We bring to you best side hustles you can start today and begin to see massive cash flow to your bank account. Whether you want to start a side hustle to supplement your income or eventually leave your job to pursue something you’re passionate about, we are going to share eight ideas anyone can start.
We’ll also go over what you’ll need to get started, including startup costs, the difficulty level of each one, and how long it will realistically take to consistently generate $1,000 per month.
8 Best Side Hustles
Freelance Graphic Designer
The first idea is a freelance graphic designer. There are many different services you can offer here. Depending on what interests you, you could design logos, social media graphics, website assets, event stationery, and the list goes on.
You can be creating stationery for weddings and events, and eventually expand to branding and logo design for small business owners. This can be a very profitable and rewarding side hustle.
To get started, you’ll need to:
- Choose your graphic design software, whether that’s Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Kittle, or Canva as a few examples.
- Create an Instagram account where you can build your portfolio, showcase your work, and attract clients that are looking for your services.
- Reach out to people you know and offer to create something for free for them in exchange for their testimonial, and this will help you build your portfolio even quicker.
- Join Facebook groups where your potential clients are hanging out, network with them, and see who genuinely needs your help, not in a spammy way, but coming from a place of service.
So startup costs could vary from $0 to $50, depending on which graphic design software you choose to go with. Some platforms offer free versions that you could use for a while before having to invest anything.
The difficulty level is medium, because it does require creativity and design skill and some time to build out your portfolio.
You can give it about two to four months to hit your first $1,000 month with steady clients if you’re proactively showcasing your work and reaching out to people that may need your services.
Virtual Assistant
As an assistant, you could take on a variety of different tasks, depending on what your clients need help with.
But some examples would be:
- Administrative tasks like managing emails
- Providing customer service support
- Scheduling appointments, and managing a calendar.
- File management and organization for businesses or entrepreneurs.
To get started, you’ll most likely need a few apps and tools to be able to complete your tasks, like:
- Zoom for meetings with your clients.
- WhatsApp for daily communication.
- A graphic design software like Kittle or Canva to create social media graphics.
- Some sort of project management and organization tool like Notion.
It is highly recommended that you join Facebook groups for this one as well, because there are so many business owners that are actively looking for virtual assistants every day to help them unload their daily tasks so that they can focus on other aspects of their business. You can also look into platforms like Upwork or Freelancer, which are marketplaces that focus on this as well.
Startup costs for visual assistance is most likely would be $0 if you already have a laptop and internet, because you could just use the free version of all the tools that we mentioned to get started.
The difficulty level is easy for the most part, depending on what tasks you’re focusing on. The main skills you really need would be organization and communication, but the competition can be quite high.
So you need about one to three months to get your first two to three consistent clients and therefore hit your first $1,000 month, especially if you’re actively networking in communities and showcasing your skills.
Sell Online Courses
Okay we are shifting gears a little to a side hustle that could earn you passive income over time, and that’s to sell online courses.
You can create courses on pretty much any topic you know well, whether it be graphic design, social media marketing, parenting, fitness, cooking, or any area you feel you have experience in. The best part is once you create and publish your course, you can continue to sell it over and over again without having to do additional work.
To get started, you’ll need:
- A course creation platform like Teachable, Thinkific, or Kajabi, for example, to host and sell your course.
- Consider publishing your course on marketplaces like Skillshare or Udemy. For example, you can make thousands of dollars from the courses you published on Creative Fabrica. So that’s always an option if you want to utilize an existing audience already visiting a specific marketplace.
- A video recording setup, so a camera or a smartphone, good lighting, and a microphone.
- Depending on your course style, you might also need presentation software like PowerPoint or Canva to create your slides, plus editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro or iMovie.
- You’ll need a content strategy on social media for providing valuable content on a consistent basis to attract and grow your audience, which will eventually warm them up to investing in your course.
Startup costs vary, but it could go anywhere from $50 to $500, depending on the software and gear you decide on. It is always recommended that investing as little as possible when getting started because your content is so much more important than your production value.
The difficulty level is medium to hard for this because you do need a few elements in place to get started, like some basic gear and software, time and effort to create your course, and market it to an audience. But the rewards are very high if you do decide to put in the work upfront.
You will need anywhere from two to six months to hit your first $1,000 month. You can hit this much quicker if you already have an audience and depending on how much your course costs.
YouTube Content Creator
The next idea is YouTube content creator. You can start your own channel and literally create videos on any niche topic that you are passionate about. You can monetize through many different avenues like ads, sponsorships, affiliate links, and product sales.
To get started, you’ll need:
- A smartphone or a camera for recording.
- An external microphone. It could be a lav mic that just clips onto your shirt.
- Good lighting, which can literally be from a window.
- Video editing software.
You can also invest in a tool like TubeBuddy or vidIQ to help you brainstorm video topics for your specific niche and optimize your videos with SEO, which stands for search engine optimization.
Based on all of that, startup costs vary from $0 to $500 or more, depending on the gear and software you want to invest in. But honestly, it is recommended that you keep it low in the beginning.
