With the holidays causing both waistlines and credit card balances to bulge, millions of Americans came up with the same two New Year’s resolutions – to get physically and fiscally fit.
That got the editors at SideHusl.com thinking: What if you could side hustle your way to physical and financial fitness all at the same time? We looked for jobs that pay well, while requiring you to be on the move. Extra points for those that involve some lifting and that have better-than-average demand at this time of year.
Here are six positions that can get you physically and fiscally fit and online platforms that can help find that work.
Babysit
The term “babysitting” has always been something of a misnomer. Unless you happened to be watching a child that is fast asleep, babysitting requires a lot of running around. “Toddler chasing” and “baby lifting” seem more accurate descriptors for the job.
Two-income families need plenty of this sort of high-energy help. After all, work projects that were delayed by holiday vacations are now piled up and due. But, the kid’s school and sports schedules don’t change just because parents are busy.
There are several good ways to find regular afternoon and early-evening child care positions, including signing up with Urban Sitter, Bambino and Care. Pay at these sites ranges from $15 to $35 per hour, depending on the client and the sitter’s age and experience.
Driving kids
If you have a car, you may also be able to sign up with HopSkipDrive or Kango, which hire background-checked adults to pick up kids from school, get them home or to activities, and, sometimes, to supervise their after-school care. Pay here is more generous. Rates range between $20 and $35 per hour, but you are using your own car and gas.
Build
Good with your hands and willing to help other people do everything from assembling their IKEA furniture to fixing their screens and sprinklers? You can advertise your availability as a handyman at TaskRabbit. You set your own rates and say what you can do. TaskRabbit collects all of its site fees from your customers, not you.
Coach
If you have an aptitude or experience helping kids improve their skills at any sport from track to tennis, you can find coaching positions that pay as much as $75 an hour at CoachUp. The one caveat is that this platform, which helps you market your coaching availability, has a graduated fee schedule that takes a lot of the profit when you book a brand-new student. Each time that same student books another coaching session, CoachUp takes less, though. And, even after the fees, coaching jobs are likely to pay generously.
Wyzant and Athletes Unlimited can also help you find coaching work.
Deliver
Have you ever seen a flabby delivery driver? Besides driving, those guys are jumping in and out of the van, lifting packages, and hustling them to consumer doorways. If you want to do this job part-time, the best bet is Amazon Flex, which pays between $18 and $25 per hour.
If you have your own truck or van, other sites, such as Truxx and GoShare pay even more. But these sites are geared to consumers who need a big items — think sofas and refrigerators — carted from one place to the next, so they generally require that you’re able to lift items weighing as much as 75 pounds.
Shop & run errands
Instacart and Shipt allow you get paid for shopping for other people’s groceries. (If you don’t think that’s good exercise, try carting a couple cases of water up apartment stairs.) And now that Costco has struck a deal with Instacart, demand is likely to be brisk. However, the key to making good money with shopping and delivery sites is all about tips, so try to take jobs at hours that your clients will be home and more likely to slip you a little something extra.
Walk dogs
Last but not least, you can sign up to walk dogs, which appears to be one of the most popular side hustles among our readers. Walking dogs not only provides good exercise, it pays about $12 per half-hour, plus tips, for walking one animal and $15 per half-hour if you walk two dogs at once. Hour-long walks earn you between $18 and $21, plus tip. The best sites to find dog-walking gigs are Rover and Wag.
Leave a Reply