Do you wish you had more money or time to spend with loved ones? Starting a side hustle can be an excellent way to reach those goals.
But you should consider some easy and inspiring side hustle ideas for designers. That way, you can use the skills you already have and spend time doing something you love.
Read on to learn what a side hustle is, how it can help, and some ideas for what you can do on the side.
What Is a Side Hustle?
A side hustle is a gig or business that you start on the side of an existing business or full-time job. It can be an excellent way to make extra money without needing to get a raise or work more for your main employer.
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Side hustles are also very flexible, so you can work on them around your schedule.
That way, you don’t have to sacrifice your personal time or other obligations. However, side hustles still require a certain amount of consistency to generate income.
The term side hustle actually originated back in the 1950s. It came from the fact that people did something on the side of work and had to hustle to make it happen. Now, people still usually choose to have a side hustle to make extra money.
Why Is a Side Hustle Beneficial for Designers?
A side hustle can be very beneficial for designers for different reasons.
First, consider being a design student or a recent graduate. You may not be making a ton of money while you’re in school or your first design job, so a side hustle can help support you.
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Having a side hustle can also help you build your design portfolio. If you want to switch to a different type of design, for example, from logo design to sneaker designs, you can use your side hustle to get work experience.
Or you might choose to start an online t-shirt business to show that you can design .
Whether you want to focus on graphic design, web design, or a t-shirt business, you can determine what type of design you want to do long term.
With a good Social Media Strategy in the post COVID-19 Era, you can sustain and grow your side hustle quite well.
Inspiring Side Hustle Ideas for Designers
If you want to take on a side hustle as a designer, you have multiple options. You don’t need to spend a ton of time on your side hustle to make it work. But the more effort you put in, the sooner you’ll be able to grow and earn more.
Fortunately, you can find some easy side hustles that are great for anyone with a busy schedule. That way, you don’t have to overwork yourself just to make extra cash.
Consider the following easy and inspiring side hustle ideas for designers.
1. Be a Freelancer
If you have a day job as a designer or are in school for design, start freelancing. You can look for clients online or in your local area. Freelance projects allow you to set your rates and availability, so you can work as little or as much as you want.
Illustration Credit: MarketSplash
When you have a design day job, be sure to review your contract.
That way, you can keep from violating any non-compete agreement you may have with the company. As long as that’s not an issue, you can find a freelance project for almost any kind of design.
Some companies post design jobs online, and you can mass-apply for them using LoopCV.. Another way to find freelance gigs is to research companies and pitch yourself to them. You can also share with family and friends that you’re looking for work, and they may refer people to you.
2. Offer Complimentary Services
Whether you start freelancing or already work for yourself, consider services you can offer along with design. If you’re a graphic designer, you may want to provide social media management. Or, if you like taking photos, you can offer photography or photo editing services.
Think about what skills you have that go well with your design skills.
Then, you can start telling your clients and prospects about the new services. You can promote yourself as a one-stop-shop for everything you offer.
Some clients may choose to hire you for more work because they already trust your work. That can be an easy way to increase your earnings. And you can learn new skills that you can then use in your business or to help get a day job as a designer.
3. Offer Design Consulting
If you’ve had a lot of experience with design, you can start consulting others. Find companies in your area or industry and see if they need any design advice. If you’re a web designer, have your web design portfolio ready to go.
Illustration Credit: MarketSplash
This can be an excellent way to work with companies that already have design teams.
They may just need a bit of direction with their next project. If you’ve done something similar, you can offer to consult to help the company avoid making mistakes you made. Depending on the company, you may be able to charge a lot for your time.
Consulting is nice if you spend a lot of time designing already. Then, you can vary your work while still earning money.
4. Begin Affiliate Marketing
If you have a website or blog, you can become an affiliate. Think about the products and services you use and love. Make sure to narrow the list to relevant things, such as design courses you’ve taken or design software you use.
You can then figure out if those companies offer an affiliate program. Once you join an affiliate program, you’ll receive a unique link to send to people. You can choose an affiliate marketing tool from ShareaSale alternatives to track and maintain your affiliate marketing program effectively.
If they sign up or purchase something using your link, you can get a small commission.
An excellent benefit of affiliate marketing is that it can become relatively passive. You only need to create content occasionally that promotes the affiliate product or service. And you can make money whenever someone buys what you promote.
