Why start a side hustle?
First things first: because the extra money is nice. An extra $1,000 a month can go a long way towards paying off debt, saving for a down payment on a home, or making progress toward other financial goals.
But there's another benefit. And it’s one that can far outweigh those extra earnings.
Side hustles can increase your career capital.
If you're not familiar with the concept, career capital is the "skills, connections, and credentials that put you in a better position to make a difference in the future."
Building career capital increases your self-sufficiency and earning power so you can always have a skillset to fall back on when you need it.
The best side hustles offer you the best of both worlds: they let you earn money online, while also increasing your skills, connections, and credentials. In doing so, they help you build a foundation for future success.
And while making an extra $1,000 every month is great, it’s this skill-building benefit that’s really going to give you the upper hand in the future.
How to Evaluate a Side Hustle Idea
There are thousands of articles online about different side hustle ideas.
More often than not beginners read these articles as a source of inspiration, with the hope that finding an easy side hustle will get them from $0 to $1,000 in no time.
Sorry to tell you the bad news, but your side hustle idea won’t work unless you do.
It’s true that some ideas are better than others — but only in the context of where you’re at today and where you want to go.
So instead of just scanning the below list and hoping that something clicks, try to look at each idea from the perspective of how it can help you in the long-run and help you build skills and experience in the meantime.
With that in mind, here are two questions you should be considering with each idea.
Are You Building Off Existing Career Capital?
Starting from scratch in any field is difficult. As such, Think about what skills, connections, and credentials you have today that:
- People are paying money for, and
- Build off your existing valuable skills and abilities
For example, if your full-time job is in digital marketing, choose a side hustle that can help you build valuable skills in digital marketing, such as SEO or paid media buying.
Does It Get You Closer to Your Long-Term Goals?
Before starting a side hustle, take the time to think about your end goal. Do you want to turn your side hustle into a full-time career freelancing, or would you like to run a business of your own?
If so, what types of skills do you need to earn the best rates possible?
Or what knowledge Is needed to launch, run and grow the type of business you want to operate?
Let’s say your long-term goal is to run your own dropshipping business. There are a lot of skills that come in handy including copywriting, design, and conversion rate optimization (just to name a few).
Becoming very good at one of these skills, while getting paid to do so, will increase your chances of having a successful dropshipping store.
Better yet, see if you can find work with an already-successful dropshipper. This gets you a behind-the-scenes look at how a successful dropshipping business is run.
Side Hustle Ideas That Can Make You Money and Build Career Capital
1. Sell Stuff Online
One of the fastest ways to make money is by selling what you already own.
Used electronics, home furnishings, clothes, books, sports equipment, and collections are popular categories on general marketplaces like eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Amazon.
There are a number of niche marketplaces like Poshmark, or even starting an online store selling vintage or thrift clothing you found with your own eye for style.
What Skills You’re Building: Selling online, product photography, marketing, product description, and working with an online marketplace.
Great product photography and descriptions give you a chance to hone your copywriting skills. You’ll get a chance to build your market research skills when you’re deciding what to sell (and where). And you’ll get quick feedback on how well you did when you see whether your products sell!
In an effort to understand what does and doesn’t work, you may even try to buy something and then resell it for a profit as an experiment — all the while making note of what mistakes the seller made (and how you would do things differently).
2. Freelance Writing
Freelance writing is one of the most popular side hustle ideas, and for good reason: freelance writers are in high demand. One study found that 84% of B2B marketers outsource content creation.
The fact that it’s so easy to start a freelance writing side hustle is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can create a few samples and start applying for jobs online today. On the other, it means competition is fierce.
Those who succeed offer something above and beyond which can often mean bringing expert knowledge in a particular topic. As such, it’s worth considering your current expertise and using that as a starting point to attract clients.
What Skills You’re Building: Clearly communicating your ideas is a valuable skill that benefits you throughout your life. Freelance writing can also help build valuable hard skills like content strategy and SEO.
3. Graphic, Audio, and Video Editing
Knowing how to create and edit graphics, audio, and/or video is an extremely valuable side hustle in today’s marketplace.
These are all separate skills, however, they are increasingly valuable as podcasts, video consumption, and graphic sites like Pinterest continue to increase.
If you’re looking to work on these skills and eventually turn them into a side hustle, start by taking free online courses on Adobe Creative Suite. Start off with a free trial and work on getting really good at all of these universal programs.
What Skills You’re Building: Picking one of these creative skills has a lot of benefits. From the marketing perspective, more and more businesses are using creative elements such as video and images in their content and advertising. This allows you to get up close to what works and what doesn’t when offering your creative services.
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