Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
651 side hustles, each one described by the person running it, in a podcast, a YouTube interview or a Hacker News thread. Every idea links to its source. Filter by what it costs to start, how much time it takes, and how it earns.
36 ideas
- Renting out a former church space in a strip mall for parties and events, run alongside a full-time job. Renting the space to churches covers the monthly rent.Rentals and assetsThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Renting out utility trailers with an almost fully automated booking process, alongside a full-time job. Customers come from Google and Facebook Marketplace.Rentals and assetsOver $10kThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Renting kid-sized tables and chairs, ball pits, bounce houses and party stations for children's events. It started from a basement and an Instagram page and runs alongside a full-time job.Rentals and assetsPart-timeSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Rents out tables to vendors at local comic conventions.Rentals and assetsHacker News, 2026
- Buying ATMs and placing them in local businesses, earning income from transaction fees with about an hour of work a week. The hardest step is finding and pitching good locations.Rentals and assetsHands-offSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Setting up themed tents and bedding for kids' slumber parties as a weekend rental service. A married couple runs it as a side hustle alongside full-time jobs.Side Hustle Nation, 2026
- The operator holds stakes in RV and mobile home parks and collects rent from the lot and site tenants. Parks can also be bought and resold.Rentals and assetsOver $10kDiary of a CEO, 2025
- Built an escape room game with colleagues in a rented warehouse after trying local ones.Over $10kHacker News, 2022
- Began hosting game servers for friends, grew into renting servers including scientific computing to universities.Over $10kHands-offHacker News, 2022
- Built a compression tool that was slow to compress but fast to decompress and licensed it to big software vendors who shipped floppy disks.Hands-offHacker News, 2022
- Owns a number of rental properties across the US that produce monthly income after mortgages and expenses.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHacker News, 2022
- Rents out a couple of cheap units and built an app to manage rental administration, contracts and invoices, with the aim to offer it to others.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHacker News, 2019
- Owns a franchise hair salon that is managed day to day by someone else.Services and freelancingOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Earns semi-passive rental income from one property unit and plans to buy more.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Owns rental property, which needs little ongoing effort once it is running.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Rents out spare bedrooms to short-term guests through Airbnb.Rentals and assetsHacker News, 2019
- Owns a small rental property that covers its mortgage plus a little extra each month.Over $10kHacker News, 2019
- Rents out inherited properties, uses a management company for maintenance and screens tenants personally. Income is monthly rent.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Owns apartments rented to students and managed entirely by an agency that finds tenants and handles upkeep, paying a fixed guaranteed income.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Rents out the downstairs unit of a multifamily house bought with an owner-occupant loan, collecting monthly rent with little work.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Bought a VR headset and set up a site where people could rent it. Ranked well on Google for rental searches, then shut it down.Rentals and assetsHacker News, 2016
- Bought a commercial property with a fixed rate mortgage and leases it out. Takes little time each month and pays rental income after tax.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Bought several apartments in a new building while it was still under construction at a good price, then rented them out unfurnished to tenants.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Rents a property out by the night and has automated guest notifications, door code programming and cleaner scheduling to keep the work low.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Owns several low-priced rental homes, using a property manager to keep it hands-off.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Put an idle motorcycle up for rent on a quickly built site, earning from renters.Rentals and assetsHacker News, 2014
- Owns a house rented to family members, who pay reliably.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Bought a house with an existing tenant and collects rent with very little work.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Rents out spare rooms and then whole properties previously lived in, so rent covers the mortgages.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHacker News, 2014
- Bought a vacation rental that earns nightly rental income.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHacker News, 2014
- Runs hardware that mines cryptocurrencies.Rentals and assets$1k to $10kHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Rents out a spare room for up to a week each month, needing little work beyond laundry.Rentals and assetsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2014
- Bought discounted condos, fixed them up and rents them out through a property manager, keeping most of the rent after fees and taxes.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Builds trading models and financial tools and licenses them to others.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2011
- The operator leases large trailers and sub-rents them to customers who need storage or transport space, earning the difference. It was run mostly from a phone.Rentals and assets$1k to $10kThe Koerner Office
- The operator rents washers and dryers to tenants and finds customers through Facebook Marketplace. Income is monthly rental fees.Rentals and assetsOver $10kThe Koerner Office