Side Hustle Smarts Making Money on the Side

It's something we can all use. It's something that at times is elusive to us, and sometimes people just do it for the fun of it. Let's talk about it this time on Whi's Thoughts. The following program is a Studios production. Hey everybody, welcome back. Welcome back to the virtual campfire sit down lovingly known as Wise's Thoughts. We're so glad you're here and we've got a great show of in store for you today. So grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and get ready. Before we get under way, though, just want to let you know you can go to Weissthoughts dot com Weis's Thoughts wyse thoughts dot com listen to each and every episode of the podcast. Please some feedback there, and hey, why are you doing that? Or if you're on your favorite podcast provider, would you do us a favor, give us a positive rating and review. We appreciate it. If you want to email me, it's Terry T. E R R Y Terry at weissthoughts dot com. And as they say, let's get ready to roll one last thing. I am on x at Terry Weiss YouTube. Just look for the channel Weiss Thoughts Instagram Weiss's Productions and also Purplepit Studios Productions dot Com. Let's get into the program today, shall we. But before we do that, we have to do everyone's favorite thing because on one of the last episodes we were not able to do this and I got a I got a lot of email about this in a few instant messages saying, Hey, what, what the heck is going on? Why are you not doing time again? It's time for the wordsmith word of the episode. That's right where you can learn a new word and its meaning and impress your friends and show them what a big brain you have and increase your vocabulary knowledge. And this week's wordsmith word of the episode, Oh, Computer Generated AI voice is ag lit one more time? A lit ag lit. It's a noun, it's a mental, mental, it's a metal easy for me to say, it's a metal or plastic tube fixed tightly round each end of a shoelace. Let's hear it in the context of a few sentences, shall we. The company recreates historical shoes to the most minute of details, right down to the color of the ag lit. Dash was delighted to discover a color full array of aglets. He could use to switch up his shoelaces. All right, and one more, My favorite part of my new sneakers are the rose gold aglets. All right, so this week's wordsmith word of the episode is ag lit. Ag lit a metal or plastic tube fixed tightly around each end of a shoelace. Now you know, Now you're smart. Go out and impress your friends with your vocabulary knowledge. All right, all right, Hey, that's good, got that out of the way. Romanhand's getting getting ready to get into this episode of Voice Thoughts. Here today and on this episode of the podcast, we're gonna talk about Okay, we're gonna talk about something that it's a topic that's on a lot of people's minds. How to make some extra money? Yes, dingding ing ing ing ning hear that cash register ring? Couldn't we hear that cash wristk It would be great if we could hear the cash register ring, wouldn't it? Uh? Yes? Who doesn't want more money? Right? I know? I know I want some money. Everybody wants more money, so's it's always a good thing is to have more money. However, that being said, in today's world where you're saving for big purchases, maybe tackling some debt, or just want a little more wiggle room in your budget. A side hustle can be a game changer. Believe me. I know. The good news is, though, my friends, with the Internet and a little ingenuity, there are more ways than ever to boost your income outside of your main source of income or your main job. Okay, so let's think about that. So you know, where do we even start? A lot of people ask me that you know, and I asked the same question, where do I start? What you know? First thing that you want to consider is what you're good at, Okay, what or what you enjoy doing. Turning a hobby or a skill into money making opportunities often most sustainable way and enjoyable path to make some extra cash. So, I mean, if you're good at, I don't know, mowing lawns, or you don't mind spending time outside in your part of the country, as the ways and the means you can make up some extra cash doing that. If you enjoy doing that, I mean it's more of a manual, intensive labor type of thing. If you enjoy sewing, if you enjoy shopping. I mean, there's just so many what they call side hustles out there. It's unbelievable. Let's do this. Let's take a look at a few popular avenues for earning some extra cash here in the year twenty twenty five. Now, one big area is what's called the gig economy, and this is where you offer services on a freelance basis. Think about things like graphic design, or writing, web development, or social media management, just to name a few. All Right, these are just a few of the things that popped off the top of my head. Platforms like upwork and Fiverr they connect us us freelancers and people that do this with clients looking for specific skills. So if you have a marketable talent such as those, this can be a flexible way to set your own hours and rates. That's the nice thing about it. You can definitely set your own hours and your own rates. I mean, who wouldn't want to be their own boss per se. Now, another popular option and one that offers a lot of flexibility is driving for ride sharing or food delivery services. These are huge Uber, Uber eats and things like that. Companies like Uber, lift, Door, Dash, and instacart. I mean, these things have sprung up over the