Side Business Ideas

Something tells us that this year people will be much more eager to search for viable side business ideas than usual.

The world is changing rapidly these days, and many people find themselves in situations where keeping up with the current economy proves difficult. This is where side business ideas come into the picture.

When played right, a good side business idea can supplement your primary income, and maybe even replace it one day.

At the beginning, the goal with side business ideas isn’t to make you a millionaire. Rather, this is about starting small and making life less challenging by earning some extra money.

In this post, we list 30 of what we think are the best side business ideas you can get into in 2024. We give you additional context as to the difficulty of each idea, skills needed, and other aspects that will make it easier for you to decide whether a given idea is worth jumping into or not.

Ready? Let’s dig in.

1. Virtual Assistant (VA)

Virtual assistants are in high demand in today’s job market. The idea is simple; there are businesses that need certain tasks done but don’t have enough people to do them.

The kinds of tasks we’re talking about here can involve taking care of a blog, creating posts on social media, making graphics in Canva, bookkeeping, communicating with contractors on the phone, overseeing a calendar, handling some HR matters, and doing everything else that a modern company usually needs to be done.

So why not hire someone full-time instead of an outside VA?

In many cases, working with an outside VA who can issue invoices and is available for the exact amount of work that needs to be done is just more effective. Some businesses don’t have VA work available round the clock and only need assistance every couple of weeks. Hiring someone full-time just wouldn’t make sense for them.

2. Video Editing Services

Video is the main content type of this decade.

Did you know 500 hours of video get uploaded to YouTube every minute? Someone has to edit all those videos before they get viewed by people, right?

Indeed!

The difficulty of video, and something that all new video creators quickly find out, is that the editing phase tends to take 3x-10x time of the initial recording. So, for example, for every one hour of footage, it can take between three to ten hours to get it edited. It’s a real hassle.

This is where you can step in and offer video editing services. Yes, you do have to learn how to actually edit videos first, but once you do, you’ll have enough work to make this a viable side business idea.

3. Joining the Gig Economy Online

The idea of what we call the gig economy is quite simple: people need stuff done, so they post simple job ads on certain websites to find someone (freelancers) to take care of those jobs.

Or, we can reverse the process and instead have you – the service provider – post a gig ad and then let people reach out to you when they want to take you up on the offer. The most popular site for this kind of gigs is Fiverr.

Other popular alternatives are for example Upwork, Toptal, PeoplePerHour.

Each of these sites is easy to get started with. Just sign up, look at what sort of gigs people list, and offer something similar as your side hustle. This can be a great first step towards entrepreneurship.

4. Professional Blogger/Freelance Writing

Okay, this might sound like a tough thing to get started with, but it’s actually not that drastic.

First, check out this job board on ProBlogger. Each day, tens of new job ads get submitted there. All those listings are added by people who need someone to write blog articles or tutorials for their websites.

An important fact is that those job ads don’t stay on the site indefinitely. The lifespan is only 15 days. This means that every two weeks, you’re looking at a completely new list of business owners aching to pay someone to write content for them.

5. Podcast Editing Services

Podcasts are the new craze of the online. It seems that everyone has a podcast these days. As of April 2021, there are more than 48 million podcast episodes overall. And that number is growing quite rapidly.

While podcasts are definitely simpler to produce than, say, YouTube videos, there are still some skills that one needs to master if they want their podcast to sound professional.

As it turns out, audio production is not as straightforward as it may seem. This is where you can step in and offer some professional podcast editing services.

6. Content Translator

We’re living in a global economy where more and more businesses look for ways to expand in different directions outside of their borders. One of the first steps they take is translating their website content to a handful of popular languages.

This is a great way for the business to test the waters and see if there’s any interest from audiences abroad before jumping head in and developing completely new products.

If you know Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Arabic, or Mandarin Chinese, finding companies that need help with their translations shouldn’t be too difficult.

Upwork is a good place to look for this type of work.

7. Proofreader (Freelancing)

Written content is all around us. Not only that, but the content is also very often the main marketing and business tool for many companies. However, for content to work as a marketing tool effectively, it needs to be error-free.

This is where proofreading services come into play.

The idea is simple in principle. You take a piece of content from a client and make sure that the spelling and grammar are all correct – making corrections as needed. Your job is to get rid of all the typos, weird-sounding sentences, unclear statements, etc.

8. Social Media Manager

The thing with social media is that basically all businesses these days want to be on it. But the problem is that very few of them actually know how to do it or have the time.

Plus, there’s also the difficulty of picking which platform is even worth being on in the first place. According to a survey, among the top three challenges that marketers said they had faced, number one was identifying and reaching their target audience effectively.

Here’s the thing, if apart from understanding social media, knowing what works, what doesn’t, and what the best practices are, you also have a feel for how to resonate with audiences, then you’ll have businesses lining up to work with you.

9. Designing Simple Graphics

This isn’t about big projects like websites, marketing posters, and the like, which would require significant know-how (graphic designer) and access to professional tools.

This is about the graphic design of the simpler kind. Think things like featured images for blogs (head images for blog posts), custom images for Instagram or Facebook posts, infographics for Twitter, and other things like that.

