Tips For Creating A Side Hustle On A Budget

13 Simple Tips For Your Side Hustle Ideas

First Things First:

     I mention on this website that you can always budget your money to better equip yourself for saving for your future and growing your portfolio, but what about adding income to your budget? What if you could come up with options to grow your income, without it costing too much money? You can! There’s lots and lots of ways to do that. We’ll come up with some ideas for businesses you can easily run on your own, and how to budget them accordingly so that it’s not a huge expense. 

       The first thing you need to do is figure out exactly what you can afford. I don’t just mean money-wise. That’s important too. Even if you do everything on your own, you’re still going to need things like flyers or Facebook advertisements to help get the word out about your business. But you also need to evaluate the most important thing you will be spending on this business: Time. We’ve all heard the phrase; “Time is money.” Well, it’s true. The fact is; in everything we do in life we’re exchanging for our most valuable asset: Time. What’s yours worth? If you work a job, you get paid for the time you put into it. (Wouldn’t it be nice if we were paid for the amount of time we’re up at night nursing babies and cuddling toddlers or cleaning up dirty faces?) 

       Whether you’re working a job, staying home and raising a family, caring for your house, or managing to go out and help a friend, all of it costs the same thing in the end. Your time. How much of it do you have to spare that you’re willing to donate to a side hustle? If you have a lot of time, then there are a lot of options that you can do to bring in income. Especially depending on how old your kids are and if they can be left alone for a little while or even help with the side business. But if you have very little time on your hands, you have to look at what your time is worth to you, and how much you’re willing to put into a business. That’s step one. What’s your time worth, and how much do you want to devote to this project? 

         The second thing is of course, how much do you want to spend? This is important to analyze, because depending on what you pick, there could be a significant upfront cost (like for a car wash or a laundromat), or it could be a relatively small upfront cost (like if you decided to do dog walking and just put up flyers, posted on Facebook, and spread the word yourself in your neighborhood). So figure out what in your budget looks good for a business, and then you can proceed. Here’s a post on how to save money quickly, so you can plan for your business even better. https://silveroakfinance.com/save-money-quickly/

For more ideas on business building and budgeting, I have a whole chapter on increasing your income with side hustles in my book, check it out here: https://a.co/d/0iib7I9

         Side Hustles For Inside The Home: 

         1. Blogging

      Do you enjoy writing? Then this could be beneficial for you. You would have to pick something to blog about, whether it’s home decor, your family adventures, how to do something, etc. The upfront cost on this can vary depending on how you choose to do this. You can pay someone to build a website for you, or you can pay to use a platform like EverWeb or Wix to give you the resources to build one yourself. This will take time though, blogs need to gain in popularity before you make any money off of them. You would have to attract enough people to your website for advertisers to gain interest in your website. But once people start coming, then you can put advertisements on your website and start making some money depending on what kind of advertisements you agree to have. 

           2. Tutoring

         Do you have a skill you can help someone with? You can spread the word through your neighborhood and through social media that you are offering tutoring lessons for people. Do the market research to see what’s a fair price and then set yours, but this can be a affordable side business that you can do from the comfort of your home if you choose. 

          3. Music Lessons

        Are you skilled with an instrument? Do you have a passion for teaching it? You can make money doing that too. Offer music lessons in your local neighborhood and see who’s interested. This is another one with a relatively low upfront cost. Mainly what you would need is flyers and perhaps business cards, and you can post all over social media and spread the news through word of mouth. If you choose, you could teach in your own home, or in someone else’s. (Although if you teach something like piano lessons it would probably be good to see who has a piano if you don’t want to teach in your own home.) 

           4. Dog Walking/Pet Sitting

         Are you an animal lover? Lots of people enjoy walking dogs or sitting other people’s pets during a vacation. You could do this yourself. Spread the word that you can walk people’s dogs for them, and make sure you take good care of the animals when you do. You might want some business cards and flyers to spread the word for this, so that’s part of the upfront cost. But the other benefit to dog walking is that you can enjoy getting outdoors in the sunshine for some exercise too! Win win! 

          5. Create Things

        If you’re a crafty person, you can make and sell things on Etsy or in a local shop that agrees to let you put some of your products inside. (Though you’ll probably have an easier time with Etsy.) You can sell all kinds of things, from t-shirts to candles, to soap to jewlery to full on costumes. There’s lots and lots of ideas with Etsy, so you could try that as a side hustle option. 

         6. Become A Freelance Writer

         You can look up things like Upwork for putting yourself out there. You can write blog posts, novels, short stories, or do full on ghostwriting for people online and make that your business. Depending on your skillset, you might have to work up from lower fees than you might like, but you can start off and grow your brand, and then charge more money as you become more in demand. There can be lots of opportunities with this, so that’s another idea you can do from home. 

            7. Rent Out A Room

       If you have an extra room in your house; and you’re comfortable with the idea of it, you could always rent out a room to someone. (Definitely make sure to do a background check first since it’s your home, or make it someone that you trust completely.) That can be a passive source of income that won’t require much upfront cost, and you can have more money coming in by simply utilizing your extra space. 

