It’s officially summer, and with the heat comes travel and expenses like concerts, trips to amusement parks and new wardrobes. To avoid breaking the bank, you might want to consider taking on a summer side hustle to bring in some extra cash.
CNBC Make It has talked to a lot of real people who show you can make more than just a few extra bucks here – side hustles typically bring in over $100,000 a year.
“I’ve been doing (my side hustle) for about three and a half years now, and I wouldn’t do anything else,” Sophie Riegel, a part-time online clothing retailer, told Make It. “I’m very happy. It makes me very happy.”
Here are four ways you can start earning this summer and maybe have some fun while you’re at it.
1. Resell clothes
Spring cleaning doesn’t have to stop when summer starts. In fact, you may be able to sell unwanted items as a year-long side hustle.
Riegel started selling old clothes in his bedroom as a child to become a bored duke during the pandemic in 2020. After making around $200 selling unused items, he was hooked.
He began combing the store for items he could buy cheaply and resell at a profit. In 2023, she earned $123,800 selling clothes on online marketplaces like eBay, Poshmark and Mercari.
Riegel’s primary work includes work as a professional writer, mental health coach and speaker. He told Make It that he spends about 25 hours a week on his side hustle.
Much of Riegel’s success came from researching everything from item prices to restocking schedules at local stores.
“Technically, thrifting takes the most time,” Riegel told CNBC Make It. “But it doesn’t feel like work for me.”
2. Rent a pool
Jim Battan spent $110,000 to build a pool at his home in West Linn, Oregon in 2012. Ten years later, the pool “has paid for itself and more,” Battan told Make in 2022.
By renting swimming pools by the hour on an app called Swimply, Battan earned $177,000 in less than two years.
Not everything runs smoothly, Battan warns. They need to learn a lot about pool chemistry and management, and estimate checking pool chemicals 5 to 10 times a day. It’s a time-consuming side hustle, he said, but people can do it if they put in extra effort.
“I consider my pool an investment and I take it very seriously,” Battan said. “But there are all kinds of hosts out there that I see posting in Facebook groups that say, ‘Hey, I put a bunch of chlorine in it. Is that good enough?’ And I thought to myself, ‘That’s just the beginning.'”
3. Showcase your career through content creation
By day, Kelly Gordon is the captain of a super yacht. Plus, during the day, he spends about five hours a week creating social media content, a pursuit that Make It says brings in $10,300 a month.
Gordon stumbled into yachting after attending a wedding reception on a boat in 2007. He told Make It he “didn’t even know port from starboard,” but returned to the yacht the next day and asked all the captains there to find out about the profession.
Now Gordon shares the ins and outs of yachting with viewers on Instagram. He generated $124,000 in 2023 through sponsorships, merchandise sales, advertising and affiliate marketing and public speaking engagements.
Although he has been successful in creating content, Gordon has not abandoned his work. He works because he is still yachting.
“I’m not done running the ship anytime soon,” Gordon said.
4. Rent your car
When traveling in the summer, people crossing the United States often rent a car. Andrei Echeverria’s side hustle offers an alternative to traditional car rental services. He leases six cars through an app called Turo, which earns him up to $14,000 a month, according to financial documents reviewed by Make It in 2023.
Echeverria lives near Boston Logan International Airport, which gives other Turo users an advantage in finding renters. And because the app allows people to set prices, Echeverria can offer more attractive rates than rent-a-car counters.
He spends eight to 10 hours a week cleaning, organizing and ordering cars, in addition to spending time developing relationships with local workshops. Echeverria told Make It that a successful side hustle depends on “meeting the right people and building trust with them.”
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