The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Entrepreneurship => Topic started by: Lentils4Lunch on January 07, 2017, 01:07:44 PM
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Lately, the concept of "side hustling" or having another source of income in addition to your job, seems to be getting a lot of traction in the personal finance sphere.
Is it really necessary to have a side hustle? How many people on this forum have legitimate side hustles?
The blog Side Hustle Nation has a lot of suggestions for starting a side hustle from home. Most of these involve internet/blogging type things like SEO and affiliate linking or writing content for other people's blogs. There are all kinds of examples of people who have taken a few classes on these skills and started pulling in a grand or two a month right away. Honestly, I read this accounts with a lot of skepticism, thinking these cases are more the exception than the norm. However, I'd be curious to hear the other mustachians' thoughts...
Do you have a side hustle? If so, what kind? Would love to hear about it. How important is it to have multiple income streams as part of your FIRE plan?
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I have a side hustle - freelance writing/editing. I'll also be adjunct-teaching a lab at a local college next semester so I guess that's a second side hustle.
I like it for several reasons.
1) I'm burned out on my FT job. It's high-urgency but not at all mentally stimulating. Having a side hustle provides me with some of the fulfillment that I'm missing in my FT job.
2) I like the extra income. It all goes to savings, accelerating our progress. In a pinch, though, it would cover a good chunk of our expenses if I lost my job (doesn't meet all of our expenses, but my husband's income + my side hustle could easily support us if my job went away), or an emergency arose, or something like that.
3) I doubt I'll work FT 'til FI. I'm currently pregnant with kiddo #2 and considering a more gradual downshift once the second child arrives. I'd like to cut my FT job to PT and then continue the side work. Yes, I'd still probably be working 30-40 hrs/wk, but only 15-20 of those hours would be scheduled/inflexible... the freelance writing/editing work can be done anytime that I want, making it far more family friendly.
4) My writing side work pays approximately 3x/hr what I make at my FT job. I like that. On the downside, it makes it even harder to take the FT job seriously.
Just a few of my reasons.
FWIW, my side hustle income last year was $20,756.
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startingsmall, your situation sounds pretty awesome. I'm jealous.
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startingsmall, how did you get into that? how did you get clients?
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We've had several side hustles over the years.
I did yard work to raise money for college.
We researched, wrote and published our own how-to quarterly magazine for 8 years.
We started a software development company.
Taught software classes on the side.
Taught jewelry making classes on the side.
I wrote articles and we wrote a book each. Damn do I miss the .com boom days where I was getting $250 a page for an article. I have a truly sweet woodshop that was funded by that side hustle.
I did software consulting on the side. Got free travel to Idaho, Oregon, Vancouver Island, Washington State, Washington, DC, and Georgia.
We started a rental property business. We have 4 houses, 2 ready to rent, and 2 we've been slacking off on fixing up.
We started a house flipping business. We have 1 house to flip.
After I quit my day job we'll have a side business of making art for sale, both jewelry and house/yard installations.
And I'll probably teach home-schooled kids useful shop skills - wood, glass and metal.
I'm glad we did all of them. Learned valuable new skills, had fun, met interesting people, got to see parts of the world we would never have seen for free, and made some money, too.
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startingsmall, how did you get into that? how did you get clients?
As a veterinarian, I really wanted to focus on medical writing. The first thing I did was join the American Medical Writers Association. Learned a good bit from their message boards and through conversations with a few other veterinarians that either did medical writing on the side or had made the leap to FT medical writing.
Next, I started out by doing some freelance editing for this company: edanzediting.com Pay is decent-ish (pay by the page, I usually made around $20/hr to start but typically ~$40/hr now that I'm more efficient) and they have no problem hiring newbies as long as you have a doctoral-level degree.
After doing that for a few months, I started advertising myself on Elance, which then changed over to Upwork. Found a few jobs on there - writing continuing education courses for veterinarians, providing content for an online class for middle/high-school students on vet med, writing some advertising stuff for pet treats and nutraceuticals.
My biggest project right now is working for a company that designs client education handouts and reference material for veterinarians. They happened to advertise in the veterinary professional journal and I applied. They're the company through which I earned $4000 last month and I LOVE working for them. So, at this point, I'm only working for them and Edanz (on a limited basis). I don't really have the free time to seek out any more freelance work unless I go PT and we aren't quite ready for that yet.
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Check out Moonlighting. It's an exchange where people post jobs to get done as well as skills that they as freelancers have for sale. I'm generally the latter. Personally I've found a bunch of data science/analytics gigs on there as well as some HTML work.
Note I get a couple bucks if you signup with my link below.
http://www.gomnlt.com/mnlt/sign_up/?SubAff=1061
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Depends on what you define as a side hustle. My wife and I have never worked any other paid jobs other than our W2 gigs (ok once I did some light consulting/contracting, but it almost fell into my lap). We also had very steep salary increases along the way .. I think that has more to do with luck than anything, but if your main job is lucrative, just invest in that, and keep changing jobs to get salary bumps.
That being said, it all depends on what you mean by a side hustle. In the last year, we made roughly $3,000 for example just from opening bank accounts for bonuses. It's more like a hobby, but that's not bad money, and takes little time and work (some mental overhead I suppose, and free capital to meet minimum funding requirements). My wife does a lot of credit card churning, and we get a fair bit of non monetary value out of that, once we calculated it out and estimated $14,000 (http://www.fi35.com/miles-points-2015/) in redemption value for a year.. but that's an inflated number, since it's sucker sticker price :)
P.S. startingsmall thanks for the heads up about the company you use. I'd been curious about academic editing for a while, but never got around to doing it. Just sent an application, though my CV is horribly out of date and even has the wrong address. Let me know if you'd like me to say that you referred me.
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Dang $14,000 from credit card churning?!? how much do you have to spend to get those rewards?
I do ebay as my side hustle. I love it and is fun. I'd say $300 to $2000 a month, could do more, but you get out what you put in....
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You don't need a side hustle, but it doesn't hurt to make extra $$ right?
You absolutely don't just need to do affiliate marketing stuff. Lots of folks have a skill they use for work and can just do off work hours versions of that. If you're an IT guy set up a servers or networks for small/medium businesses in the area. If you're a carpenter maybe build picnic tables, chairs and sell on offerup, CL, etc. There are sites that cater specifically to small contracts or you can market yourself, it really depends on what you want to do.
