10 Best Side Hustles For Designers

Financial freedom comes to my mind anytime I hear the words side hustles for designers .

Who doesn’t value financial freedom?

One of the best ways to attain this feat is to have one or two side gigs.

More importantly, designers have the edge over other disciplines as far as getting a gig is concerned.

This article will focus on the ten best side hustles for designers to get more bucks.

Also, this article contains elements needed for successful implementation of these ideas.

Designers Values

Without any iota of doubt, we all know that creativity is essential to become a designer.

Every designer is unique in his own way.

I need to relate the values designers possess to the possible side hustles.

Apart from creativity, the other values designers must posses should include curiosity, passion, adaptability, and reliability.

These values make good designers.

The ability to adapt or evolve together with passion which serve as the impetus for a designer to get more bucks from a side hustle.

Why Side Hustle?

There must be a reason for every decision taken.

From the study, over 44 million American citizens have one or two side hustles.

That sounds amazing!

However, it necessitates having one to get a fat purse.

The following points will answer the question why you should consider a side hustle.

Financial Freedom

As stated in the introductory part of this article, this is one of the significant reasons why individuals decide to have an alternative source of income.

Whenever there is financial freedom, it will be easy to take critical and sensitive decisions without thinking or being bothered about the financial implications.

Myriad Sources of Income

The road to having a comfortable life is to have a constant cash flow.

It is never a good idea to have a single source of income.

Having a source of income is regarded as an unreliable source.

To be in a comfortable financial zone, individuals have to look into the direction of having a side hustle.

Time Optimisation

Outside working hours, there are free times we often use to catch fun, sleep and play games.

Optimally, we can make money with this time.

All we need is to get a side hustle, schedule your time and watch your purse grow fat.

10 Best Side Hustles for Designers

There are hundreds, if not thousands ,of side hustle ideas around the globe.

Be it online or offline.

After critical consideration of options that are suitable for designers, ten (10) were selected to be the best.

Optimistically, these ten options are all feasible if diligently pursued.

I will take you through the details of these options.

Training

There is a famous saying that learning never stops.

We always have to be keen on learning something new.

Moreover, sharing valuable knowledge can be capitalized on.

Furthermore, it should be commercialized to ensure the commitment of trainees.

Quality training shouldn’t be free.

Are people willing to pay?

Yes!

When they see value in the training.

Inherently, designers are creative.

Therefore, mine your creativity to draft, plan and design how a valuable knowledge/skill can be shared productively.

There are two significant ways you can train people and generate money in return.

One of the options is online training.

Online Training

Online training has become the order of the day.

People can receive training from anywhere.

Moving forward, facilitating webinars is a way to kickstart.

Webinars will give you the chance to make people aware of your expertise in designing.

After getting people on board, you can create an online course.

You can affiliate these courses to some renowned platforms like Udemy.

For the effectiveness of the online training, you must design a comprehensive learning material to be made available to the students.

This material will be the source of reference for the students.

Organizing Workshops

Organizing workshops is the second way you can train people.

Workshops are physical training that requires the presence of both the trainer and trainee.

This mode of training is more effective compared to online training.

However, more resources are needed to implement a workshop.

Resources such as a training room and equipment must be available.

If there is an alternative for these resources, it will be a plus for the facilitator.

Workshop training is more effective than online training because it involves application of a skill/knowledge.

The demanding part of this gig is preparing for training.

It is fascinating that when you have an online course, it will generate a passive flow of income.

Irrespective of the mode of training selected, bucks are guaranteed.

More importantly, you aren’t only generating money with this idea, but also impacting lives.

Consulting

Value surrounds knowledge, and you can view this knowledge as an element which you can process into different products.

Do you know there are many companies, especially small scale businesses, who struggle to come up with the right design decision?

This struggle is as a result of the relevance of online presence in business today.

If you are to consider this gig, an attention-seeking portfolio is required.

Your portfolio must define your professionalism in design.

I refer to this gig as an open ballot to sell yourself because no upfront investment is required.

There are some questions you need to answer that will give you an apparent picture of the path you need to build your consulting career.

Questions include the following;

• What are the things you have in place to get those clients?
• How will clients find you?
• Which method will you use to pitch to them?

Consulting is broad such that there are circumstances you will need some element to secure a legal contract with your customers.

Some of those elements contain a contract, a consulting proposal, a proposal template to mention a few.

Your knowledge and expertise are your selling point here.

The cons of this idea are getting clients.

