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?

  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    1 month 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.

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 month 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!

  • iii@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month 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@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month 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.

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month 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@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 month 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.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Buddy of mine picked up old washers and dryers for free or close enough. Fixed and flipped 'em on eBay marketplace. Made several hundred a week.

    The genius is that those appliances are easy to work on and usually have compatible parts. I went over to get a part from him and there were only 2 that fit all American washers.

    I used to pick up vacuum cleaners on my paper route. Got stoned at night and cleaned them, maybe added a new belt and bag, perfect. Sold for $20 a pop. (This was in the 90s).

    Another friend used to go out with her husband early on trash days and pick up free stuff by the road. Had a garage sale every Saturday, 6-7 hours tops, made $300-$400. “We take our neighbor’s trash and sell it back to them!”

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Scalpers = bad

      Fixing expensive things and selling them cheaper than new = based

      They get money, buyer gets a cheaper appliance, OG person got what they thought was junk hauled away. 10/10 business.

      Saving perfectly good things from the dump = based

      Seriously, just post on marketplace “Free thing sitting out on corner of XYZ, no holds, I’ll let you know if it’s there or not” So much really good stuff ends up at the dump out of laziness.

      I just do love side hustles that actually make a positive impact on their community, and I think all those do for sure do.

  • Shimitar@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    Side hustles should be hobbies and done with no need to monetize them.

    What the fuck, your job should be enough to support you and live, which includes free time to enjoy your life and hobbies.

    But I understand, and more than once in my life I had to look for side hustles.

    • 🖖USS-Ethernet@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yea, everyone keeps telling me I should be selling my 3D prints. I don’t want to have to deal with logistics and customers. I just want to 3D print cool shit.

      • Shimitar@feddit.it
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 month ago

        Also, knowledge and sharing has been critical for advancement of human civilization. Imagine if scientists where to sell their research instead of publishing it(*) where would be today?

        • = I mean, you might have to pay to read those publications, but they are literally free and can ask the authors for a copy free in most cases…
        • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          I’m doing online college atm, and there is a forum post assignment each week.

          I dread having to respond to my other “class mates” because half of them are clearly using AI. Like having to read a single sentence of AI slop makes me lose the will to live. Spending my mental energy to read something no one was willing to put in the energy to write is not what I wanna spend my days doing.

          The school, like all universities, are working on new policies. But it’s just so painful to prove someone is using AI beyond a reasonable doubt. Sometimes folks accidentally include something where the answer basically includes something like “as an AI” , and those generally get removed quickly and I don’t see that student post ever again. Or someone posted code where in it there was a comment that said “Then you can repeat this process to write the rest of the program”

          So yeah, if you made a game out of catching AI slop, more power to you. You are a stronger, or more deranged, internet user than me.

  • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 month ago

    Scrap metal. I always leave my scrap metal out on trash day next to the trash can. A guy in a pickup will come around and get it. I would have to save it up for years for it to be worth a single trip, but he’s getting a full load or two every day. I’m sure I’ve lost out on a few hundred bucks over the years.

    I’m sure if you started an electronics recycling company or a clean out business you could get people to pay you to take their stuff.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      There’s a dude in our town that has a lot where everyone dumps their scrap metal and he takes it to recycle. It’s pretty rad since our local trash service won’t take it (even though they dump everything together, including recyclables, at the transfer station to be hauled off to the dump out of town).

    • TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Ex con neighbor started a junk hauling business after he couldn’t get hired.

      Dude was making it but was definitely busting his ass daily. Ended up needing to expand and get another trailer.

  • Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 month 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@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month 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.

        • yonder@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 month ago

          I know here in Canada if a drone is 250g or under, you don’t need a license. I’m pretty sure that maby of the camera-drone manufactuers make variants that are just under 250g to make them more accessible.

  • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 month 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

    • MrVilliam@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month 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@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 month 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.

        • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month 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”

  • Hikermick@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 month 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

    • Oka@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      Can low water pressure in the whole house be attributed to a bad water heater?

      • iii@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 month ago

        Low water pressure is usually a sign of low water pressure.

      • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 month 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.

        • BCsven@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 month ago

          Ours was exactly that, the oulet and inlet pipes in the tank corroded badly. Cold pressure fine, hot pressure was flow restricted

      • 7dev7random7@suppo.fi
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 month 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.

      • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        Bad PRV (Pressure Reducing Valve). They only last so long. If you have high water pressure (over 120psi) coming in they last a few years tops. If that’s the case, get one with 2 diagrams and it’ll last you 10 years at a minimum.

    • Pixel@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      There are lots of states that will straight up ban you from doing this without a gasfitter ticket.

  • sosodev@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 month 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.

  • Pistcow@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Higher education tripled my income, so that seemed to work, and I dont have to do anything but sit in an office 40 hours a week.

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Bahaha that is pretty awesome.

      I’ve “debated” doing that, since I’m debt free aside from mortgage and have a good credit score, so I could probably open enough cards to get the cycle moving. But the research to find the best hidden gems of reward programs is probably hard.

      Other thing I’ve seen people with great credit scores do is basically put EVERYTHING on 0% intro credit cards, pay minimums, save all the money in a HYSA or a mutual fund, then pay off the balance right before the 0% ends, and then open a new 0% card and repeat. Which seems finicky, but basically gives yourself a 4-8% raise if you set it up to just take care of itself automatically.