Corporations taking over side hustles seems to be screwing over people, since they take such a large cut and flood the market for that hustle.

But the ones I’ve personally seen people do that work pretty well (in USA) are:

Stay at home mom watching another kid (legally dubious depending on state/situation. But I ain’t no narc.)

A neighbor of my mom’s sends out a menu saying what she plans on cooking each night for that week, and for $X will deliver you some as well (Legal in Utah due to special laws, other states could be dubious. )

People who go pick up free furniture that is pretty trashed, and then refurbishes it and sells it. Or people with trucks who are like “Will deliver furniture for $30 in X area” is also pretty life saver for people without cars/trucks. Was able to get a super cheap/nice coach because of this.
People who just flip free stuff or stuff from thrift stores without doing any improvements annoy me greatly though. We broke and you’re just driving up the price!

None of these generate a ton of cash, but I like that they take very little up front cost, aren’t disruptive, and mostly take labor.

So what side hustles have you seen work out?

  • @Sequentialsilence
    link
    32 hours ago

    My side hustle is real estate photography. Very flexible timing and I already had all the equipment. If I didn’t already own the equipment I wouldn’t have done it.

      • @IMongoose
        link
        11 hour ago

        You have to have a license to do that in the US. It’s not super hard to get but not as easy as just buying a drone.

  • @sosodev
    link
    21 hour ago

    The only one I’ve heard of working really well was 3D printing copyrighted material that is usually way overpriced. Board game pieces, figurines, etc.

  • @Hikermick
    link
    11 hour ago

    I haven’t known anyone to do this but I always thought managing social media accounts for small businesses would be a good side hustle. A steakhouse restaurant nearby went out of business in a year. They spent a ton of money on remodeling and a billboard with a logo but weren’t even listed on Google Maps. I’ll wager some businesses would be willing to barter in order to keep things simple

  • Tiefling IRL
    link
    fedilink
    53 hours ago

    My Etsy shop hit a very niche market and was pulling around $3k a year. I didn’t put any effort into advertising, it kinda did that on its own

    I’m also a performer which is a great side hustle for my creative fulfillment, but pays nearly nothing

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      11 hour ago

      You don’t have to confirm/deny - but I’m going to pretend this niche is selling tiefling horns/ears.

    • @MrVilliam
      link
      English
      11 hour ago

      By “performer” do you mean musician? Playing bars or coffee shops here and there? I’ve done that for a free drink or two here and there. I think that would be one of my retirement activities if I had loads of free time, but it takes a lot of energy to set it all up and be “on” regularly while also working full time.

      • Tiefling IRL
        link
        fedilink
        21 hour ago

        I’m a fire and sideshow performer weirdly enough, we’re a dying breed. I mostly do shows at bars and host my own, but every now and then I get a nicer gig that pays a bit more, like at a faire.

        • @ericbombOP
          link
          148 minutes ago

          Oh man I loved when Evermore (RIP) had fire dancers. But it was funny because for their major events they would hire super skilled pros, then their daily shows they would have a staff member that they had taught or was a hobbyist before being hired. They were fun and skilled, but the difference was very obvious in variety of tricks and number of failed tricks.

          Which makes sense considering their financial troubles, but imagine being that fire dancer on staff being like “Super hyped for tonight’s show!” and them just being like “Ahh, did no one tell you? We hired someone for five times your nightly wage to do tonight’s show cause they’re a lot better”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    194 hours ago

    I wish I had some good ones but I’ll be watching this thread.

    What I can say is that anyone on youtube that’s got a channel dedicated to a particular hustle is no longer making their money doing that hustle. They are an influencer now.

    • @ericbombOP
      link
      73 hours ago

      Oh yeah all the influencer side hustles are straight trash.

      My friend if you actually made $1000 a day working 2 hour, you wouldn’t be uploading here my dude!

  • sunzu2
    link
    fedilink
    22 hours ago

    Stay at home mom watching another kid (legally dubious depending on state/situation. But I ain’t no narc.)

    Wtf is u talking about?

      • sunzu2
        link
        fedilink
        152 minutes ago

        the fact pattern you provided mother watching another child with her own… i don’t think that would quality anywhere but i did not check all the rules.

        if they are running something resembling a commercial operation that would be a different story.

        • @ericbombOP
          link
          1
          edit-2
          45 minutes ago

          It fully depends on if you’re doing it at your house, or the house of the child you are watching, and the state.

          But the rules don’t matter as long as no one is a narc!

