Do you have a side hustle?

[namechangenelly1]

I’m not trying to pinch ideas….well, maybe a bit 😂

My sister has a wee side hustle that’s she’s hoping to be able to do full time one day, selling brownies and cakes etc via mail order. It makes her so happy and I feel like I need some inspiration for a side hustle to give me a bit of cash and happiness.

I used to do a bit of hairdressing on the side, but I developed an allergy to colour!

We have a self contained annexe in the garden which I've been hosting on Airbnb for the last eight years.

I would totally book in with a female, middle aged PT! Sadly, none near me!

I sell wedding favours on ebay and Etsy. 10k last year.

Do you make them yourself?

Me too please! 🙂

Yes please. I would like the link.

I’ve just suggested this to DH. He asked if I realised that they wouldn’t just by sitting on the greens ready to pick up, they’d be in the woods and in the long grass. I said that was fine, as it was normally where his balls ended up, so he could grab the lost ones while he was there. He’s now making jabs at my inability to crochet 😂

(He’s actually very good at golf)

Ha I always joke I’m going to buy some waders and get into the water to retrieve all of DP’s balls!

Yes I do make them myself. It takes quite a bit of time but fortunately I WFH a few days a week so I squeeze it in here and there.

hi here you are, thank you for using my links 😍

Thx link https://thxapp.page.link/qUZzw1gzkavguhNd7

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Hi how did you go about doing the freelance virtual assistant? I work on an office but not full time would find it useful to do something like this when not in work.

I used to organise a monthly day time activity.
A side hustle is normally borne out of something your good at our passionate about OP.

@Jesswebster01

By accident! :)

The yoga/pilates/gym studio I use needed a freelancer to do a combination of admin/marketing and social media remotely and they hired me :).

One of these jobs that are never advertised externally.

I also get free exercise classes out of it.

Thanks @EnglishGirlApproximately , I have thought about changing, and tried to model what I'd be earning using a different host platform, but it's tricky because I have to make a lot of assumptions on commission percentages etc. Some of them (like Hayes) seem so expensive! One of the good things about Inteletravel, is that the monthly fees are so low that if I have a quiet month for bookings, I'm not stressing about it. I've been speaking to PTS who seem much more reasonable, but as a small company, would I really get a better deal than Inteletravel? I'd really value your insider view on which homeworking agencies are the best for their employees?

Most will be a bit more than Intele realistically because they offer much more, but it doesn't have to be crazy money. Look at Club Voyages and Silver Travel Advisor for example - Hays IG members so great commercials but smaller community.
If I was setting up I'd be tempted by PTS but they are pretty hands off so you need to know your stuff. Merlin travel group are part of PTS and have a homeworking model and you can DP with their ATOL which could make you more competitive. Also check out Travology, the owner Lucy is fab and super supportive.

Independent Travel Experts at the Travel Network Group are also very good ( and they are super professional as a consortia, probably the best to deal with as a supplier) - I think they had a low joining fee offer recently.

Also, with all of these you can reduce Comms to price match and have access to TUI, Cyplon and other operators that don't work with Intele. I wouldn't personally go down the price match route but plenty find it helpful to be able to compete.

Also, you are adding value in terms of your industry knowledge and your time. Your time is worth money.

Some people may have enough money to volunteer their time to work for a charity shop and they have decided the best use of those hours is to bag it up and sell it cheap on behalf of the charity.

As a customer of the charity, you are not obliged to donate your time!

People who donate to charities are also able to spend their hours selling for a good price on Vinted and then donating the proceeds, but suspect most value their own time more than that and outsource to volunteers!

To those who are working in travel, is there something I could do from home? I'm very passionate about travelling and would love a job helping other people plan their trips. It would need to be part time and from home though.

@SeasaltPuppy do it!!! The £11 set up fee is nothing really and the “cha-ching” when you get a sale more than makes up for it! As I said though, digital downloads aren’t the magic bullet many make them out to be, so do loads of research about SEO, read the Etsy handbook etc and you’ll be grand!

It’s an MLM stay away from it.

I used to make about £25,000 a year translating as a side hustle. Don't have the time any more unfortunately.

I work in travel but in a commercial role rather than a travel agent. It's absolutely something you can do from home but I'd avoid an MLM as very few people make decent money from it. It's so much more than helping people plan trips.
MLM schemes sell it as a side hustle to make money from your phone. I dare say those pushing it as that have never worked in travel through a global lockdown, had customers caught up in natural disasters, wildfires or terrorist attacks. These things are far from unusual. You also need to consider what your USPs are when most likely you'll be competing with very experienced and professional agents with decades of experience - unless you're exceptionally well travelled, a skilled marketer or have a vast network people to sell to it's a struggle without the backing of a reputable host agency. Not impossible, but not as easy as the marketing suggests.

Thanks @EnglishGirlApproximately , I will check those ones out. To be honest, it doesn't really bother me that Inteletravel don't have TUI, as I don't book that many 'resort hotel in the sun' style packages - I tend to do more complicated multistop trips in Asia, America & Europe for which I usually use Major, JTA or Travelpack. In your opinion any of the consortiums you mention particularly good for those sort of trips?

Out of interest though, do you know if Jet2 offers price parity with it's consumer website to some travel agencies? (Inteletravel tell us it doesnt, but I'm curious to know!)

@StaringAtTheWaterif those are the sort of trips you do then the ability to package yourself will be far more lucrative. I'd say speak to Merlin Travel group. (Also, there are better operators out there for those trips if you have luxury clients 😉)
Jet2 doesn't offer price parity but other consortia are allowed to discount if they need to do would still generally make about 7 - 8 % on a booking.

Also, Travel Counsellors have a fantastic in house system with direct DMC contracts so they can be extremely competitive at a good margin. They have higher costs but for good reasons.