100 Side Hustles: Unexpected Ideas for Making Extra Money Without Quitting Your Day Job

Introduction

Each morning at 6:01 a.m. eastern time, I publish a new episode of Side Hustle School, my daily podcast. Every story features someone who creates a moneymaking project without quitting their job. On average, forty thousand people download or stream it over the next seven days, and then many more listen later. Since I started the show on January 1, 2017, the stories have been downloaded more than twenty million times.

But why? Why do people keep listening week after week and month after month, even though the essential lessons of starting a side business don’t change much from day to day? I’ve thought a lot about this question, and I’ve heard a lot of feedback from listeners.

As it turns out, people love the idea of making money without quitting their day jobs.

Earning extra money without having to give up the stability of an existing job is a powerful motivator. And more than anything else, we respond to stories.

For instance, Teresa Greenway (this page) didn’t know much about the world of online education, and she wasn’t particularly skilled with technology. She’d recently hit a rough patch in life, leaving an abusive relationship, raising a son with autism, and even going on food stamps to supplement her meager income as a motel housekeeper. Through it all, one of her favorite things to do was bake. And in particular, she loved to bake sourdough bread.

Everything changed when Teresa’s daughter suggested she teach a course on baking bread. Instead of putting up flyers and renting space in her local community center, Teresa signed up with an online service that would allow her to sell the course to anyone online. Using cheap equipment, she filmed Sourdough Bread Baking 101, and then released it to the world. That course produced $25,000 in net income for Teresa—a truly life-changing amount for her at the time. The next year, she created half a dozen other courses and made $85,000, more money than she’d ever made in her life. With the profits from her courses, Teresa was able to make a down payment on the first home she’s ever owned.

Or consider Kyler Russell (this page), who started his side hustle with a little help from his mom, Brandi, when he was just eight years old. Kyler loved baseball, but he didn’t love the uncomfortable athletic cup he had to wear.

Brandi and Kyler created a much better cup, one that was more comfortable but still provided the necessary protection. Then they learned how to make it in bulk and sell it to parents of other young athletes. The Comfy Cup is now manufactured in Hong Kong and then shipped by the case to Lenexa, Kansas, where the whole family is involved in mailing the finished product to customers.

It’s not just a nice story—it’s also a profitable one: the Comfy Cup is selling at a rate of more than $10,000 a month. They currently have a proposal in with Walmart, and are hoping to break six figures in annual profits soon.

These aren’t startup stories of people risking it all, going around in search of investors to rescue them. They’re stories of regular people with jobs, responsibilities, and busy lives, who start moneymaking projects in their limited time.

Most of the people featured in this book didn’t even consider themselves entrepreneurs when they started out. Many still don’t. They just wanted to make some extra money while holding on to the stability of the jobs they already had.

Some of these people might earn an extra $1,000 a month. Some go on to earn much more, sometimes even multiple six figures a year—and some of them have indeed gone on to quit their jobs. Whatever the outcome, most of us can relate to these inspiring stories precisely because they are about regular people doing things that almost anyone can do.

I wanted to gather some of my favorite stories from the show and present them to you in this visual compilation. Maybe they’ll give you an idea for a side hustle of your own, or maybe you’ll just enjoy seeing what other people have done.

Either way, I hope that you’ll find these stories as inspiring and engaging as I do.

Yours in the hustle,

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

There are a lot of facts, figures, and anecdotes mentioned in this book. Financial details were supplied by the people featured in the story, but with so many different case studies in dozens of locations, I probably got something wrong—and by the time you read this, some of the info may have changed. In addition, some of the side hustles and websites featured here may no longer be active, or the people that run them may have switched to another focus of operations. This is normal. You don’t have to do the same project forever, nor do you have to do it in the same way. In other words: the details will change with time, but the principles are timeless.

Real People, Real Money

Earning real money on the side isn’t a fantasy—it’s real life. Consider how these people created income and security for themselves, often in surprising ways.

South Carolina Man Learns to Make Candles by Watching YouTube

Woman on Food Stamps Earns $178,000 Teaching People to Bake Bread

Flight Attendant Touches Down on Super Bowl Profit

Saddles for Pet Chickens: Yes, This Is a Thing!

