this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024

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What side hustles have you personally seen work pretty well? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 1 day ago by ericbomb to c/[email protected]

111 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] Saltarello 1 points 3 hours ago

A close friend sells a product on eBay. A product most households have & my friend collects when it's no longer wanted which is cleaned, sorted & resold. Has now left 9-5 job to run it as a business.

This friend is exceptional at exploiting niches & will likely become amongst leading sellers of this type (is well on the way already having done it before with a particular collectible). Interestingly, reading through the suggestions here, previously collected & sold scrap before pivoting.

I'm very proud of them!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 19 hours 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.

[–] ericbomb 2 points 19 hours 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.

[–] weeeeum 10 points 22 hours 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.

[–] AngryCommieKender 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I use stones now, but when I was learning to sharpen my knives, I used a Lansky Sharpening Kit. I learned the angles and what the stones do from the kit, and bought some good stones from Japan.

For my American friends, don't bother with the stones at Harbor Freight. That's the one tool that I have found that is just going to cause more frustration trying to use it, rather than just buying a good one.

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[–] TwoBeeSan 9 points 23 hours 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 7 points 20 hours ago (1 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!

[–] TwoBeeSan 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Very good point. Eliminating shame gets them to be interested and ask good questions.

I have been side by side when someone got scammed. They're fucking scum.

She had the windows support scare ware. Called the number. They walked her through putting the remote desktop software. 10 downloads on the queue so they were patient.

Called while i was looking to see damage. Blocked number. They called again from a private line still in character as Microsoft support.

She had 2 factor because her daughter got her to do that so she was safe.

Shit is scary.

[–] ericbomb 1 points 18 hours ago

Super glad she had the support system to prevent that! People can end up homeless from one little mistake.

I usually try not to say "youtubers are making the world better", but the youtubers who are all about educating about scams and talking about how common they are and how anyone can fall for them I think does help. Everyone would like to imagine "I am too smart to fall for a scam, I'll know right away!"

But that's how they get ya!

[–] tehevilone 5 points 21 hours 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.

[–] TwoBeeSan 1 points 18 hours ago

Geat point. Yes. It's a customer service job first. The it aspect is secondary to being able to connect with them.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 21 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours 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....

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 21 hours ago

Nothing wrong with that!

Just saying that not necessarily everything should be about money.

[–] Lennnny 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Graphic design of print on demand products. I started it in 2017 when I was between jobs, put in serious effort for about two years, I still make around $200 a month passively from it. Doesn't pay all the bills but it does give me a decent chunk of beer money.

I'm now exploring choice mushroom growing, as there is a shit ton of money to be made in oysters and lions mane rn.

[–] ericbomb 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Ooh I tried growing some mushrooms before! I got 2 good harvests and that was cool, but didn't seem worth the effort beyond the fun factor in such small amounts. But with some of them costing $10 a pound and being able to be grown in doors if well ventilated, I bet if you get things going you should be able to make decent money without a ton of effort.

[–] Lennnny 1 points 10 hours ago

What did you grow?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours 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.

[–] ericbomb 3 points 19 hours ago

Oh yeah if you like photography as a hobby and already have decent gear, I remember my mom would occasionally do that from time to time! A couple weddings, engagement photos, senior pictures, stuff like that. Someone who understands the basic of how cameras react lighting and is willing to put thought into composition of the photo makes a world of difference compared to folks who don't.

[–] PriorityMotif 14 points 1 day ago (5 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 7 points 23 hours 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.

[–] ericbomb 2 points 19 hours ago

That's awesome to hear!

I had to hire a junk hauler after I had to kick the guy living in my basement out because he decided he didn't need to pay for 6 months (It was a full basement apartment with own bathroom/master bedroom/kitchen and I charged $600 flat) , and I realized that instead of taking ANY trash out for the last year, he simply stuffed all the trash into one of the rooms and it looked like a landfill. Including bags of used cat litter. He also broke basically every appliance including the washer and dryer and never told me (I was able to fix those pretty easily luckily), and left a broken down truck in the driveway. He of course also left a bunch of like really gross/broken furniture.

Then blocked me and my gf on all phones/social media.... oops this is accidentally a rant of how me trying to help a guy with a negative credit score backfired terribly. I guess sometimes credit score is accurate and not BS.

Anyway, I was gonna have a mental break down realizing that my basement was a literal landfill, with like 20 weeks worth of garbage I would need to some how get out of my house and a bunch of junk that wouldn't fit in a car. But then $400 dollars later the brave junk haulers made my problems go away (they had to call a second truck). They worked so fast, were super nice and open about price/time and what items they were going to try to sell. It's an incredibly helpful business and I'm glad he found success by working for just normal people in a rough spot. I do in fact hope I never have to hire any of them again though.

Also, yes, the house had lots of bugs. Whenever I asked him if he had any idea where they were coming from or if he had any issues he assured me that, no, he didn't. Luckily once all the trash was out of the basement, tons of normal traps, bug bombs, and a few weeks of only having packaged food made all the bugs go away. If I had to have it fumigated I probably would have had another break down.

[–] ericbomb 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

That's actually super cool business and one I've wondered if it would work, but never seen done!

I do also know there are folks around me that sell glassware made from cutting wine bottles/jars/containers, and I think that's super cool. Also some folks who turn trash forks/spoons into rings. So I imagine they probably just let their communities know "Hey if you have a lot let me know and I'll come get them, or put them out in a box for me on x day and I'll catch em"

People who make money off of recycling is just super cool to me.

[–] PriorityMotif 1 points 18 hours ago

There's quite a few different YouTube channels dedicated to finding scrap metal or even a guy who owns a scrap metal business who pays for scrap metal, processes it, then sells it to various foundries to be melted down into something new.

I personally like to buy used items and resell them on eBay. Sometimes at thrift stores, but also garage sales and estate auctions. You can find auctions nearby on a site called hibid. I also sell my old unused items on eBay as well or even parts from broken items. Just look up the item on eBay and filter by sold.

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[–] shalafi 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 5 points 19 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day 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.