5. Get Brand Deals
Like affiliate marketing, you can promote products you love through brand deals. You’ll need to contact and pitch yourself to brands. Then, you can agree on the deal, such as the content you will create and how much the brand will pay you.
Illustration Credit: MarketSplash
This is an excellent side hustle for designers with a decent following to help brands with their sustainable branding.
If you have a good following and engagement rate, you can charge a lot of money for a brand deal. Just make sure to promote brands you like and that are relevant so that you don’t lose the trust of your audience.
Brand deals do require your active work to complete. But some brand deals may also result in an affiliate code so that you can make money passively over time.
6. Sell Templates
Think about the types of designs you work on frequently. For example, you might be a website designer, so you work on many sites throughout the year. In that case, an excellent side hustle would be to design a few website templates or themes that you can sell.
You can upload the themes to your website and sell them.
Once you upload the templates, all you have to do is promote them. Whenever someone buys a template, the money will go into your account without you having to do anything.
If you’re good at designing a certain thing, find a way to make templates out of it. Then, you can sell the same template to as many people as possible. This is an excellent side hustle if you eventually want to have more free time. The templates could be anything from WordPress themes to moodboards.
7. Sell Printable Art
Another easy side hustle idea for designers is to sell their digital art. If you like creating art prints with text and images, you can turn that into an income stream. You can create digital downloads that people can print and frame at home.
Illustration Credit: MarketSplash
Set up a page on your website or an Etsy store to sell the files. Then, you won’t have to print or ship the art yourself.
That can get expensive and time-consuming. If you want to offer print versions, you can work with a print-on-demand service so that all you have to do is the design.
You can promote the prints on your website or social media. Then, when you start getting sales, you’ll earn a bit of money. As you make more sales, you can scale this income stream to be more than a side hustle if you choose.
8. Create a Course
Perhaps you get a lot of questions on how you design things. That’s a good sign that you can create a successful online course. You can teach people how to design a website, logo, create graphic design courses, or whatever else you specialize in.
Once you upload text and videos, you can publish your course and offer it to people.
Like other digital products, you can sell online course to more people without having to create the course over and over.
Now, you will need to do a bit of marketing to get students. You may also want to update the course with new information as software changes. But overall, it can be a lot less work than consulting or doing the design work yourself.
9. Give a Workshop
Maybe what you want to teach doesn’t require a full course, or it’s a more niche topic. You can offer a workshop. Try to find a time that will work for more people to help encourage sign-ups so that you’ll make more money.
Another option is to record the workshop and send a replay.
Illustration Credit: MarketSplash
Then, more people may want to sign up even if they can’t attend the event live. A replay is also useful because you can turn the workshop into a digital product to sell passively after the fact.
The workshop may only take you a couple of hours to do. While you may need to prepare notes or presentation slides, that won’t take too long. But you can charge a good amount of money, so you may make a lot without needing a huge group of participants.
10. Write a Book
If you like teaching others but prefer writing, you can write a book. Now, this can take a lot of work, and books may not be as profitable as courses or workshops. However, you can self-publish the book and sell a digital version of it.
That way, you can sell it to more people without having to print a ton of copies. Once you do the initial writing and publishing, you just need to focus on the marketing.
As long as you’re okay with not making much money from it, a book can be an easy side hustle. You don’t need to worry about filming yourself or editing videos. All you need to do is write, edit, and publish.
11. Develop a Physical Product
Another inspiring side hustle idea for designers is to create a physical product. You can design anything from a planner to a t-shirt to stickers. If you don’t want to make the products, you can look for a manufacturer or a print-on-demand service.
Then, you can design the item and send the design to the company that will bring it to life.
If someone purchases the product, you will get the money. The print-on-demand service will make the item and ship it to the customer.
Of course, you can create the products yourself. However, working with a third party can save you a lot of time, and it will be easier to scale your side hustle and make more money.
The Best Side Hustle Ideas for Designers
Learning about the best side hustle ideas for designers can help you decide how to make extra money. Be sure to check out other designer websites, their themes, and programs to see how designers you admire make their money outside of designing things.
Then, you can enjoy the benefits of a side hustle, and you can make money doing what you love. Soon enough, you may be able to make enough money to leave your day job and design full-time.