Operations Manager Manages to Make Heavy Furniture Light

Law Student Creates Morning Routine Journal

SIDE HUSTLE LABS: What Is a Side Hustle?

SOUTH CAROLINA MAN LEARNS TO MAKE CANDLES BY WATCHING YOUTUBE

NAME

MARC GASKINS

LOCATION

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

STARTUP COSTS

$200

INCOME

$43,000/YEAR

WEBSITE

MEETINGANDMARKET.COM

After coming across handmade scented candles in a boutique shop, one man starts his own candle-making company.

In historic Charleston, South Carolina, Marc Gaskins owns and operates a kitchen equipment business, which provides commercial equipment on wheels for wedding venues. The business is predictable, based largely on the spring and fall wedding seasons. Demand slows to a trickle during the cold winter months as well as the hot summer months.

This job was originally a side gig he did while he was bartending. When the bar he worked at burned to the ground, the kitchen equipment business became Marc’s full-time job. (Another important reason to start a side hustle: You never know when you may have to rely on it.)

During the downtime in his new job, Marc began his new hustle: buying wholesale candles from a local company and selling them on Amazon.com. He’d place orders to the company, they’d ship the candles to Amazon, customers would order, and Amazon would ship the candles to the customer. The model is called Fulfillment by Amazon, and you’ll read about it in a few other stories throughout the book.

That was a nice starter project. Soon, however, Marc realized he’d make more money if he manufactured and sold his own brand of candles. His aha moment was when he walked into an upscale men’s store in Austin, Texas, and saw a nine-ounce candle selling for a whopping $85. On the flight home, he began to develop his own brand. He called it Meeting and Market.*1

How do you learn to make candles if you’ve never done such a thing? Well, you do it just like the ancient Egyptians did: you log on to YouTube!

Marc took pages of notes while watching countless video tutorials from a company called Candle Science, which happens to be the largest purveyor of DIY candle supplies in the country. After his free education was complete, he went to a craft store, bought some supplies, and started messing around. He gave away more than two hundred candles to friends and family as part of the trial-and-error process, which contained more errors than works of art.

His initial candles were white wax in clear glass with a white label. The design felt very retro—and not in a good way. He wanted something more modern, so he started searching far and wide for glassware until he found an amber cube he really liked. With the new glassware and a redesigned label, sales took off.

The biggest issues Marc has dealt with have been with supplies: glassware shortages, label issues, a bad batch of wax, a bad batch of oil that didn’t mix well with the wax, and so forth. He also worries about receiving large orders and not being able to meet people’s needs due to glassware issues.

Marc’s candles cost about $7.50 to make, and he sells them for $16 wholesale, $25 at markets, and $32 retail. Expenses include supplies, advertising, and the chunk of sales Amazon takes, so his net profit on Amazon is around 50 percent. In addition to selling on Amazon, he also sells at farmers’ markets and in some retail stores, as well as on Etsy and through his website. Popular scents include lavender chamomile, red ginger saffron, and blackberry sage.

In his second year of business, sales were $43,000. His goal is to make at least $5,000/month in Amazon sales, in addition to his other channels. Other goals include increasing wholesale buyers through trade shows, and eventually to make Meeting and Market a national home goods brand—all while continuing his commercial equipment business during the wedding season.

He’s burning the candle at both ends, but at least these candles pay him back in real money.

"I knew nothing about candles when I started, and don’t have a creative bone in my body. The coolest part for me has been figuring out this process." —Marc

FUN FACT After his cousin posted a photo of some personalized candles that Marc had made for his wedding, Marc received a lot of interest from people who wanted to purchase them. Without really trying, he found a new niche to focus on.

CRITICAL FACTOR

Expensive candles provided the inspiration, and YouTube served as his classroom. From there, Marc made batch after batch of candles, improving craftsmanship and branding each step of the way.

WOMAN ON FOOD STAMPS EARNS $178,000 TEACHING PEOPLE TO BAKE BREAD

NAME

TERESA GREENWAY

LOCATION

WESTPORT, WASHINGTON

STARTUP COSTS

MINIMAL

INCOME

$178,000 IN FIRST TWO YEARS

WEBSITE

NORTHWESTSOURDOUGH.COM

Overcoming a difficult situation, this woman rises to the top with a series of online courses teaching the art of baking sourdough bread.

Teresa Greenway’s love of baking began when one of her daughters decided to try to bake authentic sourdough bread. The daughter gave up after a month of trying, but not before making a passing comment that would change Teresa’s life: "No one can make real sourdough bread, Mom…not even you!"

Teresa liked a good challenge, and there’s nothing quite as motivating as someone saying you can’t do something. She would go on to try her hand at baking sourdough over and over, proving the prophecy wrong and becoming an expert baker. Unknowingly, the work she put in paid off years later as she was able to monetize her expertise on a website that broadcasts online courses all over the world.

But she wasn’t always a tech-savvy baking instructor. The year before her hobby became a serious source of cash, Teresa had just left an abusive relationship and had barely any income of her own. She had to juggle multiple part-time jobs, including one as a housekeeper at a motel. She was even surviving on food stamps for a while.

Teresa wasn’t able to work full-time because she had to care for her adult son, who had a disability—all while her mother was suffering from a terminal illness. The situation was bleak until she attended a workshop that opened her mind to starting a business. She then took some courses on the online learning platform Udemy, which gave her all the information she needed.

The courses were diverse, ranging from YouTube channel management to photography and video editing. They cost $10 each at a discounted price, but for her at the time, it was real money. It was also an investment in herself.

She had the idea to create her own course, and she had just the topic in mind: baking sourdough bread. She knew there was a market for online courses—after all, she had just purchased a few of her own. Perhaps it would be possible to create her own course, and then get others to buy it.

In those early days, Teresa didn’t have much in the way of fancy equipment. She had no professional camera or high-quality editing software. In fact, she didn’t even have a real kitchen. She used a makeshift space in her garage, with poor lighting and a cracked, stained concrete floor that didn’t exactly spell professionalism.

Nevertheless, she persisted. It took her four months to launch her own course, but she did it. The first month, she made a thousand dollars in revenue. By the end of the year, she had made more than $28,000. All from a course on baking bread!

And she wasn’t done. Sometimes the best form of marketing for your project is to think about extensions, where you create the next logical solution for people who’ve purchased the first version. That’s what Teresa did for her courses. She continued to create more Udemy courses over the next two years, eventually ending up with ten of them.

Did she branch out from baking? Nope…instead of going wide, Teresa went deep. Her next course was also about sourdough bread (More Fun with Sourdough Bread Baking). So were the next five:

• Professional Sourdough Baked at Home

• Extreme Fermentation: Bake Modified-Gluten Sourdough Bread

• Make Your Own Sourdough Starter: Capture and Harness the Wild Yeast

• Discovering Sourdough Part II: Intermediate Sourdough

• Discovering Sourdough Part III: Advanced Sourdough *2

The result of all this filming with flour? She made over $86,000 in year one, and an additional $90,000 in year two. Along the way, her profile grew as well. She now has a following of fifty thousand people spread like butter across her social media accounts, with another five thousand on her mailing list. It’s a solid, sourdough foundation for expanding her hustle and growing it even further.

The extra income and financial stability from pursuing her side hustle has literally changed Teresa’s life. In that first year of her first course, when she went from being on food stamps to earning $86,000, it was the most money she had ever made in a year. It allowed her to quit the part-time housekeeping job and put a down payment on the first home she’d ever owned.

Being able to combine her passion for helping others with baking has brought Teresa great joy and financial security. Her story proves that you can create a profitable side income from doing all sorts of things. Your idea doesn’t need to be cutting edge or something no one has ever heard of before. You just need to stop loafing around!

"At first, I filmed in my garage and was certain no one would want a course made in such an ugly place. Most people are used to seeing beautiful kitchens in baking shows. I almost gave up. Then, I decided to give it a try anyway." —Teresa

FUN FACT There are instructors with celebrity chef credentials on Udemy, but when you search baking, you’ll see all of Teresa’s courses appear on the first page of results. Personality matters!