I think the #1 thing to remember about a side gig is to start small and be realistic about how much you can afford to do.
In terms of our own:
I do small IT consulting projects at $125-$150/hr, although less now with kids and a wife in school. I only did maybe $1k worth this year.
My wife does in house facials and waxing for some friends and associates much cheaper than you get done at a spa.
We also review items online. After a fair review we sometimes keep the items if it makes sense or sell them online if we don't use them that much.
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I once put together a business selling a product online.
I imported the stuff from China and it sold well. But the quality of the stuff was absolute crap so i gave it up.
I have a handyman business in and I'm in a city where most people are busy working and don't have time or often no skills to do things to their house. It's not hard to offer a service to them and get customers, and it can be something as simple as having a truck and taking garbage to the dump. Or cleaning the leaves out of gutters and washing windows.
All you have to do is present yourself in a professional way and price it reasonably.
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Wetblanket - there's no mystery to making a side hustling writing for other people's blogs. You don't need to take a class - just write in a normal, literate way and take on board feedback. I'm always looking for people who can string a few sentences together...
The thing about the side hustle is that the first year of FIRE you're trying to cut costs and then the only way to go is increasing your income.
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Wetblanket - there's no mystery to making a side hustling writing for other people's blogs. You don't need to take a class - just write in a normal, literate way and take on board feedback. I'm always looking for people who can string a few sentences together...
Do I have to have my own blog to write content for other people's? I've had ideas for blog posts before, but the idea of starting my own blog is just intimidating.
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I dnot do this, since we currently have a toddler and anot her one on the way, but it's worth a mention.
My parents go to estate sales, garage sales, and auctions and buy old stuff (Think American Pickers type) and then sell it on eBay. No specifics, but in the last couple years they have averaged 5 figure profits doing this. They have 99% positive ratings and ship a few dozens of items a week. They're basically empty nesters so the house is also an inventory storage space but a spare bedroom is enough to hold $1,500 worth of inventory if you're looking to get into this sort of thing. Specific example, my dad bought a box of old LP's for $40 (about 200 records total) and has been selling them individually for an average of $2.50 each.
The spend about 1 or 2 hours a day on this plus a few on the weekends going to auctions but it's been huge for their cash flow. What's hilarious is they're not really that frugal/great with their savings but that's a different story.
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Dang $14,000 from credit card churning?!? how much do you have to spend to get those rewards?
Again, that's $14,000 in "value" of travel redemption at sticker price, not $14,000 in hard cash, so take that number with a grain of salt.
That year, we incurred about $500 in costs related directly to churning: credit card annual fees, and expenses related to manufactured spending.
We don't spend anymore than we would normally (or I hope not), but use manufactured spending when possible to meet the spending requirements, which sometimes has a cost like I said above. Our average annual spending was around $40,000-$50,000 and most of that was stuff like mortgage and childcare which can't easily be paid by credit card.
For more information regarding the valuation, a big chunk of that $14,000 in value came from redeeming for free hotel nights when we were visiting Tahiti and Bora Bora (http://www.fi35.com/visiting-the-south-pacific-and-bora-bora-on-the-cheap/). We stayed over a week, and the cash price of the hotels ranges from $500 - $1000 / night. We wouldn't pay that in cash, but that is the price people pay without exaggeration.
For another reference, we currently have points/miles that we have the option of redeeming directly for cash, in the form of cashback or statement credits, that would give us ~$4500 in cash. We don't turn it into cash, because we believe we'd get more than $4500 in value out of it like in the above example. Do you value that at $4500, or the cash price of the travel redemption?
So it's up to you how you value it. It's a subjective call, I tried to be as upfront and honest about it as I could with the number, still saying you should take it with a grain of salt.
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Do I have to have my own blog to write content for other people's? I've had ideas for blog posts before, but the idea of starting my own blog is just intimidating.
No, not at all. There are platforms like Textbroker where someone with a website can go and say 'I need a 500 word article about the history of tennis racquets' and you go 'oh I can do that'.
Or there's a place on Reddit called 'forhire' and you can start a thread offering your services. Basically millions of places like that.
By the way, if you want a blog set up, I'll do it in exchange for an article or two. Write me a private message.
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My life is built around the side hustle. I just turned 40 and have only worked a full time job a total of 6 years since I graduated from college at 22.
Here are my current side hustles/part time jobs/income sources, etc.:
1. High school cross country/track coach (don't teach; just coach)
2. Small grass cutting service
3. Two duplexes
4. Race timing business (my wife and I both ran in college; distance running has been a big part of our life so we have been timing road races for about 15 years.)
5. Honey sales (3rd generation beekeeper)
6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
7. Just starting to certify road race courses - haven't done one yet but have two lined up and I'm getting everything going now to be able to do this.
My wife is the same way:
1. Works with me in the race timing business
2. Piano teacher
3. Freelance writer
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I'm jealous of everyone's side hustles.
I still don't really know what I'd do for side hustling... Maybe teach a few economics classes at the local community college (I have my master's in econ, though I wouldn't say I have a particular passion for the subject). The idea of walking dogs really appeals to me because it's a job that requires you to get outside and exercise. On the other hand, I'm not what you would call a "dog lover". I've never owned a dog myself, but I like other people's dogs well enough.
My ideal side hustle would be an active one that requires some fresh air and movement. Maybe I could clean up dog poop in people's yards?
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I'm jealous of everyone's side hustles.
I still don't really know what I'd do for side hustling... Maybe teach a few economics classes at the local community college (I have my master's in econ, though I wouldn't say I have a particular passion for the subject). The idea of walking dogs really appeals to me because it's a job that requires you to get outside and exercise. On the other hand, I'm not what you would call a "dog lover". I've never owned a dog myself, but I like other people's dogs well enough.
My ideal side hustle would be an active one that requires some fresh air and movement. Maybe I could clean up dog poop in people's yards?
People that have lots of disposable income pay high dollar for this...
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I renovate distressed houses as a side hustle, and love it, but not everyone would. I also made a few thousand doing retail arbitrage awhile back. It basically involves shopping for stuff on sale and selling it full-price on Amazon. But I don't really enjoy shopping, so I quit.