Most of the time, you can create those using tools like Canva. The interface is easy to use, everything works with drag-and-drop, and no design skills are required to get started.

10. Wix/Squarespace Website Building Services

Wix and Squarespace are two of the most popular website building platforms online that are not named WordPress, that is.

While both Wix and Squarespace are marketed as do-it-yourself types of platforms, actually using them to craft a good-looking website can prove challenging. That’s especially true for people who have never built a website before.

If you do understand Wix or Squarespace and know your way around all their interfaces, you can be of help to many small businesses.

Granted, you won’t be able to charge high prices that are common for the from-the-ground-up website building, but it can still be a nice source of side income.

11. Shopify eCommerce Store Building Services

This is similar to building websites with website builders, but this time we’re talking eCommerce.

Shopify is one of the most popular DIY online store platforms. It’s used by small and large businesses alike, and everyone in between.

The difficulties with Shopify are similar to that one might come across with other website builders – the platform can be intimidating for first-time users.

Again, this is where you can come into play and offer a service to build a client’s store from the ground up in Shopify.

Alternatively, you can help people to set up their Etsy or eBay stores.

12. Participating in User Testing

Every day, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of new products being released to the world. No matter if the product in question is physical or digital, the person who has created it usually wants to know what people think about it before releasing it to a larger market.

This is what user testing is all about. In this side business idea, you get access to a given product, test it, and then give your feedback about what you liked/didn’t like.

The platform that makes all this possible is aptly called UserTesting. Their going rate is $10 for every 20-minute test, and more for interviews.

13. Starting an eCommerce Store

Starting an eCommerce store is one of the best side business ideas of them all. Why? A couple of reasons for that:

• It’s easier to do than you might think – from a technical point of view.
• The scale of the project is up to you entirely – you can start as small or as big as you want.
• You can grow it to one day replace your full-time job.
• You don’t need a lot of merchandise to get started.

As for specific ideas on what to sell and how to begin, read this in-depth guide of ours.

14. Handyman

You probably didn’t see this one coming, but you’d be surprised how big of a void there is for services of this kind.

Society is moving ever so further toward online-based professions each year, which also means that there are fewer and fewer people that can actually do the manual work (such as fixing the sink). If you can do things like that, you can make it a healthy stream of extra cash.

Depending on where you live, you can advertise your services via Facebook, word of mouth, or use a site like TaskRabbit.

15. Home Staging

Home staging is kind of a new thing, but it’s been picking up steam lately. Home staging is basically interior design, but a bit more temporary in nature.

A home stager gets a place to look as impressive as possible for a specific purpose.

Who needs services like that? Usually, people who have a piece of real estate to sell and want to raise its value with some quick interior design magic.

Need proof? Okay; 67% of surveyed agents said that home staging helped a seller fetch more money for their house at resale.

16. Voiceover Artist

Granted, this is not a side business idea for all people. But if you are the right kind of person, you can even turn it into a full-blown career.

The idea is simple: a voiceover artist takes a script, reads it out loud, and records it. The most popular types of gigs like this involve ad reads, podcasts or video intros/outros, or even entire audiobooks once you find your footing in the market.

17. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a relatively new business concept in online commerce, but it’s quite simple at its core. Here’s what it’s about:

In the traditional eCommerce model, you, being the merchant, first have to get the product from the manufacturer and warehouse it. It’s only at this stage that you can list the product in your eCommerce store and sell it to a customer. You also have to take care of the shipping.

In the dropshipping model, the only thing that’s your responsibility is generating the sale itself. The shipping and warehousing are all taken care of by the manufacturer. As in, the product goes straight from the manufacturer to the customer. It never touches your office.

As for the specifics, dropshipping can be done through Amazon FBA, Shopify, or by going to third-party marketplaces that offer dropshipping options, like Banggood.

What can you sell? Anything from t-shirts to fishing lines.

18.Creating an Online Course

Although online courses are nothing new, they’re kind of having their moment right now.

The public has been getting used to learning things over the internet for quite a while.

This makes it a ripe time for you to enter the online learning craze and offer a course of your own.

What the course should be about? Well, that’s up to you. Where to host the course? There are a couple of possibilities. You can either build your own site and host the course there, or you can sign up to a platform like Skillshare and offer your course through there.

19. Helping People Move

It’s reported that the average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime. On the one hand, that’s not a huge number, but it is big enough for you to be able to find some local gigs every once in a while.

This is one of those simple side business ideas that don’t require much preparation.

20. Online Language Tutoring

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you speak more than one language. If you have the right work ethic and experience teaching people anything, you might want to take a stab at language tutoring online.

Keep in mind that merely knowing the language might not be enough to be able to teach it effectively. For best results, you really should be a master of your language and understand all the grammar and spelling nuances, common mistakes, and have the right methodology to teach the language.

To get started, you can check out platforms like Verbling or italki.

21. Managing People’s Property

In this day and age, real estate is considered one of the safest investments out there. A property in the right location will only increase in value over time.

However, there is a catch. Every property requires a certain (small) amount of maintenance. For homeowners who have a couple of properties that they don’t reside in, this can be challenging.