ACTION PLAN

1. Identify a specific skill that you’d like to pass on to others. Don’t be too general: Teresa focused on sourdough bread, not just baking , and not even just baking bread .

2. Develop an outline of how you’d like your course to be structured. A basic model is to choose four to six modules, each consisting of a series of outcomes and milestones.

3. Select an online platform to teach your course. Teresa chose Udemy, but there are many other options. Alternatively, if you’re comfortable with technology and already have an existing audience, you may not need to use another platform. What you’ll give up in discoverability, you’ll gain in greater profit margins.

4. Prepare your lesson plans, practice your instruction, and start recording! There’s no time like the present.

CRITICAL FACTOR

When people think of online courses, they tend to think of topics that relate to technology. Teresa’s megapopular bread-baking courses prove that even classic skills can be monetized with the right approach and voice.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT TOUCHES DOWN ON SUPER BOWL PROFIT

NAME

STEFFANIE RIVERS

LOCATION

DALLAS, TEXAS

STARTUP COSTS

$1,000

INCOME

$50,000/YEAR (FOR SEASONAL WORK!)

WEBSITE

TOUCHDOWNRENTALS.COM

A Dallas-based flight attendant capitalizes on the Super Bowl craze by providing rentals for the big game, putting homeowners in the end zone and earning herself a championship payout.

Fifty-one-year-old flight attendant Steffanie Rivers designed and launched her side hustle while facing some unexpected turbulence in her life. In 2010, she was let go from the airline she worked for, and she wasn’t sure what to do next.

But for as long as she can remember—in fact, as early as her Girl Scout days of selling cookies—Steffanie has been a hard worker. She’s done door-to-door sales, moonlighted as an Uber driver, and even partnered with overseas physicians to market low-cost cosmetic surgery. So when faced with a stint of temporary unemployment, she asked herself, What’s next?

She made it through the rest of that year working in car sales, and then signed up to work with a company that was renting out homes for the Super Bowl. That year, the game was held in Dallas, where Steffanie is based. She saw great potential for the business model. But she was also disappointed to see that the company treated both the homeowners and the salespeople poorly.

She decided she wanted to take the same idea but do it better on her own. And then she set about doing just that, launching her own business ahead of the following year’s Super Bowl.

Since Steffanie is a big Dallas Cowboys fan, the business was an easy fit. She understands and shares the excitement around the game. And she knows the event is the perfect opportunity to make money, since tens of thousands of people, willing to throw lots of money around, pour into the host city.

She also knew that each year the host city, stadium, and team owners all make money, but not necessarily the taxpayers. Furthermore, she learned that the Super Bowl often blocks off up to 75 percent of the host city’s hotel rooms for companies and affiliates, leaving few options for regular fans looking to see their team play.

Her new company, Touchdown Rentals, provides solutions to both sides of this equation. She gets homeowners paid and helps sports fans live a baller lifestyle for the weekend. The approach is simple: Ahead of the Super Bowl, Steffanie reaches out to high-end homeowners. Then she posts properties online of those willing to rent, connects her clients looking for rentals, and takes a commission for negotiating the deal.

Although she has to compete with the likes of Airbnb, Steffanie says she’s stayed ahead of the game by creating all-inclusive packages for the renters. They get the house, a concierge to help with entertainment, maid service, and even private party planning. Each year since starting, she’s rented at least sixty properties, from condos to five-bedroom estates, all priced at $1,000 to $3,000 per day.

With the business now in its sixth year, Steffanie has landed a healthy profit, bringing in about $50,000 annually. Since the business is seasonal, this represents just a few months of work. On average, she typically works fifteen hours a week, almost all of it leading up to Super Bowl weekend.

The business has grown through a smart, low-cost approach to marketing. After randomly picking him up as a passenger while driving for Uber, she enlisted a celebrity spokesperson in NFL player Toben Opurum. And she started throwing house parties where homeowners invite their friends over for free food and drinks while Steffanie explains the benefits of renting out their homes.