Many people have successfully retired early without a side hustle. It helps a lot if you have a lower income, or if you are already retired and are looking for a bit of additional income.
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If your curious about current bank bonus offers, a poster in this thread (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/reader-recommendations/get-$150-to-open-bank-account-$500-credit-card-manufactured-spending/msg1376585/#msg1376585) was kind enough to summarize a few of the best available.
If you take the top two in that list, it gives you $400 in straight cash, if you are a couple, that gives you $800. It's decent money
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I do tutoring, primarily high school AP calculus and AP physics. Demand is pretty good especially if you are near a "not great" school district. I really enjoy doing it, but I don't have a ton of time available to do it so I mostly just earn beer money.
Hoping to pretty soon get into being an Airplane instructor. Getting my CFI rating in the next few weeks. Would be nice to essentially get to fly for free... or even make a little bit of money doing it. Same free time problem though.
SOMEDAY I am gonna write a book and get an effortless royalty stream. Someday. Just gotta get started.
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
I second that. Best side-hustle I have heard to date
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
I second that. Best side-hustle I have heard to date
Thanks; it's pretty fun.
I help them at Lowe's stores (we fly an Aplomado falcon if there are birds in the stores) and downtown Nashville (we fly Harris hawks there to chase the starlings out from roosting in the trees). They also have a contract with the Nashville airport (Aplomado and kestrels to catch sparrows that get inside the airport) and just got a job with the Nissan plant here in town (Harris hawks to catch pigeons that get in the factory).
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
I second that. Best side-hustle I have heard to date
Thanks; it's pretty fun.
I help them at Lowe's stores (we fly an Aplomado falcon if there are birds in the stores) and downtown Nashville (we fly Harris hawks there to chase the starlings out from roosting in the trees). They also have a contract with the Nashville airport (Aplomado and kestrels to catch sparrows that get inside the airport) and just got a job with the Nissan plant here in town (Harris hawks to catch pigeons that get in the factory).
Awesome. I've never heard of using Harris hawks in falconry, but it makes total sense given that they hunt in groups. I presume the social organization impulse makes them easier to train - sort of like dogs? And I'm surprised at using kestrels for birds, since in the wild they mostly focus on small mammals and insects.
Seriously, how does one get into this line of work? I've never tried falconry, although I have a background in wildlife biology, and a small amount of experience handling birds of prey from an internship I did at a raptor rehab center when I was in college. That was a long time ago, but I do remember what it's like to have a hawk on my arm.
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
I second that. Best side-hustle I have heard to date
Thanks; it's pretty fun.
I help them at Lowe's stores (we fly an Aplomado falcon if there are birds in the stores) and downtown Nashville (we fly Harris hawks there to chase the starlings out from roosting in the trees). They also have a contract with the Nashville airport (Aplomado and kestrels to catch sparrows that get inside the airport) and just got a job with the Nissan plant here in town (Harris hawks to catch pigeons that get in the factory).
A few days ago I was in the Nashville airport, and heard a raptor screech and thought of this post. Sadly the raptor was not chasing sparrows. It was a Bald Eagle mascot that was being transported somewhere.
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Website maintenance, couple hundred an hour. No formal training just learned on my own by doing (it was hard at first). I find it is very important to my FI plans as it makes me feel like I have more control over my FI date vs waiting for my day job salary to trickle in and if I should ever get laid off from primary job I always have a decent income stream coming in.
I do work a lot more then I like, as in, I rarely get a weekend or vacation where I am not spending time on it. Sometimes I want to quit as it can get stressful, but the money is too good and I feel like I may never get the opportunity again to get paid so much for doing something that I kind of like doing.
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
I second that. Best side-hustle I have heard to date
Thanks; it's pretty fun.
I help them at Lowe's stores (we fly an Aplomado falcon if there are birds in the stores) and downtown Nashville (we fly Harris hawks there to chase the starlings out from roosting in the trees). They also have a contract with the Nashville airport (Aplomado and kestrels to catch sparrows that get inside the airport) and just got a job with the Nissan plant here in town (Harris hawks to catch pigeons that get in the factory).
Awesome. I've never heard of using Harris hawks in falconry, but it makes total sense given that they hunt in groups. I presume the social organization impulse makes them easier to train - sort of like dogs? And I'm surprised at using kestrels for birds, since in the wild they mostly focus on small mammals and insects.
Seriously, how does one get into this line of work? I've never tried falconry, although I have a background in wildlife biology, and a small amount of experience handling birds of prey from an internship I did at a raptor rehab center when I was in college. That was a long time ago, but I do remember what it's like to have a hawk on my arm.
Harris hawks are great falconry birds. They're just big enough to catch squirrels and fast enough to be deadly on rabbits. The fact that they will hunt together makes them even better. The kestrels are great for catching the sparrows in a big building. Sparrows are so small and quick not many things can catch them so the kestrel is the answer there. The aplomado could catch them but cost as much as ten kestrels which is why they are making the switch that way.
I totally lucked into this gig. My falconry sponsor has had the business for a while. We live ten minutes from each other and his partner in the business is in his 60s and lives about two hours from us so I get to fill in for him on some jobs. I have a flexible schedule due to not having a normal 9 to5 job so it works out nicely. I ride with my sponsor to the jobs so I don't even have any gas expense. It's great.
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6. Part time work for an abatement business (I'm a falconer and we use hawks to remove nuisance birds)
Now THAT is a fucking cool-ass job!
I second that. Best side-hustle I have heard to date
Thanks; it's pretty fun.
I help them at Lowe's stores (we fly an Aplomado falcon if there are birds in the stores) and downtown Nashville (we fly Harris hawks there to chase the starlings out from roosting in the trees). They also have a contract with the Nashville airport (Aplomado and kestrels to catch sparrows that get inside the airport) and just got a job with the Nissan plant here in town (Harris hawks to catch pigeons that get in the factory).
A few days ago I was in the Nashville airport, and heard a raptor screech and thought of this post. Sadly the raptor was not chasing sparrows. It was a Bald Eagle mascot that was being transported somewhere.
Haha sorry you missed a chance to see some action!
