Not exactly a side hustle but you can always spend time building interesting projects. For example, I built https://rockyai.me/ for me and my friends that lets you chat with webpages using LLMs (like get a tldr of new articles). Avoids having to copy past content from webpages into Chatgpt all the time.
Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
11–20 of 22 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#12Why not use the time to figure out what you actually want to do? And if you actually want to do anything at all? To put it another way, the best side businesses -- and indeed the best jobs -- are getting paid for things that are like the things you would do if you did not get paid. Things that you are enthusiastic about...and if you are enthusiastic about the idea of making money, the simplest thing is to buy and sel…
> To put it another way, the best side businesses -- and indeed the best jobs -- are getting paid for things that are like the things you would do if you did not get paid.
I feel the complete opposite.
The things I really really really enjoy doing with my time are not (realistically) for sale. They are for me.
If you said I could make $250k a year by reading 100 books a year (a bit less than what I read on my own), I’d think long and hard about accepting.
I probably would because it would be interesting to test my assumptions, but I’d imagine it’d be less fun that reading them for free.
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#13Cat boarding. Got privvy to the idea when we needed to find boarding for our cat when going on a holiday. Scoped out a few businesses and they were costly, so explored private. All the private ones we visited were simply a largish cage with 3 or so levels, all with litter + bowls within cage. Ranges from $30-40 per night (Australia). I have a spare room. I looked up Cat Cages and purchased 3 for $150 each. Then I con…
How did you deal w/ the abandonment?
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#14Cat boarding. Got privvy to the idea when we needed to find boarding for our cat when going on a holiday. Scoped out a few businesses and they were costly, so explored private. All the private ones we visited were simply a largish cage with 3 or so levels, all with litter + bowls within cage. Ranges from $30-40 per night (Australia). I have a spare room. I looked up Cat Cages and purchased 3 for $150 each. Then I con…
How did you deal w/ the abandonment?
It has happened twice. I outline in the contract if there's no contact 48 hours after agreed pick up time I will look at other options.
Then one went to a vet to rehome, and one went to the pound.
It does feel really bad but if they didn't abandon to me, they would have abandoned elsewhere.
I implemented a minimum booking period (5 days) to try minimise it. People looking to get rid of their pets don't really want to shell over $150 to do it.
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#15For most folks, focusing on doing your full time job well and getting promoted/finding a better paying job is _significantly_ less effort than starting a side hustle that pays you meaningful money. That being said, if you feel like grinding and learning a lot about sales and marketing, consider launching an app in a marketplace (Shopify/Airtable/App store/Play store, etc) to get started (hell of a lot easier than sta…
> For most folks, focusing on doing your full time job well and getting promoted/finding a better paying job is _significantly_ less effort than starting a side hustle that pays you meaningful money.
I agree that for most folks looking to maximize money, it is better to stay focused on doing their job well.
But not everyone is same. I have a friend who wanted more freedom and spend more time with his kid. He started ecommerce site as a side hustle. He quit his job when his side hustle was making enough money to cover his expenses.
After that he started more ecommerce sites in different niches. Right now, he may have 4 sites but he has tons in work, he doesn't talk about all of them until they are semi-successful. With all those sites, he still works less than 20 hours a week and makes close to what he can make as an engineer. One thing though his wife also works and they get insurance through her work.
I also wanted to do my own thing but I was focused on tech based side hustle. I thought that would be easier but now I think tech business on the side is harder especially with a family. If I do it again, it would be a low tech or old school side hustle.
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#16Why not use the time to figure out what you actually want to do? And if you actually want to do anything at all? To put it another way, the best side businesses -- and indeed the best jobs -- are getting paid for things that are like the things you would do if you did not get paid. Things that you are enthusiastic about...and if you are enthusiastic about the idea of making money, the simplest thing is to buy and sel…
> To put it another way, the best side businesses -- and indeed the best jobs -- are getting paid for things that are like the things you would do if you did not get paid. I feel the complete opposite. The things I really really really enjoy doing with my time are not (realistically) for sale. They are for me. If you said I could make $250k a year by reading 100 books a year (a bit less than what I read on my own), I…
The things I really really really enjoy doing with my time are not (realistically) for sale
Do you sell your time for doing things you don’t love doing?
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#17For most folks, focusing on doing your full time job well and getting promoted/finding a better paying job is _significantly_ less effort than starting a side hustle that pays you meaningful money. That being said, if you feel like grinding and learning a lot about sales and marketing, consider launching an app in a marketplace (Shopify/Airtable/App store/Play store, etc) to get started (hell of a lot easier than sta…
Eh, side jobs are easier to get than promotions. The job market is crap so increasing pay is harder. In previous years with a hot market I'd agree though.
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#18For most folks, focusing on doing your full time job well and getting promoted/finding a better paying job is _significantly_ less effort than starting a side hustle that pays you meaningful money. That being said, if you feel like grinding and learning a lot about sales and marketing, consider launching an app in a marketplace (Shopify/Airtable/App store/Play store, etc) to get started (hell of a lot easier than sta…
Definitely. Think about it this way: it’s a lot easier to get a $12k/year promotion over the span of a couple years than to build a side hustle that earns $1k/month.
Money aside, there is still something to be said for doing a side project rather than a side hustle. At least for myself, I learn generalized “get it done” skills (which usually atrophy in a large company) that made me a stronger engineer in my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To put it another way, the best side businesses -- and indeed the best jobs -- are getting paid for things that are like the things you would do if you did not get paid. I feel the complete opposite. The things I really really really enjoy doing with my time are not (realistically) for sale. They are for me. If you said I could make $250k a year by reading 100 books a year (a bit less than what I read on my own), I…
The things I really really really enjoy doing with my time are not (realistically) for sale Do you sell your time for doing things you don’t love doing?
Yes! People pay me a lot of money to do things that I don’t love doing.
Re: Ask HN: Best side hustle for WFH guys
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
The things I really really really enjoy doing with my time are not (realistically) for sale Do you sell your time for doing things you don’t love doing?
Yes! People pay me a lot of money to do things that I don’t love doing.
Would you rather be paid to read books?