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Ask HN: What are some low / no cost businesses one could start part time?

by jamesmp98 on 6/8/19, 1:14 AM with 7 comments

To spare you the details, I've found myself in a bit of financial trouble and while I have plans to fix it, I could speed up the process by utilizing the boatloads of free time I have particularly on weekends to make some spare cash.

Are there any sort of no cost businesses or services I could provide that I could perform on these weekends? I used to do web development for small businesses, but that's a pretty non-existent market these days. Also I don't / can't drive so that eliminates a number of options. I don't need to make much, even just $50-$100 a week would be helpful

  • by pryelluw on 6/8/19, 4:43 PM

    I convinced the teenager who mows my lawn to start spraying for bugs as a side gig to his lawn mowing gig. He now makes more money doing that than mowing lawns. Cost to start: $15. Makes $25 per visit. Takes about 30 minutes or less to spray the exterior of a house with off the shelf stuff. He is fully booked for the summer and does 4 clients a day (because he does not drive and uses a bicycle).

  • by saluki on 6/8/19, 3:40 PM

    If you've done web development for small businesses I would give that a go. Start with family and friends who might need a website or know someone who needs one. Focus on basic websites till you get your feet wet again.

    Then start doing more and more advanced sites.

    Try offering a website as a service package where a small business pays you $99/mo (Up to X pages) for design, development, hosting and maintenance and small updates. You can give a quote for large edits/updates. Ass you add more pages to their site increase their monthly subscription (you can set this up through paypal at first or ask for an annual check, or set it up through stripe, stripe has invoices now which is a nice way to do it.)

    Or offer them a traditional quote($500-$750 for a really basic site in my area if you're working with individuals or freelancers), plus a monthly or annual hosting and maintenance fee ($20+/mo).

    There are still plenty of small businesses that need websites or need new websites. Start with family and friends, then start inquiring about talking to other businesses who you can see need a website or a refresh.

    SSL certs are a bigger deal now, since the browsers will list sites as not secure. If you sign up for forge.laravel.com you can spin up servers on Digital Ocean and setup SSL certs from LetsEncrypt. Forge is $20/mo, Digital Ocean droplets start at $5/mo, but the certs you can setup for free and forge will automatically renew them. So you can provide SSL certs as part of your hosting, maintenance packages.

    Good luck.

  • by quickthrower2 on 6/8/19, 8:30 AM

    I signed up for a market research company's mailing list, and I get about 2 offers a week, $100 AUD cash usually. I've said no so far because I'm fussy, but if I needed the cash these would be excellent. They are often out of work hours too.

    Other than that, sell your stuff on Gumtree/eBay/Craigslist. Do some good sales pitch to maximize what you get.

    Can you do handy work? Always demand for that. Depends on licenses, insurance etc. I guess though.

    Can you take a lodger?

  • by mod on 6/8/19, 4:12 PM

    You could easily do this buying things locally and selling them on eBay. I do this some and find it quite fun. I do not like listing the items on eBay, that is the necessary evil of it all.

    It took me about 3 weeks and a very minimal investment ($40?) before I turned a profit.

    I primarily buy things at goodwill outlet, other thrift shops, and yard sales.

  • by JamesBarney on 6/8/19, 6:16 PM

    Going to a local bar and cooking burgers or steaks on the weekend.

  • by duxup on 6/8/19, 2:06 AM

    Some coding camps offer online tutoring. The tutors can work from anywhere and get paid well.

  • by sethammons on 6/8/19, 1:48 AM

    Walk door to door and sell life insurance?