Side hustles have become more than just a way to pick up some extra cash to get yourself a little treat—more people believe they need them just to survive.

According to a survey from Lending Tree, 44% of Americans have a side hustle, and 43% of those earning extra income are doing so to cover their living expenses. A different survey, from Bankrate, found that 32% of side hustlers believe they will always need that extra income to get by, while 16% want to one day turn the side hustle into their main hustle.

For most, the extra monthly income they generate isn’t much. According to Bankrate data:

• When it comes to the side grind, 71% of people—and 80% of Gen Zers—make $500 or less. And 19% of overall respondents reported taking home between $501 and $2,000.
• Then there are the ultimate hustlers: Nine percent of respondents said they make more than $2,000 monthly from their extra work.

What’s everyone doing?

The best-paying side jobs are mostly web-based, like website designer and video editor. Drop-shipping, driving for ride-hailing apps, delivery driving, and even recording voiceovers are among the most popular hustles.

Experts recommend finding work that takes advantage of specialized skills you already have.

Are side hustles a privilege?

The image of a side hustler is that of someone making a few extra bucks to cover expenses, but research shows most people acquiring part-time cash are often already well-off.

• According to a survey from Side Hustle Nation, 40% of 2,333 respondents with a side hustle have household incomes of at least $100,000.
• Fast Company surveyed 1,500 people between 18 and 35 with a side hustle and found that most reported their existing financial situation as “comfortable.”

But for others, side hustles can be a way of AI-proofing your income if your profession leaves you vulnerable to being replaced by a scab robot. Though automation is already encroaching on some side gigs, like ride-hailing (thanks to driverless cars) and creative work (AI-generated art and letters), others seem more insulated from those threats, like the trades or tutoring.

There’s also no shortage of AI-based side hustles. Per NetCredit’s analysis of data from the freelance marketplace Fiverr, the top AI side hustles pay $44.50 per day. It’s not much, but it shows your future robot masters that you’re an ally.

Big picture: With the cost of living continuing to rise, 26 million more Americans are expected to join the side-hustle economy by 2027.—DL

Lots of people looking for extra income have turned to hawking custom t-shirts online for commemorations as varied as celebrating a Chicagoan pope or lionizing murder suspect Luigi Mangione. But the quintessential side hustle is now under threat after President Trump axed the de minimis loophole that allowed small packages from China to enter the US tariff-free.

Why did everyone start selling t-shirts?

Anointing oneself as an e-commerce entrepreneur in the t-shirt space is fairly straightforward:

1. Use your imagination (or AI) to create a t-shirt design and partner with an on-demand service to make the tees. These can be found through e-commerce platforms like Shopify, where you can set up a digital storefront.
2. Convince people on social media that they should buy your design, and collect a cut of each purchase.

Now, it’s more of a long shot

A substantial share of the inventory comes from China, which means drop-shippers have to pay a blanket tariff of at least 30% on imports from the country, even after the reduced tariff figures that Trump issued this week. Given the small margins for these types of sales, the custom shirt merchants will likely be forced to raise prices, which typically leads to fewer purchases.

Meanwhile, some drop-shippers report that packages are stuck at the border, since they’re now subject to customs inspection.

But it was never an infinite money glitch. Because starting a drop-shipping t-shirt biz is simple and low-cost, the market is extremely competitive. Only a minority of aspiring t-shirt purveyors make enough money for it to be worth the hassle, and those who already have a large social media following are much more likely to succeed.—SK

Everybody has a friend (or is the friend) who spent a summer in college selling knives, and it probably wasn’t a profitable use of daylight.

Despite their shady reputations, multi-level marketing companies like Cutco and Amway have drawn millions of participants looking for extra income for the better part of a century. In her new book, Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America, New York Magazine journalist Bridget Read investigates just that. Morning Brew chatted with her about the slippery slope from side hustle to potential scheme.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Which came first, the side hustle or the MLM?

Side hustles were definitely already here, because as long as there’s been an economy, there have been people left out of it.

But multi-level marketing and the door-to-door selling industry that pre-dated it absolutely helped shape a culture that turns that marginalization into empowerment, this idea that, rather than it being a problem, that’s actually freedom—you’re free to work on your side hustle and then one day strike it rich.

