Best Side Hustles For 2020!

The end of 2019 is almost here so it's time to start looking ahead to 2020. If you've been thinking about starting a side hustle I have a massive list here to get your mind thinking but also wanted to narrow it down to what I think are the best! ​

​Everything on this list you can start right away or after a quick online course. I italicized the ones I used to double my income in 2018 and will be close to doing the same in 2019!

What Is A Side Hustle?

A side hustle is anything you do to make extra money outside of your full time job.

You can do anything – mow lawns, walk dogs, babysit, drive people, teach yoga, sell on etsy, flip items on eBay, or a millennium other things.

Picking A Side Hustle?

When it comes to picking a side hustle there will be three things you’ll need to consider. First, what is the goal for your side hustling? Are you trying to get a little extra spending money? Create passive income? Are you saving for a big one-time purchase? Second, you’ll need to look at whether you want to use skills you already have or if you are willing to learn a new one. Will you drive for Uber or are you going to learn something new, like coding? Lastly, you’ll need to decide how dedicated you are and how much time you are willing to spend.

After you have a few side hustle ideas just get started. Don’t overthink it. You’ll figure it out as you go. Remember, you aren’t stuck with any of your ideas, you can always test something and move on if it doesn’t work.

Improving Your Side Hustle

Side hustling is a simple trade of your free time for money.

I view this as an opportunity, not a sacrifice, to be able to create more money to invest and save now, which will change my life later on.

But if you want to increase your earning potential, permanently and exponentially, at some point you need to stop trading your time for money.

You need to think bigger.

I encourage anyone who is interested in side hustling to try and look at your side hustling as a business – and then build that business.

Trading Time For Money

Maybe you don’t want a long term side hustle and are looking for easy cash for a one time purchase, like a vacation, that you can start right away.

Driving Service
If you’ve considered a side hustle I’m sure you’ve thought of this. If you haven’t, all you have to do is download an app, do some registration, turn on the app and you can start to drive people around. This continues to be a good option as you can choose when you want to work using uber or lyft. When you want to make extra money it can be as easy as turning on the app and choosing when you want to work. 

Shoot, Uber even has a feature where you pick up people on your normal commute which may be a place to start.

You could also work for a food delivery service like ubereats, doordash, grubhub, which is very similar in my opinion. You can work when you want and the busiest times are probably when you aren't working, like nights and weekends.

​Why I like it: It is easy to start doing and you can pick the times you work. 
Why I don't: The hourly rate may be low and factoring in car maintenance it may not be a good long term option.

Rent Out Your House
This one isn’t for everyone but I think it's a great option. If you have an extra room in your house, if you travel for work, you can rent out a room or your whole place. This is something I’ll look into once I am done rehabbing my deal 3. This might be my newest version of house hacking.

You can use either Airbnb or VRBO. With the added cleaning fee you might get someone to clean your house on a consistent basis for free!

If want to pair this with house sitting that may be a good option or for when you want to travel. You can get started on mindmyhouse,  trustedhousesitters or housesitters.

Why I like it: It is easy to start doing, you can pick the times you want to have people in there, and you may get a free cleaner or just paid to keep your place tidy.  
Why I don't: If you need the extra space or aren't comfortable with people staying in your house. 

Customer Interviews
These can be in person focus groups or online interviews. The focus groups look like they are in person and may be during they day which could be difficult. 

• Respondent - This is a company I have seen in numerous places and tried but never got anything. 
• Focusgroup.org - Looking online it looks like they have a lot of options for over $100
• Userinterviews -  When I tried this I wasn't able to get a lot of tests. 
• Survey Squad - Every 1000 points earns you $1.00 but I don't know how many points you get each survey. 
• Findfocusgroups.com - A service that lists focus groups from around the country. When I checked the compensation for these ranged from $75 to $600. I tried to sign up for a few myself when I learned about this but they were across town and I'd be fighting rush hour traffic.
• Usertesting.com  - This is one I use on a consistent basis! As of October 21st, 2019, I've made $5485 this year using this site. In 2018 I used it to make $5960  and I use that extra money to supplement my fun money or silly purchases.