          “For instance, most states and territories do not require an in-home child care provider to be licensed if they provide care on an occasional basis, provide care in your home, or are related to the children in their care.”

          Which my thing “might” break.

    • @Nurse_Robot
      link
      21 hour ago

      Running illegal home daycares is a thing

      • sunzu2
        link
        fedilink
        11 hour ago

        why would a person watching a child or two be considered a day care?

        • @Hikermick
          link
          31 hour ago

          Getting paid for it crosses a threshold I’ll bet

          • sunzu2
            link
            fedilink
            11 hour ago

            do baby sitters register? i never heard of this.

            Are y’all spit balling here or do you have an actual example to substitute this claim?

            • @Hikermick
              link
              11 hour ago

              Try googling it. It my state day cares must be registered and it looks like there’s lots of regulations. If there is any government funding you can bet your britches there are inspections.

              • sunzu2
                link
                fedilink
                156 minutes ago

                we are talking about a specific fact pattern here. OP made unsubstantiated allegation, you are not willing to produce any evidence either…

                day care business is heavily regulated, you are stretching applicability of these laws to a mother baby sitting another child.

                people do nany share all the time with out having to check with in daddy government lol

                also… wtf are you talking about “government funding”, is this government funding in the room with us right now?

                when does government “fund” child care? at best they give you few grand of pre-tax income to be used for it in the world where it starts at 20K🤡

                • @Hikermick
                  link
                  150 minutes ago

                  My state will subsidize child care for parents under a certain income. Nobody is saying anyone will get in trouble for babysitting family members. You could simply Google it and save yourself some typing and a whole lot of embarrassment

  • @_bcron_
    link
    English
    63 hours ago

    If I ever picked up a side hustle, it’d be basic editing. ChatGPT has displaced the ghost writer but it can’t polish its own turd.

    • @ericbombOP
      link
      73 hours ago

      Editing ChatGPT generated content sounds soul crushing tbh.

      • @_bcron_
        link
        English
        2
        edit-2
        2 hours ago

        I think the thing that would keep me sane is that I’m fascinated in trying to figure out how a single AI-generated paragraph can be accurately detected.

        But yeah, the common permutation of multiple pargraphs, the first starting with reaffirm/validate/reiterate is downright obnoxious.

        ‘I’m sorry to hear you’re having such difficulties with editing ChatGPT-generated content. It can be challenging and even frustrating at times, but with’ lol

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    124 hours ago

    Dog hotel. I’ve a dog. I take in other dogs when their owners are on holiday. Walking 2 dogs isn’t much more work than walking 1.

    • @UnrepentantAlgebra
      link
      53 hours ago

      Taking on one extra dog for a few days seems like the easiest, most chill way to make a little money on the side if you are careful about which dogs you take. Those people who sit 4+ dogs at a time are insane but must pull in a good bit of money.

    • @ericbombOP
      link
      2
      edit-2
      33 minutes ago

      That makes sense! If they are similar to my dog, I probably wouldn’t notice that much, and if they provided the food and stuff, I wouldn’t need to charge much.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠
    link
    fedilink
    124 hours ago

    My wife does the furniture flipping thing. I don’t think we make any money on it — but we have much nicer furniture than we could afford otherwise and between reselling the items we get rid of the low prices we pay for the incoming, we’re certainly not spending money on it, either, and that’s counting the cost of renting trucks to move it around.

    • @ericbombOP
      link
      43 hours ago

      Well getting nice furniture from a hobby sounds pretty chill regardless!

      Every now and then my eyes pop at the cost of new furniture.

  • @Brkdncr
    link
    44 hours ago

    Furnace/water heater replacement.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        43 hours ago

        Only if you have good pressure on cold water but weak pressure on hot.

        Whole house suggests an issue with the supply line, for example an old galvanized pipe which is filling with rust deposits.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        12 hours ago

        European here without education for a plumber, just barely scratched the profession for a few years.

        Low water pressure occurs in bigger complexes with a pipe to small for the consumers. The water pressure in suburbans and cities comes directly from the local water station.

        If you have issues with this, there are special armatures for low water pressure.

        The cheapest improvement is replacing the water disperser with a current one.

        Other then that, one could install a pump to improve the water pressure, but these things are expensive and have high maintainability costs due to pumping drinking water, not water in a heater pipe.

  • @finitebanjo
    link
    44 hours ago

    Carpet cleaning.

    Get yourself a van with all of the included equipment used for like $5K to $15k and you can charge businesses and rental properties about $300 per cleaning, only takes about an hour or two tops. 50 jobs and the equipment is paid off.