Side Hustles For Dummies

Alan R. Simon

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781119870159
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

Get yourself paid and broaden your skillset with this everyday guide to side hustles

The gig economy is growing by leaps and bounds, partly because it's easier to find a flexible work-life balance. Those of us who don't want to leave our full-time jobs, however, can still grab a piece of excitement and extra income for ourselves by starting a side hustle. Or you can bundle your own personalized set of side hustles to replace your full-time job and take full control of your professional life.

Whether you're thinking about driving for Uber, developing apps, or starting an online boutique, Side Hustles For Dummies walks you through every step of the way of starting your own side gig. You'll learn about how to structure your new business and keep records, create backup plans, and steer clear of scams. You'll also:

• Find out whether you need investment capital and learn what your new time commitments will be
• Learn to create a business plan and patch any holes in it before you get started
• Discover how to incorporate a vibrant side hustle into your already busy life
• Learn how to adjust your side hustle to meet changes in your personal life and the overall business climate

Side hustles are for everyone, from high school and college students to full-time professionals to retirees. If you've been looking for an excuse to pursue your latest passion, hobby, or interest—or you're just in the market for some extra income— Side Hustles For Dummies is the easy-to-read, no-nonsense guide to creating a rewarding and engaging new life.

Part 1

Getting Started with Side Hustles

IN THIS PART …

Get the straight scoop about the world of side hustles.

Figure out if you’re ready to jump into a side hustle.

Find the perfect hustle to match your mindset and your lifestyle.

Chapter 1

Joining the Side-Hustle Game

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining a side hustle

Matching side hustles with your own aspirations

Linking side hustles and the gig economy

Looking at side hustles for all ages and life situations

If you’re thinking about jumping into a side hustle — or if you’ve already taken the plunge — you’re not alone! According to a study reported on Side Hustle Nation (www.sidehustlenation.com/side-hustle-statistics), 45 percent of working Americans — around 70 million people! — had at least one side hustle going. Even better: Another 60 million were thinking about jumping into the side-hustle game.

Side hustles aren’t only popular in the United States either. According to an article paid for by GoDaddy appearing on the USA Today website (www.usatoday.com/story/sponsor-story/godaddy/2017/12/12/how-people-side-hustling-around-globe/108532604), 54 percent of people in the United Kingdom, another 54 percent of people in Singapore, and an astounding 77 percent of people in the Philippines had side hustles.

Side hustles are all the rage, all around the world. But what exactly is a side hustle?

Getting Clear on What a Side Hustle Is

If you were to put ten people in a room and ask them to define the term side hustle, you would probably get 15 different answers. Instead of having some precise, everyone-is-in-agreement definition for the term, we have a lot of shades of gray and wiggle room in defining what is — and what isn’t — a side hustle.

Some people think that a side hustle is limited to activity in the so-called gig economy (see “Seeing the Connection between Side Hustles and the Gig Economy,” later in this chapter), filling a services industry type of role on a contract basis, with self-set flexible hours — for example, shuttling passengers in your own car for Lyft or Uber, delivering packages in your spare time for Amazon, shopping and delivering groceries for Instacart, or delivering restaurant meals for DoorDash or Grubhub.

Some people limit the world of side hustles to part-time roles in businesses that operate under the multi-level marketing (MLM) structure. Anything else is, well, something else, but not necessarily a side hustle. (See Chapter 3 for a discussion of MLMs.)

Other people think of a side hustle as being limited to anything where you’re compensated on a non-employee basis rather than as a salaried employee. In the United States, that means you file a W-9 form and have your income reported on a 1099 form, rather than being paid a salary (even a part-time salary) on a W-2 basis. To their way of thinking, if you’re paid as part of someone else’s payroll and receive a W-2 at the end of the year, then whatever you’re doing isn’t a side hustle. (See Chapter 8 for a discussion of the various business structures for your side hustle.)

Which of these perspectives is correct? Well, a better question to ask is this: Are any of these perspectives too narrow? The answer: Yes, they are all too narrow — not necessarily wrong, just too limiting in attempting to define what is and isn’t a side hustle.

A better way to look at a side hustle is to consider an activity to be a side hustle if it’s one in which you’re materially invested (basically, what you’ve started isn’t some passing whim, but rather something you’re really, really interested in doing) but it’s not your full-time, salaried, career-oriented job. Basically, a side hustle is an activity that is “on the side” of your primary, full-time job and that requires more than a minimal amount of time and energy (at least as you get established).

Now consider a few examples:

• Meghan is a financial analyst for a Denver-based insurance company. She lives in the south suburbs of the Denver metro area but works downtown. Three or four times a week, if she doesn’t need to be back home after work by a certain time, Meghan signs in to an app and becomes an Uber driver, earning a little bit of extra money during her evening commute. Sure, she and her car don’t exactly take the most direct route back from downtown to the south suburbs, but a song from way back in the late 1970s by the rock group Supertramp perfect describes Meghan’s journey on those Uber-enabled evening drives: She takes the long way home!
• Jack is a software developer for an app development company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jack’s employer supports both flexible hours and working from home. As long as Jack and his coworkers meet their deadlines for assigned work, they have a great deal of autonomy for how they manage their time. Taking advantage of his employer’s flexibility, Jack teaches a programming class two afternoons each week at a community college campus about 5 miles from his apartment.
• Bhavna graduated with top honors from a leading engineering school and works as a mechanical engineer at an aerospace company in Seattle. She’s very good at her job, but after a couple of years, Bhavna is becoming disenchanted with the aerospace industry and even her chosen engineering profession! If she had a time machine, Bhavna would go back to her college days and study what she belatedly discovered she’s really interested in: the world of fashion and retail. No worries, though: Last year, Bhavna started a small online boutique, selling clothing and accessories. She spends a couple evenings a week, not to mention most of her weekends, on a range of tasks for her boutique: finding and buying new products, packing and shipping orders, and doing all sorts of general business management functions. Soon — maybe very soon — Bhavna plans to ditch her full-time job and devote all her energies to her boutique.
• Eric and Brittany had been single-mindedly focused on their respective full-time careers, both before they met as well as after they began dating and eventually got married. Eric is a high school teacher, while Brittany is a drug sales rep for a large pharmaceutical company. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, however, both of their professional worlds turned upside down. Eric continued teaching but solely online because his high school switched over to all-online courses. Brittany’s job was eliminated as part of the pharmaceutical company’s cutbacks, and she began working 15 to 20 hours a week shopping and delivering groceries for Instacart. As the months went by, Brittany also began delivering meals for both Grubhub and Uber Eats, as well as occasionally driving for Lyft. Eric began doing college entrance exam tutoring on the side, in addition to his full-time teaching. Eric...