'How I made $1200 in two weeks through side hustles.'

I used to remember driving into my old job and thinking [insert: crying] to myself, “if I work 70 hours this week, I’m probably earning less per hour than a 16-year-old at Maccas on minimum wage.”

It didn’t matter whether I worked 40 hours or 400 hundred hours, I still earned the same amount every month – and my employer knew that too. Cheeky.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the security of having the same amount hitting the money stasher each month is fab, and the bank loves this salary-thing too, especially when you’re going for a home loan (self-employed or contracted? Yeah, you can forget getting a mortgage…). But what if you’re in this cycle of earning the same and wanting to spend more, OR worse, paying off debt?

It’s called a side hustle, ladies, and you all need one.

Over the last year, since moving into my new role, I have escaped salary-land and instead find myself in a ‘contract-position’ where I can earn up to four different types of income in any given month (and yes, I had to provide a thousand documents to our bank before they would approve our home loan). Some months are better than others but overall, I’m earning more than my last role and yet there’s still this burning desire to earn more.

It’s a symptom of my really bad, really ugly habit: nothing is ever enough. I know, I know…I’m a bad Gen Y-er. I try to hide it under a veil of “…oh, this is just my self-driven nature”, but really what it comes down to is me wanting more. Before we slide into psycho-analysing my behavioural flaws, let’s instead focus on why this constant push for more has led me to the business of side hustles.

Recently, my husband and I went to the races in Melbourne and in my haste of packing up our place to move into our never-ending Airbnb adventure, I completely forgot about the upcoming weddings and events we had agreed to attend.

It was dumb, really dumb. I had literally packed two pairs of jeans and a whole bunch of ‘work attire’ and completely missed the pretty, fun stuff. I had absolutely nothing to wear, and believe me, this isn’t an exaggeration! I had my eye on a new white jumpsuit thingy that I saw in a window on Chapel street but didn’t want to spend some of our savings on a bloody impulse purchase. I mean, it wasn’t Ben’s fault I didn’t pack properly. Why should he have to see a drop in our savings because I couldn’t plan?

Insert side hustle!

Sugarmama.TV Founder Canna Campbell shares her best tip for turning a side-hustle into a money-making machine.

I had used Airtasker once before as a “holy cra*p, how the heck am I going to mount this TV when Ben is away” moment and voila, a nice young guy came over and did it for me in a few minutes for a small fee. Why didn’t I think of this genius platform?!

This time, I wondered if I could use my new-found love for writing and blogging as a part-time copywriter. You know, write a few blogs for people, or an article or two for their website. Nothing crazy, maybe a hundred bucks or so. Before I knew it, I had made over $1200 in my first two weeks!

The OCD-er in me still wants to put a portion of that into savings and keep the rest for a treat purchase but my ace of a husband said, “if you’re side-hustling on top of your job, then you should spend it on whatever you want. We’re not paying off any bad debt, and we have our mortgage sorted”. The addiction was ignited and side hustle mode was well and truly in the ‘ON’ position.

If I want a new outfit, a new bag or something that probably sits in the nice-to-have not need-to-have bucket, then I’m going to jump on Airtasker and see if anyone in magical-tasking-land wants to pay for my services. If it’s something I enjoy doing, and someone wants to pay me for it, then why not?

There are so many Fearless Female Trader gals who have asked about side hustles and the different types of options out there to make a quick buck. Here are some that are worth considering:

1. Airtasker – whenever I’m looking for a few extra dollars for an event or perhaps a big purchase that I want to get to faster, I jump on Airtasker and see what people are looking for. There are thousands of different tasks every day, from cleaning, to copywriting, to washing cars. You name it, it’s on there! A few of the larger organisations also post their copywriting requirements on there too and if you’re lucky enough to land one of those you can become a “preferred supplier” for that company.
2. Market research – I was recently contacted through my LinkedIn profile to participate in a paid interview for a company who was looking to enter the industry my old position was involved in, but there are loads of other paid market research opportunities out there too. If you’re interested, here are some of the websites you can sign up too:
   https://paidfocusgroups.com.au/
   http://qra.net.au/registration/
   https://www.rtr.com.au/
3. Selling your stuff – as someone who has moved one too many times in the last five years, I can tell you that having too much stuff isn’t only a pain in the a** to pack, but it’s also unnecessary. Since we have been Airbnb’ing for the last two months, I have realised how much stuff we actually don’t need or use and will be selling when we move in. Culling your wardrobe or your household items is a great cleansing activity and money maker. Facebook marketplace and Gumtree are fab places for quick sales, and can get you living your new life of minimalism faster!
4. Life-sharing – Uber and Airbnb have defined the new generation of life-rentals. Need a house or a hotel? No problems, just borrow someone else’s. Need a lift somewhere? No worries, just request one! Thousands of Aussies are making great returns on their part-time Ubering or weekend Airbnb’ing where they would otherwise be sitting at home doing nothing or having a house sit empty when they were away for the weekend. These options aren’t for everyone, but definitely a side hustle list filler.
5. Dress-hire – I recently popped a load of my clothes (more formal attire, like gowns and formal dresses/jumpsuits etc) on a couple of clothes-hiring websites. I haven’t made too much money out of these yet but love how someone else can pay off the amount I spent on an item with a click of a button. I try to keep my more expensive staples to myself, like my beloved blazers and coats but the rest is up for grabs if you’re interested in taking a look at
   The Volte
   Rentadress Australia

The beauty of a side hustle? You can do it whenever you want, for however long you want. The flexibility is amazing!

Reformed shopaholic, MBA graduate, and serial goal-chaser, Bryanna is the Founder of Fearless Female Traders – a digital platform taking the BS out of finance and investing.