All Side Hustle Ideas

Services and freelancing side hustle ideas

Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services.

Startup cost
Under $100$100 to $1k$1k to $10kOver $10k
Time
Hands-offA few hours a weekPart-timeNear full-time
Where
OnlineIn personOnline and in person
Earns from
AdsAffiliateSubscriptionsOne-time salesService feesRentMarketplace cutSponsors and donations
Coding
No coding neededNeeds coding

12 ideas

  • Services and freelancing
    Custom AI assistant built on a client's own documents
    The operator gathers one client's documents, structures them, and loads them into a custom GPT or Claude project so a specific audience can ask it questions instead of the owner. The example was a business broker whose buyers queried the assistant about a listing.
    Under $100Hands-offOnline
    Corey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
  • Services and freelancing
    Fixed-price workflow automation builds for small firms
    The operator replaces a repeated manual process with an automation built on off-the-shelf tools such as Zapier, Make or Asana, usually after a short diagnostic. It is charged as a one-off project, with a walkthrough video and a how-to-fix document handed over.
    Online
    Corey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
  • Services and freelancing
    Custom AI image model training commissions
    Trains custom image generation models for customers on request using an automated pipeline, charging per commission.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2024
  • Services and freelancing
    Art commissions, licensing and print-on-demand
    Sells commissioned art, licenses existing work from a large catalog, and puts designs on print-on-demand sites for low-effort extra income.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2021
  • Services and freelancing
    Business automation services for small firms
    Builds and schedules automations for small businesses, using knowledge gained in a day job about common business pain points.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2019
  • Services and freelancing
    Payment processing reseller and gateway
    Sells payment processing services, runs a white-label payment gateway, and builds custom apps for payment terminals, alongside a do-it-yourself website builder.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2019
  • Services and freelancing
    Web design with ongoing hosting fees
    Designs websites for clients and hosts them on cloud infrastructure, collecting monthly web and email hosting fees.
    Hands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2016
  • Services and freelancing
    Webshop deployment system with per-shop fee
    Built an automated system for deploying webshops for a web agency owner, in exchange for a fee on each shop deployed. The income ended when the client retired.
    Hands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2016
  • Services and freelancing
    E-commerce site built for profit share
    Built an online store for an acquaintance in exchange for a share of profits each pay period.
    Hands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2014
  • Services and freelancing
    Rent out managed servers to tenants
    Administers rented servers, handling updates and small fixes for tenants who pay monthly fees after covering hosting costs.
    Over $10kHands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2014
  • Services and freelancing
    Lease out a developer to a client
    Places a former lead developer with an overseas client and earns a margin on the arrangement, alongside personal consulting.
    Under $100Hands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2011
  • Services and freelancing
    Rank-and-rent local lead sites
    The operator builds search-ranked sites for local trades such as junk removal and auto glass, then rents the resulting phone leads to contractors for a flat monthly fee. Costs per site are small.
    Online
    The Koerner Office