What’s the Ideal Side Hustle for 2021?
A so-called “side hustle” offers a viable way of boosting your earning potential in the current climate, but which option is best for you?
11/02/2021
There’s no doubt that the coronavirus
pandemic has had a huge impact on the world’s
socio-economic climate, with the UK
unfortunately providing no exception to this
rule.
To this end, UK unemployment
reached a four-year high during the height of
the Covid-19 lockdown, with
the jobless rate
increasing to 5% (or 1.7 million people) in the
three months to the end of November.
There’s also a sense that things could get worse
with the furlough scheme set to end on April
31st. But could a so-called “side hustle” offer
a viable way of boosting your earning potential
in the current climate, and if so which option
is best for you?
1. Forex Trading
If you’ve retained your day job and primary
income stream during the pandemic, you should
ideally seek out a side hustle that can deliver
a passive source of revenue.
One of the
best examples is provided by financial market
trading, with derivative and liquid markets such
as forex offering tremendous value in terms of
flexibility and bottom-line profitability.
This lucrative (albeit
volatile) market is also
accessible through a
range of reputable forex brokers in the digital
age, while these entities are also home to a
wide selection of analytical tools, technical
indicators and information sources.
While
you’ll need to attack the forex market from a
solid foundation of knowledge and understanding,
trading currency pairs can enable you to profit
from both positive and negative price movements
without commanding too much of your precious
time.
2. Teach Online
If you find yourself in-between positions but
have to commit much of your time to seeking out
permanent employment, you may also consider
teaching online.
This is another flexible
side hustle that’s in high demand during the
coronavirus crisis, particularly as parents seek
out virtual support to aid them in their
attempts to successfully homeschool their kids.
Of course, you’ll
need to have certain accreditations to teach
online, particularly in the field of the subject
that you want to teach.
As a fully
qualified teacher with a specific area of
expertise, you could also utilise online
platforms such as Coursera or Udemy to teach
detailed online courses to a larger audience.
This can be highly lucrative, particularly if
your expertise is pertinent to a niche that
remains in high demand.
3. Create and Sell Bespoke, Handmade Goods
What if we said that you could also make
money from your hobbies? Well, this is also
arguably easier than ever in the modern age,
particularly as consumer demand for bespoke and
handmade items across a range of markets
continues to rise.
You can understand
this further simply by browsing sites such as
Shopify, where merchants often launch small
successful businesses that are built on a hobby
that they used to enjoy in their spare time.
Whether you’re a skilled carpenter or artist
or someone who has a talent for crafting, you
can utilise your unique abilities to create
viable products for sale and build a potentially
scalable business over time.
Aside from
focusing on areas in which you have a distinct
passion, we’d also recommend identifying gaps in
relevant markets that are commercially viable.
Similarly, you’ll need to use business acumen
when determining price points, as you look to
measure the cost of labour and production
alongside a sale price that your particular
market can bear.