Five Earning Side Gigs — Get Extra Cash
Need cash? Rhetorical. We all do. Whether you’re looking to supplement income from your main career or you’re tired of your main gig and want to take time off and earn your keep differently, here’s a list of interesting, exciting side gigs that earn well enough to be main gigs if you want them to.
1. Become a Body Guard — In some legal jurisdictions, all you need to hire yourself out as somebody’s personal protection officer is a Security Guard license, which is relatively easy to obtain. Often you take a short online course, a live, hands-on, first aid course, and then you become eligible to take the licensing exam. If you pass, congratulations! You’re a licensed body guard! Of course, this doesn’t automatically mean you’re pre-approved for carrying weapons. Not every body guard is an armed body guard. And for individuals subjected to high-threat levels, commensurate experience from full-timers is always preferable. But enhancing your situational awareness and honing your physical abilities means you can be an excellent unarmed body guard for low-threat individuals. Many body guards are hired to provide their employer with a little bit of extra personal security and a lot of extra social status, so if you know how to act, you could make quite a bit of money doing something interesting. If you own a nice, black car, you could also offer chauffeured protection services, renting out your services as a personal security guard, as a personal driver, along with your car.
2. Become a Private Investigator — It’s not that hard to get licensed. In some jurisdictions, the process is very similar to the Security Guard license, and the course required to study is only a little bit longer. In fact, some jurisdictions offer an option for a dual license as both a security guard and private investigator, on the same document. As a licensed PI, you can supplement the income from your regular job by taking on exciting new cases, or you can work full time. Find missing people. Run surveillance. Even counterintelligence if you advance your skills enough. Sky’s the limit!
3. Become a Voice Over Artist/Voice Actor — Do you have a clear voice? Are you any good at public speaking? Are your accents and vocal ranges versatile? If you invest from as little as $30 to as much as $500 in a microphone, you can offer your vocal services from home, or prepare demos that inspire more specialised clients to book you studio time. Of course, if you have enough technical knowledge, you could buy a much more expensive mic and set up a decently insulated home-studio in the tiniest room (or largest closet) in your house, but this typically happens for full-time vocal professionals who get paid much more, as opposed to vocally gifted side-gigers. But of course, you could start out as the latter and evolve to the former.
4. Become a Delivery Driver/Ridesharing Driver — The first gig on this list mentioned offering your own car. A more popular way to do that is deliver/rideshare. Apps like Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, Skip The Dishes, Door Dash, and more, can provide excellent earning opportunities if you know when to go online. These apps give you the opportunity to explore your area, meet new people, and work on your own schedule. Before starting, it might be a good idea to read/watch some earning guides online, offered by experienced drivers from your particular area.
5. Become a Security Guard/Bouncer — If you get a Security Guard license but you’d rather not follow some rich guy or girl around, you can still get hired for exciting jobs. As a licensed security guard, you’re eligible to hire for shifts guarding many interesting buildings. Or you can bounce at glamourous nightclubs or provide door security at high-society events and functions.
These five side gigs can be both lucrative and interesting whilst remaining side gigs, or they can provide a welcome change in your career, or even an extended pause whilst you figure out your next step. Good luck.