Side hustles are a great way to increase your income without drastically changing existing life commitments. You can use the extra income from easy side hustles to help save for a big goal, pay off debt, increase your investments, or just help with monthly expenses.
It’s worth noting, that many popular side hustles are businesses and may require learning how to make money with a blog for beginners or another type of freelancing.
While these side hustle ideas offer real profit potential, they require an up-front investment of time and usually money, too. You typically can’t start making money as a blogger or freelancer overnight since it’ll take time to grow your readership or gain clients.
But don’t despair just yet! You can begin many side hustles today or this weekend to start making money immediately and with time, patience, and effort you can grow your side hustles to earn more!
Check out these 14 easy side hustles to make money you can start working on today:
14 Easy side hustles to make money fast
If you need extra cash now and don’t have time to invest in starting your own business, don’t worry—you can still be part of the gig economy.
It’s simple to get started with these side hustles.
In fact, many of these picks are side hustles from home to help you make a quick buck. For some of them, you don’t even have to leave the house!
1. Work as a virtual assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) is basically a personal assistant who takes care of virtual tasks.
For instance, you’ll likely schedule appointments, respond to customer emails, complete travel bookings, do data entry, etc.
To learn how to become a virtual assistant with no experience, you need a good computer with a stable internet connection. You also need to be pretty tech-savvy, organized, and good at multitasking.
This is one of the side hustles from home with the biggest profit potential. If you find enough clients, you can even turn it into a full-time business to earn a full-time income! Indeed says, the average wage for a virtual assistant is $27/hour.
If you don’t want to start a business and are just looking for an easy side hustle, you can pick up small VA gigs on websites like Task Rabbit and also Upwork.
2. Become a senior sitter or companion
Forbes reports on the growing phenomenon of aging in place. In other words, more senior citizens are choosing to live out their golden years at home instead of in a nursing home.
This means they need someone to be with them when their primary caregiver is away. It’s not only a great side hustle to make money, but it’s a great way to care for others and give back to the community!
You can find senior sitter or companion gigs on Care.com, where you can, on average, earn between $16 and $22 an hour. Care.com says this rate will vary depending on where you live and on what extra services you provide.
3. Become a Lyft or Uber driver
Driving for Lyft or for Uber is one of the easiest side hustles—and one of the fastest ways to make money.
As a driver, you can work whenever you want, day or night. You can even make extra pay during peak hours, like rush hour.
And the pay is pretty good! According to ZipRecruiter, the national average for an Uber driver is $15/hour.
Remember, though, that you’ll need a car (with insurance) and a cell phone. You’ll also have to pay for gas.
Pro tip: Become a driver for both apps to maximize your number of possible clients.
4. Shop and deliver groceries
Maybe you’re interested in a delivery side hustle, but you don’t want to be face-to-face with strangers in your car. Instead, you can work with InstaCart or also Shipt to shop and deliver groceries.
It’s simple. You get an order. You go to the store and shop.
Then, you deliver the groceries to the customer’s door. Easy, right?
Indeed says InstaCart shoppers make between $8 and $24 an hour. Bear in mind that you’ll make more money if you shop AND deliver instead of just doing the shopping.
5. Become a user tester
Looking for easy side hustles from home? Consider becoming a user tester!
Companies want feedback on their products and services—and they’re willing to pay for it. When you become a user tester, you’ll usually test out websites and apps and then give your feedback.
According to UserTesting, the compensation is about $10 per test. It’s not a lot of cash, but the tests are usually short and simple.
In addition to UserTesting, another reputable company to work with is Analysia.
6. Deliver food from restaurants
Not into shopping? Here’s another delivery side hustle to check out.
This one requires no face-to-face contact, and you don’t have to go shopping. Instead, you deliver food from restaurants to people’s doors.
To deliver food, you can work with Grubhub, DoorDash, or Uber Eats, for example.
According to ZipRecruiter, the national average earnings for a GrubHub driver is $17/hour. Don’t forget, though, that these rates vary depending on which state you live in.
7. Start driving for Amazon Flex
Finally, here’s one more delivery side hustle—and it has nothing to do with food.
For an easy side hustle, you can drive for Amazon Flex. This means you’ll deliver Amazon packages to people’s homes. All you have to do is schedule hourly blocks when you want to work, pick up the packages, and then start making deliveries!
Amazon says most Amazon Flex drivers earn between $18 and $25 per hour. (Again, rates will depend on where you live.)
8. Take online surveys
This next side hustle from home is pretty similar to user testing. Market research companies also want to know people’s opinions on different products and topics—and they’ll pay you to answer surveys.
Note that the pay per survey will vary depending on the length and intensity of each survey. Dscout says that most of their surveys (called “missions”) pay between $25 and $150—but they can pay less or more depending on the time spent completing the survey.
Another great thing about this side hustle is that you can do it from anywhere! For example, you can pull out your phone in the grocery line and take a quick survey to make a few bucks.
You can start answering surveys by making an account with User Interviews, Survey Junkie, or Dscout.
9. Tutor online
You don’t have to be an expert in a subject to tutor young students in high school or middle school. So if you can still rock simple math, you’re great at English or history, or you know a foreign language, then consider becoming an online tutor.
You can connect with students online via Tutor.com, also TutorMe, and Studypool.
