The biggest lie young people are told when they're 18, 19, and 20 is to go to university and you're guaranteed to get a high paid job. This lie is drilled into the school system and then reinforced by parents stuck in the past. While it might have been true in my time, it's not the reality anymore. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that studying is a waste of time. Many degrees are beneficial and the student experience is unforgettable. However, relying solely on a degree to make you rich isn't the right approach. That's why it's so important for students to start some kind of side hustle that has the ability to grow into something much bigger in the future.look, I wasn't wealthy enough to be able to afford university or probably academically smart enough, but I always had side hustles. Ultimately, my side hustles turned into multimillion dollar businesses and made me a millionaire. That's why today I'm gonna dive into seven side hustles students can start this year. To be honest, these can actually apply to anyone anywhere in the world, and because I hate those silly videos that just regurgitate the same list of side hustle ideas, I'm actually gonna share real-life examples of people smashing it and rate them out of five in these important categories. How much time it takes to learn, how much money you need, and how difficult it is to make a thousand dollars per month.
Side hustle idea number one, faceless short-form content.
Example Daniel Bitton. Like many of you, he started using social media for fun at the age of 13. Now at 16, he's earning half a million dollars every single month creating short-form content on Snapchat without even showing his face. It sounds unbelievable, but it's completely true. and after doing some research, I can assure you he's not capping. So why can you make so much money doing this? Well, at the moment, there's a huge war going on between Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. During the pandemic, TikTok became so popular and grabbed the attention of the world. Since then, all the different social media platforms have been competing for this attention. The more eyes they have on their app, the more money they can make from advertisers. Stick with me because this is where it all starts coming together. The one thing these platforms need more than anything else is content creators, what attracts the best creators better than anything else? Money, because we all like a little bit of that. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but once a platform is established at the top, competition will decrease along with the payouts, so you'll need to jump in on this one quickly. If you wanna be making close to half a million dollars a month, just like Daniel, the people who have paid the most are those who create original content rather than just cutting up other people's content from YouTube. Daniel does this by using existing videos, but then adding different voiceovers, music, and edits. This strategy combined with consistent posting led to extreme growth. He then expanded with multiple channels in various niches to attract diverse audiences.
So for example, one of his channels is about rapper updates, and the others are focused on live streamers. Now for those important ratings, I'll give this a four out of five. Although making short clips may seem quick and easy, there's a lot more that goes into it than you might first think. Saying this, if you regularly watch TikTok or shorts, then you'll be better prepared the most. Creating short-form clips is a lot more about understanding human psychology than it is about fancy editing. If you can create a great hook and build towards some kind of payoff at the end, you'll increase the watch time. This is the only trick you need to know if you want your videos to go viral and earn you lots of money. The best way to teach yourself this is to watch short-form content daily. Make it part of your routine. This might sound different from what many people my age will tell you, but I'm not talking about using it for entertainment. Every time you stop and watch a short, I want you to ask yourself a simple question. What intrigued me enough to stop scrolling and watch the whole thing? Make a list in your notes app and before you know it, you'll have a ton of different winning ideas.
Secondly, how much money do you need? I'll give this one out of five. Because if you have a phone and an internet connection and you can get started, and if you're watching this video, then I'd assume you've got both of those things.
Thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'll give this a one out of five. As I mentioned, social media platforms are handing out cash like there's no tomorrow. Just think to make a thousand dollars a month, all you'd have to do is be 0.2% as good as Daniel. Now, if you don't think that's achievable, then you need to believe in yourself a bit more.
Idea two, investing.
A lot of people are gonna disagree with me on this one as it's technically not a side hustle. It's really not as complicated as people make out. Dollar cost averaging. Of course, I'm not a financial advisor and investments can go up as well as down, but most dollar cost averaging strategies have worked wonders for many over the years. This is when you consistently buy into the market no matter if it's high or low. Over time, the idea is that the price you buy, the stock averages out. You can do this with pretty much any stock you want. However, the real secret weapon has to be index funds. If you were to invest $200 a month for 40 years and get an average return of 10% per year, then you'd have over $1.2 million. I know what you're thinking. How on earth am I gonna make a 10% return? Well, of course, past results are no guarantee of future returns. However, over the 10 years, the average annual return of the S&P 500 was 11%. Okay, but I don't wanna wait 40 years to become a millionaire. This is exactly how you should be thinking. I didn't wanna wait until I was old and gray either. I went out and made quick money through my side hustles started a business, and made millions all while investing around half of my earnings and multiplying it in the stock market. It's not a choice between one or the other. You really should consider doing both at the same time.
Firstly, how much time does investing take to learn? I'll give this a one out of five because as I said, the basics are straightforward. Once you master the tricky words, you'll see that it's really simple, especially with different investment apps allowing you to automate your investments every single month so you don't even have to think about them.