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Not to side track the conversation, but I'd appreciate thoughts on the appropriateness of a side hustle for a local govt. executive. I'm under contract and my professional work is to be focused on the agency. Joshua Sheets (radical personal finance podcast) has me interested in doing an industry specific podcast and an industry specific blog is a possibility but I'm no great writer. Having 3 kids 10 and under doesn't leave much time for a side hustle on weekends. And it seems that investing in industry knowledge to increase pay would be more productive. With all the focus on side hustles, as mentioned by the OP, I'm interested to explore what might be appropriate for my situation.
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I've been thinking on this topic a lot lately because it offers a unique advantage to my situation.
In my employment, I have a pension and access to a 457(b) plan which I have now maxed out. It has come to my attention that it is possible to max out tax deferred investments in BOTH a 457(b) and a 401(k) at $18000 in each for a total of $36000 per year. But I don't have access to a 401k. But I would have access to a solo 401K if I had my own business. So I am tossing around a lot of ideas in my head for a sole proprietor business to build, just to make that $18000 in profit that could be invested tax free, no more.
My ideas so far:
High school/junior college tutor - I am very strong in math and sciences and passable in history and english. I have done tutoring in the past and have done well with it. My fiance would be a brilliant tutor for english (MA in creative writing, now in nursing school) and has experience at both the tutoring and adjunct professor levels so perhaps we could start a joint company.
Certified Tax Preparer - As I learn more about personal finance, I find that I have more and more conversations with people about how to use the tax code to their advantage. Might as well get paid for it. This carries the initial investment of a $5000 bond but I think it could be well worth it, especially since it is a topic which I would love to learn more about but I will never go through the investment to take it all the way to the CPA level, that would just be ridiculous.
Yard Work - I've got all the tools and knowhow, but in my area there is a ton of competition so not likely to take this route
Wedding DJ - I have got all the stuff, mixer, bumping soundsystem, software. I know how to DJ for raves but not for weddings so it might take a bit of getting used to, plus building a library of music that I am not super into but that people are going to want to hear. I think it could be super fun and might work really well if I were working graveyards at work and DJing one or two nights on my days off.
One question that I have is this: If you build a business with the intention of being the sole proprietor in order to set up your solo 401(k) - does the business have to specialize in one thing? Or could it be a combination? Like "Headwinds Math and Science Tutoring, Tax Preparation, and Wedding DJ" sort of thing? Sorry if this is a thread hijack, I may start another thread with exactly this question.
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I am doing mystery shopping. I am on track to make 1K this month including reimbursements. It's fun and I've had free gas, groceries, clothing.
Posting to follow other ideas as well :)
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I am doing mystery shopping. I am on track to make 1K this month including reimbursements. It's fun and I've had free gas, groceries, clothing.
Posting to follow other ideas as well :)
Would you share some of the sites you gave been using? I am considering doing this and want to be sure of the legit sites. If not, no worries.
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What is mystery shopping? Sounds mysterious. No serious question though, I really don't know what it is.
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I could share the websites if you want - send me a PM. I am in Canada, so I researched the companies that have a good presence near me. There are mystery shopping forum boards, and MSPA - North America is a great resource. Most of the reputable companies will be listed on the website.
I am currently listed with about 15 sites. They all operate a bit differently, and the type of assignments vary. For example, here are some mystery shops I have done recently :
- Visiting a ski resort : evaluate the ski monitor (beginner class), registration process, Equipment rental. They paid the rental + course + ticket to ride + 30$ meals for me and my Partner, as well as 40$ salary.
- Gas mystery shops : about 15$ value. You fill up the tank (15$ minimum), take 2 pictures of the outside. You have to assess if the gas station is clean as well as evaluate the cashier.
- Oil change shops : I have to evaluate the service while doing maintenance on my car. I am paid up to 75$ for the maintenance, 50$ for my time.
- Retail assignments : Again, evaluate the Customer service rep, assess their knowledge of the products as well as checking the general store for cleanliness. Often 10$ salary plus 10-20$ reimbursement for items (have to evaluate the cashier). I have done this for home decor stores, liquor stores, and clothing stores.
The process is rather easy :
1- Sign up on the website. Fill up all required info.
2- Look at postings on the job board. Apply to those you like/want.
3- Receive an email from the scheduler to confirm that you got the assignment.
4- Read all instructions properly to ensure that you are doing every the client requests.
5- Do the assignment.
6- Write up the report (varies from 5-30 minutes depending on the assignment) within 12-24 hours of the visit.
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This sounds great, I will look into it! Thanks you guys
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My side hustle right now is a site I started to help people get started with investing: https://senzu.io/investing/guide
I'm not really trying to monetize too much right now but once it grows bigger I might start trying more on that front.
I also have a few mobile apps that generate some income but have slowly dropped off because I stopped updating them.
If anybody wants tips or help building a website or mobile app feel free to reach out because I'm a software engineer.
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On the side I teach a community college math class and tutor students. In addition to my full-time job.
I get tutoring business thru the Wyzant website. They take a chunk of your revenue which decreases from 40% to 20% as you gain hours.
I charge $49/hr but after they take their cut and I pay federal, state, and self-employment tax I only net barely half of that. Most of my tutoring occurs at the local library 1.5 miles from my house, so I deduct 3 miles per round-trip visit.
This is probably what I will continue to do in my early retirement. I enjoy teaching and the tutoring is easy work, you get paid to watch/help students do their homework and the time flies. Money for nothing and your checks for free...
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Not sure if this qualifies as a side-hustle as it is through another company but we watch dogs (boarding & daycare) at our house.
We have been doing it for almost two years now and overall it is fantastic. We set the calendar when we want to be available as well as decide if a dog can stay or not. Our pups typically have another pup in the house to play with which is an added bonus. At this point in time we have a solid number of repeat customers who come over quite a bit so we know what to expect and how the dogs will act which is great.
My girlfriend and I both love dogs so it is a great fit as we get paid to have a few extra furballs running around the house.
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I do online personal training. I used to be a manager at a gym, and I had a non-compete clause that kept me from pursuing this earlier. Once I changed jobs, I started up my website. It's quite easy if you know what you're doing and what you're talking about. I've got about 5 clients right now, and I might spend 1-2 hours a month on this. I charge extra for meal plans, and I have an app setup so most of the system is automated once I set everything up. My goal is to get enough clients to cover one or two of my monthly expenses. Right now it covers about 1/2 my grocery bill for my wife and I. Or it covers our cell phone bill and majority of our internet.
