PP 184: 30+ Easy Ways to Make Side Hustle Money to Save, Invest, or Pay off Debt Quickly
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Did your computer or iPad recently take a dump on you (figuratively, not literally), and you’re scrambling to replace it?
Is there a conference, online course, or program you want to invest in but don’t want to use a credit card?
Or are you looking for ways to generate extra side income to build up your savings or attack debt so you can take the full-time grind leap one day?
If so, I got you covered! I’ve sourced A TON of money making ideas throughout my social media channels and compiled them into a list within this episode.
Today, we’re going to break down both fast AND mid-to-long term options to generate cash both with or without your artistic abilities.
If you want something badly enough, you’ll find a way to make it happen.
This episode isn’t a get rich quick scheme or to make a quick buck to spend on stupid shit.
I stand by the slow and steady grind to survive and thrive long-term doing what you love.
My goal today is to help you get one step closer to where you want to be financially both in the micro and macro.
That way, you can invest in your personal growth and development AS WELL as potentially put yourself in a position to make the leap to doing your thing full-time one day.
Bonus: At the end, I’m sprinkling in some smart money moves that have changed my family's financial future and benefited my creative business.
Note: Anything marked with an * was added after recording the episode.
How to Make Money with Your Creativity
Fast Money-Making Options
Create an art album on Facebook and sell your work locally and/or ship it.
I’ve done this twice and have made a few hundred each time super quick by selling prints, stickers, and pins I had on hand.
Offer flash sales to your current shop to generate quick sales.
Not something I do with my brand but maybe it aligns with yours.
Dani Batchelor - Offer quick photo sessions or digital paintings.
Digital paintings could be landscapes or portraits of kids or pets.
Derek Johnson - Freelance cold leads research
Search Facebook groups where the type of service you provide may be needed.
Use the search function for “x service” those are people actively looking to hire.
Request to be paid upfront or at least a 50% deposit and knock out the work quickly.
He did a $997 website quickly with this tactic.
Crys Gourse - Making art from found objects and selling them.
I’ve personally done this by drawing on globes, old axes, and old framed maps and selling them by posting on my Facebook profile.
When posting your custom logos, badges, or t-shirt graphics on social media, mention it’s FOR SALE in your caption and that text or elements can be changed.
Mid to Long-Term Money-Making Options
Note: To be profitable over time, most of these require having some type of mid-to-large engaged audience.
Start an online shop or print on demand service. (e.g., Etsy, Design Cuts, Creative Market, Red Bubble, Society 6, Printful, Printify, etc.)
Cameron Sandage
Slight selling of the soul, but the thing I’m considering doing is setting up a RedBubble account and make 6-12 fast designs based on popular trends or things that sell well and just see if that can generate a few 100.00 a month.
These designs would slightly be designed better than some of the stuff I’ve seen on there. Then with marketing ads via Facebook/IG there’s potential to drive sales.
Sell your work on Stock sites (e.g., Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Adobe Stock, Vector Stock, etc.)
Examples of work you can repurpose and package up to sell: textures, presets, actions, vector packs, icons, logos, brushes, photography, PPT templates, mockups, infographs, etc.
Ian Deloney - He sells posters and calendars of his work.
He mentions he also flips some hype clothes/shoes sometimes
Building off this, you could repurpose your work into wall art or even greeting cards to sell.
Join freelancing sites like Upwork and Fivver
Get a Dribbble Pro Account and enable the toggle that says “You’re available for work.”
Let people know you’re available for hire and how to contact you on all your social media platform bios: Instagram, Behance, Twitter, Facebook, Dribbble, TikTok, etc.
Chris Luttig - It is mad easy to make coloring books using your line art and going through Amazon to produce and sell the coloring books. All it costs you is your time and promotion if you choose to promote it.
Repurpose textures, presets, actions, and other items you constantly use in your design work and package them up to sell.
Create your own fonts and sell them on your site and design market sites.
Josh Sullivan episode 168 - Create ghost brands based around the type of markets you want to be a player in and the style of work/client you want to attract.
Show these in creative briefs OR propose these in discovery sessions where a new client may be a good fit for the ghost brand you created.