past five plus years or so, and they're always always I see this all over the internet. They're always looking for drivers. So if you have a reliable vehicle in some free time, especially during peak hours, you can make some decent money doing this on your own skele. Now there's a little caveat to that. Okay, there is more wear and tear in your vehicle. You know you're going to be logging some more vehicle hours and mileage on it. So those are one thing, one of the one of a few things I should say to consider if you're going to go to the uber or Lyft or door dash or Instacart route. Now, maybe you're not looking to drive or offer a specialized service, Well what else is out here? Well, if you have a knack for creating, consider selling crafts or handmade goods. Online sites like Etsy have made it easier than ever for us to reach a global audience. I mean that, that's just a fact. With your you can do it with your creations. You can reach around the world, my friends. It's no longer in your neighborhood or at a local flea market, which are good ideas as well, if you have the ways and means. But whether it's jewelry, art or you know, any type of specialized soaps. I knew a good friend I used to work with a few years ago, back about about eight or ten, nine years ago, they actually went into what's called scented candles, big big, and they did great. They had a little, you know, kind of work area in their home, and it grew and grew and grew, and finally they got a little you know, rented a small work building, a workspace and office, and just went crazy for it and did it for quite a few years until they made enough money. And then they decided they wanted to move, and then they got into something else, you know, they decided, hey, this is enough for me, that's fine. So I mean, the possibilities are really limitless if you think about it. And for those you know, with a spare room or even an entire property, renting out space through platforms like Airbnb can generate significant income. Of course, this requires more effort now in terms of hosting and managing bookings, but the financial rewards they can be substantial. Just think about that, okay, And let's not forget about leveraging one of the most important skills we all have, our knowledge online tutoring or creating and selling online courses on a subject that you know well. It's a fantastic way to earn passive income. Once the initial work, obviously of creating the content is done, You've got platforms out there like teachable and udmi allow you to share your expertise with students and you know, interested parties from around the World's let's take that into consideration. Now, let's just take a breath here and pause for a moment. Of course, with the opportunities come potential challenges. One of the biggest is simply finding the time and energy after a full work day. I mean that's true. I find this happens to me quite a bit. Discipline, a great deal of discipline and good time management to consistently dedicate the hours that we need to you know, work at and grow our side hustle. Another challenge too. Think about this. It can be marketing ourselves, finding those initial clients or customers, and building the presence online or in our local community. All these things, my friend, they take effort and persistence. I mean effort and persistence will get your further in anything in life, but especially in the area of the gig economy. Now it's crucial. Also, we got to talk about this, Unfortunately, some of the downsides of this. We got to talk about scams. Unfortunately, the world is making The world you know, wants to make money, and the world of making money online can attract dishonest people and individuals and organizations. Be wary of anything that seems too good to be true. I don't know how many times I can emphasize this enough. Let me repeat it, really, folks, be careful, be wary of anything that looks too good to be true. Besides the obvious misspellings and emails and things of that nature. Never ever, ever pay up front fees for a job opportunity, and always do your research on a company or individual before committing your time, and most importantly, nowadays, your personal information I mean legitimate opportunities. They won't ask you to wire money to them or provide sensitive details before you've even started working. I mean, that's just craziness. If your gut tells you something is off, listen to it. If you get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up, or your gut says this doesn't seem right, run run I tell you. I mean, I've had I've had, you know, experiences where I've had people reach out to me even as a voice actor and an audio producer and video producers. Hey, you know, I'd love to work with you. And the scams are out there for us too, people too. You gotta really really be careful. However, However, though the rewards are exponential, they really are. But you've really got to be careful of the scams. Okay, And so we got to think about this. How can we increase our chances for success with our gig economy type of exploration or our side hustle. Well, first, let's do this, and this is what I did. You start small and be realistic. Don't expect to replace you know, your full time income overnight. I mean that's just and anybody out there, any organization, any person, what have you that's out here saying, oh, I went from you know, my full time job of eighty thousand dollars a year and one or two months, I replaced it and doubled it. Does it happen? Sure? So does winning