8 Good Side Hustles I’ve Had To Make Money Fast

There are a lot articles offering generic side hustle ideas but how many good side hustles out there that might help you to make money real fast? We certainly don’t just want to hustle for nothing or very little reward for the work we do.

A lot people suggest doing online survey for extra income in those articles. But seriously? Do you know how much they pay for doing online surveys? You get a few cents for hours laboring online.

Blogging can be a good side hustle if you are persistent; have a lot good content to share and have large based audience. The thing is, you certainly can’t make money from blogging at early stages. Most people tried blogging but never managed to make any money out of it.

Being a part time cleaner will help bring extra income but how many of you out there would like to clean other people’s dirty toilet?

Good side hustles are the ones that bring you enjoy. They are flexible and will  pay you well for your effort fast.

I’ve personally had some good side hustles that I didn’t even consider them “hustles”.  Most of them are derived from my hobbies and personal interest. I do them so well and people are willing to pay for my expertise in that field. Some are accidental because one opportunity leads to another and things just happen naturally.  Many of these hustles could be built into a full time business/career. I know that not everyone wants to change career paths so often (it’s probably not a good idea financially any way). Hopefully those can draw some inspiration if you are looking for side hustle ideas to make good income fast.

Below are some good side hustles I’ve had that make money fast:

Resell online

You don’t have to buy and resell. Start with your own closet first.

Before even think of selling, I surly did more than enough buying. Being an impulsive person and someone who didn’t value money much, I splurged on clothes and accessories. Until one day, I sold a set of Louis Vuitton bracelets for what I paid for buying it brand new. That was an incidental good investment I’d say, considering I’ve had it for 10 years.

It also clicked that maybe preowned luxury designer items are highly sought after. So I started to look around the house and collect the ones that were not in use for sale. My sister gave me some of her designer bags and Louis Vuitton wallets to off load. All of them were sold out like hot cakes.

After all the personal collection were sold, I started to buy preowned Louis Vuitton handbags and accessories for resale on online auction site. I studied intensively on how to to tell which ones are real  and which ones are fake. Later I’ve written an article about how to buy authentic pre owned Louis Vuitton together with  a lot of designer handbag guide articles on this website to help people buy the real deal and save a lot of money.

Progressed to an online store

Back in 2009 when I started to sell preowned Louis Vuitton handbags online, there wasn’t any real competitors at all in Australia. It soon became a necessity to have my own e-commerce store. Eventually I had an online store to sell preowned designer handbags and accessories. There were a lot work evolved being an online store owner. My stock photography skills became better and better so many people thought those photos on my website were not taken by me of the real items I had. They thought they were stock photos from some other professional websites. I had to learn how to operate an online store by installing and using the applications, as well as optimizing SEO so there will be more visitors to the online store.

Some of the handbags sold online

Designer accessories sold online

2012 -talking about my online store

There was so much to learn and it seemed never ending. The good news is that all the skills I’ve learned from this helped me to land other good side hustles.

Personally I’ve never had the aspiration (or perhaps the ability) to be a great entrepreneur and be super rich and famous. I’m just this introvert person who suffers from anemia and often lacks the energy that’s required.

When an opportunity came to sell the online business for a decent profit, I did. That was a great life experience and many great lessons were learned that will serve me for life.

One important lesson I’ve learned is: When you try to do something, do it really well – even just for a side hustle.

Photography Service

Photography is definitely an expensive hobby. Before smart phones came into play, you’d have to buy heavy and sophisticated cameras to take decent photos. You’d have to learn about the exposure triangle and all the different buttons and dials on the camera.

I’d always had an great interest in photography. One year of professional training at university taking photos was just a start. My online store taught me how to do stock photography really well. But I was too shy and awkward to deal with people directly. Photography changed that.

I started to take photos for friends and really studied how to interact and photograph people. Back in 2013, after I sold my online store, people were still willing to pay well for good photos taken for them. Within a year, I got another good side hustle that developed into a business. That lasted a good couple of years. At the peak, it brought close to $10K in one month, not too shabby.