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Website maintenance, couple hundred an hour. No formal training just learned on my own by doing (it was hard at first). I find it is very important to my FI plans as it makes me feel like I have more control over my FI date vs waiting for my day job salary to trickle in and if I should ever get laid off from primary job I always have a decent income stream coming in.
I do work a lot more then I like, as in, I rarely get a weekend or vacation where I am not spending time on it. Sometimes I want to quit as it can get stressful, but the money is too good and I feel like I may never get the opportunity again to get paid so much for doing something that I kind of like doing.
What kind of website maintenance do you do and where do you find gigs like this?
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Website maintenance, couple hundred an hour. No formal training just learned on my own by doing (it was hard at first). I find it is very important to my FI plans as it makes me feel like I have more control over my FI date vs waiting for my day job salary to trickle in and if I should ever get laid off from primary job I always have a decent income stream coming in.
I do work a lot more then I like, as in, I rarely get a weekend or vacation where I am not spending time on it. Sometimes I want to quit as it can get stressful, but the money is too good and I feel like I may never get the opportunity again to get paid so much for doing something that I kind of like doing.
What kind of website maintenance do you do and where do you find gigs like this?
Craigslist, LinkedIn, Recruiters, all those side hustle websites, and referrals. The work can be anything from working with UI, fixing bugs from previous developers, testing, querying data in a database, displaying it, and generating graphs on it. My best clients come from people I have worked on short term contracts from that refer me to their partners or other clients. The trick is to work free or cheap until you are good and have a nice network going, then you can start charging more.
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I convinced my gym to pay for both my certification and ongoing fees as a fitness instructor in exchange for teaching classes for free twice a week. And when I dump my real job they'll also start paying me to teach classes. A little extra income + a lot more calories burned in FIRE = winning.
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This thread has so many ideas, Posting to follow.
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I'm a professional gambler.
Well not really, it's more like financial trading but on football/horses etc. Mathematical advantage play and arb betting.
Been going just over a year now, made about $25k in the first year doing it evenings/weekends. I enjoy it as its like playing a video game to me, except earnign real money instead of pretend points.
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I'm a professional gambler.
Well not really, it's more like financial trading but on football/horses etc. Mathematical advantage play and arb betting.
Been going just over a year now, made about $25k in the first year doing it evenings/weekends. I enjoy it as its like playing a video game to me, except earnign real money instead of pretend points.
Please teach me.
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I'm a professional gambler.
Well not really, it's more like financial trading but on football/horses etc. Mathematical advantage play and arb betting.
Been going just over a year now, made about $25k in the first year doing it evenings/weekends. I enjoy it as its like playing a video game to me, except earnign real money instead of pretend points.
Please teach me.
You'd need to be in the UK?
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I just started being an officiant/celebrant for weddings and vow renewals. Apparently my joke ordination in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a novelty that excites people. Pretty low stress gig as most couples tell me what they want me to say. The ones who don't are usually indecisive enough that the "script" doesn't take more than a couple tweaks. I don't advertise but I get plenty of business just from word of mouth.
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I just started being an officiant/celebrant for weddings and vow renewals. Apparently my joke ordination in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a novelty that excites people.
Forget falconry, this person wins the thread.
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I just started being an officiant/celebrant for weddings and vow renewals. Apparently my joke ordination in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a novelty that excites people. Pretty low stress gig as most couples tell me what they want me to say. The ones who don't are usually indecisive enough that the "script" doesn't take more than a couple tweaks. I don't advertise but I get plenty of business just from word of mouth.
How much do you get paid, if you don't mind me asking?
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I have a side gig warning.
I read some good things about TaskRabbit, so I went to sign up (register as a 'tasker').
It asked me what
After picking an account name and providing my cell #, it asked me what city I'm in. My city was in the drop down list to pick from.
After providing a face picture, I picked what tasks I would do, what rate I wanted for each (within a range given) and gave some information about my experience doing each task.
Then, it asked for a credit card # for the $20 nonrefundable fee... I wasn't expecting that, so I closed the browser window.
I googled 'Taskrabbit tasker fee' and found out it's a fairly new thing, and that it started at $5. I read that it's for a background check (but I'm not sure if that was on a taskrabbit page or a 3rd party forum or blog).
Since I was out of the registration site, I thought I'd see what current taskers were asking/getting for the tasks I said I would do, and what they had for their experience. So I went to taskrabbit and went to the customer/client part. I clicked that I wanted some handyman work done and it asked for my address. I put that in and taskrabbit said "Sorry, that's outside of our coverage area" WTF?!?!?
I poked around Taskrabbit to find what cities there covered... my city is NOT covered.
That means... they would have charged me $20 for becoming a tasker when NO ONE can submit tasks to be done or paid for!!
Glad my spidy sense warned me about it, because that's not right, much less MMM.
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If your curious about current bank bonus offers, a poster in this thread (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/reader-recommendations/get-$150-to-open-bank-account-$500-credit-card-manufactured-spending/msg1376585/#msg1376585) was kind enough to summarize a few of the best available.
If you take the top two in that list, it gives you $400 in straight cash, if you are a couple, that gives you $800. It's decent money
Remember that you will likely get a 1099 for that at the end of the year and need to pay taxes - unlike CC signup bonuses.
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For another reference, we currently have points/miles that we have the option of redeeming directly for cash, in the form of cashback or statement credits, that would give us ~$4500 in cash. We don't turn it into cash, because we believe we'd get more than $4500 in value out of it like in the above example. Do you value that at $4500, or the cash price of the travel redemption?
So it's up to you how you value it. It's a subjective call, I tried to be as upfront and honest about it as I could with the number, still saying you should take it with a grain of salt.
I started on the signup bonus thing about 6 months ago and decided that I will be "valuing" my points at either cashout value, or for non-cashable ones a suitably conservative value. Hilton points are worth 0.5cpp, for example.
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This has probably been discussed elsewhere on these fora, but this website has side hustle ideas, interviews, etc.
http://www.sidehustlenation.com/
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My advice is to ignore the Uber's and Task Rabbits.
Figure out what you're better at than a majority of the population, and find people who need that skill. Don't let somebody take 20% off the top.
