10 Side Businesses You Can Start While Working a Full-Time Job
Starting a side business while you’re still working a full-time job is really tough. But it can afford you many luxuries and securities that go straight out the window when you quit your job to pursue a business idea. Each side business idea on our list holds great potential, but if you find one you’re passionate about and decide it’s time to take the next step, you’ll need to know how to create an llc. Forming an LLC can provide your new venture with legal protection and numerous tax advantages.
For example, web development and web design are two high-demand fields that will be easy for you to access if you have the required skills. You can do the work at your own pace with all of these opportunities and build a new career while maintaining your day job.
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Here are ten side business ideas you can work on while keeping your full-time job:
Web Development
Web developers are in very high demand, especially contract developers. There’s a need for talented web developers to help integrate new features, upgrade functionalities, and fix bugs. Once you build out your skills in working with HTML, CSS, Ruby, or Javascript, you can start bringing on clients and gradually launch into your own freelance web development business while still keeping your day job.
Online education platforms like CreativeLive, Treehouse, and CodeAcademy are ideal places to start picking up the essential skills to becoming a web developer.
Start a Blog
Recent blogging statistics show that tens of thousands of bloggers are creating profitable content on topics as diverse as scrapbooking, home cooking, travel, film, lifestyle, business, personal finance, and more. And the best part is, it doesn’t cost much to blog, about $65/year. And more people are growing their blogs into businesses thanks to a combination of email subscribers, affiliate marketing, blog sponsorships, and other revenue streams.
Your first step with starting a blog is quickly getting the technical side of things handled, and then both understanding what your audience craves and learning how to attract those readers online.
Side Business Ideas: Graphic Design
Graphic design is a great business idea where you can earn money easily. An increasingly easy-to-use Adobe Illustrator and even more easily accessible tools like Stencil and Visme are making it so that just about anyone with two hands, a bit of creativity, and motivation can earn a side income doing things like designing and selling images like these motivational quotes that can be printed onto posters and sold on platforms like Etsy.
Or you can find a local start-up, small business owner, or photographer who could benefit from some extra help designing or altering images. You can also use the design on t-shirts for a good business. But before that, you have to learn how to do this, which you can do on your own.
Freelance Writer
Believe it or not, you can earn a lot of money through freelance writing from sites like Upwork, Cloudpeeps, and Flexjobs while holding onto your full-time job, but once you’ve built up your client base, it’s a business you’ll be able to run remotely from anywhere in the world. All you need is a laptop, an internet connection, and a solid list of regular employers.
Getting your first set of clients can be a challenge, but once you build up your freelance portfolio and perfect your style of pitching, you’ll be well on your way to breaking out into your self-employed writing career.
Amazon Reselling
Anyone can sell products on Amazon, provided you have products to sell (or buy low, then resell). If you’re the type to hit all the local garage sales each weekend, there are all sorts of valuable things that can be resold online as incredibly profitable side business ideas.
If you want to step your Amazon selling game up, check out this detailed story about Amazon and eBay retail arbitrage featuring an interview with several successful drop-shippers who’ve grown this home-based business idea from a side business into a lucrative money-maker.
SAT Tutor
If you had no trouble acing the SAT Tutor, ACT, or other college exams, why not start tutoring high school students as a side business idea? Parents of all economic backgrounds are more than willing to shell out upwards of $100/hr to the right tutor if it means their son or daughter will get admitted to the college or university of their choice.
There is plenty of work from home jobs helping kids out with homework and turning it into profitable side business ideas that can stand the test of time.
Personal Fitness Trainer
If you love working out, then turn your passion into a side business and help others get into shape by using your techniques. This is one of the most physically and financially rewarding career paths once you build up a reputation and client base for your business.
Side Business Ideas: Instagram Marketing
If you build up a good following on your Instagram account, then you could quickly be approached by major brands, gear companies, and other relevant businesses that sell products or services related to the type of content you share on Instagram. If you have the right marketing skills and hundreds of thousands of followers, you can easily charge between $500 to $5,000 per post (or more) which makes for very profitable side business ideas.
Portrait Photography
If you own a DSLR, then you can charge friends and local professionals for new headshots, which can be a very effective side business. Many successful photographers started by shooting on the side and building up their portfolio of work, thereby establishing a local reputation enabling a launch of their own photography business.
Google Paid Ad Specialist
If you are well versed with paid internet marketing and are comfortable with Google, then a great way to make some extra income as a side business idea is to sign a freelance contract to manage a company’s Google Ad Campaigns, and gradually start bringing on more clients as your consulting business grows. Just be sure to brush up on all the right business slang and industry that’s pervasive in the online marketing world before you launch unprepared into this side business idea.
These are some of the best ideas you can rely on and eventually, you can quit your day job and focus completely on these businesses as your main source of income.
