With prices rising all the time and warnings that interest-rate increases are also coming our way, households are feeling the cost-of-living pressure. So who wouldn’t want a bit of extra income? Enter the side-hustle.
From starting a business on the side to selling your unwanted clothing or taking in students, more and more people are looking for a nixer.
Deirdre O’Keeffe, managing director of bookkeeping and tax advisory business Burdy, started it up as just such a side hustle some 20 years ago. Since then, she has noticed a “huge surge” in people coming to her for mentoring and guidance.
“People in the past wouldn’t have contemplated doing something off their own back – they would have been comfortable just being a worker,” she says. However, rising costs are forcing many to look for other ways to boost their income.
She identifies three types of side-hustlers: the aspiring entrepreneur, who wants to start their business on the side and hope it grows from there; the supplementer, who is looking just to top up their income, not for a full-time career; and the opportunist, “who’s looking around the house thinking ‘What can I sell? Can I get money tax-free?’.”
