The 7 BEST Side Hustles To Start for Students (in 2025)

so you want to become a millionaire but you're stuck trying to find the right balance between studying and making money you're probably on a tight budget cramming for exams living off cup noodles and questioning whether going to college or uni was the right decision in the first place and I hate to say it but you could be right to wonder a study show 23% of bachelor's degrees have a negative return on investment even more surprising is that 41% of graduates are working in jobs that don't require a degree so what's the solution well most millionaires

have multiple streams of income 65% have at least three 45% have four and 29% have more than five the problem is many of the popular income streams aren't realistic for students to start from their dorm room that's why I've put together seven great ideas you can actually start today all packed into my trusty tool kit so let's get into it quite literally income stream idea one is Tik Tock shop this is absolutely popping off making it the perfect opportunity for students to earn some extra cash with zero startup costs and no equipment needed apart from

your phone and maybe a ring light just like this one I picked this up for under $20 when I was younger I remember my mom buying from catalogs and then switching to watching QVC and doing some TV shopping this is the modern-day equivalent just way faster and more interactive the opportunity is huge but don't just take my word for it let me give you some stats last year Tik Tok shop bought in 11.09 billion in Gross merchandise volume and by the end of this year they're expected to generate 17.5 billion in sales so how much

money can you realistically make the truth is the amount of money you can make depends on the products in your store some products simply drive more impulse buys than others Beauty and personal care products are the highest grossing category I mean the second highest category is women's wear and underwear if you target one of these top performing categories you can make anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand a month and possibly even more if you land on a viral product or Trend how much time will it take if you want to make a

lot of money around 3 hours a night is a good goal but if your target is smaller maybe an extra $100 a month or so you can spend less time maybe just an hour a day now I know some of you are in tough courses like medicine for example and 3 hours a night might sound like too much but don't worry there's an easy fix Tik Tock shop has an affiliate program where other people can help sell your products you don't need a big celebrity like Kylie Jenner to promote your items you can work with

smaller creators called micro influencers who can help you get your products in front of the right people so how can you get started all you need to do is download the Tik Tok seller center app once you've got it you can upload product images descriptions and prices directly through the app then just submit everything for review it usually takes a few days to get approved income stream idea to is focus groups Believe It or Not companies are willing to pay good money just to hear your opinions your feedback helps them improve their products and they're

happy to reward you for it in fact you can earn up to $250 for just a 1hour focus group for students this is a fantastic option because let's face it after a full day of lectures most people just want to chill out and that's exactly what makes online focus group such a good option you can earn money while relaxing in bed or wrapped up in your duvet so how much money can you realistically make the answer is well it depends whilst yes it's true you could earn up to $250 for a 1hour session the actual

amount really varies based on how Niche the group is the more specific or rare your feedback the more valuable they are and that means higher pay think about it if a company is doing a study on people over 6'4 in that's not exactly your average height someone who fits that description like yours truly could earn more than someone joining a focus group about let's say chicken wing lovers because it's way harder to find someone who Towers over door frames than it is to find someone who loves Wing Stop how much time will it take focus

groups are usually quick ranging from 30 minutes to a couple of hours dependent on the topic and how detailed the discussion needs to be right how can you get started there are plenty of legit focus group websites out there but there are also some scams so it's important to stick with the trusted platforms some of the top legit sites include respondent user interviews and focusgroup.com legit companies will never ask you for upfront payments or private information like your bank login if something seems off it probably is income stream idea 3 is modernizing boring businesses Now

everywhere you look there are lots of boring businesses quietly making money like laundromats self storage facilities and vending machines for example these businesses might not seem glamorous but they're absolute goldmines they're reliable Recession Proof and provide services people will always need but because they're so boring younger people Overlook them therefore most of them are run by older people this means the majority are stuck in the past with old systems and little to know marketing that's where you come in with just a few modern upgrades that you can do from your laptop you can significantly boost

their profits and then take a cut for yourself so how much money can you realistically make a laundromat can bring in around $300,000 a year with profit margins between 20 to 30% Car Washers can generate annual revenues of 500 to $900,000 with software like ODU you could set up online booking for a laundromat or automate the billing process for a self storage facility these upgrades save time keep things running smoothly and make life easier for customers plus when the business is more efficient and customer friendly it's bound to bring in more money the best way

to structure the deal is through a profit split this allows you to directly benefit from the success you bring to the business let's say your efforts add $50,000 to a laundromats annual profit and you negotiate a 20% cut of that that's $10,000 in your pocket for one client a profit split is great is it makes sure you're incentivized to get results and it's a good option for business owners since you only get paid if they see real growth so how much time will it take let's take a laundromat as an example using odu's accounting app

you can automate billing and track payments instantly so you can completely get rid of their messy cash systems and paper receipts once you set up the service in the app it handles invoices and payments automatically saving them hours of work every week and you know what they say time is money setting this up may take a few hours to a couple of days depending on the business but once it's done your involvement can drop to just an hour or two a week just to review reports or make small adjustments right how can you get started

well the first step is to find a boring business with potential look for ones that are outdated poorly marketed or underperforming these are your opportunities to step in and level them up once you've chosen a business you need to work out what software you're going to use I personally like ODU as they're an all-in-one solution which means you can use all their different apps to level businesses up in a variety of different areas since I was planning on mentioning ODU I reached out to them to see if they wanted to sponsor this portion of the

video they agreed and are also giving you your first application free for life with unlimited support and hosting so if you want to give it a try then check out the link in the description income stream idea for a part-time job now I know a lot of you might roll your eyes at this one but hear me out it's one of the best ways to make money as a student while learning how the real world actually works o I think they've been in me talkit a bit too long I hate it when I see people

turning their noses up at students working at McDonald's or in cafes jobs like these should be respected not looked down on back in my day I was making trash cans for less than $2 an hour it wasn't glamorous but it taught me resilience responsibility and the value of every p P I earned whether you believe it or not these part-time jobs aren't just about the money they give you the skills you'll carry forward making you more valuable and employable in the future my mate Daniel Priestley worked at McDonald's before becoming a multi-millionaire so who's to

say that can't be you too so how much money can you realistically make this depends heavily on the type of job you decide to get i' say there are three main types the first is a traditional part-time job let's stick with our McDonald's example example for this one for a part-time job as a crew member you'd be looking at an average of $128 per hour according to indeed.com the second type is more of a specialized part-time job such as tutoring the amount you can make varies based on what grade level you're able to teach with

the lowest being Elementary School level however as most students will be currently studying at college level they would probably be best suited to tut a high school kids the last type of job is freelancing you can learn a remote skill like video editing copyrighting coding or high ticket sales with this you can set your prices at whatever level the people are willing to pay you so how can you get started well the first thing you need is a solid CV print it off and hand it directly to local businesses just keep it clean no Friday

night photos with a vape hanging out of your mouth and a beer in your hand income stream idea five is selling your stuff now I'll never understand how students manage to collect so much stuff and half of it let's be honest you don't even need in my last video I talked about living frugally and being mindful of what you buy what I didn't mention is how important it is to keep an eye on what you can sell most of us have wardrobes full of clothes we barely wear I bet if you went into yours right

now you'd find at least five things you could sell I'm not saying you need to sell all your pots and pans and start eating your dinner with a spanner from your tool box just take a look around and see what you don't need anymore chances are there's money laying around your room waiting to be made mind you if you do find an old spanner you don't need you might as well sell that as well so how much money can you realistically make well always check how much similar items are selling for before you list anything

for example if you've got a textbook that's still in demand you can make at least 50% of its new price easily but be careful don't make the mistake my assistant Millie made she went through a vented phase and sold a dress for $5 but it cost her $4 to ship it so she ended up making just $1 so keep an eye on your shipping cost and make sure the sale is worth your time so how much time will it take listing items on eBay or Vinted is quick and easy you can snap some photos upload

them and write a short description in minutes the only time consuming part might be Post in the items but even that's easy enough now as lots of local shopping centers have lock boxes where you can drop off your p right how can you get started well we've already talked about platforms like Vinted and eBay so just pick one and set up an account upload some clear photos write honest descriptions and price your items competitively once you run out things to sell you can ask fellow students for stuff they don't want anymore and sell it on

a commission income stream idea 6 Drop Shipping Drop Shipping is a modern classic when it comes to side hustles and for good reason it's perfect for students who want to make money without the hassle of holding inventory or shipping products themselves with Drop Shipping you set up an online store choose products from suppliers and when a customer makes a purchase the supplier handles the shipping for you this means you can run your store from your dorm room with nothing more than a laptop and a bit of creativity so how much money can you realistically make

your earning potential with Drop Shipping depends on the products you sell and the effort you put into marketing in your store on average profit margins are around 20 to 30% but for high ticket items like furniture or Electronics you can make even more if you sell a $50 product with a 25% margin you'd make $1250 if you sell 100 units in a month that's $1,250 in profit so how much time will it take well setting up your store is pretty quick if you use a tool like build your store AI which will set you up

with a great free Shopify store in less than 2 minutes it just makes things so much easier I'll drop a link in the description it will guide you through finding winning products and suppliers and then all you have to do is focus on your marketing income stream idea 7 language dubbin language dubbing is a fantastic way to make money by helping businesses and creators translate their content into different languages and it's something I'm having done done right now we're dubbing my YouTube videos into Portuguese Spanish Hindi and Japanese businesses need people like you whether as

a voice actor or someone who can help organize and manage the dubbin process so how much money can you realistically make if you're working as a voice actor the average hourly rate in the US is $48 and 17 if you're offering dubbing Services by connecting voice actors to businesses the earning potential can scale even more you could charge clients a flat fee or take a percentage of the Project's budget so how much time will it take as a voice actor the time commitment depends on your level of experience if you're new you might want to

spend a few hours each week taking voice workshops or practicing your delivery if you're managing a dubbing service you'll need to spend time networking with businesses connecting with voice actors and overseeing the project timeline so how can you get started platforms like Fiverr and upwork are excellent places to upload your samples and get clients focus on high demand markets like Hindi Portuguese Spanish and Japanese if you want to know what the laziest way to make money is then I'm going to leave that video right up there but don't click on it just yet make sure

to subscribe if you want to grow your welfare okay I'll see you over there