Consist of brand identity systems and showing how the brand would exist in commercialized settings.
Enable advertising revenue on your YouTube channel.
Monetize your YouTube with Live Superchat features through live drawing sessions.
Monetize your Twitch Channel through live drawing sessions.
Non-Creative Options to Make Money
Note:
Some of these are “spend money to make money” plays.
I see a lot of people always sharing profitable side hustle threads in The Dave Ramsey baby Steps Community and the ChooseFI (Financially Independent) Facebook Groups.
Anything marked with an * was added after recording the episode.
Fast Money-Making Options
Sell shit on Facebook Marketplace or eBay.
Sell tons of stuff you collect or don’t use anymore laying around your home.
Emily and I easily made a grand in a week before.
We’ve made easily over $5k from July ‘19 - July ‘20.
Go to garage sales, Goodwill, Thrift Stores, or flea markets to find items you can easily repurpose / refurbish and resell at a higher price.
Gary Vee has a bunch of information on doing this especially through eBay.
Emily has bought random things like lockers, benches, chairs, and lamps and churched them up and flipped them.
Adis Fazlic - Flips LEGO sets, basketball cards and shoes.
He purchases new LEGO sets for the low low on Marketplace and then sells on eBay for a lot more. You can always check the sold tab on eBay once you search the item and see what it’s selling for in real time before buying a set.
The shoes can go on Facebook Marketplace or eBay. You want to make sure to download Nike SNKRS App and follow some sneaker accounts to figure out which one’s will be worth the money to resell.
Basketball cards are on fire right now and making a comeback. Those go well on eBay also.
Billy Barschow - Find out when certain locations have a bulk trash item pickup day.
Sometimes people are throwing away great items on their curb because they’re too lazy to sell them or they think it’s junk.
You can sell them the same day on Facebook Marketplace or on apps like Offer Up App.
Sell your shit on Mercari App* and/or Poshmark*
I have a childhood friend who was saving up for a big vacation and has made almost $5k selling stuff on Mercari since May!
My wife is going to start using it too by selling all our high quality old clothes there to see what happens.
Get a part-time delivery based job.
Amazon, Lyft, Uber, Uber Eats, GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates, Pizza delivery, etc. are killer ways to generate quick money on your down time.
Donate blood or plasma.
My mother-in-law makes easily $300/mo. and others I know make $600/mo.
Create things around your side passions and interests that provide someone else value and sell them locally or online.*
My wife is a very holistic/natural-minded Mama and has made a killing making her own Elderberry Syrup during Fall-Spring to help support immune systems.
She’s also been creating Premium Essential Oil Rollers and even got a few of them in a local Spa on display (I’m a proud Baby Daddy, that’s for sure)!
Melissa Marzan - Scavenge Craigslist for local labor jobs.
I’ve also heard of an app called TaskRabbit to find local work to do too.
Alex Petersen Barrus - Ask locally on your Facebook profile if anyone needs random jobs done in the area.
She’s landed a steady part-time gig this way, but it started out as just super random oddball jobs for a couple here in town and was super quick cash!
Chuck Castillo - Making baked goods and slanging them locally.
Chitokan - Take on local landscaping gigs.
Joy Letters - Tutoring
I’m learning more about VIP Kid as well for online education
Babysitting - There’s a bunch of babysitting apps out there with the main one I see being Care.com
Take up dog walking or becoming a Dog Sitter.
Trade-in your old phone or electronics.
Emily and I made a couple hundo a piece for selling back our old iPhones when we upgraded.
Mid-to-Long-Term Money-Making Options
Take surveys online for money from sites like Swagbucks and Survey Junkie.
Cameron Sandage
Selling on Amazon via buying goods from Alibaba and then doing Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA).
I actually keep hearing about FBA and other’s success stories so this may be a nice little side hustle that could potentially replace your day job and free up your creative side hustle.
Justin Blair - Finding and flipping used books from thrift stores by scanning them with the ScoutIQ app and then reselling through Amazon.
Monetizing your web traffic with affiliate based links or ads.