          With this one you leave the window open on your computer and when it dings you take the survey to see if you qualify.            I have taken tests that are 3 minutes or 20 and you get $10. If you do a 30 minutes live convo you get $30 or 60                      minutes gets $60. That's where the real money is at!

Why I like it: It is easy to start doing and just requires you to talk about your opinions. 
Why I don't: Sometimes you have to be ready to drop what you are doing to take the test or they pop up in the middle of the day which can be hard to complete at work. ​

Teach A Skill/Passion
If you have a skill and/or a passion I’m sure someone will pay to learn it. I know I had piano teacher when I was younger and feel I wasn't alone. Maybe you know photoshop really well and can help teach that. If you don’t want to deal with the day to day teaching you can you can create a course on Udemy.

This could be as easy as posting your services online or reaching out to locals and picking up 1-2 clients a week. 

Why I like it: The schedule may be flexible and you'll be working with something you know and enjoy. 
Why I don't:  You may be only working a few hours a week and might have to travel to only work for an hour or so. 

Freelance
Fivver and Upwork are good places to get started with this. You can do anything from voice over work, editing, translation, proofreading, digital marketing and more!

This can be easy to pick up a couple tasks to easily reach your goal. 

Why I like it: You can apply for jobs when you want and work from the comfort of your home. 
Why I don't: There may be a lot of competition to get tasks and may take awhile to get reviews and build up. 

Potential To Grow Into A Business

Want to get out of your job and create a business of your own? These are all side hustles that can be time consuming but can grow into actual businesses if done right. All of these are things that can be started with a low barrier of entry. 

Create Content 
Obviously this is something I am trying as a side hustle. You can start a blog, podcast or YouTube channel.  From my experience it takes a lot more work than I thought but genuinely enjoy it.  I know it is possible to make money but the income potential can vary. I make $0 but I have seen people who make over $100,000 a month. 

You'll have to build up a following which can take time but you'll make income from advertising, affiliate marketing, selling courses, or creating your own branded products. When it comes to content creation there is so much out there that you can either get lost in the shuffle or find a niche that people are craving. Continuing to produce quality content.. at least that's what I hear!

Why I like it: You'll be dealing with a topic you enjoy and may be able to replace your full time income. 
Why I don't:  You need to be consistent with producing content and it can take a long time, like more than a year, to start to make money. 

Sell Things Online
The best option would be to create a drop shopping company. Which means you can sell a product directly to the customer without having to buy any inventory. Why is that great? You don’t invest any money to buy products which keeps your risk low. The manufacturer has the inventory AND ships it directly to the customer for you. You'll want to focus on marketing and customer service.  You can use it to promote home decor, clothing, fitness or beauty products. Oberlo is a place you can start. 

Another option would be create printables or teacher worksheets using Etsy or Teacherspayteachers.

Or if you are creative and into fashion you can try your hand at making T-shirts using Merch by Amazon or Teespring. Both allow you to create a custom-design and sell them through the site.

Why I like it: Once the content or the company is set up it can just exist and can be more passive income. 
Why I don't: I really can't think of any as it could be low risk and semi passive. If I was smart I'd take my own advice and do this.

Sell Your Services 
This may not be a glamorous option but still a good one. People are always looking for help around their house whether that is a handy man, painting, yard work, pool cleaning, walking dogs, snow removal, gutter cleaning, window washing, moving or junk removal. You can get started using either TAKL or Taskrabbit. These are service-based apps where you can sign up and perform services for people in your area. The app determines the going rate for the area and handles the payment.

Once you get going you can begin to package services like yard work, guttering cleaning, and window washing together. Once you begin to grow if you wanted to take a step back you could. Heck if it continued to grow and be successful companies like Two Men and A Truck are able to franchise. 

