Esther EluemeA side hustle is generally freelance work in nature, providing a supplemental income. It is any type of employment undertaken in addition to one’s full-time job.
Side hustles can also be called ‘Income supplement’, ‘Leisure pay pursuit’, ‘Moonlighting’, ‘Passive income’. A side hustler does freelance or work part-time, usually online and usually for himself, in addition to his full-time job.
For students and fresh graduates, keeping up with some bills is very difficult especially with the dwindling and unstable economy in Nigeria today. The high inflation rate, which has grossly affected every aspect of living, is biting so hard on everyone and everything.
It might interest you to know that most 9 – 5 jobs do not take care of your bills, particularly if you are just a fresh graduate trying to get a full-time job here in Nigeria.
With these in mind, there are a good number of side-hustles that can help you pay some of your bills as a student, and keep you going as a fresh graduate, at least until you land your full-time ‘dream’ job.
There are so many side-hustles out there. Some don’t pay immediately.
We are going to take a look at some of the quick-paying ones.
#1. Baking Pastries:
Baking pastries is one quick paying side-hustles of all time. It can never be out of fashion, not when you have parties and events happening every weekend.
Go to supermarkets and you will see different types of pastries lined up on shelves and stands. They come as cupcakes, chin-chin, coconut chips, doughnuts, puff-puff, small chops, buns, you can even add plantain chips to the varieties, and so on.
Your best bet will be to quickly learn them and start baking. Go to shops and supermarkets and reach a percentage on sales and display them. Also tell family, friends, mates and neighbours about this.
#2. Hairdressing:
During my first degree, one of my coursemates also my friend, an orphan, who lived with her grandmother was making hair outside their house to pay her fees and take care of other school and house issues. I never saw or heard from anyone that she begged for anything, at least not from the class.
Go and learn hairdressing, it does not take time. Tell people about it. Start by charging not too much and get more clients.
#3. Food Delivery:
Surprisingly, food hubs and eateries are becoming regulars for most unmarried people who don’t have enough time or are just being lazy to cook for themselves. They place orders for foods online to be delivered to them. Each delivery pays between N700-N1800 based on location. This however depends on the agreement reached with the food hubs.
Here is where you come in. If you are registered with these food hubs and eateries as a food delivery agent, they call you up 3-4 times a day to go deliver and pay immediately.
#4. Make-up Artist:
This is one of the hottest jobs out there right now. There are different events and occasions happening every weekend in our society. From weddings, housewarmings, birthdays, company openings, anniversaries of all sorts. Women and surprisingly men alike, all need to make up artists look their best on such days. I remember paying as much as N5,000 just for light make-up at a younger friend’s wedding ceremony recently, and we were more than twenty needing that service same time. Do the mathematics yourself. The young man tying head ties (‘gele’) asked for N10,000 to tie a simple one for me. Learn online or seek professional tutoring and get on with it.
# 5. POS Vendors:
This is more of a mini bank planted at strategic areas like markets and busy areas to help people with quick access to funds, either withdrawing or transferring. Depending on the amount of money involved, the agents collect between N200-N500 per transfer or withdrawal. Cool cash you can say.
This job is very lucrative especially in areas where there are not many banks or ATMs around. It is mostly used by those who are impatient with banking protocols and the time spent in banks.
# 6. Laundry and General Cleaning Services:
So many people are having time constraints with so many activities and laundry and general cleaning services are one ‘hell’ of a task to them. They would rather pay someone to get these chores done for them. You spend little to get these things done and are paid between N400-N500 to wash one shirt. For suits and natives clothing, you get N1,000-N1,500 for a set. General house cleaning costs between N4k – N6k per flat.
# 7. Photography:
Photography as a side hustle has come to stay as long as there are events and functions taking place.
This is one quickest way to make easy cash. Photographers at events are paid 50% upfront to cover an event which could cost up to N360k wedding. For birthdays it cost N3,500 per hour. Learning photography can be a huge task because you need to understand the basics to give professional pictures.
# 8. One-on-One Tutoring:
This is a service that is always needed by parents to help their children and awards with subjects that are critical and seem difficult for easy understanding, like English. Mathematics and Science subjects.
I for one pay between N15k – N40k monthly per child, preparing them for external examinations. Imagine where you have more than six students or children that you teach monthly. This is a good business but, you must prove your worth and give value for your pay.
Other high paying passive income streams include Video editing, blogging, Vblogging, digital marketing, website design and development, fashion, freelance writing and copywriting, email marketing, babysitting, housekeeping, and so much more. The list is endless and keeps increasing as people are becoming more and more in need of help at different times and for different reasons. Catch in on some of these openings and make money to pay your bills.
The truth is, there are many paying side hustles out there. Some are paid per hour, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly depending on the contract or payment terms agreed from the start.
These are well articulated. And most of them doesn’t require much capital to start up.
I will try out baking pastries and maybe POS vendor. While people are complaining of lack of employment, Government work aka White collar job; there are little things most of which are enumerated above that one can start off with and earn a living.
Thanks the Editorial team. This is a nice read!
This article is not just a beautifully written piece but also a very helpful one. This is what good journalism should do – provide not just information for information sake but helpful information that shows people possibilities. This is the kind of article that we should see shared via every means possible until every young person has seen the message.
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