Max of Lettering-Daily.com sprinkles in Ads throughout his site which is loaded with helpful lettering resources.*
Jacob Cass of JUST Creative creates blog posts as well as packs his Resources page full of Amazon Affiliate links.*
Start a Facebook Group and share affiliate based Lightning Deals on Amazon or other incredible deals around the web that are affiliate-based.
There are some stay-at-home moms I know who are crushing this avenue.
Smart Money Moves
As we wrap this up, I want to share some things that have helped us crush debt, free up income, and save up quickly for an emergency fund, nest egg, or for things like vacations, new furniture, appliances, etc.
I also leverage a lot of these tactics for my creative business.
Cut overhead expenses:
Listing out all your expenses can be overwhelming but powerful when you find your groove. It also helps you pinpoint areas you can eliminate unnecessary costs.
Switch from an expensive ass cable provider to something like Sling, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc.
If you have Amazon Prime, leverage Amazon Music, Photos, Drive and Prime Video and eliminate other services like Apple Music/Pandora/Spotify, Google Drive/DropBox, or other streaming entertainment alternatives mentioned before this.
Find more cost-effective insurance plans out there. We went through Zander Insurance and got great rates for term insurance.
Reduce how much you go out to eat during the week.
Cut back on shitty things like gas station breakfast, energy drinks, ciggies, fancy coffees, etc. These don’t serve your health and drain your bank account.
By off-brand, private-labeled food from places like Aldi.
Leverage free financial software like Wave for invoices, expense tracking, etc. and ditch monthly subscriptions like Freshbooks.
If Adobe Creative Cloud is too expensive, find cheaper alternatives like Affinity Designer or Procreate App.
Be smart with your credit card:
Only use your credit card if you have the discipline to pay that shit off each month.
The rewards and cash back are meaningless if you’re constantly having to pay an absurd interest rate balance each month.
We only have one credit card in our household and that’s my Chase Business Rewards Credit Card.
WIN: I have successfully paid off my monthly balance with no interest charges for over a year (I’ve always had a balance before with a buttload of fees paid by the end of the year).
Set up a freakin’ budget:
Be in control of your money so you know what money is coming in and where it’s all going.
We use the Every Dollar app to track ours to make sure every dollar is accounted for.
Make your budget constraints work for you to make power moves with your money.
Save and live within your means vs. financing things:
If there’s something you’re wanting or needing, save up for it so you can pay up front.
Often, people and places will give you a better deal when you pay in full.
I personally offer a big discount for those who pay in full for the coaching program vs. the 3/mo. payment option.
When you lease something and make payments, YOU DON’T OWN IT.
You’re basically renting something and are a slave to someone until you pay off the balance.
I understand a lot of people don’t have a savings, so financing is their only option in a pinch. However, most people finance shit they want vs. need—don’t fall for this trap.
Note: I’ve financed most things in my life, (car, phones, furniture, electronics, etc.) until I made the mindset shift this past year.
As of right now, Emily and I have an agreement that we will always pay in cash for things and live within our means or find a way leveraging one of these tactics to get what we want sooner. We’ve put that plan to work and only got new furniture and cell phones because we paid in cash up front.
And yes, for my next car and future house down the road, the goal is to pay cash as the thought of this challenge motivates me to be smarter with my cheddar and stack wealth.
Money is a Tool for Progress, Not Stress
Money can be your biggest enemy or your best friend.
When you change your relationship with money, you become more in control of your life.
When you’re in control of your finances, you can live a bigger life and make a bigger impact on others.
So while I’m tossing in some quick money-making moves, I’m painting a bigger picture of ways to create the type of life you want.
So yes, in the short term, these tactics can help you invest in yourself to propel your side hustle further along.
In the grand scheme of things, I’m hoping that gaining control of your finances can put you in a position to go all-in on pursuing the work you love.
Give yourself a target and keep your eyes on the prize as you learn how to make money work for you.
How Do You Generate Side Income? Let Me Know!
Do you have ways you make money both with or without your artistic abilities that I haven’t listed above?
Shoot me an email and share them with me so I can add them here and give ya credit!
I’m always updating this list and would love to hear from you.
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