Side hustles imply a little extra spending money, but it doesn’t have to be a small amount. These savvy entrepreneurs have found side hustles that bring in full-time income, sometimes enough to quit that job entirely.
Selling Houseplants: Leena Pettigrew
One little succulent led to a passion for plants, and now a big business. Selling plants on the app Palmstreet has allowed her husband to quit his full-time job — and spend his time helping her.
Developed a Car-Sharing App: Natalia Zorina
Natalia Zorina used Turo, a car-sharing app, to make a pretty penny. Based in Miami, she rents out cars (she now has fleet of 69) with a daily rate, and she made over $922,000 in 2022.
If that seems high, take note of some of the cars she offers for rent — there’s a Ferrari, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Audi, and Lamborghini.
Reselling Clothes: Zoreen Kabani
Selling clothes on Whatnot wasn’t her initial career — that was being a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. Then she began selling clothes on the Whatnot app, which has brought in $100,000 a month — not year, month. She’s on the app Monday through Friday, so she’s committed to the resale life.
Sewing and Selling Scarves: Olivia Cleary
Sewing scarves on a $100 sewing machine seems like a minor task, but Olivia Cleary is making over $100,000 making whimsical scarves for everyday shoppers to corporate clients. The good news is that she doesn’t have to make scarves herself — she now has a company and employees like a contractor and an intern.
Traveling Physical Therapists: Whitney & Jared Casazza
While the Casazzas consider themselves semi-retired now after three years of full-time work, they now spend their time traveling the world while mentoring other travel therapists. Their business began as a blog and has grown to include two websites, an online course, and various social media platforms.
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Vending Machine Investor: Crystal Warren
We’re all used to seeing vending machines in busy areas, but you may not be aware how much money they pull in. Crystal Warren was a teacher until her vending machine income outstripped her salary. Now running the Vending Factory, which helps other entrepreneurs find prime real estate for their vending machines, she made $242,000 in 2022.
Founder of Don’t Work Another Day: Forrest McCall
Creating a blog with such an enticing name was only part of the battle for McCall, who says it took 2½ years to make six figures. He recommends anyone hoping to follow in his footsteps should expect a roller coaster ride (there will be downs as well as ups) and plan to reinvest profits into the blog to improve content.
On-Demand T-Shirt Printer: Ryan Hogue
Hogue says he works just one hour a day on his business — but still makes $14,600 a month (that’s over $175,000 a year). Print-on-demand allows him to sell T-shirts while outsourcing the printing, packaging and shipping to a third-party vendor and without having to buy and stock product. By 2020, he made enough money to quit his job as a web developer.
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Real Estate Entrepreneur: Zac VanHeyningen
After a few years in corporate America, Zac VanHeyningen was looking to do something he was more passionate about. He decided to try buying real estate as-is in Memphis, Tennessee. By 2022 he had made $175,000. While it isn’t easy to deal with homes that are often damaged or neglected, he says that you can scale the amount of work to your schedule.
Etsy Shop Owner: Julie Berninger
Despite working as a project manager, Julie Berninger decided to try selling temporary tattoos on Etsy, then switched over to printables — and when that was successful, she offered a course on how to follow in her footsteps. Now the mom of two makes over $1 million per year.
Litter Cleanup Service: Brian Winch
Brian Winch provides a parking lot litter cleanup service through his company, Clean Lots. Winch grew his business from a side hustle to a one-man operation earning $100,000 in about two years and now routinely makes $650,000 to $710,000 a year. Though he has employees to do much of the heavy lifting, Winch still earns over $100,000 picking up trash three hours a day.
Dog Park Loaner: Elizabeth Morosani
While Elizabeth Morosani makes most of her money boarding horses, she’s discovered that lending out some of her property on SniffSpot to dog owners who want their fur kids to run free isn’t a bad gig. She makes about $8,400 a month.
YouTube Creator: Nischa Shah
Shah made over £200,000 ($256,000) as a London-based investment banker, but she told CNBC Make It she wasn’t happy. So as a side hustle, she began making YouTube videos about personal finance, nabbing over 1 million subscribers and over $1 million by monetizing her videos, selling courses and products, doing corporate talks.
Roblox Clothes Seller: Kyasia Watson
It’s hard to believe that designing clothes for avatars in an app for kids would pay off, but Kyasia Watson found that to be the case. After the app grew 85% during the pandemic, brands got interested in getting on board — and Watson was already selling avatar outfits on the app. She started pitching herself to brands and shared links to her digital portfolio. That resulted in collaborations with everyone from Gucci to Forever 21 — and over $100,000 per year.
Guinea Pig Cage Maker: Bella Lin
Bella Lin only recently graduated from high school, but she’s already had several side hustles. Building guinea pig cages, Lin spends around 30 hours a week on GuineaLoft, which brings in $409,000 a year. She’s also reinvesting that money in the company and relying on her parents and a scholarship to cover her tuition at University of Chicago.
