Got One Hour? 8 Quick-hit Side Gigs

Want a side hustle, but can’t find more than a few minutes free in your average day? Consider quick-hit side gigs. These side hustles require an hour or less. And many of them pay generously.

Quick-hit side gigs

What sort of side gigs can you do in an hour or less? You’d be surprised.

The options range from tutoring to taking care of pets; delivery to coaching; voice-overs to serving as a mock juror. Though you can certainly spend far more than an hour doing these side hustles when you want to, quick-hit side gigs make few demands. You’re generally able to schedule them into a lunch hour, a dinner break, a few minutes before work — or the hour before bed.  Often, you can simply participate in these gigs as free time comes up.

Here’s a look at some of the more attractive options.

Tutor

Most tutoring sessions are scheduled for an hour or less. And because of the rapid growth of online tutoring, you can dispense with drive time getting to your clients. Sites like Wyzant and TutorOcean let you post a profile for free, describing your experience and why you’re the best tutor for whatever subject you’re teaching. They then use their global reach to help you find clients almost anywhere in the world.

You set your own rates and availability. But tutors commonly charge between $30 and $150 per hour, depending on the complexity of the subject. (Remedial English lessons are near the bottom end of scale, tutoring in advanced STEM subjects and test prep dominate the high-end.) Both platforms charge a commission on your earnings. But you only pay them when you’re earning money.

Provide Music lessons

If academics aren’t your gig, but you can play an instrument and teach others, you can sign up with LessonFace. LessonFace is an international online platform dedicated to teaching music, dance and art. However, music lessons dominate the site.

Instructors are encouraged to sign up and create a profile that explains your background and experience. You also set your own rates and availability. Lessons are typically scheduled in half-hour blocks. Instructors commonly charge between $15 and $40 per half-hour lesson, depending largely on the instructor’s experience.

Pet-checks and walks

Walking dogs is another side gig that’s typically booked by the half-hour. Two sites — Rover and Wag — offer to find customers for you in exchange for a portion of the revenue that you earn. Of the two, Rover is the most freelancer friendly, charging just 20%-25% of your revenue vs. Wag’s 40%.

Rover also gives you the option of offering a wide variety of additional services, including pet check-in visits while people are away or on vacation. These check-ins can also take under an hour. You simply go to the pet-owner’s home and make sure their cats (for instance) have food, water and that the litter box is refreshed.

The freelancers who offer these services set their own rates and availability. Commonly, dog-walkers charge $15 – $25 for a 30-minute walk and about the same for check-in visits.

Coach sports

If you’re an athlete able to teach others a sport, you can sign up to offer one-hour coaching in a wide array of sports, from soccer to surfing. Three sites — CoachUp, Athletes Untapped and TeachMeTo — help coaches find clients. Like other quick-hit side gigs, you set your own rates and availability.

There’s no cost to sign up. But all three will take a commission from your revenue, when you book a coaching gig.

Voice-Overs

If you’ve got a great voice and a flair for the dramatic, you an sign up with Fiverr as a voice-over artist. This site encourages freelancers to create a detailed profile with show samples of their work. You then create an offer that says what you’ll do, how much it costs, and when you will deliver it. For instance, you might offer to read a 100-word script for $20; and a 250-word script for $50. The site publishes your profile and prospective clients can buy your package. You pay nothing to sign up, but pay a 20% commission to the site when you get paid for your work.

Mock juries

Lawyers needing advice often employ mock jurors to evaluate how reasonable people might see their case. Are the details and evidence well-explained? Would you have doubts or be ready to acquit or convict? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the attorney’s argument?

Many of these mock jurors are enlisted to review the case at home and provide their advice to the attorneys online. Typically this requires 45 minutes to an hour of your time. Where can you find mock juror gigs? LegalFocusGroup, First Court and Online Verdict.

Deliver

Got an hour after work to deliver food? GrubHub, DoorDash, and UberEats enlist freelance drivers to pick up and deliver restaurant meals to hungry diners. All three of the sites pay a small delivery fee, plus whatever tip the consumer offers. And, all three allow approved delivery drivers to work whenever they want. You simply turn on the app and see if there’s a delivery you want to take at the time that you want to work.

Usually, the highest demand and most profitable time to do food delivery is between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., when people are home from work and hungry.

Drive

Like the delivery apps, Uber and Lyft let you sign on and work whenever you have time. But if your free time is in the early morning, when Uber and Lyft are likely to send you into miserable traffic, there may be a better alternative: Apps that match drivers with kids who need a ride to school.

Several sites, including HopSkipDrive, RubiRides, and Kango, are focused on driving minors — usually to and from school and after-school activities. Since children are typically assigned to schools in their neighborhoods, these are typically short-hop rides that are done at predictable times. Peak hours are between 7:30 to 8:30 in the morning and 2:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon.

If that happens to be your free window, you’re likely to earn $25 or more per hour.