It’s common advice that if you find a job doing what you love, it won’t feel like work. But what about if you love spending time with your partner? Maybe you should consider supporting each other in a joint business venture.
Of course, working a side gig together won’t be all about sneaking kisses from your adjoining desks. Starting a business requires effort, and often involves some risk — and it could put a strain on your relationship. That said, starting a side hustle can be a great way for couples to make extra cash. And that extra money might help you pay your student loans or save for a new house.
So if you’re looking for a weekend side job that doesn’t take time away from your partner, we’ve compiled a list of great side hustles to help you and your significant other with the brainstorming process.
And we’re not just talking about your average Uber or Lyft gig either. Some of these side hustles ideas are genuinely fun and creative. In fact, you may enjoy one of these enough that your joint side hustle could grow into a full-time job.
How we chose the best side hustles for couples
The best side hustles can be done on your own time with a great degree of flexibility, so we made sure to pick opportunities that fit that description. Any of the ideas on our list can be started without requiring either partner to leave their day job.
We also picked side hustles that we believed couples would have fun doing together and would benefit from having two people contributing. You can divide up the work for any of our ideas based on your individual skills and interests and find opportunities to work side-by-side.
In addition, we chose a wide selection of ideas so you’re more likely to find something that appeals to you. You might select one of our side hustle ideas and run with it or use this list as a jumping off point. Everybody’s perfect side hustle will be a little bit different.
Related: 7 brilliant moves to thrive in an uncertain economy
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1. Start an Etsy shop
For all you crafty couples out there: Have you considered making extra candles, wine koozies, spice mixes, face masks or anything else you’ve been creating in your spare time?
If you have a unique idea and can package it well, there may be a market for your product on Etsy. Many business owners get started on Etsy, and almost half of them have never sold goods before setting up their shop, according to an Etsy survey.
There are a ton of ideas for Etsy shops, from camera straps to care packages, that are great for beginners and easy to start from the comfort of your home. Check out how to start an Etsy shop for more details about how the platform works.
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2. Get into real estate investing
Real estate investing has become more accessible over the years, and it’s no longer just for wealthy households who can afford to drop half a million on a rental property. Although if you want to start flipping houses, that’s still a viable option for investors.
But you might also choose passive investment opportunities such as real estate investment trusts. REITs typically allow you to buy shares of a portfolio of properties or to buy into real estate crowdfunding platforms. There’s a lot of details to get into, so if you want to be prepared, sign up for our guide to starting real estate investing. It’ll help you choose the type of real estate investment that’s best for you.
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3. Start a blog
Got something to say? If either you or your partner has a knack for writing, editing and some digital marketing chops, starting a blog could be a great way to earn money.
It’s important to understand that blogging won’t become profitable overnight, though. You’ll need to establish yourself as a trusted source for content and provide plenty of useful information to consumers before you can consider monetizing your blog.
You’ll also need to heavily promote your blog through social media, newsletters and other methods. Until they have a large active user base, bloggers typically find that attempts to earn money through advertising or affiliate marketing alone will come up short. For helpful tips, check out our guide to starting a successful blog.
If you truly enjoy writing and editing, you could also use your blog as a way to kick off a freelance writing career. Although being a freelance writer also takes some self-marketing, it can be a great way to pick up clients (and extra cash) when you need them. You could also save some of your creative juices for yourself and use your editing skills to work as proofreader.
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4. Start selling on Amazon
Third-party sellers on Amazon earned a whopping $160 billion in 2018, showing just how much the platform has grown to be a way for small businesses to make money. It’s easy to reach millions of customers with Amazon’s Fulfilled By Amazon. When you use this service, a lot of the hard work — like storage and shipping — is taken care of by Amazon.
Unlike traditional e-commerce startups, you can get started selling on Amazon with little capital. And you won’t even need to do your own product research. An online tool such as Jungle Scout can help you choose a profitable product and maximize your earnings, so you two can spend more time enjoying each other’s company. For more details, check out our complete guide on how to sell items on Amazon.
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5. Start a subscription box
Whether you want to create monthly activity kits for kids, make your own bath products or curate a monthly vintage tee, there are 40,000 customers waiting for you on Cratejoy.