Secondly, how much money do you need? I'll give this a one out of five because you can start with as little as $1. I don't suggest you put all of your money into stocks though. Make sure you are investing it back into your side hustle as well.
And thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'll give this a one out of five. As for me, I don't have to do anything. It's just easy. However, it took me a lot of years of consistency to get to this stage. In my opinion, investing should always be paired with a side hustle that generates fast money.
Side hustle idea three, discord building.
Discord building. There are guys that make around $15,000 a month from building and managing Discord servers, I had just started my free discord group and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. A guy messaged me and offered to help me for free, so I took him up on that offer and he completely revamped my server. If you don't know, discord is basically this all-in-one communication hub with text, voice, and video chats. It started off just for gamers, but now it's pretty versatile, and used by all sorts of communities and businesses. There's a huge opportunity here because as the usage of Discord increases, there are people like me a few years ago who have no idea how to operate it. It's complex enough to confuse a beginner, particularly those of an older generation, but simple enough for a youngster to learn in a short amount of time. I mean, you can start your Discord business while you are still at school. Just remember to offer huge value upfront before asking for any kind of payment. If you do good work and make yourself indispensable, you'll start earning big.
Firstly, how much time does this call take to learn? I'll give this a two and a half outta five as you can get to groups with the basics in a couple of hours. However, to do the really complicated stuff, it may take a bit longer depending on how tech-savvy you are. "It's important to join multiple communities. This way you can learn what makes a successful server."
Secondly, how much money do you need? I'd rate this a one out of five. You can get started with just your computer. Finding clients planning community features and customizing the discord service to fit your client's niche may take time. In the early days, you should be able to manage all of this stuff yourself.
Thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'd rate this a one out of five. Let's look at the numbers now. Assuming you can find four clients and put them on a monthly retainer, you’d only have to charge them $250 each and boom, that's a thousand dollars a month right there, and honestly, if you find the right clients, you should be able to charge 'em much more than this.
Side hustle idea four, online coaching.
Online coaching. You can now operate his side hustle from anywhere in the world as long as he has an internet connection so he can check in with his clients and review their progress. I get that not everyone is a gym expert, and this might seem a little niche. However, notice how the title of this idea is online fitness coaching. It's online coaching. That's because there are countless things you can teach people online and get the same results as offline. The world is absolutely changing. People really value online support and expertise. This industry just didn't exist before Now it's time for those ratings.
Firstly, how much time does online coaching take to learn? I'll give this a two out of five because if you already have a skill people are willing to pay for, then all you need to learn is how to package it up and sell it. Once you've created this process, you can then rinse and repeat the formula to get you thinking. Here are the tips. Start off by conducting an in-depth onboarding session to understand the needs and goals of each client. Then crafts personalized nutrition plans, detailing breakfast, lunch, and dinner alongside tailored fitness plans, specifying both training and rest in days. Set up regular check-ins where he guides his clients through video feedback. I hope you can see how something like this can be easily adapted to lots of different types of coaching. I think the key to making good money relatively quickly is to offer a degree of personalization rather than just selling an online course as people are pretty sick of those.
Secondly, how much money do you need? I'd rate this a one out of five as all you need is your laptop and you're good to go. Of course, this assumes that you have some kind of skill that you can teach. It might cost you a bit more if you have to learn a skill first.
Thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'd rate this a one out of five on the difficulty scale as from what I've seen, this is incredibly easy. People are lazy, so although they could probably learn this stuff from a book, they don't wanna spend the time doing that. They would much rather spend some money and be spoonfed the information. Remember, people pay for convenience.
Side hustle idea five, AI animation.
This side hustle is really interesting as AI is the biggest thing to happen to technology since the internet. Just think how many billionaires were created despite the ongoing buzz. You might be surprised how few businesses have actually begun to use it. You see there are five stages to technology adoption and they look like this. First, you have the early innovators, which make up 2.5% of the people. They're the people that are willing to take a risk and go against the grain. They'd go out and buy the Samsung Fold or the new Apple Vision Pro on its first initial release. Second, we have the early adopters making up 13.5% of the population. Similar to innovators, they're willing to take a risk, however, they prefer to test the product before forming an opinion and recommending it to others. Thirdly, we have the early majority, which is 34% of the population. These are the people that look at the product reviews before making a purchase. They want to see proof of it working before committing to it. This is a line where I believe we currently are with AI at the very first stage of early majority adoption. This is followed by the late majority making up another 34%, and finally, the laggards, which is a surprising 16%. When you get to my age, you'll find that most people in the laggards category, they like sticking with what they know and they really don't want to learn anything new. Now, here's the important thing. Whether you like it or not, AI will go through this cycle, so let me ask you this very simple question. Would you rather embrace it now or wait for everyone else to get the benefits and end up having to use it anyway There are so many creative ways to use AI, Make use of tools like ChatGPT to help script ideas out and then uses Midjourney to bring his ideas to life. Let's get into the ratings. I'd give this a four out of five, although AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. you still need to devote months at least to mastering top-notch animation skills, which helped inland clients and build relationships to keep the cash flowing in. So I'd recommend mastering the core principles of animation and actively participating in the industry networks to keep refining your skills. Secondly, how much money do you need? I'd give this a one out of five. Because we're at an early stage in the adoption curve, it doesn't take a lot of expensive tools to stand out. Thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'll give this a two out of five. As online creators are getting more and more popular, there is more money flooded into the space. Creators wanna stand out, and by adding animations, it's a great way to make their videos look more premium and engaging. So get started now and get so far ahead that the late adopters can never catch you.