A well-drafted portfolio should give you an edge in the quest of seeking clients.

Work on your profile and watch clients come your way.

You can charge your clients based on your discretion maybe per hour or magnitude of the consultation.

You can get more information on how to build your consulting career here.

Publishing E-books

I refer to this gig idea as helping humanity.

It’s pretty impressive that you are helping humanity and getting some funds in return.

The adaptability of a designer must come in place to actualize this gig.

You might be bothered that you are not a writer.

Maybe this side hustle is not for you.

No! The same way you master your design software, you can also learn the art of writing.

It would be best if you write your book because you have a full understanding of your concept.

All you need to do is to come up with all aspects of design that you want to discuss.

Spice it up with some practical advice and eye-catching graphics.

Never assume that your readers have any prior knowledge of the concepts you are discussing, instead give an explicit step-by-step description of each idea.

If you have any inspiring experience that can kindle the curiosity of your readers, do well to include them.

The most formidable part of this gig is getting the eBook ready.

If you can successfully come up with a career influencing books on design, it will also affect your income positively.

Depending on your writing prowess, you can publish several ebooks within a short period.

The income each ebook will generate does not depend on one another.

This side hustle can serve as two purposes like to kill two birds with a stone.

That is, it will generate passive income, and you can use it to promote your brand.

Selling Your Template

Over the years, you would have carried out several projects as a designer.

It is an established practice that you keep a file which contains your previous work.

Instead of just keeping those projects probably for reference purposes, you can also make some bucks from it.

Ask me how.

Do you know you can turn those projects to templates which you can always sell online?

Since most of the projects carried out by designers are invariably unique, then you can have full ownership of your templates.

Even if you don’t have enough projects to turn into templates, you can start making some templates today.

Be it logos, themes, graphic design and so on.

Your market targets are those who have an interest in design but are having complication in grasping the skill to a professional level.

So, what most of them do is to go online to source for templates they will edit for their purpose even if they are to pay.

We also have non-designers who also edit templates to promote their businesses.

Those are the ones that don’t have money to hire designers.

The market is open for you if you can come up with top-notch designs.

The pros of this gig are that all it requires are classic designs which are your speciality.

Apart from that, it is capable of generating passive income depending on how creative and yearning your templates are.

Also, no upfront investment or capital is required.

All you need is your laptop and internet connection that will connect you to platforms where you will sell your template.

Having these resources and the passion for starting will grow your purse fat.

To know more about platforms you can see your templates, click here.

Freelancing

It’s a known fact that there are tens of millions of freelancers in the world.

Interestingly, more than 57 million of the United States population are freelancers.

You can also be a plus one to the world of freelance.

Freelance jobs are on the increase as a result of the ease new technology brought to people.

This gig offers a pool of work across different fields such as writing, graphic design, web development and so on.

As a designer, your skillset is very much wanted.

No startup fee is required to launch into the freelance industry.

Your skill and your speed are your weapons to succeed in this gig.

Concurrently, freelancing will positively influence your growth as a designer.

Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr are excellent platforms that will launch you into freelancing.

Your laptop and reliable internet connection are the crucial essential tools for this gig.

This gig is very flexible such that you work at your own pace.

The only con peculiar to it is the difficulty in winning jobs.

You can cruise through this con if you can write a job-winning proposal.

Sorting this, then you have begun your journey to be among the successful world freelancers with fat growing bucks.

Creating YouTube Videos

As you all know that YouTube is a platform that almost every knowledge-seeking individual always consult, it is the second-largest search engine in the world.

There are millions of videos on YouTube.

People make some bucks on this platform by creating a channel in which people subscribe.

Know your niche and ensure your videos are cracking design problems.

For an advent, you can start your video series from the basics because many armatures who solely rely on YouTube for valuable videos.

Generating bucks on YouTube is never a day job.

It takes perseverance, commitment and consistency.

The cons here is to have more viewers.

For you to gain more viewers, your videos must add value.

Here are some steps you can follow to make money on YouTube;

• Create your channel
• Activate your channel for monetization.
• Connect your channel to AdSense to earn money and get paid.

Go to creatoracademy.youtube.com for more information.

This side hustle will take time, energy and resources (internet) to build up.

After gliding through the initial stage, your buck will keep coming to you passively.

Designing Fonts

Have you ever thought of the designers behind the unique product design of Apple, Nike, Adidas?

Are those designers aliens?

No!

They are also designers like you who explored the opportunities in their reach.

