5 Side Hustle Ideas You Can Start With Just $100 In 2024

When it comes to making more money, the lack of money should never be an issue. Often, people stall when it comes to making the decision to work as a freelancer or launch a side hustle, due to the myth that one needs sufficient capital to begin with.

But in actual reality, you really don’t need that much initial capital to be successful. There are countless stories of freelancers who were able to venture out with hardly any money, and launch a profitable side hustle that eventually scaled and became successful enough for them to leave their jobs altogether.

And this is even more essential in 2024, granted the fact that thousands of workers have been laid off from major U.S. companies at an unprecedented rate, leading to hoards of professionals being out of pocket and forced to find immediate or alternative means of income and employment.

To dispel the myth that you need thousands of dollars in your checking or savings account to launch a successful side hustle, here are five ideas worth considering:

1. Mobile Repair

Are you the one people revert to whenever they have a technical issue? You might consider yourself a computer geek or simply have a knack for DIY and fixing things, to the extent that you may even have an entire tool set in your garage.

If you’ve got the know-how, physical tools, and a genuine passion for conducting repairs as a hobby, you can promote your services for repairing devices, conducting basic home repairs, and other odd jobs. You can find freelance repair jobs and promote yourself on sites such as Airtasker and Taskrabbit.

2. Catering

Catering is another excellent low-capital option you might want to consider. All you really need to start is a decent, hygienic kitchen, the food and cooking tools—both of which you already likely have—and of course, marketing materials to get your name out there. You can easily invest in a domain name, simple website, and physical promotional materials such as business flyers and cards for under $100.

In fact, if you start with catering to people you know, such as for friends, family, church, or other community or school-based gatherings, your reputation as a caterer can quickly build and word of mouth can spread like wildfire. This is powerful advertizing for your side hustle.

3. Lawn Care

If you have “green fingers,” and are passionate about gardening, why not turn your enthusiasm into profit? Chances are you already have the right lawncare equipment, so this makes for an excellent low-cost venture. Your only concern would be to spend $100 (or less) on initial marketing to acquire your first few clients, so you can reinvest a portion of the profits to grow your side hustle.

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4. Digital Subscription Service

This is perhaps one of the easiest side hustles of them all. You can create a blog (pay for your domain and website), then launch an exclusive, paid newsletter for your followers after gaining regular, high-volume traffic. Or you might provide other digital products for monthly release, within your field of expertise.

You can also pay for digital marketing branding and graphics by taking a subscription with Canva, for example, to help make your site more attractive and to promote your digital offerings. All of this costs less than $100.

5. Flipping Websites

The process of flipping websites is where you buy a website for a relatively low price, improve its value, and then sell it at many times the value of what you purchased it for. Marketplaces such as Flippa allow you to make money from this venture, and the best part is that it requires little experience or overheads. It does help if you have a specific niche of websites that you concentrate on. The most profitable niches are food and cooking, travel, personal development, business, technology, and health and wellness, according to Quick Sprout.

It’s quite evident from the above examples that you don’t need substantial cash to generate income. The side hustles listed in this article—and many more—can be started with the basic tools and equipment that you already own at home, such as a laptop, internet, or repair tools. The only capital you need are your skills, and your drive.