Looking for a potentially lucrative side hustle you can start with your existing skills and equipment, or perhaps with an easy-to-study, self-paced course you can take online? We’ve got you covered. Here are 5 profitable side hustles you can start working towards today. Most of them require little more, in terms of business equipment, than a computer and an internet connection. You may even already have the skills for some of them.

Disclosure: Links in this post (and anywhere on The Savvy Solopreneur) may be affiliate links. Find out what that means here.

Virtual Assistant

One thing that’s interesting about starting a virtual assistant business is that VAs tend to specialise these days, meaning you can build your business around your existing skills.

Know a lot about social media? Set yourself up as a social media manager. Know a lot about a particular social media platform? You can become a Pinterest marketing consultant, an Instagram expert, or a Facebook ads manager. If you have amazing PhotoShop skills (or are willing to learn them) you can specialise in design, or even niche it down and specialise in creating social media graphics, book covers, or blog headers. Have great writing skills? Specialise in providing written content for blogs, newsletters or social media streams.

If this interests you, you’ll definitely want to consider signing up for this library of FREE resources for virtual assistants. The best online training for VAs is The Virtual Assistant Career Program from VAnetworking.com. It includes a ton of useful training, lifetime access to their VA forum, AND a website to market your business, complete with a domain name, a year’s web hosting and a premium theme!

Freelance writer

As a full-time freelance writer, I’m not one of those people who believes anyone can make a living as a writer, even if they failed high school English. If, however, you passed high school English, and you have a flair for writing compelling articles, along with an interest in research and fact checking, freelance writing could be the perfect side hustle for you.

You don’t need any special qualifications, as editors will invariably publish your writing based on the quality of the writing itself, or hire you to write for them based on the quality of the clips that you provide in your portfolio. You can even create a strong portfolio writing for your own blog, or an open access site like Medium.

Here’s a post all about what you need to get started as a freelance writer. Want a step-by-step course that teaches you how to make your first $1000 as a freelance writer? Take a look at the Write Your Way to 1K online course. This one comes with a ton of bonuses, including pitch templates to land your first few clients, a personalised review of one of your pitches, and a private Facebook group to get support and feedback.

Blogging

Blogging is not the easy-peasy way to earn money that some people would have you believe. However it is very doable if you have decent writing skills and a willingness to learn the relatively simple technology needed. It now takes about 10 minutes, and a very low investment, to set up your own blog on WordPress, and start monetising it with tactics such as affiliate marketing, advertising or sponsored posts.

The very best resource I’ve found for new bloggers needing training in content creation is this Blog Writer’s Bootcamp. You might also want to check out the Grow Your Blog Course for tips on the practical side of blogging, like getting traffic and subscribers, and monetising your blog.  And don’t forget you can get the super high-value Busy Bloggers Success Kit half-price when you sign up for The Savvy Solopreneur newsletter.

Proofreading

There is a huge and ongoing demand for freelance proofreaders. If you love reading, and  love correcting grammar (I KNOW this applies to some of my readers) why not get paid to do it? Of course, professional proofreading is a little more complex than that. You’ll need to know all the correct processes, terminology, and best practices, but these can be easily learned.

Proofreading was my second side hustle, alongside freelance writing: a side hustle to my side hustle, in fact. Helping authors get their books ready for publication can be surprisingly satisfying work, especially when you get messages and testimonials like these (from a couple of authors I’ve worked with).

“Special thanks to my wonderful copy editor and proofreader, Karen Banes, who arguably did more for this book by taking words away than I did by adding them! I’m extremely grateful to Karen for going above and beyond because of her passion for the subject matter, and I look forward to working with her again.” 

– Kirsty Stuart, Author of How To Start A Travel Blog And Make Money

“Karen has been amazing to work with. She really spent time with each paragraph, making sure it was readable from an outsider’s point of view. She even took time to help me out after we had finished working together. Karen really cares about your work and your success, and that’s what you need, I believe, to make life easier. Thanks!”

– Dr Ameet Aggarwal ND, Author of Feel Good: Easy Steps to Health and Happiness

You tend to get an acknowledgement in the book as well, which is always nice. The very best proofreading course out there right now is Proofread Anywhere from Caitlin Pyle. If you’re not sure this is the side hustle for you, she provides an excellent and totally FREE webinar that will give you an in-depth look into the world of freelance proofreading as a side hustle or full-time career.

Coaching

You wouldn’t imagine it, looking at how many coaches there are out there, but coaching actually requires a lot of specialist knowledge and skills. The reason it can be a great side hustle, however, is that people hire coaches to help them do very specific things, so you may be able to coach in something you’re already skilled and qualified in.

Health or wellness professional? You could be a health coach. Successful blogger? You could be a blogging coach. Published writer? You could coach aspiring writers. Business degree and/or business experience? You could coach small business owners online.

I’ve talked before about how to offer your own coaching program, and I always tend to recommend the same resource to potential coaches: CoachGlue (they’re called that because they help coaches find clients that stick to them). They have a blog with free information, some free resources and paid resources too.

So which of these side hustles fits your skills and interests? Or do you have an entirely different profitable side hustle that works just fine for you? Feel free to tell us about it in the comments.

*****

Ready to get really clear on your goals as a solopreneur, whatever it is you do? Grab a free workbook and some other goodies to help you run your online business.