Amazingly, those companies invest millions of dollars into the design of their product.

You can also imitate those designers by creating your unique typography.

Typography is the look and feel of words.

Without any speck of doubt, this gig will nurture your brand.

This gig idea demands lots of creativity to come up with your stand out typography out of hundreds of existing typography.

You can sell your typography or font on myfront.com and fonts.com.

The pros of this gig idea are that there is a high demand for creative works.

It does not require any initial capital to get initiated.

You are not giving service but selling products created by you.

This gig may require you to read or learn about creating outstanding typography or fonts.

Your adaptive skill will help you learn fast.

Create typography and make bucks.

This idea is independent of time.

You work at your pace.

T-Shirt Sales

During my undergraduate days, I have colleagues who ventured into creating a beautiful t-shirt with classic design while studying.

They produce this t-shirt for individuals, couples and groups.

They found it easy to combine the hustle with their academics.

The same way, you will be able to connect this side hustle with your full-time work.

There are several reasons why t-shirt sales are perfect side hustle for you.

• Has the right profit margin
• Requires less seed money
• Market reach is far and beyond

If you have a brand already, this is an opportunity for you to launch your clothing brand.

Starting a T-shirt or apparel business, it’s not as complicated as it may seem.

Consider the following if you will opting for this idea:

• Material, design and economy
• Methods of producing the shirt
• Marketing the merchandise

One of the most exciting thing about this idea is that you can sell both online and offline.

Promotion strategies on both online and offline will generate maximum revenue.

Selling offline might require some marketing skills.

Better still, if you have a bespoke design, it will require less stress to market.

However, there are online platforms where you can sell your t-shirt and apparel.

Dynamically, some individuals can request for a customised design apart from the model you made for sales.

Accepting their offer will bring more bucks.

One of the cons of this idea is the initial capital (not much) required to buy clothing brands from dripping solution.

Also, you have to prioritise quality if you want to sustain this side hustle.

Let people know you for your quality product.

Blogging

Generally, we used to think blogging is for some set of people.

This notion is not correct.

Everybody that has interest or passion in any field of life can do well in blogging.

With time, this gig idea will turn to fun if you choose your best niche as the focal point of your blog.

This idea might be perfect for those the love to write.

Having a website is one of the requirements to start blogging.

Your website will be the avenue you share and upload contents of your choice, such as written content, videos, visual.

For instance, you can decide to keep your readers abreast by posting the latest news relating to design, some unknown tricks in design and so on.

The cons of this gig are getting a good website and getting traffic to your blog.

As regards the traffic, you can achieve this by uploading valuable content.

When the value is attached, your traffic can grow exponentially.

To reach more audiences, you can also share your best articles on popular blogs.

Money to be generated from blogging may seem menial.

However, you can use it as a platform to promote your start-up business.

Your passion to keep moving will boost the rate at which you will generate your bucks.

In respect to the website, it is advisable to get an economical hosting package and never go for a free domain.

Creating Stickers

When I say stickers, I am not referring to WhatsApp stickers.

Instead, it’s the adhesive label that we paste anywhere we desire. 

Recently, the use of stickers to decorate smartphones and laptops is in vogue.

Don’t forget these devices have become the focal point of our lives.

Most of us prefer to customise our digital experience and also the physical appearance of our devices.

Yes, that’s pretty cool.

It was in the past you prefer to keep our devices spick and span and free from any form of a label.

Of recent, people customise their devices to imply their personality.

I have seen several portrait picture stickers on both phones and laptops.

You can venture into this gig idea by assisting people in creating stickers of their choice.

Some people desire pictures stickers while some desire animated stickers; some even prefer their names are stickers.

The pros of this idea are that it is easy and fast to get started.

Generating millions is not guaranteed initially, but if you keep your head up and keep building an excellent portfolio of hundreds of thousands of design.

Decent bucks are guaranteed.

To create more awareness about this business, you can also design eye-catching stickers which will define your personality when pasted on your devices.

Check Etsy to get started.

Final Thoughts

You have to know that there is no ideal business model.

There will eternally be challenges, but the magnitude of these challenges varies from one business to another.

Getting started, you have to prepare your mind for the challenges ahead and have the positive mindset of tackling the problem anytime it surfaces.

Your financial freedom awaits you.

Take the bold step and watch your earnings grow.

If you are diligent in your pursuit of the side hustles for designers, then consider yourself already as one of the victors in the creative world.

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