Rebuilding Financial Independence: Turning Skills Into a Side Hustle

Key Takeaways:

• Extra income can create options. A side hustle can help survivors rebuild financial independence and take steps toward a more secure future.
• Choose the hustle carefully. Consider whether the work fits your skills, schedule and safety needs, particularly if an abusive ex may be stalking or monitoring you.
• Watch for scams and hidden costs. Never pay upfront to get a job, hand over sensitive financial information without vetting the company and remember to set aside money for taxes and other expenses.

If you’re in need of some extra income (and really, who isn’t?), you’ve likely considered a “side hustle.” But … are they legit? 

These often part-time gigs may require little or no prior experience and promise fast payoffs on your own schedule. Many sound too good to be true—and likely are. But others are legitimate ways to pull in a little bit of much-needed extra cash. 

Survivors of domestic violence often find themselves struggling to regain financial independence after leaving an abusive partner. Financial abuse is a common tactic of abusive partners who know that by tightly controlling shared finances, their partner will have a much more difficult time leaving them. Many survivors leave abusers with damaged credit, shared debts they never agreed to or no access to money they earned themselves because the abuser already stole or spent it. Some haven’t been employed for the entirety of their relationship—a deliberate act by the abuser to keep them financially dependent. 

Whether you’re planning to leave an abuser or have already left, having little to no income can be a frightening situation—but there is hope. And one of those steps to financial independence may be exploring a side hustle. We explored side hustles and what you might expect to earn if you try them out. Note that most side hustles do require either a smartphone with app capability or a computer, and some require reliable transportation. 

Why Extra Income Can Be an Important Step Toward Independence

Leaving an abusive partner isn’t always just a matter of choice. Survivors who leave an abusive partner may feel they have little choice but to return when they have nowhere safe to live or no reliable source of income. Though social services programs exist, not every survivor knows these programs exist or has access to services nearby. Some may feel uncomfortable relying on strangers for help. Others worry about being able to feed their children or losing custody because they’re unemployed. 

Side hustles can mean that a survivor has more options than they did before. Often left with nothing, what may seem like minimal income at first may eventually lead to  long-term employment and increased pay. Not only that, but a viable job can also mean the difference between hopelessness and hope for a better future. Abusers often tear down a survivor’s self-esteem, leading the survivor to believe they won’t amount to anything if they leave the relationship. But earning one’s own income is a crucial reminder that the survivor has skills—marketable skills—and that they can make it on their own, without returning to an unsafe partner.   

Choosing a Side Hustle Safely While Avoiding Scams

The first rule of thumb is that a side hustle will never beg you to work for them. If you get a text message out of nowhere saying they recently came across your information and—surprise!–you’re the perfect fit for this job, beware. You never want to:

• Give out your bank account information or Social Security number before thoroughly vetting the company. 
• Pay for a side hustle with the promise of being reimbursed. Jobs that ask you to pay for training or equipment upfront are likely not there to make you money. 
• Believe the high-pressure approach that the job will go away if you don’t “sign up now!” Any side hustle that bullies you to accept it immediately is likely not a legitimate company. 

What you do want to do instead is always:

• Research the company. Do an internet search with the company’s name and the words “reviews” or “scam.” See what others are saying about it. 
• Try to find other employees of the company and ask them about their experiences. 
• Look for opportunities that are realistic about both potential earnings and the amount of time required. Most side hustles won’t pay off overnight—you’ll likely need to have some patience in order to earn extra money. 

Before Starting a Side Hustle: Are You Safe?

There’s an additional question to ask yourself before starting a side hustle as a survivor of domestic violence: do you feel safe doing this job? Some side hustles will require you to create an online profile. Before doing so, consider what personal information the platform makes public, including your full name, photo, general location, workplace or contact information. If an abusive partner is monitoring your devices or accounts, consider speaking with an advocate about technology safety before signing up.Creating an anonymous username is possible but may not work in every scenario. 

If it’s safe to do so, you also want to make sure you route your income from your side hustle to a new bank account that your former abusive partner doesn’t know about and can’t access. Also, see below for information about setting aside some of your income for taxes. 

Side Hustles to Consider for More Financial Freedom

Below are some side hustles that seem legit to us while others are recommended by fellow survivors of abuse. As with any side hustle, you’ll need to evaluate the time put in versus the payoff for yourself. Does it fit with your schedule and skill set? Are you willing to wait and build up your business in order to make money, or do you need fast cash now? Do you have access to a phone or computer and the internet, as well as reliable transportation? These questions will help you determine which of these side hustles would work for you.  

