Finding a side hustle can be pretty tough. A lot of us are ingrained to keep work and play separate, not wanting to mix your hobby of cooking Italian food with the slog of running a restaurant. Or, maybe there’s not much that you do outside of work (and that’s okay!), and you don’t think you could really ‘sell’ whatever it is you do for fun. Or, and this is the one that really gets me, you’re just too shy to show the world your handmade embroidered brooches! That’s fine!
There are loads of side hustle ideas that don’t actually require you showing your art to the world (although you should, I bet it’s really great!). In this weekly segment, we’re going to show off a few side hustle ideas that you might want to start doing, ones that don’t require too much background skill or knowledge to get going with.
Can you drive? Have you got a car? Done! You’ve already got what it takes to drive for Uber, or Lyft, or Grab, or whatever a car ride service in your town is called. In New York, the median earning for driving Uber for an hour is around $20, which is almost ten whole dollars above the minimum wage. It’s definitely more airconditioned than most minimum wage jobs, too.
I’m going to preface this with the fact that I don’t drive, and I don’t even have a driver’s license, but I have been in several Ubers in my time. So take all of this with a pinch of salt — I’m not a licensed car driving professional!
One way to really make driving for Uber more fun is to personalise it. When we were kids, there was one taxi in town decked out in disco lights with a karaoke mic, and the driver used to join in on songs with us. We used to try to hunt it down whenever we went out, and he’d always give away a business card with his number on it so we could call him directly (and so he could charge his own rates!). Try to use Uber as a jumping off platform for whatever niche form of cab driving you want to do — disco karaoke, a kid-friendly car with toys, hook a Nintendo Switch to the back and let your passengers play Mario Kart. You’ll be memorable, and they might even use you directly the next time they want to go somewhere! It’s not the destination, it’s the journey, especially when you’re zooming down the highway singing karaoke.
Uber is also great to advertise your other services. Once, on a night out with my friends, our Uber driver took our phones and did a little photoshoot with us after we got out of the car. He was a photographer by day, and gave us his business card if we wanted to hire him for professional shoots. If there’s anything related to your day job, or a crafty side hustle, maybe leave some samples in the car for your passengers to try. Do you make too many pickles in the summer and want to sell them off? Ask your passengers if they’d like to try some, and maybe sell a few off. Beaded jewellery? Homemade lipgloss? It’s like that old Flight of the Conchords joke, where their band would perform to people in lifts — it’s not like they can escape! You’ve got a captive audience.
