12 Side Hustle Ideas In 2024 That Only Require A Few Hours A Week

You have a family to take care of. There are house chores to be tended to. There is cooking to be done. There are visits you must pay to family and friends. And let’s not forget about your own personal and professional development time.

And then, of course, there’s that eight-hour stretch we call work.

When time is your most valuable commodity, finding a side hustle idea that not only generates high income, but also does not require significant time investment on your part, is more essential than ever.

The 12 side hustle ideas listed below are hugely rewarding, and surprisingly only take a few hours a week, so you won’t need to work every evening and weekend and be forced to sacrifice your family, loved ones, or personal time.

Please do bear in mind, however, that there will be some initial legwork and extra hours spent to get these ideas off the ground and introduce your brand to the market, so that you can have a steady stream of clients. But once you’re set and you have automated your processes as much as possible, the rest is either passive or takes only a few hours of time investment each week.

MORE FROM FORBES5 Passive Income Ideas For 2024By Rachel Wells

1. Blogging/Vlogging

Lean into your hobbies and skills, and share them online through creating valuable, informative, and/or entertaining content. If you enjoy writing and you love your topic, you may find it easier than others to create original posts and copy for your blogs. Additionally, AI tools can shorten the content creation process for both video and written content, reducing time significantly.

You can also do vlogs, which are essentially video blogs or video diaries. These can be only a few minutes long, and can be shot while you’re on the move or in your home, depending on the context of the vlog of course. This helps to make you more relatable. As you build a loyal following, you can make money through affiliate links, X’s (formerly Twitter) creator ads revenue sharing program, or influencer partnerships.

2. Online Tutoring

If you’re really passionate about a subject and possess extensive knowledge in it, why not teach it? With the help of video conferencing and tutor matching platforms, promoting yourself as a freelance tutor has never been easier. You can teach a range of subjects such as a language, math, or music, at different levels and for different age groups, to students located around the world, from the comfort of your home. Your sessions can typically be scheduled around your availability and you can choose to take on as many or as few as you like.

3. Handmade Crafts

Depending on the exact craft or artwork, you can create beautiful custom pieces and even bespoke jewellery, and sell them on your Etsy store. You might decide to dedicate a couple hours each week to crafting your products for sale, and then spend a few minutes here and there each day, manning your store, liaising with customers, and fulfilling orders.

4. Consulting

Consulting to businesses is an excellent way to make money without burning yourself out. Especially if you decide to join an expert network, you can get paid per hour for your time consulting big industry names within your field of expertise (such as marketing or business strategy) and you can pick your own hours, deciding whether or not to accept a consulting project.

5. Pet Sitting/Dog Walking

If you have a knack for the furry friends, why not monetize it and get your other responsibilities taken care of at the same time? You can join a pet sitting or dog walking online platform, and get paid to watch your client’s pets, which doesn’t take much time from your day at all.

6. Fitness Coach/Trainer

As a personal trainer and fitness coach, you can take on a couple of clients and train them for a few hours on the weekend, or even once a week—it’s totally up to you. You might also decide to host a bootcamp once every couple of months, and drive registrations before the bootcamps start so that you are consistently being paid for the next cohort.

7. Photography

If you travel often, live in a picturesque location, or make visually stunning dishes, you might be able to earn some extra money through licensing your photos as stock photos, or having others pay for you to take photos of their work or location, on your own time terms. As long as you have your camera handy, you can take photos wherever the setting is right, and then edit them in your free time.

8. Create Digital Products

The world we live in has become extremely digitalized. Almost everything one could ask for is available at the click of a button. So why not meet your customers where they hang out (online) and develop a digital product that meets their precise needs?

There is no right or wrong answer for a magical digital product that will sell well. The key is to understand your market thoroughly and make things as easy for your customers as possible, while automating the sales process. Some examples of digital products include printables, paid courses, training conducted via evergreen webinars, templates, and e-books.

Some other side hustles that don’t take much time investment include:

1. Participating in market research surveys
2. Renting out your car
3. Handyman services
4. Driving for ridesharing services

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to supplement your income, boost your savings, slash your debt, and simply do what you love and are passionate about, without needing to resort to working onerously long hours. These ideas are highly flexible, and—once the logistics of running the business are set up—can fit in snugly within your work day, so you can experience the best of both worlds.