How I Funded My Business With Side Hustles That Actually Work!

One of the biggest challenges faced by online entrepreneurs is raising enough cash to turn your business dreams into a reality. I faced the same issue when starting The Rich Girl Guide. Luckily, I had started my fair share of online businesses before and had a few go-to side hustles that I was able to use to raise the funds that I needed.

Here’s how I funded my online business with side hustles that actually worked.

1. Freelance writing - my most lucrative side hustle

I’m going to jump straight to the chase and tell you my most lucrative side hustle first!

Freelance writing was a side hustle that ended up making me around £100 per hour and was a BIG contributor to my online business funds. I started this side gig whilst studying at university and still do it now to fund the development of my online business.

See: How to become a freelance writer

The key to making money with a freelance side hustle is to find something that you are genuinely good at. Writing has always come pretty naturally to me (hence my blogging business) so I was able to find work quite quickly.

There are plenty of different freelance side hustles out there. If you’re not a good writer you could try freelance photography, freelance social media management, or even freelance digital marketing.

Freelancing is a great way to earn money for our online business because it is flexible and offers competitive rates. Another things that I liked about freelancing is that it is a really good way to work directly with other online entrepreneurs which gives you excellent insight into the world of online business.

As a freelance writer, I worked with a woman who was starting her own web design company, several affiliate businesses and an educational platform that was launching a subscription service.

The best way to become a freelancer in the UK is to create a profile on platforms such as UpWork, Fiverr, and People Per Hour. Then, apply to as many jobs as possible until you find work. It becomes easier to find work after you have completed a few jobs successfully.

2. Reselling clothes and handbags - my favorite side hustle

Another side hustle that I used to raise funds for my online business was reselling. This involved buying vintage or second-hand clothing from charity shops, eBay, or other sources and then reselling the items online for a profit.

I made this work by finding rare or designer items that had a high resell price on platforms such as Depop and Vinted.

This side hustle was really fun and managed to raise around £1200 for my online business! The only draw back is that reselling requires quite a bit of time as well as the ability to travel to different locations to find items. There is also a risk of losing money if you are unable to sell items for a higher price than you originally paid.

However, if you have a good eye for fashion and know a bit about what sells online, starting a reselling business could be a great way to make some extra cash.

The profit margins for clothing resale can be fairly large, if you know how to take great pictures and SELL to your audience. You can increase your chances of making sales with clean backdrops, modelling the clothes yourself and styling them with other items to show how it might be worn.

It takes a while to get good at this and a lot of your success will come down to trial and error. Some clothing will sell really well and others won’t.

My advice is to stick to well-known brands, find pieces that are trending and focus on designer items.

3. Online tutoring - The most rewarding side hustle

Another side hustle that I found success with was online tutoring, which earned me an extra £400 per month whilst I was at university.

This side hustle was probably the most rewarding money maker that I tried however, it was also the least flexible and most time-consuming. Nevertheless, there is a high demand for online tutors in the UK and the entry requirements are fairly low!

This is a particularly good side hustle for teachers who want to earn some extra cash on top of their 9-5.

Online tutoring involves teaching students over video chatting platforms like Zoom or Google Meets. I had two students who each had 1 session per week. The sessions themselves were about 1 hour long and I would spend a further 2 hours each week planning and marking - this is a lot harder than it looks!

You can find online tutoring work through online platforms. I used Tutor Doctor but there are plenty of other excellent options. It is a good idea to create a profile on several platforms to increase your chances of finding students.

I would recommend this side hustle to anyone who wants to start earning extra cash fairly quickly. As soon as you start teaching, you get paid.

4. Online surveys - time consuming but easy!

You’ve probably already seen tons of adverts for paid online surveys on the internet. These surveys pay you for answering simple questions on your phone or laptop.

Despite some skepticism, online surveys are a legit way of making extra money in 2024. However, this side hustle requires quite a bit of time!

I found that the average survey pays around £3 and takes around 30 minutes to complete. If you want to make an extra £300, for example, you would have to complete 100 surveys! That is quite a lot of questions.

However, I personally think that this is a great way to make some extra cash if you ever find yourself mindlessly scrolling on your phone. Perhaps you’re sitting on a long train journey or waiting for a friend who is running late? You could use those pockets of time to take surveys on your phone and earn a little bit of extra money.

I wrote a whole guide on the best paid online survey sites in the UK. Go check that out if you want to start earning extra money right now!

How To Know If a Side Hustle Will Work?

Using raise hustles to raise money for your business venture is a great idea! However, not all side hustles will work.

I see a LOT of ‘make money online’ schemes advertized over social media and the internet. Whether its someone trying to draw you into their MLM scheme or another person trying to get you to sign up to their day trading course. With so many questionable side hustle opportunities out there, how can you tell which ones will actually work?

Here are some side hustle ‘red flags’ that I would watch out for:

• The overnight millionaire: Side hustles that promise you huge returns in a very short space of time are usually not legit. I have worked with several millionaires throughout my career and none of them made their money overnight! Making a large amount of money requires patience, hard work and a plan.

• Pay to get paid: In general, I would avoid any side hustles that ask you to pay to use a platform or service in order to make money. The only exception here are freelancer marketplaces which sometimes charge a fee for membership. But for the most part, you should not have to pay money to earn money.

• The faceless promoter: There is a growing trend on social media where ‘faceless’ accounts sell their ‘money making’ courses and products to other users. These accounts often promise huge returns for just a few hours of work. Now, I have actually seen a couple of people see some success with these. However, I have seen WAY more people lose their money.

Other Ways To Fund Your New Business

Here at The Rich Girl Guide, we are big believers in the fact that a business is the BEST investment you could make for yourself. But, how do you find that initial investment?

In this post, I have covered some excellent side hustles that helped me to fund my business. However, not everyone has time to side hustle. If you have found yourself in need of some extra funds but don’t have time to start another income stream, here are some other ways that you could fund your new business.

Ask your friends to be angel investors

If you’re business requires a significant amount of cash, you could pitch your idea to your friends and ask them to invest. In return, you should give them shares in the business or even involvement in your company.

If ca be super scary telling people about your business, especially when you haven’t even started it yet! But you might be surprised at how keen your friends are to support you.

Before you go ahead and ask your friends for their hard-earned cash, you should spend time creating a solid business plan that outlines exactly how you will achieve your goals. Your friends will expect to see a return on their investment.

Have a clear-out

Another way to find extra cash in a fairly short space of time is to have a clear-out and sell your stuff online or at carboot sales (yard sales for my US readers).

You might be surprised at the amount of stuff that you could sell. I like to do this once or twice a year to raise extra funds and declutter my space.

I find that the best platforms to sell on are Depop (for clothes) and eBay for anything else.

Rent out your car or your space

Holiday homes are not the only things that can be rented out for passive income in the UK. It is also possible to make money by renting your car, your storage space, your designer handbags and much more.

See: 30 things to rent out for extra cash

This is a great idea for people who want to make a steady stream of monthly income to fund their business venture.

Wrapping things up…

So there yo have it. The exact side hustles that I used to raise funds for my online business when I started. My top tips for making money are to embrace the process and avoid falling for get rich quick schemes.

At the start of your business, it can be tempting to jump the gun and fall into the first ‘easy’ money making scheme that you see. However, doing this could cost you more money in the long run.