the lottery and your chances of that happen. Eh. Okay, be realistic. Don't expect to replace your full time income overnight. Begin with a few hours a week and gradually increase your time as you gain traction and knowledge. Okay, just be realistic. It's a side hustle or the gig economy is like any other type of work. It's like any other type of work. It'll build and grow. Yeah, there's those one offs of somebody that did something and a product took off or a service took off overnight. I mean, I just seen some information today about a thing called I think it was called trash Monkey or can monkey. It's a service that, believe it or not, has people that go around and all they do is they go to homes and businesses and they take garbage cans from where they're supposed to go and take them to the curb on garbage day and then put them back. That's it. That's all the service does is it drags the stuff to the curb and when it gets picked up, drags it back to where it goes in the home or the business. And it's a multi million dollar business. But it was an idea someone had and I'm sure it didn't happen overnight. You know, they didn't say, well, you know, I got this idea. You know what if like elderly people need help or you know, disabled people getting their trash or the curb and back and they don't have friends or relatives to do it or good neighbors boom. But just to something as simple and naive as that. The second thing we want to do, okay with this gig economy, if we're looking to make some extra income, is identify your target audience or customer who are we trying to reach with our service or our product. Understanding this will help us tailor our offerings and our marketing efforts. And this is a big one, and you're going to fail. You may fail quite a bit in the beginning as you hone in on your target audience or target customer, and who knows, you might start off thinking one type of thing and one type of service or business or idea, and based on that information and feedback you get, it might go to totally something else. You know. Third thing we want to be aware of is be professional and reliable. I don't know how many times I've encountered and you probably have yourself unprofessional people in the workplace, you know, in these businesses just unprofessional workers or unprofessional businesses period, whether they're sole proprietors or you know, big corporations, you run into root, ignorant people. It happens. It's just kind of like a plague today, and it has been coming on for probably about the last five or ten years. And there's a lot of people out there, folks that are just begging, thirsting for good, decent customer service skills and to be treated like a good decent cut from a company or an individual with good customer service skills. If you have and can refine and constantly be improving your customer service skills, you'll never lose. I'm telling you, you'll make money. Now. You have to be realistic, but treat your side house so like a real business, even if it's just a few hours a week. Communicate, promptly, deliver quality work or products, and build a good reputation. Reputation is everything. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools and it's the best free advertising you're ever going to get. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on clicks and pressions on social media, et cetera, et cetera, But I'm telling you word of mouth is the best free advertising to build your side hustle your business, your product or service. Take it from somebody who knows because I've been a benefactor of it for many, many years. And finally, don't be afraid to learn and adapt. Don't be afraid to learn and adapt. The landscape of the side hustles is constantly evolving. The gig economy is constantly evolving and changing. We have to stay open to new ideas and learning new skills and trying different platforms and adjusting our approach based on what's working and ideally what's not. Making money and making extra money and making a good amount of extra money is achievable, but it requires it requires effort, planning and perseverance. Ep AP effort, planning and perseverance. Whether you choose to drive, or create, teach, or offer a service, there are numerous avenues available in this day and age. We're living in one of the greatest technological day and ages and throughout history, and there's numerous avenues available right now, especially here in the year twenty twenty five. Think about what fits your lifestyle, your skills, and your financial goals. With a little thought and consistent action, you can definitely find a way to bring in that extra income you're looking for and who knows, maybe down the road you'll be able to even retire early. Who knows. Hey, thanks for listening to the program today. I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there, and remember to see a change in the world, you have to be the change in the world you want to see. It all starts with you, the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Remember to be kind to yourself, be kind to others. If you want to tweet at me on Twitter, it's at Terry Weiss. Stop by the website Weis's thoughts dot com just to make sure you spell my name right. Wye Wyss thoughts dot com, and hey, leave us a positive rating and review on your favorite podcast provider. Won't you tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets about wife's thoughts? And I look forward to gathering yet again around the virtual campfire with you real soon. Take care.