But soon I realised carrying heavy photography gears and running after my objects are not my thing. So I scaled all the way back. But I’m forever grateful for what running a photography business’s taught me. Portrait photography is a very personal thing. You’ll have gain people’s trust before they can show their true personality. I became a people person and could make people feel at easy in front of my camera.

Private tutoring

There are a few other good side hustles led from professional photography service. One of them is private photography tutoring. I’ve got some good clients from photography and some of them offered to pay me to learn how to take photos for their travel. This is much less physically demanding than having a photography session and people do pay well for knowledge and experience.

Photojournalism

Another exciting hustle derived from my photography is photojournalism. Because of my ability to take good photos, a friend of mine introduced me to an agent for celebrity event photography. I got invitations to different red carpet events in Sydney and saw some most famous people in real life close by. For me, it was pure excitement. I got to take photos Matt Damon! Brat Pitt! Cate Blanchett! …

I got to meet the stars of my favorite TV shows at the time: Game of Thrones! Nikolaj Coster-Waldau took this photo with me using my Cannon DSL because I didn’t know how to take selfies properly, haha.

March 2014 In Sydney

I was also lucky enough to be invited to be the official photographer for a few red carpet events (meaning no other photographer was present).

But I soon got over it. Side hustles means side hustles to me. The agent moved to LA for bigger ponds. I didn’t put enough effort to pursuit it any further. After the excitement worn off, I stopped doing it.

THE DALLAS BUYERS CLUB premiere & party 2014

Be a personal shopper/stylist

This one comes from my photography business too. I developed a niche of providing online dating portrait photography years ago. Many people need help with styling during the photoshoot. Quite a few clients want to pay for someone to go shopping with them and pick the best suited outfits. As shopaholic and a photographer who always help clients styling during photoshoots, it’s only nature that I picked up the gig of being a personal shopper/stylist.

Consulting Service

Having had a couple of businesses and knowing a great deal of photography, plus a thing or two of e-commerce, I landed a contract gig offering marketing consulting service. That nearly led into another full time employment but decided not going ahead. It could be more financially beneficial and secure to be full time employed with a big company. But it just felt that marketing is not my long term career. Maybe I’m more suitable jumping from one gig to another and not used to full time employment any more. Or, I just feel too old to keep up with 20 something  kids who are always full of energy. That was a hard decision but I’ve since moved on.

I’m still offering consulting service but it’s in an area that I’ve always been passionate about – tax consulting. The saying is: there are only two things are certain – death and tax. I guess in the tax consulting business, the older you are, the more experience you’ll have. And the more desirable you’ll be.

My point is, pick something you enjoy doing and be really good at.

Teaching

Because I know so much about tax and have helped thousand of people a year doing their taxes, I was offered a side gig to teach at tax school.

The idea of teaching a class was a bit scary for me because as mentioned early, I’m naturally shy and low in confident. But eventually I took this opportunity to train myself to be more confident and it’s really been great journey. I’ve had so much fun teaching. In order to prepare the tax course and be prepared for all kinds of questions from student, I’ve learned even more about tax. It never hurts to learn more, right?

Attend marketing focus group

I wasn’t looking out for it but a client from my photography service put me into one of those market focus group meetings. All you need to do is to show up and offer your opinion.

That group meeting went for around 1 hour. A meal was offered and cash of $120 was paid. Not bad at all.

In conclusion

I’ve really enjoyed all the good side hustles mentioned above. And they all provided decent income immediately over the years. For various reasons I’m only still doing a couple of them.

Perhaps there are a lot of side hustles, some would list hundreds. But it’s not a numbers game. If you want to achieve a financial goal, be it making extra income or pay off your mortgage, choose a few good side hustles to invest your time in. Time is precious. No matter what you do, don’t waste your time. You want to enjoy whatever you choose to do and make money along the way.