Workers take on side jobs to combat stagnant salaries and insecurity about employment

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While working full-time as a fundraiser for Shelter the Homeless, a nonprofit organization in Salt Lake City, White decided to pursue public speaking on the side and began looking for opportunities to address groups and conferences where she could share her own experiences with mental illness “to reassure people that there is hope and a light at the end of the tunnel.”

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Be realistic about money

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Launching a side hustle may require initial investment, and it can take a considerable amount of time before it generates income.

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When White started her side business, she began by offering her speaking services as an unpaid volunteer. She landed some gigs training nonprofit staff and speaking about fundraising, which wasn’t her original goal, but those opportunities helped her gain experience.

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Over the past year she’s booked 10 speaking engagements, and four of those will be paid, she said. She’s taken the money she earned so far and re-invested it into developing her public speaking skills.

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“The goal is ultimately to get paid, but right now I’m putting in the legwork to reach that,” White said. “It’s starting to snowball.”

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Kevin Glennon, senior director of hardware at Tovala, a startup which sells smart ovens, launched a side business to help frisbee golf players find lost discs. After losing one too many discs in high reeds while playing the sport, Glennon, 34, worked on developing a device that can be attached to a disc and beeps to help players find it.

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He began designing the device more than a year ago, investing his own money, and expects to break even and start earning a profit when manufacturing begins next month. “I can’t live off what the profit is yet, but it’s a moonlighting job,” Glennon said.

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Know the risks of gig work

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Some side jobs, such as gig work delivering groceries or driving passengers, may generate income right away.

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Tom Ritter of Syracuse, New York, was supplementing his income as a workforce management specialist at a nonprofit by making deliveries for Instacart and Spark, Walmart’s delivery platform, on top of his full-time job. The side work helped him pay his bills, especially when he recently lost his day job.

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“For me, even that extra couple hundred dollars a month went a long way, and it still does,” Ritter, 39, said.

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Ravenelle cautioned against relying too heavily on gig work for income. It can be hard to transition back to full-time, permanent jobs, where workers typically wait two weeks or more for a first paycheck, and gig work carries a stigma among some employers, she said.

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Plus, if gig workers are earning good wages, the platforms will typically change the algorithms so they earn less money, Ravenelle said. “The house always wins when it comes to the gig platforms,” she said.

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Be skeptical

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Once people are looking for side jobs, they should be cautious if an opportunity found online seems too good to be true. Some online influencers promote business ideas that are more akin to scams.

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In Ravanelle’s research she’s spoken with people who saw online videos about making money selling microgreens.

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“They thought they could make thousands of dollars a month, working from home, growing microgreens in their kitchen, and then selling them to high-end restaurants,” Ravenelle said. “No. The person who sells you the grow lights and gives you the classes is the person who’s making the money.”