What conditions are ripe for MLMs to flourish?

When the economy fails, MLMers are out there saying, “You can’t trust the government. You can’t trust the sort of economy at large. You can’t trust jobs and the regular job market.”

What they provide, they say, is this way to do it yourself, where you don’t have to rely on these systems that are subject to the whims of some elite stockbroker. MLMs make it seem like you can avoid being buffeted around by these forces that are so outside of your control.

How do people get sucked into MLMs?

You have people telling you to your face that they’re making money when they’re not. So, if you’re surrounded by people who are supposedly doing well, I think you’d have to be really, really cynical—uniquely cynical—to just assume that all of those people are lying, especially if it’s somebody you met at church, a parent in your kid’s school, a friend, or a family member.

Why do so many MLMs peddle supplements?

MLM goes hand in hand with products where people make wild promises about what they can do for you, where the rhetoric is all about personal improvement.

Is there such a thing as a “legitimate MLM,” or is that an oxymoron?

That’s the biggest controversial question about multi-level marketing… Read the rest of the interview here.—ML

Technically, you don’t need millions of adoring fans (or dollars) and high-profile connections to start a side hustle, but they don’t hurt.

So, it’s no wonder that some A-list celebrities have been using their star power to break into new industries. For the past few years, they’ve flocked to beverages—alcoholic and otherwise.

The rise of Hollywood hooch

The movies have influenced drinking patterns since at least James Bond ordered his martini shaken, not stirred, so as actors became multihyphenates, entertainers realized alcohol could provide the perfect opportunity to leverage their fame into brand awareness and product sales. Now, celebs from Kendall Jenner to Bob Dylan are attached to a brand. Here are some of their major paydays:

• George Clooney’s Casamigos: $1 billion
• Ryan Reynolds’s Aviation Gin: $610 million
• Road House actor (and UFC fighter) Conor McGregor’s majority stake in Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey: $600 million

And they don’t just make money by selling out.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Teremana tequila sold more than 1 million cases in 2023.

But is the market going dry?

In a manner of speaking, yes. Celebrities have been branching out beyond booze and have started exploring non-alcoholic alternatives. Tom Holland, Bella Hadid, Katy Perry, and Blake Lively have all hopped on the NA train.

Big picture: These stars are taking advantage of a booming market for non-alcoholic options that’s projected to hit $12.79 billion by 2032, more than double what it was in 2023, according to an estimate from Market Research Future.—BC

Last year, my very kind accountant told me that if I was going to host giant DIY comedy shows in warehouses, I needed to get an LLC.

Why get one? It offers some legal protections for your personal assets from business liabilities.

Despite the slew of courses promising to walk you through the complicated process, or companies offering to do it all for you (for a fee), you can do it yourself. So, based on my own experience of going legit while spending the least amount of money possible, here’s my guide—you can use the savings to pay your friend for a cool logo.

How to get started

You can usually register an LLC through your Secretary of State’s website for a fee (in most states, it’s under $200).

To file, you’ll need to choose a registered agent, which is the official person or entity that accepts your mail (especially any legal docs), with a physical address that will be published online. It varies a little by state, but you have a few options:

• Be your own agent, list your home address, and hope you never have a disgruntled customer.
• Be your own agent and list your office, studio, or a room in a big, gorgeous former licorice factory that you use to build elaborate cardboard props as your address.
• You can also pay a group like Northwest Registered Agent $125 a year to be your agent.

Other resources to help run your side biz

I applied for an employer identification number (EIN), which is a federal tax ID for businesses, so I don’t have to list my SSN on every form. It’s free.

You may also want some business insurance. I have a pretty standard business owner’s policy that costs $100/month and will pay for a new sewing machine if someone robs me.

If you don’t already, start tracking your spending (I just use a Google Sheet; no need to be fancy!) so you can write all of that off via a Schedule C on next year’s taxes. To learn more, I took an artist-specific tax workshop from Triangle Art Works that cost me $27 but saved me way more.

But my best investment…was joining my local chamber of commerce. They offer a discount for independent artists (who pay $100/year) and host 1 billion actually good mixers and events full of business owners who know way more than I do about navigating local and state regulations. If you want to read more about my personal side hustle, building a DIY theater empire, you can check out my newsletter Dinner Cut.—MM