Help Out Your Neighbors 

Are you handy around the house? Are you not intimidated by instructions for IKEA furniture? TaskRabbit is a small task outsourcing company where you can use those skills for one-off projects helping neighbors in your area. Create a profile, list your skills (cleaning, painting and yard work are among some of the other needed areas of expertise), set your rates and wait to be hired. The more positive reviews you get, the more clients (aka, money) you’re likely to accrue. Reddit users who say they’re “experienced taskers” can make upwards of $1,000 a week.

Freelance Your Skills

If you’re savvy with computers, have a knack for writing or editing, know how to organize an Excel spreadsheet like no other or believe your voice is perfect for narrating a company’s training video, then you might make big bucks monetizing your skills. Companies like Fiverr, Freelancer and PeoplePerHour are always looking for talented freelancers to meet the needs of business professionals looking to outsource a task. Like other platforms, create a profile, brag about your skills and then reply to posts looking for people with skills like yours. Your income varies based on the job, and there is a lot of competition in the freelance world, so patience here is key. 

Become a Virtual Assistant

If you have basic computer skills (you can answer emails and schedule appointments on a calendar), are organized and reliable, virtual assistant work can often be done remotely, though schedule flexibility varies by employer or client. Apply through companies like Belay, Upwork, or Remote.co. Or, search “virtual assistant” in the job section of LinkedIn. The pay can be decent and steady for these types of jobs and you don’t need to have extensive professional experience to apply. 

On that note, for help creating a resume, see “Write a Resume That Gets Noticed.” According to the job search platform Indeed, virtual assistants make on average between $22 and $36 an hour.

Watch Over Fido and Fluffy

Becoming a pet sitter can be a lucrative way to earn extra income, with part-time pet sitters saying they can earn $1,000-$2,000 a month with just a few clients. Sign up through an app like Rover or Wag!, or you can start your own business. You’ll need to be flexible when you can work, however. Often, customers will need you to be available multiple times a day to come in and check on their pet or walk their dog. Experience also helps with this one. You may want to consider volunteering at a pet shelter for a few months before marketing yourself. References are also handy—if you can get someone else to vouch for your pet caretaking skills, clients will feel more comfortable hiring you. 

Shop and Flip

This might be one of the easier work-for-yourself side hustles there is with an instant—though not always substantial—payoff. Think of it as a more advantageous garage sale—no garage needed. By simply looking around your home, you may be able to locate a few items you no longer need. Consider listing them on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. Sure, it may only be $10 or $20 at a time, but this can be just the beginning. Taking those profits, scour your local thrift store or flea market and invest in something else that likely has a higher resale value. (Googling will be your best friend at this point.) A $20 bookcase, once cleaned up, could resell for double that. Thrifted clothes in good condition can be resold on Poshmark, Vinted and Depop—if you know what labels are most popular, you’ll be in business in no time. 

Do [Even More] Laundry

If laundry isn’t a chore you dread, you can sign up on Poplin.co to take on this task for others. It seems pretty simple—sign up as a “laundry pro” and select the area where you’re willing to serve customers. You’ll pick up the laundry, clean and fold it, and return it. Start building positive reviews and you’ll earn more clients. Their website touts an income of $3,500 a month doing the job full time, though a Reddit commenter says she earned $2,000 in a month working seven days a week. 

Become a Viral Clipper

No, this isn’t coupon clipping as this writer first thought, though that can’t hurt. The somewhat-shady-but-not-illegal side hustle of “clipping” involves taking longform videos and editing them into short clips, then posting them on all your social platforms. The idea is to drum up interest in larger content creators and brands. If your clip reaches at least 5,000 views, you’ll get paid per view after this. 

But it does take some hustle to make money—the more you promote your clips, the more you can make. Some users say they make less than $100 a month while others who’ve been at it a while say they make a few thousand. You can sign up through sites like Clipping.net or Vyro.

Watch People Sign Things

People always need notaries, which is basically a state government-appointed witness when important documents are signed. The National Notary Association says they’re in high demand, especially the mobile notaries who travel to the people that need them. The job allows you to work on your own schedule and doesn’t require any experience. 