The difficulty level is hard, because you do need to learn many different skills when starting out, like video editing, graphic design for thumbnails, SEO to help rank your videos, and storytelling to make your videos more engaging.
But although it can take time to improve your skills and grow your channel, the potential and rewards from this side hustle are truly endless. Reaching your first $1,000 month could take anywhere from 1 to 12 months with consistency.
And the reason this is such a wide range is because you can earn your first $1,000 in many different ways. It can take you just over 4 months to hit your first $1,000 because your channel can got monetized with ads in just over 3 months. But you could earn money way before your channel gets monetized with ads, especially if you’re using YouTube to promote your products and services.
Sell Digital Products
You can create and sell a variety of digital products like templates, planners, printables, ebooks, presets, or digital guides. The beauty of this side hustle is that you can create digital products in niches you’re passionate about or have expertise in.
Whether that’s personal finance, fitness, social media, relationships, parenting, baking, truly anything.
To get started, you’ll need a graphic design software like Kittle, Canva, Adobe Illustrator, or Photoshop to create high quality digital products that provide real value to your target audience.
You can sell these digital products on platforms like Payhip, Gumroad, Creative Fabrica, Creative Market, Etsy, or your own website. And this becomes another passive income stream because you create the product once and sell it multiple times without having to put in more work.
Startup costs are minimal, ranging from $0 to $50 depending on the design tools you choose to invest in and the platform fees depending on which one you go with.
The difficulty level is medium because it requires creativity, design skills and an understanding of what your target audience needs, as well as some marketing knowledge to promote your products.
It could take about two to six months of consistent product creation and marketing to hit your first $1,000 month, with the timeline varying based on your marketing efforts and the uniqueness of your products.
Freelance Writer
If you enjoy writing, then you can consider becoming a freelance writer, especially if you also understand the principles and benefits of SEO and marketing. You can create blog posts, articles, website copy, social media copy, email copy, and so much more for entrepreneurs and business owners.
You can specialize in specific niches like health, finance, or lifestyle, for example, to differentiate yourself from other copywriters and therefore reducing the competition.
To get started, you might want a tool like Grammarly for editing and SEO tools like Keywords Everywhere or Samrush to help optimize content for your clients. And similar to any freelancing jobs, you can look for writing opportunities on platforms like Upwork and Freelancer and join Facebook groups to network with entrepreneurs and business owners looking for a copywriter.
Startup costs could be minimal for this one, ranging from $0 to $50 for basic tools and subscriptions that you might need.
The difficulty level is medium, because it does require strong writing skills, the ability to conduct market research, and an understanding of SEO principles. It could take about two to four months with consistent effort and proactively seeking out clients to hit your first $1,000 month.
Social Media Manager
As a social media manager, you can help businesses and entrepreneurs create and execute social media strategies, design engaging content, interact with followers, and grow their online presence across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
To get started, you’ll need:
- A graphic design tool like Kittle or Canva for creating social media graphics.
- Maybe a scheduling tool like Later to manage and plan the content.
- Analytics tools to help track performance.
Startup costs could range from $0 to $100 depending on the tools and subscriptions you choose to invest in, and the difficulty level is medium because it does require creativity, design skills, understanding of social media trends, and the ability to create engaging content that resonates with different audiences.
It could take about two to four months of consistent effort to hit your first $1,000 month, and it could also be a really enjoyable and flexible side hustle depending on who you want to work with and how many clients you want to commit to each month.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where you earn commissions by promoting other companies’ products or services through platforms like blogs, YouTube, social media, or email marketing. The key is to recommend products you genuinely believe in and that align with your audience’s interests.
For example, you can use your Instagram account, to recommend platforms and tools that you actually use and love and that you feel your audience would benefit from, like Creative Fabrica and Kittle for creating digital products, and TubeBuddy and Epidemic Sound for YouTube growth, just to name a few.
To get started, think about:
- What niche you want to focus on and the audience you want to attract. This can be fashion, tech, health, business, or whatever you’re passionate about.
- Any platforms, tools, services, and products, whether that be digital or physical, that you use on a regular basis and that you could authentically recommend to your audience.
- Visit that brand’s website and look for something that mentions affiliates or partners and apply for their program. If you don’t see anything like that on their website, then contact them and ask if they have an affiliate program that you can join.
Once you’ve joined some programs, you’ll need to consistently create valuable content that attracts and builds trust with a niche audience and where you can strategically incorporate affiliate recommendations.
Startup costs for the most part should be $0 if we’re not including the costs of the products and services that you’re already paying for.
Now the difficulty level for this would be hard, because it does require building a significant audience, creating high quality content, understanding SEO, and developing the ability to persuade your audience to take action through your recommendations.
It could take about 5 to 6 months to hit your first $1,000 month, and this highly depends on your existing audience and your content strategy.
Conclusion
Want to start a side hustle at home while working full time? Then this guide have provided 8 side hustle ideas anyone can start today.
Learn how to make money online with these best side hustles and passive income ideas.