Also: Most people that look for help on sites that connect businesses and freelancers are cheap.
Connect with your target buyer on LinkedIn. Publish content that improves their lives. Pitch down the road.
The instant gratification mindset is what sentences us to failure. Play the long game.
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I just started being an officiant/celebrant for weddings and vow renewals. Apparently my joke ordination in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a novelty that excites people. Pretty low stress gig as most couples tell me what they want me to say. The ones who don't are usually indecisive enough that the "script" doesn't take more than a couple tweaks. I don't advertise but I get plenty of business just from word of mouth.
How much do you get paid, if you don't mind me asking?
Straight $100 with one free meal. One couple asked me to travel out of state; so I asked them to compensate travel.
I think I get business because there's more than one pastor in my area charging $1,000 as a base charge which seems unreal to me.
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Between cash renting farm ground and renting a commercial building, we pull in about $5-6,000 per month with very little work required.
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I just started being an officiant/celebrant for weddings and vow renewals. Apparently my joke ordination in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a novelty that excites people. Pretty low stress gig as most couples tell me what they want me to say. The ones who don't are usually indecisive enough that the "script" doesn't take more than a couple tweaks. I don't advertise but I get plenty of business just from word of mouth.
How much do you get paid, if you don't mind me asking?
Straight $100 with one free meal. One couple asked me to travel out of state; so I asked them to compensate travel.
I think I get business because there's more than one pastor in my area charging $1,000 as a base charge which seems unreal to me.
Sounds like a pretty cool gig.
I got my son the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster book for his birthday one year. That's the kind of religion I can get behind.
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I just started being an officiant/celebrant for weddings and vow renewals. Apparently my joke ordination in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a novelty that excites people. Pretty low stress gig as most couples tell me what they want me to say. The ones who don't are usually indecisive enough that the "script" doesn't take more than a couple tweaks. I don't advertise but I get plenty of business just from word of mouth.
How much do you get paid, if you don't mind me asking?
Straight $100 with one free meal. One couple asked me to travel out of state; so I asked them to compensate travel.
I think I get business because there's more than one pastor in my area charging $1,000 as a base charge which seems unreal to me.
Sounds like a pretty cool gig.
I got my son the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster book for his birthday one year. That's the kind of religion I can get behind.
PSA: Anyone over 18 can get a one-day license to be an officiant; my 18-year-old son got a license from the town to officiate at my sister's wedding. I think there was a small charge for the license; I don't think it was as much as $100.
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PSA: Anyone over 18 can get a one-day license to be an officiant; my 18-year-old son got a license from the town to officiate at my sister's wedding. I think there was a small charge for the license; I don't think it was as much as $100.
This is not universally true. Each state, and sometimes each county within a state, has its own laws and regulations concerning authorized officiants. In Maine, for instance, notaries public can officiate at a wedding, in Maryland they can't.
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Great thread! Makes my side gigs seem boring.
I've done side gig work forever, they have always allowed me to have hobbies I could never afford.
It all started with the purchase of a horse right after I got married and I promised to pay for it via side hustles, so that's what I did.
1. Cleaned an office once a week for $125/mo (1990-1993)
2. Desktop publishing with my shiny new 386 computer! made $30/hour (1991-present) - I've always done this side gig, though now its computer graphics and websites and I charge $100/hour. I only do very little of this since it was my day job for 20 years.
3. Building PCs and selling computer training services with them (1993-2001). - this was great fun, through word of mouth I would be paid to build a custom PC and sit and train the person on how to use it. I would even teach them custom apps that I did not know, I would help them figure it out.
4. Wrote a training module for my senior project (1999) - then started charging them, make 5k off it.
5. Mobile vendor at horse shows where I competed with my horses (2006-2013)-carried other manufacturer products as well as my own. - lots of fun while I owned and showed horses, it fizzled out after my back injury and sold my horse and equipment.
6. Real estate investor (2012-present) - this side gig is the BOMB - (DH hated his day job so we turned this into his day job first THEN it became enough passive income for me to FIRE, we've turned it over to a PM while we slow travel).
7. Web site passive income (2015-present)- all I have to do is my new hobby and post about that hobby including a list of affiliate links to supplies I used. If someone clicks a link and buys that product I get commission. My site states that it is monetized. This is a new side gig, and I am just starting to earn income from it. I enjoy it alot, but then I've enjoyed all of my side gigs!
Note: one week after I FIRE'd I was emailed a request to do some simple edits for side gig #2. Some side gigs never go away. Im ok with that!
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I've been thinking on this topic a lot lately because it offers a unique advantage to my situation.
In my employment, I have a pension and access to a 457(b) plan which I have now maxed out. It has come to my attention that it is possible to max out tax deferred investments in BOTH a 457(b) and a 401(k) at $18000 in each for a total of $36000 per year. But I don't have access to a 401k. But I would have access to a solo 401K if I had my own business. So I am tossing around a lot of ideas in my head for a sole proprietor business to build, just to make that $18000 in profit that could be invested tax free, no more.
My ideas so far:
High school/junior college tutor - I am very strong in math and sciences and passable in history and english. I have done tutoring in the past and have done well with it. My fiance would be a brilliant tutor for english (MA in creative writing, now in nursing school) and has experience at both the tutoring and adjunct professor levels so perhaps we could start a joint company.
Certified Tax Preparer - As I learn more about personal finance, I find that I have more and more conversations with people about how to use the tax code to their advantage. Might as well get paid for it. This carries the initial investment of a $5000 bond but I think it could be well worth it, especially since it is a topic which I would love to learn more about but I will never go through the investment to take it all the way to the CPA level, that would just be ridiculous.
Yard Work - I've got all the tools and knowhow, but in my area there is a ton of competition so not likely to take this route
Wedding DJ - I have got all the stuff, mixer, bumping soundsystem, software. I know how to DJ for raves but not for weddings so it might take a bit of getting used to, plus building a library of music that I am not super into but that people are going to want to hear. I think it could be super fun and might work really well if I were working graveyards at work and DJing one or two nights on my days off.
One question that I have is this: If you build a business with the intention of being the sole proprietor in order to set up your solo 401(k) - does the business have to specialize in one thing? Or could it be a combination? Like "Headwinds Math and Science Tutoring, Tax Preparation, and Wedding DJ" sort of thing? Sorry if this is a thread hijack, I may start another thread with exactly this question.