And the pay isn’t so bad, either! Depending on the subject and difficulty level, Indeed says you can make between $11 and $35 per hour as an online tutor.
10. Teach English online
If you would rather teach than tutor, why not teach English online? This is a wildly popular side hustle to make money that you can do whenever you want from your home.
VIPKid is one of the most well-known websites for teaching English online.
Their website states they pay $7 to $9 per 25-minute class. If that doesn’t sound like too much, know that VIPKid will provide you with all the teaching materials, so you don’t have to do any prep. This gives you the potential to make between $14 and $18 per hour.
Note, however, that VIPKid requires you to have a bachelor’s degree—and they prefer candidates with some teaching experience.
11. Rent out a spare room with Airbnb
This isn’t a fit for everyone, but if you have a spare room, then consider this easy side hustle!
Truly, this is an opportunity to try one of the best passive income ideas. All you have to do is clean the room before and after the guest’s stay. (Or you can use the cleaning fee to pay someone to do this for you!)
How much you make renting out a spare room will vary greatly depending on where you live. Airbnb says 80% of private rooms are priced under $100 per night, with a typical cost of $67 per night. But if you live somewhere tourists want to go, you can potentially earn over $100 per night!
12. Babysit
Another great side hustle to make money is good, old-fashioned babysitting.
Babysitting services are always in demand—and people are willing to pay. Indeed says, the national average rate for a babysitter is $19/hour (though this can be a higher or lower amount depending on where you live).
To start babysitting, get the word out around town with people you know. You can also look for gigs right away on Care.com.
13. Launch your retail arbitrage business
What’s retail arbitrage? Basically, you buy things for cheap, fix them up, and then sell them at a higher price.
The most popular niches for retail arbitrage are clothing and furniture. Here’s what you have to do:
- Go to thrift shops and/or flea markets
- Find hidden gems
- Make any necessary repairs (e.g., replace missing buttons on a shirt or re-upholster a stuffed chair)
- Sell the goods online at a higher price
You can sell your upcycled goods on Amazon, eBay, and also Poshmark, etc.
Note that you will need some cash up-front in order to make the purchases and repairs, so this side hustle option isn’t for everyone.
Just remember: If you don’t have the cash for this side hustle, do not go into debt for it! There are plenty of other easy side hustles to make money that you can try this weekend instead.
14. Petsit or walk dogs
If looking after kids is not your style, what about pets? If you’re a pet lover, then this is an awesome side hustle to make money because you get paid for spending time with animals. Plus, you get to set your own schedule.
You can plan regular walks with clients weeks in advance or just pick up a random walk when you have some extra time.
For help finding clients, try signing up for an account with Rover or Wag. Glassdoor says the average dog-walker earns $18/hour, but you can make more money if you petsit and host dogs at your home while their owners are away.
Expert tip
There are a lot of amazing possibilities for side hustles out there, like blogging, freelancing, photography, and selling jewelry or other artisan goods.
Businesses can be very lucrative, but they also require a lot of up-front work and expenses. For most people, you won’t make money with them overnight.
So if you need money right now, try opting for a side hustle where you work with an established company instead of starting your own. For example, you can work with Uber, Grubhub, or VIPKid.
How can I make $1,000 a month with a side hustle?
To make $1,000 a month with a side hustle, start by breaking down your money goals to make them achievable.
For example, $1,000 a month is $250 a week. You can reach this goal by starting easy side hustles from home like driving for Uber, delivering packages for Amazon Flex, or working as a virtual assistant, for example.
Then, come up with a business budget to help you tackle your goal. First, list any expenses for your side hustle. (For example, if you drive for Uber, you’ll have to pay for gas.)
Then open a separate checking account. It doesn’t have to be a specific business account, but it’s a good idea to separate your business finances from your personal finances. (Get answers for what you need to open a business bank account!)
Last, track what you earn—and where it goes.
Do you want to put your money towards debt? A savings goal? Monthly expenses? Investing?
Having a business budget for your side hustle is important because it helps you keep track of your expenses and income. This way, you can efficiently manage your expenses and reduce them where possible to maximize your profits.
What is the best side hustle?
The best side hustle for you is the one that fits your daily routine schedule and is easy for you to manage.
The good news is that there are many companies that can help you do this by letting you pick your own working hours.
For instance, you can pick your own hours if you drive for Lyft, deliver for Grubhub or Amazon, shop for Instacart, teach English on VIPKid, walk dogs for Wag, etc.
Remember the golden rule of side hustles: The best side hustle is the one that doesn’t hustle you.
What side hustle makes $100 a day?
If you want to make $100 a day with a side hustle, then becoming a driver is a great option. Whether you drive for Lyft, Uber, Amazon Flex, DoorDash, etc., most delivery driver gigs average out to about $25 per hour, which means you can make $100 in just a few hours.
If you don’t have a car or can’t otherwise work as a driver, another side hustle that can make $100 a day is being a virtual assistant. Plus, you can do this side hustle from home, so you can make extra cash without even leaving the house!
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Start your side hustle (and bring home cash) today!
These easy side hustles from home are simple to start—so you can start making money ASAP to help you save for short-term savings goals or pay off debt.
If you have more time to spend on a side hustle and do want to start your business, check out our founder Bola Sokunbi’s book titled, The Side Hustle Guide.