Now Steffanie is working as a flight attendant again. She uses that job to her advantage. While flying around the country, she carries promotional material to pass on to airports, hotels, and other venues. And since she’s passing through most major cities, she can easily stop over to research the different neighborhoods in upcoming Super Bowl destinations.

All this effort has been worthwhile. As a result, Steffanie has been able to purchase and renovate her own condo, and is now renting it out for additional passive income.

As for Touchdown Rentals, Steffanie hopes to improve brand recognition to eventually become the Airbnb of the Super Bowl. There are no penalties here…this hustle is safely in the end zone.

Tens of thousands of people attend the Super Bowl every year. They spend lots of money having a good time, all while renting cars and hotel rooms. Since they’re in the habit of spending money anyway, why not jump in front of that wave and get paid? — Steffanie

FUN FACT As a flight attendant, Steffanie uses her day job to advance her side business. She stops over in cities planning to host the Super Bowl, canvasses them for the most upscale neighborhoods and houses, and then pitches homeowners on renting out their homes for the big game.

CRITICAL FACTOR

When a large group of visitors arrives in a city for a major sporting event, they need somewhere to stay. Steffanie gets paid by connecting those visitors with homeowners interested in making some easy cash.

SADDLES FOR PET CHICKENS: YES, THIS IS A THING!

NAME

JILL BONG

LOCATION

MEDFORD, OREGON

STARTUP COSTS

MINIMAL

INCOME

$900/MONTH

WEBSITE

CHICKENARMOR.COM

An Oregon woman creates an unusual product with almost $0 in manufacturing costs. Don’t cry fowl just because you didn’t think of it first.

Have you ever had a beloved pet? Jill Bong from Oregon had one, but it wasn’t a dog or cat…it was a chicken named Speck. Speck the chicken greatly enriched the lives of Jill and her family, until one sad day when Speck the chicken went on a long walk. Okay, let’s just tell it like it is: Speck the chicken passed away, leaving the family in mourning.

The cause of death was a molting injury. Huh? Yes, this is a thing…just like the product that Jill eventually made. Many domestic chicken deaths are caused by such injuries, but they can usually be prevented with a special kind of saddle or vest that is worn by the chicken.

In memory of Speck, and to protect the lives of other chickens, Jill decided to develop a new form of chicken saddle. The existing chicken saddles on the market all had a fatal flaw: they had to be laundered on a regular basis. Because of the difficulty, most chicken owners don’t use saddles, which means their hens are susceptible to the kinds of injuries that caused Speck to die. Jill’s innovative design used vinyl material, meaning that the vests didn’t need to be laundered. They could just be hosed down or wiped clean.*3

After a year’s worth of testing on her eighty-chicken flock, Jill’s Chicken Armor debuted for sale wherever chicken saddles are sold…which means mostly on her website. The mission statement of Chicken Armor is to help chicken keepers save time and money with that special design that makes the saddles easy to use. In addition to the troubling laundry requirement, other saddles had to be hand-sewn, which takes a lot of time. The Chicken Armor advancements allowed Jill to price her product lower than all the other saddles on the market.

Operating costs are also very low. All Jill pays for is the cheap vinyl material, and then the packing and shipping charges when someone places an order.

Most people who keep chickens don’t keep just one. They tend to have a whole flock, or at least half a dozen. A single chicken saddle costs just $2.50, and Jill sells a pack of one hundred for $75. By selling in bulk, Chicken Armor brings in a profit of between $500 and $3,000 each month, depending on the season or if they’ve had major media exposure. Since launching the hustle, Jill has shipped saddles to proud chicken owners in all fifty states and to four continents. She’s been featured in numerous media outlets including the Associated Press, the New York Times, and ABC News…and, of course, Side Hustle School.

No doubt there will be a rush on chicken saddles once this book is out in the world—Jill, I hope you’ve stocked up—and for everyone out there who needs to saddle up their chickens, now you know where to go.

Or if you’re ready to fly the coop yourself, maybe you need a project of your own.