Looking over people’s real estate can be a nice stream of extra income. Your tasks might involve dealing with the renters, handling small fixes, organizing a cleaning service, etc.

22. Airbnb Manager

This is similar to the previous side business idea, but it’s specifically focused on Airbnb properties. There’s usually a lot of work with an Airbnb property that gets rented out to different people every couple of days.

Things like cleaning the place, changing the sheets, checking for damages, serving the people renting the property, and so on have to be done regularly.

Many property owners will be happy to hire someone to handle all that for them for a small portion of the profits.

23. Resume Writer

In the US, people change jobs roughly 12.9 times between the ages of 18 and 52. What this means is that the same person will also need to update their resume about the same number of times.

Writing a quality resume isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. Positioning one’s skills the right way and making the document attractive enough for the employer to reach out is not that easy. This is why many people are happy to hire professional help.

24. Starting Your Own Blog/Affiliate Marketing

A blog can be a great side business idea for at least a couple of reasons. First, only you decide how much time you want to spend on it every day/week, which lets you keep your day job. There are also multiple ways to monetize a blog and turn it into a passive income stream.

One of the more viable ideas to do that is via affiliate marketing – where you promote other people’s products in exchange for a commission. You can set up multiple revenue streams like that.

Lastly, starting a blog is easier than most people think. The technology has evolved quite a bit, and the blogging tools of today are much easier to use than even a couple of years ago.

25. Google Ads Manager

These days, advertising online has taken over every other form of advertising – at least when it comes to generating worthwhile results.

However, that’s where the challenges start for most businesses. Google Ads is not an obvious platform, and while getting started and spending money on it is more than simple, generating a positive return on investment is a whole different challenge. That is why most people struggle to do ads for their own business.

If you’re willing to invest in getting the knowledge required and go through Google’s certification program, you should have no difficulty finding clients. Starting by helping businesses in your local area is always a good idea.

26. Facebook Certified Professional

This one is similar to the previous side business idea but centered on Facebook and its marketing/advertising platform.

Facebook has a whole certification program for professionals who want to turn to manage other people’s Facebook profiles into a career. There are different stages and types of certification depending on what sort of services you want to offer later on.

Just to name a few, you can become a:

• Facebook Certified Creative Strategy Professional
• Facebook Certified Media Planning Professional
• Facebook Certified Advertising API Developer
• Facebook Certified Marketing Science Professional

These are just some of more than a dozen of different certifications available.

27. Creating a Local Online Directory

This is a very niche side business idea in its nature, but it can work if you have the right idea and your local area is resourceful for this kind of thing.

The idea is to identify a market where there’s a lot of people/businesses providing similar services, yet there’s no go-to way for customers to find those services.

For example, in many places, people looking for home cleaning services have only Google to turn to. A city-wide online directory listing cleaning services in the area could be a good idea.

The thing here is that you can start with only a handful of listings and build it up over time. The more popular the directory gets, the more businesses will want to add their listings.

How do you make money off this? You charge people for listing their services in the directory.

28. Drone Pilot

Can you imagine a side business idea that’s more 2024 than this? Okay, maybe you can, but a drone pilot is as modern of a job description as it gets.

The idea is simple: people and businesses need professional aerial photography and/or videography. Flying drones is neither easy nor cheap, so for the professional-grade stuff, most people will want to hire a pro.

Surprisingly, there are drone flight schools in every major city now, so getting the knowledge is very approachable. Then, all you have to do is buy a pro-level drone and start offering your services.

29. WordPress Website Building Services

WordPress has become the go-to website engine of the web.

While WordPress is much easier to use than similar platforms that came before, it’s not entirely without a learning curve. Most people will still prefer to hire a pro to handle the heavy lifting for them.

Now, this type of WordPress website building service isn’t a full-blown web design and development project. This one is about taking the WordPress software, installing it on a web server, adding a handful of plugins, so that the client gets all the features they need, and then putting a nice-looking theme on top of it.

The important detail here is to set the expectations right and make sure that the client knows what they’re getting.

30. Transcription Services

Transcription is a service that’s easy to explain. You take an audio recording or a video and write down everything that’s been said in it.

Podcast producers, YouTube channels, interview shows, businesses that use audio or video for their marketing – those are all your potential clients. Plus, they will rarely need your service just once. If you do a good job, there’s a high chance they will keep coming back.

Also, transcription is one of these jobs that are truly location independent and can be done in any place, at any time, and with no preparation. Great for part-time careers.

To get early work, you can check out sites like GoTranscript or Rev.

What’s Next?

Do you have your favorite among these side business ideas? Or maybe you got some other ideas while reading this? Either way, if you’re not quite sure which is going to be the perfect side business idea for you, here’s a bird’s eye view of all of them:

From our experience, having your own website where you can list your services – being the headquarters of your side business – can be a great asset to give you a head start. This website can be the main place where you get to welcome prospective clients or customers.

Here are some of our guides to help you build a website step by step, no matter your level of experience:

• How to Create a Website
• How to Register a Domain Name
• How to Start an Online Store
• How to Monetize a Website/Blog
• Online Business Ideas