Side Hustles You Can Do From Home Without Any Startup Costs

Not only can side hustles make you extra income, but they can also be fun.

A lot of the time they require startup costs or transportation you don't have, so here's some you can focus on.

​It is very difficult to have a lawn mowing business if you do not even have enough disposable income to buy a lawn mower, after all. But luckily there are ways to make money on the side without putting money in up front. Here are some ways to do it. ​

1. Rent out your home on Airbnb.  

You can either post the whole place, or just the couch.  Either way it can result in extra income based on your comfort level.  I have a guest bedroom at my house that I enjoy renting out if I'm traveling.  

Airbnb uses 'smart pricing' to help you adjust prices so you're making the most you can without missing out on reservations.  If you really trying to hustle, you can rent the couch out to out of town guests by the night, but that's not everyone's cup of tea.

I have a few investment properties that are normally filled with long-term tenants, but Airbnb helped me pull in an extra $17,180 in 2016 when I had long-term vacancies or when I rented my guest bedroom when I was out of town.  

2.  Read classic books aloud for YouTube. 

Do you like reading aloud to people and telling stories? Making YouTube audiobooks could be right for you, then. All you need is a quiet space and a laptop with a microphone. You can find the full text to books in the public domain online.

Make sure you use books in the public domain so you don't infringe on copyright laws. You can record yourself reading the stories and upload them on YouTube to monetize. While you probably won't make a lot this way, it is still fun and it's passive income, so as long as you don't take it down, those videos will keep earning money. 

PS Don't forget to post the audio file on Soundcloud and Stitcher, and even iTunes podcasts if you'd really like to get your listenership up!

3. Become a Freelance writer

Freelance writing can be fun and it can also make you quite a bit of money. All you need is a computer, some writing skills, and an internet connection. If you don't have that at home, then you can go to your local library and use their computers. There are many sites where you can find work-for-hire freelance writing jobs, like Blogmutt, Textbroker, and Upworker.

Jobs on these sites can pay well but often you won't have that much freedom in what you write about and you have to do quite a bit of research. If you want more freedom to write what you want and what you know, you can turn to revenue sharing websites like Hubpages and Infobarrel.

These sites are slow to bring in extra income, but because it's passive, you can earn even when you're not writing, and you have more freedom in what you write about. 

4. Do Quick and Easy Tasks on Microworker or Amazon Mechanical Turk (or other surveys)

Microworker and Mechanical Turk offer a range of low-paying tasks that take less than five minutes to do. You can get a few pennies for searching a term on Google, or for transcribing a receipt. This is something anyone can do if they have access to a computer and internet, and it can slowly build up to a significant amount of extra income. However, because these are simple tasks, it can get a little tedious after awhile. It is best to do these tasks while watching TV or listening to an audiobook. 

5. Use your good credit score to buy a car and rent it on Turo.

If you have credit, I have lots of friends who have bought a car to list it on Turo with $0 down.  Technically, that is no startup costs.  Turo is basically the Airbnb of cars:  rent a car from a person instead of Enterprise.  I bought a $2400 Suzuki Forenza and it makes me right around $400/mo on Turo.  

Watch how-to video on how to buy a used car here.

If you don't have good credit I highly recommend creditkarma.com.  They helped me get all kinds of lines and loans of credit that have helped me leverage assets as an entrepreneur.

6.  Rent your lawnmower, tools, Macbook and more on Fluid Market.

Fluid is an app similar to Turo, although you can get way more than just cars on it.  I interviewed the founder of the app here in a Tesla (I rented his Tesla on the app hehe).  

But I also have many other items listed like a beer pong table I never use and other electronics that pull in some small passive income with minimal effort on my end.


​For more information about how to fund your startup with 'side hustles', please contact us.