With the cost of living on the rise it’s no wonder more and more Brits are exploring side hustles. In fact, a recent consumer index survey found that 1 in 12 people in the UK have a side hustle in order to create an additional income! We’ve pulled together a list of potential side-gigs to make some extra moolah on top of your regular 9-5 job.
House Sitting
House Sitters UK is a family run business, used by thousands of house sitters and pet owners around the country. In a nutshell, House Sitters connects UK pet owners with trusted pet sitters! So, if you’re in need of accommodation but don’t want to splash out on a hotel, (and enjoy looking after animals) – this is the perfect gig for you. The process is really simple, you register and create a profile (£29 annual membership fee for sitters), then browse for a suitable home to ‘house sit’, and get started with contacting homeowners. That’s it! It’s safe, reliable and trustworthy, check it out here.
Nannying
Child care service GrandNanny helps midlife+ people back into work and provides vital child care for working parents. With a whopping eight million UK families lacking reliable childcare, GrandNanny essentially matches working parents, who want to hire a part-time childcarer, with trusted mid-lifers who have childcare experience in their local neighbourhood. It’s the first tech-enabled childcare service to focus on the talents of people over 50. It aims to provide community connections (which we all know is really important) and rewarding jobs for mid-lifers whilst making childcare simpler for parents. So if you’re over 50 and love looking after children, this is one to have a look at.
Online freelancing
If you have a special skill, in writing, graphic design, marketing, legal, HR or even finance, then a great side hustle to consider is part-time freelancing. Companies like Fivver have a massive range of freelancing jobs available – allowing you to work from the comfort of your own sofa, at a time that suits you best. Other similar websites in the UK include UpWork, People per hour, Guru or Bark. Some may argue that online freelancing is not the easiest side hustle, after all, it doesn’t provide job security, you work in isolation, and there is more admin involved when it comes to doing taxes etc. But if you need to make the extra cash, while working anywhere in the world and being able to ‘pick’ the jobs you’re most interested in, it’s definitely something to look into.
Focus Groups
Online focus groups, interviews, product trials, surveys and even website testing are all examples of focus groups. Sometimes they involve a small group of people, and other times, it might be more of an independent activity. There are loads of different focus group companies in the UK – including Testing Time, where you can earn anything from £40-£60 per hour! To make sure that you’re the right ‘fit’ for a particular study, you will be asked a few questions when you sign up. This will take less than 5 minutes, and your answers and data will only be used to match you to the right study. Other similar websites in the UK include User Interviews, Respondent and Angelfish.
Photography Skills
Selling photos that you have taken online as ‘stock images’’ is an effortless, and creative way of getting passive income. You don’t need to be a professional photographer, you just need to have a good eye, and the right equipment (or phone) to produce high quality photos. Licensing is one of the more popular methods of selling your snaps online, to publishers, brands or even people who might be keen to use your photos. Examples of websites you can sell your images to, include everything from Alamy and 500px, to Shutterstock, iStockPhoto and Stocksy. There are multiple ways people sell their images online, and there is a lot of information out there, so do your research to figure out what is best for you.
