How Much Side Hustles Are Too Many
The best part of side hustle is I don't have to deal with a boss
How many side hustles are too many? My first venture was tutoring in college for friends. I didn’t accept payment initially because I didn’t want to offend anyone, but I accepted donations if someone offered.
I remember receiving a home-cooked meal from a family because I tutored their daughter. I soon realized I could make extra money if I charged. I started at $20 per hour and kept it at that price for a long time.
All my clients were word of mouth, so tutoring was one or two clients per month. My next venture didn’t last long, but I used to prepare taxes during the tax season in the US.
I kept my tutoring side gig as word of mouth while trying other side gigs. Here is a list of side hustles I tried. Some I’ve kept, and some I no longer do.
Tutoring—I’ve done in-person tutoring for many years. The most profitable was my tutoring business from 2012 to 2000. During these years, I treated my tutoring like a business, working up to 10 - 20 hours per week. I still tutor online, but only occasionally through a company that finds me clients. I don’t actively search for new clients.
Tax Preparation—I used to work for a tax preparation company, but in my free time, I prepared taxes for my teacher colleagues for a fee. That didn’t last because I needed to attend continuing education classes to prepare taxes. It wasn’t worth the time for the number of clients I had during the tax season. I stopped doing taxes; the only tax I do now is for myself.
Amazon - I had an e-commerce storefront with Amazon. It started with selling books and moved to selling laptops online.
eBay—I had an eBay business account and an Amazon storefront. I discontinued my e-commerce business and started tutoring in 2012 - 2020.
Teachers Pay Teacher - I opened my Teachers Pay Teachers storefront selling worksheets, lesson plans, and unit plans in late 2018. My storefront is still active, and I make a small monthly income. I haven’t actively done anything to promote my TPT business since 2021, but I still bring in something per month.
Kindle Direct Publishing—I have six mathematics workbooks on Amazon. I wrote them when I opened my TPT storefront. I don’t actively promote my workbooks on Amazon, but I make about $250 - $300 annually for doing nothing. I have an author page on Amazon that does an excellent job promoting my business for free.
Medium - Most of you know what the Medium platform represents. Of all my side hustles, I make the least money from Medium. I’ve never made more than $100 monthly on Medium.
NewsBreak—It’s been a year since I started writing on NewsBreak. Writing on NewsBreak has made me the most money. It is my second most successful side hustle, next to my tutoring business, from 2012 to 2020.
Substack - I make no money on Substack; I’m still building my newsletter.
Upwork is hit or miss. I stopped actively promoting my business on Upwork. Ghostwriting is a lot of work for the money they pay me. I’m not sure if it’s worth it because it takes time from building my Substack newsletter business and writing on NewsBreak.
The only two side hustles I discontinued are my e-commerce stores on Amazon and eBay (#3, 4). I still have everything else on the list.
Making money online is not easy. I’ll always be grateful for my teaching career because it led to financial success. I know I couldn’t have done it without my writing income alone. I look for more side hustles, but my current side hustles keep me busy.
Thank you for being part of my writing journey.
Don
Great rundown of available side hustles!
I would say Substack can be great for building an email list if that is a goal - with so many writers monetizing I don't know how many are making money because it requires a good amount of time investment to get that momentum going