Stated another way: Lots of people picked up the side-hustle habit during the spring and summer of 2020.
By the autumn of 2020, COVID infection rates were dropping along with the unemployment rate. Largely due to the extraordinary measures taken by governments around the world, the business world didn’t collapse during the worst of the pandemic. Now, recovery was on the horizon, and many companies began refilling the positions they had terminated earlier in the year.
But tens of millions of people in the United States, and tens of millions more around the world, had a taste of the world of side hustles and were now rethinking the very idea of rejoining the full-time workforce.
Even more people eyeballed side hustles from the security and stability of their careers and decided to ditch full-time work in favor of a portfolio of side hustles. An October 2021 study by leading consultancy McKinsey noted that 19 million workers had quit their full-time jobs since April of that year (www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/great-attrition-or-great-attraction-the-choice-is-yours)! Where would a person head after quitting a full-time job? For many, the answer is crystal clear: the world of side hustles!
Jobs with lower wages and even lower satisfaction levels — not to mention traditionally high turnover — have been particularly hard hit by the Great Resignation. Many of these jobs were in the service industry: restaurants, retailers, cleaning- and repair-oriented businesses, and others. But surprisingly, according to a September 2021 Harvard Business Review article (https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation), “resignation rates are highest among mid-career employees.” Maybe even more surprising: “resignations are highest in the tech and health care industries.”
And so, the Great Resignation got underway during a climate when most experts would have expected otherwise. People still needed to make money somehow, though, which is a large part of the reason that so many people jumped onto the side-hustle bandwagon for the first time beginning in 2020.
Suppose, however, that Lyft, Uber, Instacart, DoorDash, Grubhub, and other similarly structured companies didn’t have a large pool of independent contractors to drive, deliver groceries or meals, or perform other services. Say these companies had to hire full-time employees. Basically, their business models would fall apart. The primary utility they provide is brokering between those who are available to provide certain services and those who want to take advantage of those services.
But the nature of those services is unpredictable and subject to peaks and valleys. Many of these services are also very short-term in nature — maybe a 45-minute drive to the airport or an hour’s worth of grocery shopping and delivery. Large portions of the so-called gig economy are built around short-duration “service matchmaking” between an ever-changing pool of providers and those who need those services, at least at the moment.
Even longer-duration services fall under the gig economy. Going on a two-week summer vacation, but not taking the two family dogs? No problem: Use Rover or another pet-sitting service, and you can find someone to stay at your house and take care of Fido and Spot for the two weeks. After your vacation is over, you head back home and your pet sitter heads off to a new gig — or, you could just as accurately say, to a new client for their pet-sitting side hustle.
Recognizing That Side Hustles Are For Everyone
Side hustles are for everyone! Nobody is too young, or too old, to jump into the side-hustle game. You might need a particular background — interests or expertise, or maybe even academic or other credentials — for some types of side hustles. But even if you don’t have a particular background, you have lots and lots of other options available to you.
Consider Ravi, who is just beginning his senior year of high school. Ravi is sort of a financial prodigy and has been dabbling in Bitcoin and other cybercurrencies ever since he was a freshman. Last summer he started a subscription-only blog aimed at other teenagers looking to learn more about cybercurrencies. So far, Ravi has nearly 300 subscribers, with more people signing up every day.
Ravi’s sister Maira, a junior at the same school Ravi attends, also has an entrepreneurial focus. Ever since her freshman year, she has been creating YouTube videos with fashion tips. This year, she expects to make close to $15,000 in ad-sharing money from her videos.
Ravi’s and Maira’s next-door neighbor Paula has been living in the same house for the past 40 years and is now the last remaining original homeowner from when the development was first opened. Paula was a college professor for most of her professional life, but she retired five years ago. After six months of reading and going for long walks, Paula started to get a little restless. She had always been high-energy, filling her days with not only teaching and other university-related tasks but also several hobbies, most notably scrapbooking and stamping. She still spends a fair bit of her time with those hobbies, but now she also makes YouTube videos from which she earns some decent money from placed ads.
Kelsey just turned 50 and retired from her city’s public school system after 25 years teaching elementary school. With a lot of free time on her hands, Kelsey is a constant presence at garage sales, swap meets, flea markets, and church bazaars all around her city. She looks for great bargains in older toys, children’s books, nostalgic Americana such as old signs and posters, and other items that she then sells on eBay and other websites. She spends around 15 to 20 hours a week buying and listing items and packing and shipping what she sold. Kelsey doesn’t make a killing, but she does make a fair bit of money to supplement her teaching pension.
Chapter 2
Surveying Your Options
IN THIS CHAPTER
