I Paid Off $10k of Debt with These Side Hustles
By: Ben Smith
Tags: Beyourself, Side Hustle Ideas, Make Money Online, Youtube Creators, Gig Economy

Each of these side hustles is easy to start with little to no investment outside of time. I’ve used each of these at different stages along my journey.

These are the 6 side hustles I used to pay off more than $10k in debt:

1. Flipping items on eBay & Offerup

Flipping for profits has increased in popularity in recent years and for obvious reasons. It is easy to start as long as you follow the simple buy low, sell high philosophy.

Flipping products online was one of my first side hustle endeavors. At the time, I was already working for an Amazon FBA company. They often had $10’s of thousands of dollars in excess inventory that couldn’t be sold on the Amazon platform due to listing restrictions. I approached my boss and made a proposal to sell the excess goods on Ebay and Offerup and split the profits. Fortunately, he agreed and I was off to the races.

I spent the next 6 months working beyond my conventional hours to sell as much as I could. As I begin getting traction on my eBay and Offerup accounts, I began recognizing trends related to what people were searching for. I took this opportunity to source more goods anywhere I could: garage sales, Craigslist, online liquidators, etc.

After 6 months I had sold nearly $50,000 worth of products between eBay and Offerup.

The Takeaway: eBay and Offerup are a great starter side hustle if you are willing to put in the work to source goods. Having access to products to flip is ideal but you can start small by selling the things laying around your house or sourcing goods from garage sales and liquidators.

2. Driving for Postmates

Taking part in gig economy isn’t always that glamorous. After exhausting my inventory from the flipping business, I was looking for a change of pace.

That’s when I decided to give Postmates a try. While this space has definitely changed a lot in the last couple of years, what I loved about Postmates was the flexibility. If I knew I had an upcoming bill or needed to make some cash to cover rent or a debt payment, Postmates became a reliable way to generate extra income.

To maximize my earning potential, I quickly found a way to gamify the app to make as much as possible. I would only work during hours that offered guaranteed performance bonuses. This allowed me to generate an extra $100–300/weekend in a pinch.

Learning the hotspots in my area also allowed me to selectively choose jobs I believed would tip more. Just don’t forget to factor in gas, insurance, and wear and tear on your car.

The Takeaway: Postmates is a great semi-reliable income source that can offer a flexible way to make extra cash around a full-time job. It’s certainly not very scalable, but it is great to have in a pinch.

3. Painting curbs

I rarely ever hear anyone talk about this side hustle. Out of any of the side hustles that I have tried, painting curbs required the most physical work but was gratifying in a way that only a “sweaty side hustle” could be.

When I say painting curbs, I am specifically referring to painting house numbers on curbs. I would drive around my local neighborhood looking for homes with worn out street numbering. As soon as I found one, I’d walk up to the door and pitch the homeowner on my services.

While it does take a little salesmanship, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get customers. I’d charge $20-$30/house and each job took about 50 minutes. Every evening I attempted to take down 2–3 houses after work before the sun went down.

The Takeaway: you don’t need to be a painter to start doing this side hustle. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials on how to do this. If you are willing to get out and work, you can easily make an extra $50–300/week with this side hustle.

4. Starting an E-commerce business

As I progressed along my side hustle journey, I continued to acquire skills in my primary field: e-commerce. I spent a while floundering between various business models trying to gain traction.

Because I had limited funds, I gravitated towards dropshipping but ultimately disliked some aspects of the business model. That is when I discovered a niche space called Print-on-Demand.

If you don’t know what Print-on-Demand is check out my other Medium story: Print On Demand: The Complete Guide [2021]

I quickly setup my first Print-on-Demand business and published a handful of products (without buying any inventory). It was a lot of trial and error at first but after 10 months I started to generate a consistent $200-$500/month in passive income.

I’ve continued to organically grow this side hustle and still have it to this day; nearly 4 years later.

The Takeaway: there are lots of different ways to create an e-commerce business. It normally takes some basic skills and a lot of trial an error. There are plenty of ways to make a boatload of money with ecom and they normally offer built in scalability. While it is nice to have money to get started, I am proof that you can make your mark with next to nothing.

5. Creating a YouTube channel

Starting a YouTube channel is certainly not a quick way to generate immediate income. I started my YouTube channel in 2018 and it took me nearly 1 year before I earned a cent.

I created the channel on a whim without having any experience with editing or content creation. However, today my channel is approaching 10,000 subscribers and generates anywhere from $200–$300/month regardless of how many videos I publish.

Over the last three years I’ve realized the power of creating a personal brand. YouTube is an amazing platform for establishing yourself as an authority figure within a specific niche, creating a scalable way to gain organic exposure, and add an income stream to your side hustle portfolio.

As my channel gained traction, I was able to leverage my audience to generate affiliate income, land brand partnerships, gain access to new mentors, and increase traffic to my blog and email list.

The Takeaway: YouTube won’t make you rich overnight but it is an incredibly scalable way to make money while getting access to a variety of unique opportunities. If you are willing to create content consistently and carve out a name for yourself in a niche, the opportunities are endless.