Side hustles: The new American worker trend

(NewsNation) — With inflation hitting the checking accounts of every American, more are turning to side hustles to make ends meet.

The trend first took off during the pandemic when millions of Americans lost their jobs, and some even left their roles for a better work-life balance or pay.

From the quiet quitting trend to side hustles, there has been a shift in the way employees work. Now, taking on side hustles is becoming more of the norm in America.

In fact, about 40% of Americans currently have a side hustle, which is up 34% from 2020, according to a recent report by Zapier. And now, 36% of Americans are planning to start one.

“Unemployment is super low, and you still see a bunch of people looking for ways to make extra money. And you got to think that inflation is a big cause of that,” Nick Loper said, who is the founder of Side Hustle Nation and host of “The Side Hustle Show,: which is aimed at helping people find their side hustles.

Loper, who has had multiple side hustles himself throughout the years, said that when you’re starting out, you need to position yourself for financial success.

“Position any side hustle project in your mind as an experiment, because that just lessens the sting of the inevitable failures that come along the way,” Loper said.

Kate Johnson is a military spouse who wanted to start a business that could move with her family. So she started Heritage Business Services, which is a virtual bookkeeping firm.

“We had goals of paying off our house, and I wanted to start helping my family meet that goal. And that’s why I wanted to start, you know, making money. And it’s worked out well for us,” Johnson said.

Her day job quickly went from a mom of three to a business owner.

“You’re good at your skill, you’re probably not good at business. And so learn as much as you can about what it means to run a business. And that’s general those concepts apply to no matter what industry you’re in,” Johnson said.

Katie Emery, who tried to cover her gray roots for years, finally ditched the hair dye and went on a mission to support other women on their gray hair journey. She created a website called “Katie Goes Platinum” to help with bills after her husband lost his job.

“I remember crying one night to my husband, I was like there’s no way I can do this and also work and have my kids and take care of them. But I decided to take it one day at a time and just do what I could do, and focus on what would bring in the money, the quickest,” Emery said.

Emery said she is making more per hour with her blog than her day job and hopes to eventually transition to working the blog full-time.

“There’s a lot of different ways to make money out there. You know, and why not take advantage of that and learn,” Emery said.

Emery shared that her average monthly gross income from her website is about $5,100. But with a down economy, her blogging income has gone down as well. So as a side hustle to her side hustle, she is thinking about creating her own e-book series and online classes.