Best Side Hustles In Economic and Business Uncertainty

When you’re on a fixed income and inflation pushes prices up, everything costs more.

Your income is no longer enough to support your current lifestyle, so to live within your means, sacrifices have to be are made. It may be that you choose to forego social engagements like dining out with friends, or you start a side hustle to bring in extra income to cover the rise in prices!

Pre-COVID, there was economic stability, and fixed incomes were enough to provide a satisfactory standard of living. Still, with the pandemic and unrest, we all need to control how we deal with rising costs. In this business blog, we consider which side hustles don’t need huge upfront investment and training so you can get your gig underway as soon as possible.

Economic Upheaval

When an event like the COVID pandemic or, more recently, the Ukraine invasion happens, its impact is felt everywhere, and uncertainty can cause hyperinflation and higher borrowing costs. For example, Russia’s central bank hiked the interest rate from 9.5% to 20%.

Russians at home have a lot to worry about, including how they will afford to pay their loan repayments and feed their families, likewise with the Ukrainians, who have mere survival as their priority.

Elsewhere there is economic uncertainty, and business confidence has taken a hit. Financial markets are rocky, and inflation higher than desired is raising interest rates. Anyone of a fixed income understands the need to make their wage go further or do without.

The side hustle can turn your fixed-income only wage into a variable income, and the extra money can help you get through recessions, loss of work, and rising costs. Let’s look at side hustles and what else you can do to create a buffer from financial loss.

Best Quick Start Side Hustles

Proven ways to add to your income with little upfront investment and start-up costs include these jobs we mentioned in our earlier article as they are in the most offline.

Most side hustle opportunities now exist online, and there are many tools and platforms providing eCommerce, marketing, dropshipping, and more using the SaaS model.

Blogging

Start a blog and grow a community of visitors and followers on social media. It really is your community that is appealing to advertisers and your content that attracts visitors and followers.

Open-source software

You can use free, open-source tools like WordPress for the content management system and the plethora of plugins for everything else, from sharing content to selling online. WordPress also has free SEO and mobile-friendly templates, so there’s no need to spend large on website development to get a professional blog online.

Google’s free tools

Also use Google’s free marketing assets to pivot your site in the direction of your intended audience. For example, Google Search Console Insights will let you know how your content is performing, how your site traffic found your site, and what keywords you can use in your content to attract more eyeballs.

Getting set up

The expectation with blogging is it’s not a side hustle that will provide instant success. If you are starting from ground zero, you need to invest your time and ideally funds or call in a few favors from your techie friends to get it set up correctly, including:

• A professionally presented and hosted website
• Relevant quality content – and lots of it!
• Digital marketing strategies – to share content and pull in visitors
• SEO ready website and content
• Develop income streams – sell stuff online, Google Adsense

Blogging is fun and exciting. Plus, writing content helps you learn more on topics that resonate with you. Your confidence as a blogger will also grow with practice.

Write a lengthy article a few times every week, and remember to use a good grammar checker. There are free grammar checking apps; however, our preference is to use Grammarly.

Social Media Influencer

Being an influencer is not much of a stretch from being a blogger. You need a lot of the same traits, including:

• Customer discovery – know your visitor or follower
• Niche content – including promos, discounts, etc
• Create income streams – affiliate marketing, advertising, surveys

Starting out

To follow through with your plan to become an influencer you will need to do the following:

• Find your passion – what inspires you can pull in an audience
• Choose a social network e.g. Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn
• Research and share niche content
• Network and collaborate with likeminded Influencers

Growing your followers is fundamental to your success as an influencer and many of the same requirements to being a blogger apply to being an influencer so use our blogger tips to also seed your influencer aspirations.

Freelancer

What skills can earn an hourly rate? The GIG economy essentially turns your hand to provide your services to third parties. Check your full-time job terms and conditions and choose a skill that doesn’t conflict with your main income stream! For example, you may be a software developer in your day job, and you moonlight, i.e., freelance as a maths tutor or digital marketer.

Freelancing is not just in the digital space. You can do physical work, including these jobs:

• part-time driver
• gardener
• pet sitter or walker
• home sitting
• house cleaning
• grocery shopper

The Metaverse For Your Side Hustle

Back online and with the Metaverse, there are many ways to make money on the side, including creating and trading NFTs, and believe it or not, you can get paid for playing games. 🙂

Metaverse jobs can be a side hustle or full time. You can work remotely, and your location is no barrier to getting and doing the work. The Metaverse is still for early adopters, so you can invest in your training and knowledge now with the scope to work on many projects – from 3D VR games to retail to real estate.

The Metaverse is decentralized and open-source using cryptocurrency blockchains. No one person, company, leader, or country can control the Metaverse, which is its attraction, especially in times of economic and business uncertainty.

Use Your Business Acumen

Your side hustle needs your business acumen, so it gets off the right start and supports you when you most need it. There are five steps to take to get your side hustle underway, and they include:

• Defining your side hustle – answer open questions that start with: what, why, when, who and how
• Writing a business plan
• Creating a workspace, workstation, or storage for side hustle gear
• Protecting it legally and securely – trademarks, insurance, legal entity, online security

Final Thoughts

Having a fixed-income job doesn’t have to contain nor define you. There are many side hustle jobs you can do online and off.  Economic woes can threaten employment and incomes, but the GIG economy is booming, and you can be a part of it.

Maybe now is the time to become the leader of your own job and financial security, starting with a rewarding side hustle.