Whether you’re looking to build a second revenue stream, escape a job you’ve outgrown, or just monetize a skill you already have, understanding today’s most profitable side hustle trends is your shortcut to working smarter, not harder.
SideHusl.com editors sought opinions from a wide range of experts both in the U.S. and abroad to help direct you to growth areas likely to prove profitable in 2025 and into the future. Here’s what they had to say.
Clients will spend money to save time
As companies increasingly call their employees back to the office, free time is evaporating. That puts a premium on services that give you back your time. These include babysitters, dog walkers, house cleaners, gardeners, and people who will pickup, wash and deliver your laundry. The key is that these side hustlers come to you and take something off your to-do list.
“We’re seeing a quiet shift toward side hustles that solve everyday stress,” says Abdulla Sharief, co-founder at Panda Hub, a gig platform for car detailers. “These aren’t the flashiest gigs, but they offer steady demand. Mobile services are a good example — from car detailing to tech setup or junk removal. What you need to understand is that people want to save time, and if your side hustle does that — whether it’s cleaning a car, managing a livestream, or getting someone’s to-do list handled — you’ll always stay in demand.”
Consider skilled trades
The numbers are staggering. There are currently 500,000 unfilled jobs in skilled trades and some project that there will be roughly 2 million more jobs than applicants in just five years. That means opportunities for people who can do plumbing, electrical work, welding, and a variety of other skilled trades has never been better.
Moreover, while training is necessary, a college degree isn’t. Indeed many skilled trades can be learned through paid apprenticeship programs. In other words, you earn while you learn. And you can start at any age.
“If you can get paid to learn by doing, it’s a very smart move,” says Lisa Countryman-Ortiz, CEO of Jewish Vocational Services in San Francisco. “We see a lot of people coming into JVS to access a higher-quality job after they’ve been bouncing around the labor force for a number of years. It’s never too early to start. But it’s also not too late.”
There’s profit in personality
In another era, someone who is funny and extroverted might be considered the life of a party. In those days, you amused your friends for free. Today, that same person would likely be a YouTube, Instagram or TikTok star. And there’s big money to be had in that. You can not only earn advertising and affiliate revenue, you can score “user generated content” deals, which can pay thousands. In some cases, you can even charge for subscriptions to your “channel.”
Notably, you don’t need to be a professional comedian — or even to be funny. You can simply be an expert on a single topic
“One trend gaining traction is niche content monetization,” says Facundo Yebne, CEO and Founder at Fly Miami Art, a specialty art dealer. “People are earning from their own voice, style, and unique lens. I have seen artists sell process videos, realtors offer coaching templates, and travelers creating paid maps. The creator economy is no longer just for influencers. It is for anyone with a story and the guts to share it.”
AI makes new work
Artificial intelligence systems are increasingly taking jobs from humans, whether those jobs involve writing blog posts or coding websites. But AI is creating work too.
“AI tools are opening doors to entirely new kinds of gigs,” says Joosep Seitam, co-founder of Icecartel, a men’s e-commerce jewelry store. “Chatbot scripting isn’t a crowded field yet, so there’s room to stand out.”
Adds Caleb Johnstone, SEO director at Paperstack, a digital marketing company: “AI prompt engineering jobs have become a lucrative activity in the background, especially among people who know how to engineer responses to AI tools like ChatGPT. And on a local level, mobile services like home tech setup or smart home consulting are picking up as a growing number of households install smart devices.”
Additionally, sites like Outlier and Data Annotation enlist freelancers to train AI bots, which still err wildly and suffer increasingly frequent “hallucinations.”
There are even gigs involving editing AI-generated work to be more consistent in tone and understandable, says Nicole Robbins of Ever After Weddings.
Niche work is where the money is
Being an expert in one small niche is increasingly profitable. This is likely because the world is getting more complicated. That makes it hard to add value as a “jack of all trades.” But, you can become a true expert by diving into a niche business where you do just one thing — resumes; video edits; email marketing…the list is endless. But generally, you find your niche by drawing a Venn diagram of where your passions and skills meet market demand.
“Micro-consulting is exploding,” says Paperstack’s Johnstone. “Individuals are selling specialist services in tiny, time-bound segments, hourly learning or feedbacks in AI, UX, or branding.”
Adds Robbins: “There is micro expertise being monetized on the creative side, too. These involve things like writing custom speeches, creating playlists, selling planning templates online. What is emerging now are side hustles that address very particular issues in very human ways.”