Reselling luxury items
This is Ben Gallagher, a normal lad who started reselling luxury items online as a side hustle. In 2023, he generated 7.2 million pounds through his business, Luxe Collective, and even recently appeared on Dragon's Den, which is a bit like Shark Tank, and received investment from Steven Bartlett in exchange for a 3% equity stake. I'm so proud of how far he's come since appearing on my old podcast years ago. The luxury resale market saw a whopping $39.23 billion in 2023. The growing millennial population is driving a lot of this interest in luxury resale along with social media culture increasing the importance of flexing designer labels. Reselling is a really cool side hustle as now with the internet, you are able to sell to anyone in the world. Giving you access to a global marketplace. So let's look at the ratings. I'll give this a four out of five. you have spent countless hours learning how to identify fakes, learning about the market, and scouting for the best purchases, always look out for items from brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, and even Hermes. Of course, you can imagine it's very important that you know your stuff as just one slip-up could ruin his company's reputation. You have to carefully examine each bag for scent, stitching, and material, and even send samples to a company in New York, which uses microscopic technology to examine the exact structure of the materials used. So if you're passionate about design items and are prepared to put the time into learning all the details, then it's worth a shot.
Secondly, how much money do you need? I'll give this a 3.5 out of five as these designer items can be pretty pricey. I mean, some of these bags are worth up to $30,000, and that's the second-hand price. A lot of these high-end bags tend to keep their value or maybe drop slightly. I mean, it's practically a designer bag stock market. But of course, you don't have to start off with items like this. You can go for more reasonably priced ones and work your way up. You also don't have to pay for marketing as you can leverage social media platforms to grow your customer base completely free.
Thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'll give this a one out of five. When you're dealing with luxury goods, the profit margins are usually very nice. Combine this with the average sale and you can make this kind of money with just one item. The tricky thing for this side hustle is getting that initial money to start, which is something you don't have to worry about
Side hustle idea seven: Online Writing
Online writing is an excellent side hustle to get into. You have to write what’s actually in demand and publish it where the readers are online. Start by writing blog posts about your travels or whatever niche interests you. But always remember, there will always be someone cheaper than you, but not always someone more expensive. Find a client who can afford to pay the premium, then offer a world-class service. Words can make you sound smart or they can do the opposite depending on how they're deployed. That’s why businesses hire copywriters—basically salespeople, but in print. And it's not just websites either. People need quality writers for all sorts of things, from TikTok scripts to threads on Twitter. Content is king, and the magician behind all of this is often the writer.
Firstly, how much time does writing take to learn?
I'll give this a five out of five, as writing is one of the hardest things to do—not physically, but mentally. Especially in this day and age where it’s so easy to get distracted by notifications. In order to be a good writer, you need to achieve a state of flow, and that only comes when you're able to focus for long periods of time. This is a dying skill. The declining quality of our films and TV shows can be partially attributed to the inability of many new writers to focus. So if you can master it, you could be making some serious cash.
Secondly, how much money do you need? I'd give this a one out of five. You honestly only need the bare minimum; even a cheap phone will do. This is an ideal side hustle for people who want to make some instant cash and not have to worry about ever really upgrading their equipment.
Thirdly, how easy is it to make a thousand dollars per month? I'd give this a one out of five. Once you've mastered the art of selling through your writing, you can make insane amounts of money. I'm talking over $500 an hour in many cases. It all depends on how good you are at making connections, your skill with words, and how fast you can write. Some charge as much as $5,000 for just one web page. You may be thinking, "Why so much?" Well, it's all about value.
If you charge $50,000 for a webpage and it results in a business’s monthly sales profit going from $200,000 to $400,000, wouldn't you say it’s worth it? It’s all about leverage—making rich clients even richer, then asking for your slice of the pie.