Headwinds, I believe you can invest more than 18k in your solo 401k, even while you max out your other plan. As I understand them (not an expert, just was reading to hatch my own schemes), the rules are:
1. The amounts contributed to 401k plans are separate from other types of accounts, including 457b accounts. Yay!
2. You can do solo 401k for more than one business, so it doesn't matter whether you have one business or several. The limit simply applies to total of your 401k contributions from the businesses.
3. $18,000 is not the limit for solo 401k. The limit is $18,000 PLUS 20% of the ordinary income you earn from the business!
http://www.irafinancialgroup.com/solo401kcontributionlimits.php
The 20% is basically the amount of employer matching that you can provide as your own employer. So you would want to earn more than $18k. I think the right number would be $27,820 after accounting for self-employment tax, which is 15.3%.
a. 27,820 x .153 = 4256 in tax.
b. 27,820 x .2 = 5564
c. 18,000 + 5564 = 23,564 in contributions to solo 401k.
d. 23,564 + 4,256 = 27,820.
(edited to add link and correct my math)
Sorry about thread hijacking. On topic:
OP, one surprising side hustle with outdoor work is rodent extermination. I hired a person to do this at a rental property I own, because initially I failed at the task myself. After watching him and talking to him, he appears to be making out like a bandit...and the majority of his work is actually outside.
$ - he charges $125/hour. I think he makes over six figures working about 40 hours. A determined person could probably net $40 or $50 an hour part time in the right area. I am thinking about this myself, though probably will not due to other ideas I am pursuing.
Outdoors - The key is to find and seal the indoor/outdoor access routes the rodents use. So most of the work in the estimating stage involves a thorough examination of the home or building's exterior. Then you estimate hours to repair, multiply by 100 or 125. If the customer says no, charge 125 for the visit; if yes, spend x hours sealing the holes with steel mesh and maybe some foam. Then lay some traps in the attic along the edges where rodent routes are and reset the traps every couple days until they're all dead. Over half the time is just outdoor repair work. Another 20% is just driving around to customers.
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I sold on Ebay for 10 years - making $10K/year. Did it when I felt like it. Bought items at thrift stores & resold. It was crazy before the economy crashed in 2008 - people were spending like crazy! A good way to bring in some xtra $ if you have things people want (electronics, clothing, etc.). I'm not doing it any more - we're retired & I don't have time!! :-)
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For Those who need to work out-
My husband has a few side hustles instead of going to a gym.
1. He picks up firewood about 4-5 times a month for local tree guys. After they trim a tree, he shows up and loads the firewood they cut into the van. He also bought a broken wood splitter on Craigslist, fixed it, and cuts the logs down to size. Sells the Cords on Craigslist
2. He works for a friend cleaning parking lots at night for $14 per hr. Anywhere from 4-6 hrs a night home by 3am. He's lost alot of weight due to that, or he appears he has. He used to do this some years ago 2-3 days a week with his business but he's old now, 55 yrs old so staying up late alot screws him up.
3. We are keeping our minds open at Retirement to opening up a Security Business just so we can get paid to cycle from 9-Midnight a few nights a week...at a local Country Club. That's what the local security company's hours are for this block of homes. Beautiful homes and barely any cars yet a TON of huge hills. We could really stay in shape. They offered me a job leading a cycling class once a week on Saturday mornings but I sometimes have to work weekends. But that is also a possibility.
4. Any business/side hustle which requires staying in shape by working 2-4 hour stints 2-3 days per week. Not all the time. Makes for a better quality of life, imho. Gyms are boring :)
5. I also sell on Ebay. I've been getting so much overtime at my regular job and not wanting to sell clothes or collectibles, got in a slump the last 4 months. Been selling clothes since last week, it's going well. Sold twice what I used to, so see an average of $300 a month coming on if my estimates are correct.
WARNING TO EBAY SELLERS-Ebay just sent a new seller update today saying they increased their final value fees for all Sellers, including those with stores. So I started another Ebay selling account though I was considering opening a store prior. ebay is also increasing the tracking requirement to 95% for Top Rated SELLER KNOWING not all Post Offices will scan all of the packages so it's out of our hands. So now it's waiting in line to ensure the Postmaster scans it right in front of me. Urrrggg...
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I sold on Ebay for 10 years - making $10K/year. Did it when I felt like it. Bought items at thrift stores & resold. It was crazy before the economy crashed in 2008 - people were spending like crazy! A good way to bring in some xtra $ if you have things people want (electronics, clothing, etc.). I'm not doing it any more - we're retired & I don't have time!! :-)
Good for you. It's not as good as it was prior anyhow so you aren't missing anything imho. The highest I ever got was about $450-$500 a month on average.
I just got into selling clothes and am actually enjoying it. So far only buying items with tags but the people here are wealthy so there should be plenty. I promised myself to never sell Clothes on Ebay, people want you to measure these and it drives me nuts but not anymore.
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I'm catching up on this thread with interest, as I'm contemplating a new side hustle. It's exciting to hear about all of these different experiences. I've had a variety of freelance gigs in the past--transcription, ghostwriting, editing, etc.
I now have a doctorate in the humanities (I know! I know! I thought I wanted to be a professor) and a full-time job that I really enjoy. However, due to spending many years pursuing that degree and not optimizing my income, I'm feeling the need to ramp up income right now. Husband and I have a modest stash and 0 non-mortgage debt, but we aren't where we want to be.
Since I already have a full-time job, a kid, and another kid on the way, time is my most precious resource. A side gig for me needs to be flexible and have a solid return on time spent. I'm not interested in endlessly trawling elance for $15/hour gigs.
So here's what I'm considering:
College application essay coach. I enjoy teaching writing, and I'm good at it. I think this gig could provide decent compensation for the amount of time required if I could offer both structured online coaching and last-minute review/advice. I plan to target high-COL areas where my rates would be competitive. I'm sure there will be some up-front time spent building a web presence and marketing services, but I could keep it simple for this year (see above--baby on the way) and reevaluate next spring.
Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Any suggestions?
