I am frequently askes; what businesses are people running out there? Or I do not have much money and want to start a small business, what can I do?
This all depends on your skills and experience, the time you have to devote to it and most importantly your passion interests and goals
Now here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Drive Uber/OLA/DiDi
- Food delivery Service: while Uber eats allows you to pick and order and deliver to the customer, you can actually make food and deliver to working families who occasionally do not have time to cook.
- Deliver the local newspaper: this may require a bit of walking, but its fun if you do it with family and friends as a walking exercise.
- Rent out your spare room or house on Airbnb: Get some extra income by renting out space that you do not use. If you have business premises, you can also rent out your office space to small businesses. Offer virtual assistant services to small business owners working from home.
- Rent out you car: when you travel or are not using your car, why not earn a little extra by renting it out. You will need more than just trust the driver, but good background checks and insurance.
- Sell on Amazon: find bargain stock and ship to Amazon
- Sell items on ebay: if you have stuff in your closet or cupboard that is collecting dust but is still in good condition; well sell it online. You could even do this for other businesses. Take good quality photos and write a good description and you are good to go
- Garage sale: get rid of any items you do not need, or pick up a few from second hand stores, refurbish them and resale.
- Social media integration: manage social media for small businesses as they do not have time to do so or some lack the expertise. Learn Facebook marketing, Instagram, twitter, snapchat, etc and approach small businesses in your local area.
- Podcast: we all rely on audio learning and you could have a channel of your own that adds value to people.
- Become a driver/tour guide: I know when I am on holidays I want to take a break from driving and do not mind an extra person on my holiday particularly in Zimbabwe to drive and show us around and handle the roadblocks.
- Mystery shopping: these buy in secret and document their experience with the retailer. Contact retailers with some ideas and how you can be of service to them.
- Dog walking: if you are a pet lover, ask your neighbours or advertise your services, you will be surprised how many people seek after this service.
- Washing cars/detailing: handout fliers in your neighbourhood and have a mobile service.
- Carpet cleaning: invest in a high quality cleaning machine or vacuum and you are good to go. Target office spaces and businesses that require recurring services.
- Babysitting: you may need to adhere to certain regulations in your local area, such as have a working with children card and First Aid Certificate. This requires love and patience.
- Residential or commercial Cleaning services: this can be on a regular basis for families or businesses or vacate cleaning for landlords.
- Laundry & Ironing: if your are in my area, I will be your first and recurring customer.
- Gardening: pull a few weeds, run a lawn mower, water a few garden beds and be paid by the hour…
- House-sitting: you could watch houses for people when they travel
- Marketing focus group: I used to participate in focus groups for research companies that studied consumer response to product, services and advertisements. This needs no special training.
- Create YouTube tutorials: now I have seen young kids earning thousands for just having fun in their backyard. All you need is to keep people engaged and interested in more.
- Start a food truck: drive around during meal times in industrial areas or attend street festivals and sell good food.
- Be an extra in movies: if you are in the big cities you could get a lot for just sitting around and waiting in movie scenes.
- Sell your hair: sounds ridiculous right… but there are millions of people who wear human hair.
- Answer questions for JustAnswer: if you have a skill such as law, medicine or IT you can help others with certain topics.
- Personal training: weight-loss and fitness is a big industry so find a local park and offer your service or in house training.
- Sell services on Fiverr/Upwork: you can earn from as little as $5 to a $1000 per job. Some self employed people sell their skills on these platforms and earn 6 figure revenues annually. Now this is not for the unscrupulous worker; you have to give value to your client so that they retain your services and give good reviews.
- Teach a language/translator: there are so many people looking to learn another language and if you are multi-lingual then you have an advantage. You can also register as a translator.
- Tutor: you can tutor over skype or face to face. Digital tutoring gives you a wider market overseas rather than face to face which is limited to your local area.
- Create an online course: Udemy or Teachable are platforms that many use to learn, you could register your own course on such platforms.
- Give music lessons or train an instrument: if you are gifted in this, advertise your services in schools and local community paper and get started.
- Content writing/Resume writing: while the two are separate in form; advertise your services on LinkedIn or other professional sites.
- Create an App: we live in a highly digital world and you need to find a developer or development platform to create a smartphone app.
- Baking: learn the skill, perfect it, get creative and deliver yummy cakes for all sorts of occasions.
- Sports coaching: if you are active and why not be a coach
- Rental properties: invest in property and rent it out, just make sure you have a good management team and keep up with maintenance because a few bad reviews and you will struggle to rebuild your reputation. Also do thorough background checks on your tenants to ensure they are reliable and will respect your property.
- Alterations/tailoring: make sure you know what you are doing because once that clothe is cut you cannot stick it back together.
- Party planning/coordination: have a portfolio of great reliable service providers, venues, photographers, caterers.
- Find a solution to a problem
Hustling is more than just making quick money, in order for your side hustle to grow into a bigger business you have got to be solving a problem. People require goods and services that will make them better or improve their situation. So get on with it and start hustling.
