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Corporations taking over side hustles seems to be screwing over people, since they take such a large cut and flood the market for that hustle.

But the ones I've personally seen people do that work pretty well (in USA) are:

Stay at home mom watching another kid (legally dubious depending on state/situation. But I ain't no narc.)

A neighbor of my mom's sends out a menu saying what she plans on cooking each night for that week, and for $X will deliver you some as well (Legal in Utah due to special laws, other states could be dubious. )

People who go pick up free furniture that is pretty trashed, and then refurbishes it and sells it. Or people with trucks who are like "Will deliver furniture for $30 in X area" is also pretty life saver for people without cars/trucks. Was able to get a super cheap/nice coach because of this.
People who just flip free stuff or stuff from thrift stores without doing any improvements annoy me greatly though. We broke and you're just driving up the price!

None of these generate a ton of cash, but I like that they take very little up front cost, aren't disruptive, and mostly take labor.

So what side hustles have you seen work out?

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[-] iii@mander.xyz 34 points 1 day ago

Dog hotel. I've a dog. I take in other dogs when their owners are on holiday. Walking 2 dogs isn't much more work than walking 1.

[-] UnrepentantAlgebra@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Taking on one extra dog for a few days seems like the easiest, most chill way to make a little money on the side if you are careful about which dogs you take. Those people who sit 4+ dogs at a time are insane but must pull in a good bit of money.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That makes sense! If they are similar to my dog, I probably wouldn't notice that much, and if they provided the food and stuff, I wouldn't need to charge much.

[-] Nemo@slrpnk.net 29 points 1 day ago

My wife does the furniture flipping thing. I don't think we make any money on it — but we have much nicer furniture than we could afford otherwise and between reselling the items we get rid of the low prices we pay for the incoming, we're certainly not spending money on it, either, and that's counting the cost of renting trucks to move it around.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Well getting nice furniture from a hobby sounds pretty chill regardless!

Every now and then my eyes pop at the cost of new furniture.

[-] leanleft@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

how is nobody afraid of bedbugs?

[-] Nemo@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 day ago

We don't fick with upholstered furniture for exactly that reason. Tables, dressers, cabinets.

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[-] daq@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

Maybe if you live in an area with mostly SFHs so bugs can't spread as aggressively? I'd never take furniture off the street. I'd rather sleep on bare floor than deal with bed bugs.

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[-] Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

My side hustle is real estate photography. Very flexible timing and I already had all the equipment. If I didn’t already own the equipment I wouldn’t have done it.

[-] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 8 points 1 day ago

Good excuse to buy a drone.

[-] IMongoose@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

You have to have a license to do that in the US. It's not super hard to get but not as easy as just buying a drone.

[-] yonder@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

I know here in Canada if a drone is 250g or under, you don't need a license. I'm pretty sure that maby of the camera-drone manufactuers make variants that are just under 250g to make them more accessible.

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

The DJI Mini Series comes to mind. They are great little drones.

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[-] Hikermick@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

I haven't known anyone to do this but I always thought managing social media accounts for small businesses would be a good side hustle. A steakhouse restaurant nearby went out of business in a year. They spent a ton of money on remodeling and a billboard with a logo but weren't even listed on Google Maps. I'll wager some businesses would be willing to barter in order to keep things simple

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[-] _bcron_@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

If I ever picked up a side hustle, it'd be basic editing. ChatGPT has displaced the ghost writer but it can't polish its own turd.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Editing ChatGPT generated content sounds soul crushing tbh.

[-] _bcron_@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think the thing that would keep me sane is that I'm fascinated in trying to figure out how a single AI-generated paragraph can be accurately detected.

But yeah, the common permutation of multiple pargraphs, the first starting with reaffirm/validate/reiterate is downright obnoxious.

'I'm sorry to hear you're having such difficulties with editing ChatGPT-generated content. It can be challenging and even frustrating at times, but with' lol

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[-] Pistcow@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

Higher education tripled my income, so that seemed to work, and I dont have to do anything but sit in an office 40 hours a week.

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[-] sosodev@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

The only one I’ve heard of working really well was 3D printing copyrighted material that is usually way overpriced. Board game pieces, figurines, etc.

[-] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Honestly, 3d printing and selling designs online is a good side hustle I've seen, but they can't be straight up copies of someone else's work.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

A little bit of legally dubious action to pay the bills and siphon money from billion dollar companies never hurt nobody!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FW99X9Z?_encoding=UTF8&pf_rd_p=95590a51-8b9e-49a7-bb36-7db49ee510df&pf_rd_r=1H8PF6FSJNKSFTQ26RYQ&pd_rd_wg=M35DG&pd_rd_i=B08FW99X9Z&pd_rd_w=VCFKH&content-id=amzn1.sym.95590a51-8b9e-49a7-bb36-7db49ee510df&pd_rd_r=6e8f84dd-a9c2-4ec1-89b5-033d10379575&psc=1

$50 dollars for THREE, UNASSEMBLED, and UNPAINTED minis? Yeah man, I ain't gonna question why the texture of your warhammer minis are different. Game on.

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago

My Etsy shop hit a very niche market and was pulling around $3k a year. I didn't put any effort into advertising, it kinda did that on its own

I'm also a performer which is a great side hustle for my creative fulfillment, but pays nearly nothing

[-] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 5 points 1 day ago

You don’t have to confirm/deny - but I’m going to pretend this niche is selling tiefling horns/ears.

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 day ago

Flaming nipple tassels

You read that right 😂

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[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Furnace/water heater replacement.

[-] Pixel@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

There are lots of states that will straight up ban you from doing this without a gasfitter ticket.

[-] Oka@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

Can low water pressure in the whole house be attributed to a bad water heater?

[-] iii@mander.xyz 13 points 1 day ago

Low water pressure is usually a sign of low water pressure.

[-] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 day ago

Only if you have good pressure on cold water but weak pressure on hot.

Whole house suggests an issue with the supply line, for example an old galvanized pipe which is filling with rust deposits.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago
[-] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Ours was exactly that, the oulet and inlet pipes in the tank corroded badly. Cold pressure fine, hot pressure was flow restricted

[-] 7dev7random7@suppo.fi 2 points 1 day ago

European here without education for a plumber, just barely scratched the profession for a few years.

Low water pressure occurs in bigger complexes with a pipe to small for the consumers. The water pressure in suburbans and cities comes directly from the local water station.

If you have issues with this, there are special armatures for low water pressure.

The cheapest improvement is replacing the water disperser with a current one.

Other then that, one could install a pump to improve the water pressure, but these things are expensive and have high maintainability costs due to pumping drinking water, not water in a heater pipe.

[-] halykthered@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Perhaps your pipes are too wide.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Bad PRV (Pressure Reducing Valve). They only last so long. If you have high water pressure (over 120psi) coming in they last a few years tops. If that’s the case, get one with 2 diagrams and it’ll last you 10 years at a minimum.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 1 day ago

Stay at home mom watching another kid (legally dubious depending on state/situation. But I ain't no narc.)

Wtf is u talking about?

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

So a baby sitter baby sitting and the home of the child is completely legally fine. If you are doing it at your own home, or watching unrelated children, it can be iffy.

https://childcare.gov/consumer-education/informal-in-home-child-care#:~:text=Your%20state%20or%20territory%20may,to%20ensure%20the%20children's%20safety.

That's why I said it depends on state/situation.

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[-] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Running illegal home daycares is a thing

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[-] flashgnash@lemm.ee -2 points 23 hours ago

Mate at work has made a fair bit of money off crypto

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this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
104 points (95.6% liked)

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