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College application essay coach. I enjoy teaching writing, and I'm good at it. I think this gig could provide decent compensation for the amount of time required if I could offer both structured online coaching and last-minute review/advice. I plan to target high-COL areas where my rates would be competitive. I'm sure there will be some up-front time spent building a web presence and marketing services, but I could keep it simple for this year (see above--baby on the way) and reevaluate next spring.
This is a good idea. Do you have a special angle you could use to give you a competitive edge? Have you ever worked in an admissions office, for example?
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No work in an admissions, but I taught writing at a major university for 8 years.
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Our side hustle is awesome and really easy. We sit dogs through a website called Rover (there are many like it such as Dogvacay, etc.). They do all the advertising and clients text or email me and I invite them to see my home. Rover also has insurance so I don't have to worry if a pup is hurt or becomes sick. I cannot recommend it enough and we make (after tax and fees) about 4k a year. We have a lot of repeat clients and we hand pick the ones that lazy easy dogs.
http://refer.rover.com/v2/share/6392701418052498165
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Not exactly a side hustle, but I'm a faculty member with a 9 month contract. Right now I teach an extra class each Fall and Spring and get paid for one overload class each semester. Then this summer I'm teaching two May term classes, two summer 1 term classes and then one class in Summer 2 term. Beginning in the Fall I won't teach an overload, but will try to pick up one more summer class. That's an extra $25 or so grand a year. I get that summer professors like the break during the summer, but I actually really enjoy the classes I teach in the summer.
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I now have a doctorate in the humanities (I know! I know! I thought I wanted to be a professor) and a full-time job that I really enjoy. However, due to spending many years pursuing that degree and not optimizing my income, I'm feeling the need to ramp up income right now....
Since I already have a full-time job, a kid, and another kid on the way, time is my most precious resource. A side gig for me needs to be flexible and have a solid return on time spent. I'm not interested in endlessly trawling elance for $15/hour gigs.
So here's what I'm considering: College application essay coach. ...
Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Any suggestions?
I'm in higher ed and also needed some extra income. I did OK on the GRE (at least on the math section =) ) and I saw that many of my good college students were doing terribly on the GRE .... mostly because they were afraid of it and didn't study. So I developed my own GRE Prep class. It is really easy to price it below what the national testing companies charge (Kaplan is $1300+ for a 20/hour course). My institution lets me use a classroom and I teach a one weekend, intensive course. I provide a free "information session" to the whole campus and the college is ok with me promoting my fee-based prep class. It took me about 40-60 hours to put together a good PPT with example problems and some practice worksheets cribbed together from various resources, etc and made enough to cover those lean years when I didn't get a raise from my institution =(.
Anyway, I would encourage you to read a few test prep manuals and then market yourself as someone who could tutor the GRE Essay and Verbal Reasoning sections (and Quant sections, if you're good at that too). You don't have to have scored in the 90th percentile+ to tutor people who are trying to go from a 30th to a 50th percentile (which is the majority of students). If you could create a special niche for international students, that would be even better. You could look at ACT prep, but I suspect there is much more competition. But students who want to go to grad school (and have gotten rocked by the GRE once already) are very motivated. I charge about $450 for a weekend prep class (and try to get 8-10 students each year). When I feel I have the time, I tutor individual students and generally charge $75/hour (and I am in a relatively rural, low cost of living area of the country).
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I now have a doctorate in the humanities (I know! I know! I thought I wanted to be a professor) and a full-time job that I really enjoy. However, due to spending many years pursuing that degree and not optimizing my income, I'm feeling the need to ramp up income right now....
Since I already have a full-time job, a kid, and another kid on the way, time is my most precious resource. A side gig for me needs to be flexible and have a solid return on time spent. I'm not interested in endlessly trawling elance for $15/hour gigs.
So here's what I'm considering: College application essay coach. ...
Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Any suggestions?
I'm in higher ed and also needed some extra income. I did OK on the GRE (at least on the math section =) ) and I saw that many of my good college students were doing terribly on the GRE .... mostly because they were afraid of it and didn't study. So I developed my own GRE Prep class. It is really easy to price it below what the national testing companies charge (Kaplan is $1300+ for a 20/hour course). My institution lets me use a classroom and I teach a one weekend, intensive course. I provide a free "information session" to the whole campus and the college is ok with me promoting my fee-based prep class. It took me about 40-60 hours to put together a good PPT with example problems and some practice worksheets cribbed together from various resources, etc and made enough to cover those lean years when I didn't get a raise from my institution =(.
Anyway, I would encourage you to read a few test prep manuals and then market yourself as someone who could tutor the GRE Essay and Verbal Reasoning sections (and Quant sections, if you're good at that too). You don't have to have scored in the 90th percentile+ to tutor people who are trying to go from a 30th to a 50th percentile (which is the majority of students). If you could create a special niche for international students, that would be even better. You could look at ACT prep, but I suspect there is much more competition. But students who want to go to grad school (and have gotten rocked by the GRE once already) are very motivated. I charge about $450 for a weekend prep class (and try to get 8-10 students each year). When I feel I have the time, I tutor individual students and generally charge $75/hour (and I am in a relatively rural, low cost of living area of the country).
Wow, thanks smokystache. That's a great idea. I hadn't thought about offering independent GRE courses/tutoring. I figured Kaplan had a lock on it. I did great on the GRE, but it was a long time ago. I live in a small town in a very rural area with one tiny college (approx 1400 students), though there are larger state universities within a couple hour's drive. Maybe worth a test-run here at tiny college with an eye toward developing something at State U...
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I did automotive work for a while. My specialty was rebuilding/re-gearing axles. The pay was pretty good.
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I do side work walking people's dogs while they're at work. I live near a forest and would take my dog for an hour long walk every day, so on a lark one day I put an ad on craiglist: "I'll take your dog with us at lunchtime." Found someone looking for a dog walker right away who lives fairly close by, so every weekday I'd go get the other dog and take the same walk I'd be taking with my dog anyway.
Only I get $300/month for exercising. For one dog.
I love it. I love dogs, we have a fun routine, and I can't ever punk out of walking because people rely on me.
Since then I've gotten a reputation with my neighbors and have gotten other requests. If I had more energy, I'd do more of it. I've also put an ad on craigslist to pet sit in my home and found one reliable client fairly easily.
I see younger people out walking 5-6 dogs at once--raking it in! If I were younger, I'd probably start a small business doing this.