We’re happy to keep Chicken Armor small, but are open to licensing deals. In the meantime, I’ll continue to write and publish books on self-sufficiency. —Jill

FUN FACT As strange as it sounds, chicken saddles (also known as chicken vests) have been around for a while. When Jill went to patent her version, she discovered that someone had patented a different kind—way back in 1910!

CRITICAL FACTOR

Other chicken saddles had serious flaws. Jill was truly first to market with a new design, helping chicken keepers (and the chickens too) across the country and beyond.

OPERATIONS MANAGER MANAGES TO MAKE HEAVY FURNITURE LIGHT

NAME

PEG DONOVAN

LOCATION

PORTLAND, MAINE

STARTUP COSTS

$6,000

INCOME

$2,000/MONTH

WEBSITE

SVENDELIVERS.COM

A Maine university employee uses her logistical savvy to deliver IKEA enthusiasts their goods at greatly reduced prices.

Peg Donovan has worked in operations for the University of New England for more than fifteen years. Over the years, she’s mastered the tasks of budgeting, forecasting, and solving all sorts of problems.

For example, when the faculty offices needed new furniture, Peg was placed in charge of selecting, ordering, and supervising the arrival and setup of hundreds of items. That kind of logistical savvy—and a sharp eye to see how to fit things in tight spots—served her well when she assembled her side hustle: delivering IKEA goods to customers in Maine and New Hampshire at a substantial discount to them, with a profit to her.

The joys and perils of assembling IKEA furniture has furnished plenty of joke fodder for late-night comedians, but the company remains beloved for its inexpensive, durable goods. Assembling the goods, however, which are often packaged in large, heavy boxes, is enough of a challenge. When the store is hours away, the weight of the burden doubles.

Peg knew this from experience. Her own trek to get to IKEA’s Portland, Maine, location took almost five hours round-trip. But delivery charges could drive an IKEA customer crazy too. Their most popular item, a Billy bookcase that retails for $70, costs three times that to have it delivered to Maine. For a lot of New Englanders, it’s like building a bookcase out of credit cards.

The delivery idea came to Peg in a flash. While wrapping up a meeting at the university, she mentioned she was going to IKEA the next day. When people quickly asked if she could pick something up for them, she saw the angle right away. She figured she could drive to the store, charge a 25 percent delivery fee to save people money, and make something for herself on the side. She just needed a name for the project. With an homage to the retailer’s Nordic roots in mind, she called it Sven Delivers. Experience in operations management has extended benefits. Peg signed up with Squarespace to design and publish her delivery business website. Then she started posting on Facebook, targeting young families and moms. She also got free exposure when a local newsletter featured her business.

The biggest expense she had was buying a used van for just under $6,000. Once she had a larger vehicle, customers started arriving like a horde of hungry shoppers lined up for cinnamon rolls. Some of them didn’t have a car big enough for furniture boxes, others just didn’t want to drive the long hours, and nobody wanted to pay those inflated shipping fees.

Even so, Peg says she almost fainted when Sven got its first order for one of those $70 bookcases. Even with her business experience, the fact that someone would pay her through PayPal and trust her new service to come through shocked her.

Since starting up, Sven Delivers has gone from earning several hundred dollars a month to nearly $2,000 a month. She’s tripled her once-monthly jaunts to IKEA to three, and will now assemble the goods for an extra fee. Her customers don’t even need their own screwdrivers!

Of course, happy customers only come through great service. Peg is focused on the customer experience: she texts, emails, sends out invoices, and confirms delivery times. The Sven Delivers site has plenty of testimonials from pleased people, spells out delivery options and timing, and provides several ways to get in touch.

Continuing to work full-time at the university, Peg spends about an hour processing orders and answering delivery questions each weeknight, plus a chunk of hours on the weekends for the actual trips. The success of the business has given her the confidence to explore other ideas—so much so that she has two other side hustles in progress. Neither of them requires screwdrivers, but it’s clear she already has all the tools she needs.

"Who doesn’t love IKEA products? We even deliver their cinnamon buns, chocolate, coffee, and