The subscription box platform allows you to launch an online business and receive customer support and marketing help from Cratejoy. There’s no upfront financial commitment; you just pay an 11.25% transaction fee and payment processing fees.
Putting together monthly packages for customers could be fun for you and your partner to do together. Just make sure you research the competition and have a unique take on the products you’re selling, or you likely won’t be successful.
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6. Become a virtual assistant duo
If you each have organizational or administrative skills you could offer, consider marketing yourself as virtual assistants. Virtual assistants handle things like scheduling, travel arrangements and email communications remotely. They may even do things like bookkeeping or graphic design. It all just depends on whom you end up freelancing for.
You can get started looking for clients on Upwork or Fiverr as a freelancer, but be aware that these platforms take a cut of your pay. Ultimately, you may want to launch your own website to help clients find you.
It can be helpful to choose a niche if you’re getting into virtual assistantship. You might choose to work with professionals in a certain industry or focus on female entrepreneurs, for example. When you’ve been working with a client for a while, make sure to get a testimonial that you can share with future prospective clients.
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7. Sell online courses
If you or your partner have picked up a skill worth passing on, you could earn a significant chunk of change selling online courses. People are willing to pay for quality education, whether it’s something as simple as making sourdough bread or as complex as quantum field theory. You can get started selling online courses on an online platform such as Teachable, Udemy or Thinkific, but ultimately you’ll want to create a blog to promote your course as well.
The best part of selling online courses is that it can become a passive income stream once you’ve created all the course content and materials. If your course is popular, it can continue to make money without any effort on your part.
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8. Start a cleaning, landscaping or a home improvement service
If you and your partner enjoy the time you spend maintaining your own home or garden, you might enjoy offering your services to others. You can reach clients with an online platform like TaskRabbit or Thumbtack, or advertise in your local community. You might choose to offer a single service, such as room painting, or offer a range of services. You could also combine your different skill sets and offer home improvement packages.
Reviews are important when offering these types of services, so be sure to ask satisfied customers to leave feedback. And collect photos of finished work to share on your profile, website or blog.
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9. Become resellers
You can easily get into reselling if you start with items you no longer need around your home, things you find at local garage sales or stuff you find for free on Craigslist. It helps to have two people for this one, especially if you’re reselling larger items locally. You can also sell on websites like eBay, apps like Poshmark and secondhand or antique stores.
The first step is choosing what kind of items you’re going to sell. You could get into the sneaker trade, repurpose old furniture for resale or simply sell your gently used clothing.
Check out our guide on how to resell for more details.
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10. Lead online activities
Maybe you and your partner would enjoy teaching virtual salsa lessons, leading meditations, providing walking tours of your city or hosting cocktail parties from the comfort of your own home. Almost any experience you can dream up can be sold through Airbnb. That’s right, Airbnb isn’t just about vacation rentals anymore.
You’ll be able to set your own rates for the experience you’re offering, engage with people around the globe and choose an activity you and your partner already enjoy doing together. You may need to start by offering low rates until you can garner some reviews of your offering.
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11. Provide childcare or pet care services
You can make money helping your neighbors by offering babysitting, daycare, dog-walking or pet-sitting services. With the two of you, you’ll be able to handle more children (or fur babies) at once, which will increase your profits. You could choose to offer care in your home or in the customer’s home, and you can find clients through a platform such as Rover or Care.com.
If you don’t have any experience, you might want to offer to help your neighbors for free until you gather some testimonials. It could also be helpful to submit to a background check so customers feel safe leaving their pets or kiddos in your care.
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The bottom line
Earning extra income often means more time spent apart from the people you love. But if you and your partner pursue a side hustle together, it might not even feel like work — especially if you feel like what you’re doing also allows you to help others. And you’ll be able to earn the side income you need to meet your financial goals, whether you have your sights set on home-buying, saving for a growing family or building toward financial freedom.
In addition to the ideas on this list, you can search opportunities on Working Couples, a site designed specifically to match couples with opportunities to work together. Or you might come up with a unique idea no one has thought of yet and start hustling together. Whatever side business you choose, we hope this list inspires you to find ways to boost your income while spending quality time with your partner.
Learn more:
- 8 brilliant moves if you make more than $5,000/month
- Recession checklist: 7 things you need to survive an economic downturn
This article originally appeared on FinanceBuzz.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