Excel Course Creator: Kat Norton
When Kat Norton first began her side hustle, which sometimes has 6-figure days, she was drowning in school debt. By posting a video on TikTok teaching Microsoft Excel, she found a niche that was in demand. In 2020, she began selling a comprehensive Excel course and the next year quit her full-time job.
Online RV Repairman: Randall Gibbons
Randall Gibbons worked as an RV repairman and during his lunch break decided to answer questions about RVs on JustAnswer, a website where verified professionals tackle questions from the public. Gibbons, who makes about $115,000 a year, responds to about 300 questions a week and has full-time hours, sometimes spending 50 hours a week answering questions. However, the upside is he has the flexibility of working when he chooses.
Swimming Pool Loaner: Jim Battan
Jim Battan spent $110,000 on installing his backyard pool in 2012 and now rents it out on Swimply. He began renting the pool in 2020 and made $159,000 in the first 21 months. While he spends less than 14 hours a week on his hustle, his profits aren’t strictly take-home. He spends around $37,000 on maintenance and repairs. Swimply also takes 15% of the profit.
Online Women’s Fashion Store Seller: Tori Gerbig
Tori Gerbig started her business, Pink Lily, as an eBay store side hustle, making around $300-$1,000 a month for the first few years. After quitting her full-time job, she grew Pink Lily into a $65 million brand and employing over 250 people.
Eyebrow Expert: Emily Jump
Emily Jump, a cosmetic tattoo makeup artist, started microblading eyebrows during pandemic. She quit her job as a marketing coordinator for a dental office and now earns an average of $8,750 per month from her business.
Hand-Dyed Yarn Seller: Jake Kenyon
Jake Kenyon started his hand-dyed yarn side hustle, Kenyarn, in 2019 through his Shopify store. During the pandemic, sales took off and in 2020, he earned $125,000. The next year he quit his full-time job as a speech-language pathologist. That same year Kenyarn scooped in over $200,000 in sales.
Resume Writing Company: Wendi Weiner
Wendi Weiner made six figures as a lawyer, but her passion was resume writing. Her side hustle, The Writing Guru, made just $5,000 a month when it began, but later nearly tripled her legal income. She later left her day job completely, specializing in executive resumes.
Mom Instagram Influencer: Tina Meeks
Tina Meeks began posting to her Instagram account, Her Life Sparkles, in 2015 to connect to other mothers, bringing in just $1,000 the first year. But when she started posting about an unplanned pregnancy in 2018, she not only built a bigger audience but brought in brand partnership opportunities and made over $300,000.
Artist: Domonique Brown
Domonique Brown earns up to $267,000 a year working just two hours a day on her side hustle. When the pandemic began, Brown was working 80 hours a week at two separate full-time jobs. Eventually she quit to focus on DomoINK.
Founder of The Recording Revolution: Graham Cochrane
Graham Cochrane began his side hustle in 2009. The Recording Revolution began as a blog and a YouTube channel. He later added courses, and in 2021, Cochrane brought in $1.2 million in mostly passive income.
Recycled Fire Pits Seller on Etsy: Tim Riegel
Welder Tim Riegel started a side hustle turning old propane tanks into fire pits. He began with just 10 fire pits and now earns over $16,000 a month on Etsy. He spends over 40 hours a week on his side gig, so it’s pretty much a full-time endeavor.
Fiverr Writer: Levi Scott
Levi Scott found Fiver about eight years ago, but it took him about two years to hit the $100,000 mark. He’s now made over $1 million from writing through Fiverr but says he makes between $10,000 and $12,000 a month.
Luxury Handbag Designer: Wilglory Tanjong
Tanjong worked as an operational manager but left to travel through Africa. During her travels she discovered a that Black women had largely been excluded from the luxury goods market. She decided to focus on this niche, and now her company, Anima Iris, brings in over $100,000 a month.
Consulting Business Owners: Craig and Carrie Clickner
Craig and Carrie Clickner had separate jobs, but combined their side hustle into Tandem Consulting. It’s since grown to include eight streams of revenue and a nonprofit to bring in over $3 million in revenue each year.
Mexican-American Candy Sellers: JJ and Rudy Jimenez
Siblings JJ and Rudy Jimenez made their homemade candy using traditional candies like Skittles and Sour Patch Kids with Mexican spices added to the mix. Their company Enchilositos Treats earned $105,000 in revenue in their first year.
Financial Educator: Arnita Johnson-Hall
Arnita Johnson-Hall was living on welfare when she was rejected from a job because her credit score was too low. Afterwards she learned everything she could about improving her credit and created AMB Credit Consultants to educate others about improving their credit. Now her company makes over $1 million in sales every year.
Virtual Assistant: Kayla Sloan
Kayla Sloan was working at a day job and added a virtual assistant gig at $15 an hour. But as documented by the nonprofit Plutus Foundation, she upgraded her side hustle with organizational skills and added courses to teach others how to become successful VAs. She now earns her over $140,000 each year.
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