However, there are some start-up costs, including application fees, a background check and supplies. It also takes some time to go through the training and pass an exam. You also take on liability risk if you make a mistake and could be held accountable in a civil lawsuit if it turns out the notarized document isn’t legitimate. Mobile notaries are reported to earn anywhere between $400 and $3,000 monthly, depending on how much they market themselves. To learn more, visit the National Notary Association. 

Become a Culinary Courier/People Mover

Whether delivering groceries, take-out, household necessities or people, there is a variety of companies to choose from if you don’t mind driving. The benefit is that you pick your hours and how much you want to work. However, the pay varies widely and isn’t always steady, and reviews are mixed. Here’s how they break down:

• Instacart. Shop for people’s groceries and then deliver them. It doesn’t sound challenging, but it can be time-consuming, depending on what you’re delivering (a few items versus 10 heavy boxes of soda) and how far you want to drive. Rates vary widely, but the average pay is supposed to be around $18 an hour. One user who tried it said it averaged more like $8 an hour once he factored in gas and wear and tear on his car.
• Amazon Flex. Contract workers reportedly make a little more delivering Amazon packages—sometimes upwards of $20 an hour. You’ll be assigned a block of time to deliver—say a three-hour window—but won’t necessarily get to pick the area to which you’re delivering, which means you could be spending more of that hourly rate on gas than you wanted to. On the other hand, finish your three-hour window in two hours and your rate goes up. 
• DoorDash. According to their website, DoorDash drivers—who mostly deliver take-out from restaurants—can make from $2 to $10 per order. Peak Pay (aka, much higher pay) can be earned during busy times or bad weather (people still want pizza during a monsoon). One Reddit commenter says they only deliver an hour a day and make around $150 a week “to buy groceries.”
• Spark Driver. Though it’s owned by Walmart, Spark drivers deliver goods from a variety of retailers. Drivers on Reddit complain that the app used to claim delivery jobs doesn’t always function and that a decent amount of customers “tip bait” where they promise a tip initially, then retract it after the items are delivered. 
• Uber Eats/Uber. The same app will let you be an Uber driver as well as an Uber Eats delivery driver, a two-for-one side hustle, if you will. However, the former requires you to have a reliable and preferably clean car in good condition, if you want to build positive reviews. Driving passengers also means allowing strangers into your vehicle, which may not feel safe or comfortable for every survivor. However, they do have a Women Rider Preference option that will only give women riders to women drivers, though that will obviously limit your customer pool somewhat. Survivors may want to stick with just the Eats part for that reason. The base pay seems extremely low for Uber Eats—only $1.50 to $3 for each delivery, but pay increases based on mileage driven. Drivers say most of their final pay comes from tips. 
• Lyft. Again, becoming an independent taxi driver may not be for everyone, but it’s an option. Drivers say the pay is decent (around $15-$20 an hour average) if you live in a busy, urban setting. If not, you may be waiting all day for a customer. 

Do You Pay Taxes with Side Hustles?

Yes, and this is something to plan ahead for since taxes won’t be taken out of your paychecks. Side hustle income falls under the category of self-employment income. That means that if you make more than $600 a year, you need to take 25 to 30 percent of your earnings, including tips, and put it aside for federal and state taxes. 

Calculate what you'll actually keep. 

Before choosing a side hustle, subtract expenses such as gas, vehicle wear, supplies, platform fees and taxes from the advertised pay. A job offering $20 an hour may leave you with considerably less after expenses.

Money You May Be Owed

One more thing—survivors of domestic violence may find out that they’re owed money for the abuse they endured. Take a look at the nonprofit FreeFrom’s online tool called the Compensation Compass. To use, a survivor answers eight quick questions that will tailor the kind of compensation they may be eligible for based on what state they’re in, how quickly they need assistance and what sort of time they can devote to pursuing that compensation (courts aren’t always known for their speediness). Recommendations may be things like crime victim compensation or filing a civil case. While not instant income, these options are still worth exploring. 

Understanding Financial Abuse

It’s not your fault, as a survivor, that you’re without financial freedom after abuse. That is a move done purposefully by an abuser who wanted to keep you trapped. Learn more about financial abuse, safety and recovery in “What Is Financial Abuse?” and “When You Can’t Afford to Leave an Abusive Partner.” 

Reach out to a domestic violence advocate near you to find local resources and support. Advocates can help you create a safety plan—a contingency plan for any possible scenario that should arise when you’re ready to leave. You can also talk with our Hope Chat, the AI assistant on this website.. She can direct you to even more resources on DomesticShelters.org that can help you better understand different tactics of abuse.