Side Hustles For Outside The Home: 

         1. Start A Cleaning Business

        I know we all wish we could have someone else come in and clean our homes for us. No more dishes, no more vaccuming, no more laundry… But there are enough people that are actually willing to pay someone else to be a housecleaner for them, that you can make money doing this yourself. You can also clean AirBNBs as well, then that’s more advertising you can do, and you don’t have to clean around people as much if you’re cleaning out a home someone currently lives in. 

          2. Organizing Homes

        Kind of similar to a cleaning business, but another thing that you can capitalize on. If you are a person who is very good with organizing things and actually finds satisfaction in reorganizing everything into neat stacks so that the room looks so much better (I am one such person myself), you can make a business helping busy mamas with no organizational skills take their home back. This is something that is becoming increasingly popular in today’s day and age, so you might want to jump on it if it sounds great to you. 

        3. Take Up Food Delivery

        Sign up with Postmates, UberEats, or some other food delivery system, and deliver food to people. You can make extra money by doing this and it only takes as much time as you decide to put in it. 

        4. Drive For Uber Or Lyft

       Add to your income by driving people around like you’re a taxi. Ride sharing has become increasingly popular all the time, so this could be a good way to make money. However, I will say that this could always be a dangerous job as well. So evaluate the area you live in and plan to have your business in for the safety factor. Especially if you’re a woman. I would not do this job myself, but it is very popular and if you are comfortable with it; by all means jump on board the taxi bandwagon! 

         5. Babysit

        Yep, why not? That’s an option that can be a great source of income! Especially if you love kids. Do your market research to see what’s a fair price in the area you live in, and advertise accordingly. This can be very popular, especially if you have lots of experience with kids, (and don’t we moms have experience!) so jump on this idea if it appeals to you. 

         6. Write A Book

        If you have a lot of knowledge you’d like to share, then write a book. You can publish with Amazon on Kindle Direct Publishing. Marketing the book can be a cost, but you can look into options with that. The wonderful thing about books is that people love having them! And once you write the book, it’s done. It’s only as much of a time investment after as you choose to put into marketing it. I will warn you though. Writing books is dangerously addicting. If you write one, you may be at risk of wanting to write more… 

        7. Sell Baked Goods

       If you love baking, you could always market your baked goods as something that people can buy from you. Lots of busy parents who don’t have time to make a birthday cake or pastries for an event would likely love quality home baked goods that they didn’t have to make themselves. For this, you will likely want business cards, flyers, word of mouth, and plenty of Facebook marketing for your local neighborhood. Get the word out and sell those delicious goodies! 

         8. Event Planner

       If you are someone who enjoys planning things and setting up things for people, you can be some kind of event planner. Birthday parties, baby showers, gender reveals, family reunions, even wedding planning (though that one could be quite the headache), are all options you can do. Set up the parties, coordinate with the client, and enjoy the process of planning all kinds of events and making each one unique for your indiviual clients. You will definitely need business cards, flyers, I recommend a website for something like this, and perhaps brochures as well to show some of the services you offer so it’s eye catching for your potential clients. 

          There are certainly many more ideas you can come up with besides these, but these are some of the smaller things that you can manage either from home or outside the home, with minimal cost to yourself as a startup. It is important to really evaluate what you want to spend your free time doing, what your skills are, and how much you think you should charge for your efforts. Figure out how much money you want to put into a business idea and take it slowly. You don’t have to start big. If you dream of opening a full bakery someday, start with just selling some of your delicious baked goods from your home and offering a delivery service for them. It will save on the upfront cost of a professional bakery setting as well as the headache of figuring out where to put a bakery in town. (Because location is a huge factor in a physical business’ success.) 

        So start small, do market research to see how much your business should get clients, and don’t jump the gun. It’s easy to pour tons of money into a business idea only for it to not take off. That’s not going to save you any money. Come up with a business plan and strategy, buy some business cards, print out some flyers, and start small with word of mouth. As you gain customers, you can begin investing into your business to grow it bigger. Stick to your budget and don’t decide to buy the next flashy thing that you think will grow your business, unless you’re sure it will. I made a mistake years ago in trying to build a business, and I did it all wrong. I figured the best way to bring more clients to my business was to keep adding to what I offered. So I expanded with getting more certifications, offering more options, investing more and more money into my business, and it was a big waste. Don’t make the same mistake. Start small. The positive I see from my mistakes in my youth was that I learned from them. I don’t remember who said it, but some famous historical figure once said that the best teacher; is failure. Boy was he right! 

         So: 

       Step 1: Pick an Idea For Your Business Based On Your Skillset

       Step 2: Do Market Research To See How Well The Business Will Do In Your Area

       Step 3: Come Up With A Budget And A Business Plan

       Step 4: Start Small. Advertise With Business Cards, Flyers, And Word Of Mouth

       Step 5: Grow Your Business Slowly As You Gain Clients. 

       Step 6: Take Your Extra Earnings And Invest Them Into Your Future! 

         Good luck, and please let me know how your business worked out! I’m cheering you on, you’ve got this!