Today I'll be sharing with you 5 ethical side hustles you can start to make money from home. These require little or no monetary investment and can be done with very little experience. I'll also provide you some tips to get started with each one and share with you some useful resources that will help get you started.
Now the reason why I say ethical is that there are plenty of videos and articles online showing you stuff that comes under multi-level marketing schemes and pyramid schemes and that's not what we are interested in here.
No one wants to hound their friends and family to buy stuff from them that they don't need, and they just feel scammy to me.
With the side hustles I'll be sharing with you today you don't have to scam anyone out of their money or even hound anyone to buy from you. They are genuine ways to make money from home, around your current responsibilities and other commitments.
Many of these have the potential to grow from a side hustle that makes a couple of hundred £££ (or $$$) a month to a long-term business.
You may even be able to get to a point where you can quit your job and work from home full time if that's what you really want. So If you're looking for a way to earn some extra money on the side of your current job and commitments then a side hustle can be a great way to earn a few hundred ££ £s or even more on the side.
Now before we dive into the ethical side hustles you can start from home we need to understand what differentiates a good side hustle from a bad one so you can recognize the pitfalls and know what to avoid.
In the book Side Hustle, Chris Guillebeau shares that a good side hustle should:
- Be Easy To Start- Ideally, a side hustle shouldn't require months of prep to start or any previous experience, it should be relatively quick to get up and running in a few days.
- Not Require Too Much Money or Setup Costs- A side hustle should be free or cheap to start with and shouldn't require huge upfront capital, investment, or loans. So put away your credit card, that won't be required!
- Be Flexible & Quick To Setup- You should be able to start and run your side hustle alongside your current commitments, whether it's a job or even another business or if you're a stay-at-home parent, whatever the case the side hustle shouldn't take over your life. You should be fine spending an hour or 2 on it, you can spend more but you shouldn't have to.
- Not Require A Business Degree Or In-Depth Specialist Knowledge- You don't need an MBA when starting a side hustle, many of the things you may need to learn can be learned as and when you require the skills and are generally picked up from the experience of running the side hustle itself! Should you need specific knowledge on something you can always take an online course, there are plenty of platforms that allow you to learn high-income skills cheaply or even for free.
- Not Require Employees, Assistants, or Business Partners- When starting your ethical side hustle it's most likely going to be just you, and that's perfectly fine. You may want to get some help later on once you are growing and get to a point where you can't handle all the work, but in the beginning, it's best to use your own skills and effort to get the job done. Hiring and firing is a whole new skill set and so it's probably best to put all your effort into growing your side hustle rather than wasting time and money on hiring people (which you may not have enough work for anyway).
- Not Require Years Of Business Experience- Starting a side hustle shouldn't require decades of experience in running businesses, all it requires is a bit of resourcefulness and a will to learn as you go along.
So with those tips aside let's now move on to the 5 ethical side hustles you can start from home.
1. Freelancing
This is providing digital services to small business owners or even individuals that need help with those services. It can be anything ranging from social media help, general admin, graphic design, data entry, thumbnail design, scriptwriting, content writing, or even voiceover work.
It's usually done through online platforms that connect freelancers with people who are searching for a variety of online services. The benefit of freelancing is that you can get started with the skills you already have, for e.g. if you have a day job then most likely you would have picked up certain transferable skills that you can turn around and offer as a freelancer.
I really love this method because it is something that I have done myself and made money with.
When I retrained as a digital marketer and copywriter I went on to Upwork and offered my services as a digital marketer, it was a great way to hone my skills as well as learn valuable business skills that I wouldn't have learned otherwise.
If you are a new graduate or have learned a new skill by taking a digital course, you can go onto freelancing websites and essentially create your own "internship" by offering your skills as a service and then building up a portfolio to show your future employer.
This not only shows you are proactive and resourceful but also shows you are professional enough to deal with clients and meet deadlines, all very useful skills for the workplace.
There are lots of different platforms that you can go on and use these include PeoplePerHour, Upwork, Fiverr, We Work Remotely, Freelancer, and many more. It's extremely cheap and often free to get started and you only pay these platforms when you managed to land some jobs so it's a win-win really.
2. E-Commerce
E-Commerce is basically selling stuff online, physical stuff that is.
The great thing about this side hustle is that it's also very easy to begin because you can start off by selling stuff that you have lying around the house.
You can then quickly set up an online profile on a website such as eBay and start selling right away, if you don't want to do that then you can easily use a platform such as Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace to sell your goods.
Within e-commerce you'll find a number of different business models which include drop-shipping, print-on-demand, creating your own brand, or even sticking to the simplest which is selling on a marketplace.
I have explained each of these e-commerce business models in detail here, so you can get started with the one that appeals to you more right away.
3. Become A Virtual Assistant
You've probably seen many online articles telling you to become a virtual assistant and start offering your services but what exactly does a virtual assistant do?
Virtual assistants help out with all sorts of tasks these include, booking appointments, managing calendars, making travel arrangements, uploading YouTube videos, scheduling social media posts, doing keyword research, making phone calls, and all sorts of other stuff.
The great thing is that you don't need much experience to be a virtual assistant as usually the jobs don't require any particular expertise. You can also get started right away by creating a profile for your services and growing from there.
Again you can use the websites I mentioned before to create your profile and get started, if you find yourself stuck for ideas of what services you can provide then you can always go on to the websites and browse the jobs sections to see what services are already on offer and tailor your offer around those.
4. Remote English Teacher
Teaching English online is a great side hustle especially if you are a native English speaker. The way this works is that there are many people around the world who want to learn English as it's a universal language, this may be for their children or even to better their own career prospects.
These people can go online to a variety of platforms and services that are available online to learn English. There are also many platforms that specifically allow children around the world to learn English.
This is where you come in, as you can register on these platforms to become an English teacher and teach these people English whilst getting paid a per-hour rate. It’s a great side hustle because you can do it in your free time and also choose your own hours.
Many platforms also give you ready-made lesson plans so you just have to follow along.
5. Blogging or Vlogging
Who would have thought 10 years ago that documenting your life, writing articles, or making videos on what you love and sharing it with the world would be a feasible career choice today? Probably no one! But that's the reality today.
Nowadays anyone can pick up a camera and start vlogging about whatever they like, or create a website and blog about what they love.
There are blogs online about food, health, photography, basketball, pets- you name it there is someone out there sharing their love for it via written or video content.
But just because it is possible, doesn't mean it's easy. Blogging/vlogging or any content-based side hustle can take some time to gain traction but when it does it can pay dividends.
If you have a certain interest or hobby then why not start a blog or even a YouTube channel to vlog and share your experience. A blog is a written version where you write articles around what you are interested in and a vlog is a video version.
People have blogs or vlogs on all sorts of topics, that is why this is such an awesome side hustle. Because so long as you have an interest in something then you can start sharing your journey or expertise on it.
When you start blogging/vlogging about a topic you are passionate about, you will start to attract your tribe which will ultimately become your audience. If you have created enough goodwill with the audience by providing valuable content that helps them, you can then introduce products and services that may help your audience.