This document provides a detailed breakdown of various side hustles I’ve done throughout the years. These first few were early on in my career, and even though it wasn’t much money, they gave me the breathing room I needed to be a bit more risky in my career choices, which led me to join a small startup. I’m passionate about 9-5ers having something going outside of work. In my experience, proving to yourself that you can make money on your own helps you show up more confidently in all other aspects of your life. Particularly,
1. Online Tutoring
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Focus | Teaching coding to elementary and high school students. |
| Initial Platform | Wyzant.com, used to establish initial clientele. |
| Scaling Strategy | Transitioned clients off-platform to save the 15% commission. The model evolved from a personal service to a small business by hiring additional tutors. |
| Role | Management, handling scheduling, billing, and new student acquisition. |
| Earnings | $40 per hour for tutoring. The scaled business generated around $500 per month for about 4 hours of management work. |
2. App Testing (On-Demand)
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Platform | Testerwork.com |
| Nature of Work | It was usually on my laptop, but the more devices you were willing to test on, the more tests they would send you. Tests usually took around 30 mins and were always pretty simple. |
| Rate | Approximately $17 per hour. |
| Challenge | The work was on-demand and unpredictable. You didn’t know when they were going to send you a test, and once they did you had a short window to opt in. This may have changed. |
3. Search Engine Evaluator
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Role | Evaluating search engine results for quality and relevance. |
| Rate | Approximately $20 per hour. |
| Note | This type of work is still available by searching for "Search Engine Evaluator - Hourly" roles. |
4. Selling Sourdough
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Product | Sourdough loaves and sourdough starters. |
| Initial Channel | Listed on Facebook Marketplace |
| Pricing | Both loaves and starters were sold for $10 each. Probably could have charged more, but felt like a fair price. |
| Current Status | The business developed regular customers pretty quickly, which was great because Facebook Marketplace can be a pain. |
5. Real Estate (Investment and Passive Income)
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Basement Rental | I used to rent out my basement for $750. Easy money, but kind of a pain having someone else live in your home. |
| Rental Homes | Currently own two rental properties. Both single family homes. |
| Acquisition Strategy | We bought a home, then after 4 years, did a cash-out refinance, meaning we took some of the equity out of the home, and we used that for a down payment on our next home. Then after two years, we moved again. It is cheaper to acquire an additional property by moving because if you're buying it as your primary residence, you get a much better loan rate. Together they cashflow about $1600 a month. The higher value is the appreciation. |
6. Social Media (Digital Content and Brand Partnerships)
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Primary - Brand Deals | Comprises about 80% of what I make from social media. I try to do a few a month. I could push to do more, but they are a decent amount of work, depending on how much and forth is required with the brand. |
| Secondary - Coaching and Platform Payments | The remaining 20% comes from coaching services and platform payments (e.g., Meta and Instagram). |
An honorable mention is flipping. I never got super into it, but for a while I was going to thrift stores, going through the books, looking them up on Amazon, and if there was enough margin after shipping, I’d buy them and sell them. Not a bad way to make $100 if you’re in a pinch.
| Hustle | Type | Primary Earning Metric | Estimated Rate/Income | Effort/Time Commitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online Tutoring (Business) | Service/Management | Monthly Profit | ~$500/month | ~4 hours/month |
| Testing Apps | Service/Contract | Hourly Rate | ~$17/hour | Unpredictable/On-demand |
| Search Engine Evaluator | Service/Contract | Hourly Rate | ~$20/hour | few hours a week |
| Selling Sourdough | Product Sales | Price per Unit | $10/loaf or starter | 4-5 hours a week |
| Real Estate (Rental) | Investment/Passive | Monthly Rent | $750/month (Basement) | Low (Management) |
| Social Media | Content/Brand Deals | Rate based | 80% Brand Deals | High (Requires Consistency) |