this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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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?

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[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 45 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.world 19 points 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 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

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.

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[–] Nemo 31 points 1 month ago (8 children)

My wife does the furniture flipping thing. I don't think we make any money on it β€” 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.

[–] ericbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month 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.

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[–] Shimitar@feddit.it 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] USSEthernet@startrek.website 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Liz@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some people enjoy making it a little low-pressure business.

[–] Shimitar@feddit.it 5 points 1 month ago

Nothing wrong with that!

Just saying that not necessarily everything should be about money.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.world 8 points 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.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Churning. The art of spending money in a circle using accounts that offer rewards.

I knew a guy who had like 50 credit cards and 25 bank accounts. He could move money in circles all month, and get like $100k/year in cash back rewards on top of his $100k/year job. His credit report said he spent $8M a year on credit cards. His credit score was 845.

He also pretty much flew for free, and he flew all the time. There were a few mileage programs in his little scheme.

As far as I can tell, 100% legal. The banks just make frequent changes to their offerings to make it hard to do.

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[–] Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Good excuse to buy a drone.

[–] IMongoose@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] IMongoose@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The license is for commercial purposes:

https://fosterfollynews.net/2022/05/23/federal-aviation-administration-fines-realtor-11000-for-hiring-unlicensed-drone-pilots/

What you can do with your pictures and video is limited without it. You can't even donate such pictures to a school or non-profit or something. Basically if someone could make money doing it, you can't without a license.

The weight of the drone has nothing to do with selling the media.

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[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

organising violence against the state.

I've already said too much.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

If you’re willing to do that for the US state, there’s certainly money to be made.

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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.

[–] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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).

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[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Knife sharpening. Not hard to learn how to do it decently, and hard to find someone who can do it decently. The equipment is not too expensive either. 40$ for a good coarse stone (you will need one!!!) And 40$ for a decent combo stone of medium and fine. You probably want a good flattening stone too.

DONT use amazon, all of the stones there are scams. A good coarse stone is a Naniwa lobster 220. A good combo stone is the KING KDS 1000/6000.

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[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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

[–] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

^ has never worked in the google ads hell pit

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[–] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Tech support for elderly.

I don't want to start it yet because of the obligation and enjoyment of free time. Once it starts reputation is everything, especially with the demographic.

You need patience, kindness, and a general enjoyment in helping others.

Have seen the need. And will increase as time goes on.

Support extending to personal traxjing sessions as well as just fixing basic shit.

One day.

[–] ericbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Honestly just convincing old folks that "Hey whenever something stressful happens on your computer, please for the love of god just call me."

Is worth its weight in gold to prevent scams. A big thing scammer prey on is shame, blaming the individual. If there is someone they have paid to help them and trust to help them with any issue without judgement, I would hope they would lean on that person when scared by a scammer. So as long as it's for the right reasons I can see how cool that could be!

I do like the computer literacy classes that get ran for older folks, and the ones about avoiding scams. So I can see how this can be good!

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[–] tehevilone@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The thing about IT for older folks is you have to be up for conversation too. Most of the customers I have only get out for church, so if I come out to see them it might be the first conversation they've had in days.

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[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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

[–] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Flaming nipple tassels

You read that right πŸ˜‚

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[–] sosodev@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] ericbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

A little bit of legally dubious action to pay the bills and siphon money from billion dollar companies never hurt nobody!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FW99X9Z?psc=1

$50 dollars for THREE, UNASSEMBLED, and UNPAINTED minis? Yeah man, I ain't gonna question why the texture of your warhammer minis are different. Game on.

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[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Furnace/water heater replacement.

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[–] grrgyle 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Photographer seems like a good one. I've a friend who works four days a week, and occasionally fills in the extra day or weekend with a quick professional photo shoot.

Edits in the evenings while rewatching movies.

It's pretty chill. That one day off actually earned them more than if they worked five days a week, even if they only work it once in a while.

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[–] fckreddit@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] grrgyle 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why /s? I feel like this is the perfect example if you can get away with only doing it part time. I have an aunt who does foot stuff on there and seems to do pretty well

[–] fckreddit@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)
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