You don't have to have any degrees to be a business owner but you have to have a degree to work for one. Let that sink in for a minute.
I'm a third-generation college student, so I am an avid believer in getting an education, but there was something about that quote that truly hit me in my spirit. After graduating from a four-year school and finding myself folding panties for $7 an hour, I just knew there had to be more to life than going to work and paying bills.
Gifts are called gifts for a reason, and there's no better time to use them than the present. When you use the term "side hustle", most people's minds automatically gravitate toward the idea of working for a rideshare or delivery service, but I challenge you to adopt a new mentality when you consider the art of getting your side hustle on. Instead of looking for a part-time job as a source of passive income, create one.
When sh*t hits the fan, nobody has your back like you do, so do yourself a favor and secure a supplemental bag by starting your own business in an untapped market. Get ready to say goodbye to your days as an Uber driver by adopting one of the ten lucrative side hustles listed below:
Start A Drop Shipping Company
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Before you say, "Well I don't have any money to start my own business," peep the power of drop shipping, sis. This option allows you to start your own e-commerce company with very little investment capital.
While you may struggle initially with low margins and shipping errors, a drop shipping business allows you to earn a passive income by setting up an online business and selling products to consumers through a third-party manufacturer. Companies like Shopify make this process easy and with the right business strategy, very effective.
Affiliate Marketing 101
If you have a blog or website that generates a substantial amount of traffic, affiliate marketing can be the side hustle you didn't know you needed.
This marketing method will allow you to generate a passive income simply by plugging a product on your media outlet. With affiliate marketing, every time a customer buys that product by using the link on your site, you'll receive a small portion of that sale.
Sell Art On Etsy
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While arts/crafts can be one of the most difficult side hustles, it can also be one of the most fulfilling. Customers like me are always looking for one-of-a-kind black art to purchase, so why shouldn't it be yours?
Etsy is perfect for the eclectic creative who isn't quite ready to quit their 9-to-5 just yet but may be looking to grow their online brand in the meantime.
Produce An E-Book
Monetize your knowledge by writing an e-book or teaching an online course on a site like Skillshare. The best part about your gift is, no one can do it quite like you. Share your knowledge and grow your online presence by compiling what you know into an easily comprehensible informational guide.
Social Media Management
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If you can schedule posts, create content, and analyze insights, you can jumpstart your social media-centric side hustle ASAP. Companies like Freelancer and Upwork often post opportunities with small businesses in your area that could seriously use your expertise.
Help Job-Seekers Write Their Resumes
Anyone who's ever had to write a resume knows that it's no easy task, but you've never been one to take the easy route, have you? Do a good deed for the day and earn some extra cash on the side by lending your imagination to some potential job-seekers. Sites like LinkedIn and Fivver are full of potential clients who are ready for you to make all of their career-related dreams come true.
Become A Virtual Thrift Store
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It's a fact that most of the stuff you have in your closet, you don't need, but luckily, your next trip to the thrift store is an amazing opportunity to launch an online business.
As we all know, shops like Goodwill and Buffalo Exchange have plenty of uncovered gems. Develop a full-scale business around selling used books, clothes, and decor by creating your own marketplace on social media or Amazon and with sites like Depop, Poshmark, or even Etsy.
Try Being A Personal Chef
Put some of grandma's most classic recipes to the test by becoming a personal chef. Helping others meal plan or even launching your own catering service can serve as a pretty excellent use of the flick of your wrist. Cooking for your cousin's baby shower may seem like a small gig now, but it could be the first step in a life-long career in the culinary industry.
Sit Your Way Into Securing A Bag
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Dogs, houses, and kids can be a girl's best friend when it comes to earning passive income. Sites like Care.com and apps like Rover offer a number of care-taking opportunities at pretty fair rates. While these jobs don't require a degree, more lucrative gigs can become available with certain licenses and certifications.
Teach A Language
Who knew that your 3rd-grade Spanish class could offer you the opportunity to become your own boss? There are people all over the world looking for language tutors, and sharing your bilingualism on sites like Upwork and Freelancer could potentially earn you a few coins.
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak