How To Choose The Best Side Hustle for You in 2024

Starting a side hustle is a great way to make extra money in 2024. However, not all side hustles are suitable for everyone.

The key to success is finding a side hustle that plays to your strengths, time constraints and goals.

In this article, we take a look at how to choose the best side hustle for you in 2024. This includes how to know if a side hustle will meet your goals and how to find an option that is best suited to your commitment requirements.

Keep reading to discover how to find the perfect side job whether your looking to make cash in one hour or looking to start your own small business venture.

How to find the right side hustle for you

Below is a list of considerations that you should make to find the most suitable side hustle for you in 2024.

Also read: How to spot a side hustle scam

Step 1: Do you want to make money in the short term?

The first step when choosing a side hustle is to understand whether you want to make money quickly or whether you are looking to build up a stream of income over time.

Short-term profits are suitable for people who need extra cash now. These side hustles provide quick payouts and guaranteed income, making them a good way to increase your funds if you ae running low.

Here is a list of side hustles that pay quickly:

The benefit of starting a side hustle that provides quick returns is that you can make money as and when you need it.

For example, you could take online surveys to pay for a coffee trip or to increase your funds before a night out.

The main drawback of these side hustles is that they are not passive and often provide low rates. You would be lucky to earn more than £12 per hour from the side hustles listed above. The exception to this is re-selling your clothes on Depop.

If you’re willing to wait until you make money from your side hustle, you could spend time building a side hustle that provides higher-returns and could eventually turn into passive income.

Here is a list of side hustles that take between 2 weeks and 3 months to be profitable:

Here is a list of side hustles that could take more than 3 months to be profitable:

how to choose the right side gig for you

2. What are your skills and interests?

After deciding whether you’re looking for a quick way to make money or to build a long-term stream of income, the next step is to look at your skills and interests.

The key to being successful with your side hustle is to choose something that you genuinely enjoy. This will help you to stay motivated and persistent.

Side hustles for creatives

If your skills involve creativity, you may want to consider a side hustle that allows you to embrace this. The best side hustles for artists and creatives enable you to make money by selling products that you design or by using your skills to help businesses.

Side hustles for extroverts

If you enjoy working with other people, you should choose a side hustle that enables this. Online tutoring, coaching, and nano-influencing are all good examples to consider.

As an extrovert, you may struggle with a side hustle that involves working by yourself too much.

Side hustles for tech pros

The ability to understand and work with data or tech is a very valuable skill to have. Side hustles in the tech niche are amongst some of the most lucrative.

If you’re a tech wizz, you could use your skills to provide freelance services to businesses or complete online data tasks.

These are just a few examples of different types of skills that could translate into a profitable side hustle.

Spend time thinking about your strengths and researching the different possibilities that are out there.

3. What could you happily spend your free time doing?

After deciding where your strengths lie, you should consider whether or not you would happily spend your free time working on the side hustles that are available.

For the most part, you will need to use your weekends and evenings to make money from a side hustle. This means giving up your free time.

Therefore, you should consider whether you would want to send your free time working on a side hustle before making any decisions.

4. What is your start-up budget?

One of the most important considerations to make when choosing a side hustle is your startup budget.

Some side gigs require a large budget that could be unaffordable for most people. High-budget side hustles include drop shipping, selling products on Etsy, Airbnb and Amazon FBA.

However, there are plenty of free side hustles available that are suitable for people who don’t have a large budget to spend.

Deciding your side hustle budget

The budget that you can afford to spend on your side hustle will depend on your individual circumstances.

You should avoid spending money that you can’t afford to lose. This is because there is no guarantee that you will make any money from a side hustle.

Nevertheless, starting a side hustle is a good investment opportunity and a way to diversify your streams of income. For this reason, it might be worth considering allocating funds that you would usually place into traditional investments towards starting a side hustle.

5. What are your goals?

The final step to choosing the best side hustle for your lifestyle is to determine our goals.

Are you looking for a side job that helps people? Or, are you looking for something that will allow you to make money from anywhere in the world?

Determining your goals is the best way to find something that you be the most beneficial to you.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine what your goals are:

Why do you want to start a side hustle?
What do you want your life to look like in 10 years?
Would you like your side job to eventually replace your 9-5?
Do you want to do something that helps others?
How important is it that the income you generate is passive?

Write down the answers to each of the questions above and then go through each side hustle option to determine whether or not they meet your goals.

If you want to start a side hustle to generate passive income, take a look at our list of passive side hustle ideas.

Also read: Side hustle vs business

What are the best side hustles to start in 2024?

To help you choose a side hustle, here is an overview of our recommended side hustles for 2024.

We have spent time trying a number of different options to find out which ones work and which ones don’t.

Re-selling

Re-selling is an excellent side hustle to consider. It involves buying products for a low price and then selling them online for a profit.

Re-selling works particularly well with clothes on platforms such as Depop and eBay.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing involves making money by promoting products online and earning a commission for every sale that you make.

It is one of the best side hustles to start because it requires no start-up fees and is fairly flexible. You can share links on social media, in blog content, and even over emails.

User generated content (UGC)

User generated content is a new social media marketing trend that provides an excellent way for talented content creators to make money.

With UGC, you can make money on social media even if you don’t have any followers.

Conclusion

Taking time to choose the perfect side hustle is a good way to make sure that you are successful. In this guide, we have discussed how to choose the best side hustle for you by asking yourself some simple questions.

The most important considerations to make are your start-up budget and your long-term goals.

For more side hustle ideas and inspiration, make sure to subscribe to The Rich Girl Guide.

FAQS

The best way to decide what to do for your side hustle is to write down your goals, budget and skills. You should then look for opportunities that align with your desired outcomes.
The best side hustles to get into are free to start and can fit around your lifestyle. Good examples include freelancing, selling products on Etsy and re-selling clothes on Depop. The best side hustles should be enjoyable.

All of our articles are written to help our readers to learn about different side hustles, how they work and how to start earning money from them. Although we mention potential earnings, it is important to understand that there is no guarantee that you will make money from any of the side hustles that are mentioned on our site. Making money from a side hustle requires consistency and significant effort. While we aim to provide useful insight into each side hustle opportunity, it is down to you to follow the right steps towards making any profits.

About The Author

Ruby is the founder of The Rich Girl Guide and has been writing content around personal finance, side hustles and wellbeing for over 3 years. You can find some of Ruby’s published articles on The Motley Fool UK, Tradingplatforms.com and Buyshares.co.uk.