If you don't like working outside you can get started by cleaning the inside of a house during the day or weekends using sites like HouseKeeper.com. You can add on services like carpet cleaning or reach out to small businesses and help clean after hours. 

If all of that sounds awful you can be a virtual assistant for businesses. Virtual assistants work from anywhere in the world on a laptop making it the perfect side hustles for digital nomads or full time travelers. As more people are launching digital businesses there is an incredible demand for people who can help run them. Tasks can be helping with images on blogs, handling administrative support or customer support for businesses. You can get started on sites like Flexjobs, Belay Solutions, Equivityva, or Fancy Hands. 

Why I like it: These are services most people don't want to spend their weekends doing and will always need help. If you provide good work and services your reputation can grow and you can step away from that portion of the business if you want.
Why I don't: Is it lazy if I say it sounds like hard work? That really is the only thing I can think of. 

Real Estate
This is such a big category that there are so many options to get started. Don't have money? Become a wholesaler. Find people that are motivated to sell their house by mailing campaigns, knocking on doors, or networking and getting a property at a discount and flip it to someone to buy it. For all your hard work you will get paid a fee that can be thousands of dollars. 

Does that sound hard? Try managing rental properties. This can be hit and miss on the amount of work you'll have to do but most people can charge 1st months rent to place a tenant and then 8-10% a month after that. Don't want to deal with long term tenants manage vacation rentals. This will require a lot of systems since you'll be  dealing with check-ins, cancellations, cleaning staff, and maintenance. I met a dude in Providence, Rhode Island that did this full time and said he stayed in whatever unit was empty that night. That's kind of house hacking?!

If you are good with interior design or decluttering you can help people sell their homes or rent out a unit. I know people that charge $500 to be able to help show a unit to rent. Try partnering with real estate agents to get a steady stream of clients.

You can purchase rental units. I'm up to 5 and have a property manger for my deal 2 while I manage my first property. 

Maybe you don't want any part of that? Lend on deals using sites like Fundrise. You can invest in projects or do peer to peer where there are numerous sites. You can choose the person you would like to lend money to and see their information. You could also partner with people who are doing real estate as a hard money lender. Naturally be careful as this could be very risky!

Okay, maybe you don't want to trust random people with money. I get it. Invest in notes! You purchase the mortgage of a property. They typically sell for less than what it is worth because people or companies want cash now. As long as the person keeps paying it can be an easy way to get consistent cashflow. At some point I'll try this. You don't get the appreciation of the house or the tax write offs but you can get consistent money which is always nice. Nervous about what happens if the tenant doesn't pay? Work with a company like PPR who can help you buy and has a warranty on their notes.

My properties!

Digital Marketing Agency
If you have the skills of building websites, social media management, running ad campaigns, and SEO you can do this. If you already work for a company and have experience than even better! You can start out side hustling with only a few clients you can easily turn this into a full fledged business. 

If you know how to do digital marketing (or willing to learn) you can offer your services managing ad campaigns on either Google or Facebook. These jobs are becoming more and more useful since many businesses don’t know how to get the most out of their campaign. This is generally a good skill to have and can very lucrative. There are courses out there if you give it a quick Google to get started. 

You could also help build website. There’s no shortage of crappy looking websites out there, heck you may even think this is one of those. Pitch the benefits of good design and help people out!

If you are good with graphic design you may be able to start off doing quick things like creating logos or designing pdf’s. They may not pay much to start but can add up to a decent side income as you grow a portfolio. Having a good website yourself or examples of your work will help. 

Get Started!
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Unfortunately none of these will be easy and all require some effort and work but the end result will be worth it.

There are a lot of ideas within each of these categories so pick a direction and get started. If it doesn't work out you can always try a different one later! I've tried multiple and feel I've gotten to the point that I know what works for me as I double my income in 2018 and will be close in 2019. Stop procrastinating and start hustlin'!