I’ve seen a trend amongst my friends who enjoy their extra work the most:
Each of them has a side hustle that earns around $80-100 an hour.
No pyramid schemes, no questionable professions, just people who have developed valuable skills that they sell on weeknights and weekends.

For example:
Shooting wedding videos
Editing wedding videos
Event photography
Graphic design
Personal Training
Workshop facilitation
University tuition
High school tuition
Exam marking
Website design

Each of these are similar to their areas of study, but aren’t obvious to monetise, e.g. Masters students becoming tutors, filmmakers shooting weddings, designers taking on freelance branding projects.

I don’t know many happy people in retail.
I don’t know many happy people in hospitality.
I know a lot of people who are happy with their side hustles, and most of them started by accident.
Not because their retail job evolved into a side hustle, but because they started doing work for free, then for cheap, then for a decent hourly rate.

That’s the secret – these aren’t advertised jobs.
They’re opportunities that you make yourself, usually after a few years of practice.
The payoff takes a little while, but the work is gratifying and it eventually becomes lucrative.

Here’s the big question for you;
What skill can you start developing now that could eventually pay $80-$100 an hour?
Put another way: what skills are you already developing that other people see as being valuable?

As a starting point, what can you create or teach that other people need assistance with?
It might be setting up websites for new businesses, taking photos at their events, running a class that you currently attend as a participant, teaching a language you already speak, training people to cook the food that currently impresses your friends, etc.

You’ll probably tell yourself “No way, I’m not good enough to charge for it”, and you’re probably right.
But I bet if you do five projects for free, the sixth one will be worth a discounted rate, and the tenth will be worth full price.

This will change how you view your hobbies.
Now they’re not “unproductive time”, they’re the start of a side hustle that could replace your hospitality or retail job.
If you start planning now, I bet you can begin something by the end of this year.

What would you like to try?