses – as a snapshot, Octopus Energy’s referral scheme will give you and your friend a pretty generous £50 each off your bill.
YOU CAN DO IT
Just bring yourself – the most important thing you need is the attitude of “just do it” to get the most out of any side hustle.
Weigh up your skills, motivation and free time and you’ll find that some side hustles are easier to get started with than others, but there really is something for everyone.
GET PAID EASILY
If you’re wondering how to navigate getting paid for your products or services in a cash free world, t’s never been easier to get set up to take money by card.
A great solution for individuals doing their own thing and looking to take card payments at small markets or stalls is a Sumup card reader. It’s great for small businesses and sole traders as it’s easy, low cost and hassle free to set up. Get your payment card reader at Sumup.com.
BANK SOME SAVINGS
If you start making extra money, try and save some of it. If you can go without it right now, put it in a pot or separate savings account and see if you can make it work even harder by earning some interest.
If you do start a small business, set up a business bank account with at Tide.co.uk, they’re perfect for side hustlers, offering free accounts and credit cards for small businesses.