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Building a side hustle can be done with next to no money. If you don’t think that you have time for a side hustle, take a look at where your entertainment dollars are going. If you have a high dollar cable bill and a big screen, you have time for a side hustle. For those who find themselves struggling to meet their bills every month, look at what is sucking up your time and stop doing those things.
Earn Passive Income
If you have a YouTube channel or a strong Instagram following, create your own NFT and offer a special subscription of private content if someone buys an NFT or buys a series of NFTs. Once you have your subscription set up and your special content rolling along, you can also pair this with a Patreon account and tie that to an NFT purchase or subscription.
Putting yourself out there on YouTube can be incredibly stressful. You may end up divulging too much information about your physical location. Even if you protect your location, you open yourself up to trolls and other abusers. To change up your content and reduce your risk, create an NFT and offer it for sale to a single buyer or a limited number of patrons so you can create communities of viewers who can easily access more data that is specific to you.
Get Paid to Exercise
If you have family who need help with lawn care, gardening, weed pulling or garage cleanouts, volunteer to help them in exchange for access to those tools so you can build a lawn care business. Check out the many YouTube videos that tell you how to maintain lawn mower motors and sharpen blades.
There are many older folks who are highly skilled at small engine repair, vegetable gardening and growing flowers. If you see an older neighbor working in their vegetable garden, stop and ask if they will teach you with the understanding that they may not be able to pay you. If you can build a friendship and learn a skill, you’ve been paid.
If your garden buddy teaches you how to edge a lawn, hoe a garden or pull weeds from flower beds, thank them. Ask them for a reference. Head to the next house and market your skills. You’ll get in a great workout, soak up some sun and make some money.
Learn to Trash Pick
Trash picking is a business that flies in the face of the rule that says you need to spend money to make money. If you live in an apartment complex, take a walk around the complex and scout the stuff that gets stacked around each bin before the trash picks up.
In my complex, I have found
- folding tables
- folding chairs
- a small patio table
- bar stools
Avoid anything upholstered; you don’t need to carry bugs back to your place. Take anything that isn’t horribly dinged up to your apartment, clean it up and sell it on a local marketplace. It was free, so you don’t need to sell it for a lot to pay for your time.
Transfer this item to the buyer in the parking lot of a local Walmart or a hardware store. If you can sell two barstools for $20 each, you now have $40 to purchase
- spray paint to clean up the folding chairs
- scrubbing pads and Simple Green to clean up the patio table
- 000 steel wool to scrub away the rust you found on the folding table
Do make sure to check out the local prices on these items; if you can’t make more than $10 for the folding table, clean it up and sell it as is.
Set a Schedule
Whether you’re selling used furniture on Facebook or building a mowing business, block out the time to work on this every day. If you have a job that pays you by the hour, your schedule is monitored by someone else. Building a side hustle takes discipline. Set the alarm on your phone for 9 a.m. Saturday. Walk around your neighborhood to see who needs their grass cut. Get up early to check those dumpsters before the trash truck comes. Nobody else is going to push you to meet any expectations on your side hustle; it’s on you to make time for it.
