The COVID-19 crisis: How to find a winning side hustle, even if you start in your 40s

There are also side jobs that have become outdated. Check out the latest trends!

“Don’t miss out on the “side job wave.

As a result of the loss of revenue from the Corona disaster and the uncertainty of the future, there is a growing interest in side jobs among company employees.

“The Corona disaster came at a time when reforms in the way we work are making it easier for company employees to do side jobs. As the company’s performance deteriorates, overtime pay and bonuses are being cut, and many people have a sense of crisis, wondering if their future will be safe if they continue to work for the same company.

So says Kenrei Takeuchi, president of Iroha Ltd. and author of “Japan’s Easiest Textbook on ‘Side Jobs’ and ‘Money’.

We live in an age where even if you work for a big company, you can’t say you’re safe. A second job is an effective way to reduce economic anxiety and diversify life risks.

According to a survey conducted by the Parsol Research Institute in March of this year, 55% of companies allow full-time employees to take a second job, indicating that companies are beginning to view second jobs as a common practice.

Until now, the main side hustles for salarymen have been “Sedori,” where they buy products at low prices and resell them at a discount, and “Affiliate,” where they earn advertising income from their blogs. The main reason for this was that online stores and blogging could be done in one’s spare time at home after returning home from work. However, as more and more people entered the market, the competition has intensified. The reality is that buyers and viewers are dispersed, making it difficult to catch customers, and the unit price has also dropped, making it difficult to make a profit.

This is not to say that side jobs are no longer profitable at all. First of all, business matching sites such as “Coconara” have emerged as an intermediary for individuals to buy and sell their skills. Even company employees can now choose to work in a way that is not restricted by time or place by utilizing their skills, and the range of side jobs that can be done in parallel with the main job has expanded. In addition, with the spread of social networking services, anyone can easily send out information and receive work directly from individuals and companies in response to their posts. It can be said that the social infrastructure for side jobs has been rapidly established in the past few years.

While there used to be a sense of guilt, side jobs are now being accepted by society as a whole, and the infrastructure for side jobs is being built, and there is no way not to take advantage of this wave. “I want to improve my skills,” “I want to enjoy my life doing what I want to do,” or “I might lose my job in the future. I’m going to teach you how to get a “winning side job” in your 40s and 50s.

Do you want to make money right away by earning an hourly wage or do you want to spend time on the Internet?

There are a total of seven categories of side jobs to choose from.

There are many people who feel the need for a side hustle, but don’t know what to choose.

“The success of a side hustle depends more on your own living environment than on the quality of the business model. It is more difficult to find a job that suits you than finding a job or changing careers,” says Takeuchi.

The first thing to do is to understand what kind of side jobs there are in the world. As shown in the chart below, there are seven major types of side jobs depending on return and risk.

The high-risk, high-return types are (3) “side jobs in business” and (6) “side jobs in investment. In the former, a restaurant franchise is great if you hit it, but a big loss if you miss. An online store is recommended because the risk is smaller. The relatively low-risk, high-return options are (2) “side hustle as an intermediary,” (4) “side hustle utilizing your main job,” and (5) “side hustle utilizing your hobby.

Mr. Takeuchi recommends (4) and (5). The reason for this is that it is relatively easy to manage mental pressure and time, and can be sustained over a long period of time if professionals use their skills or earn money from their hobbies.

Mr. Takeuchi says that he does not recommend (1) “hourly side jobs” because of the high risk and low return. If you need to save 500,000 yen within six months, you can try hourly side jobs such as working as a cashier or making deliveries, where you can earn money as soon as you work. However, since these jobs involve selling out your time, you might get sick if you overdo it. In many cases, you can manage your own time as long as you meet deadlines.

In “business,” “intermediary,” “main business,” and “hobby,” people often use the Internet to find customers. Therefore, if you don’t know how to use the Internet, you may not be able to get orders or customers, and you may not be able to make money.

“If you don’t have a purpose other than earning money, it’s hard for you to continue working on the side,” said Mr. Takeuchi.

When doing a side job, it is important to keep in mind that you should not neglect your main job. When doing a side job, keep in mind that you should not neglect your main job, and that you should work on the side job for the long term to improve your future prospects and skills. Don’t be discouraged if you have no income for the first three months. The effort you put into it may very well benefit your main job and your future.

(1) Side jobs that pay by the hour: “Food and beverage” at night, but it was destroyed by Corona. (2) Vaccination appointments are recommended.

Corona has changed the environment drastically, and old and new side jobs are good.

Even though the current trend is to seek out side jobs for one’s skills and new possibilities, there are probably people who need cash right now and want to do side jobs. If you don’t have a specific area of expertise, the quickest way is to get a side job that pays by the hour.

If you are looking for a side job on weeknights, the most popular option has been working at a restaurant. However, the Corona disaster has destroyed the current job market.

There are now many job openings for delivery services such as “Uber Eats” and “Delivery Service. Most of these jobs are outsourced, and the income is between 200 yen and 1,000 yen per job. The appeal of this type of work is that it can be done on weekdays or weekends, and all you need is a bicycle or motorcycle to get started.

In terms of using bicycles, delivering newspapers in the morning from 4 to 7 a.m. is another old and new hourly side job. You can earn about 4,500 yen a day, but it is for people who are confident in their physical strength. One person who actually did this job on the side said, “I lost five kilograms in six months.

Another familiar job is as a convenience store clerk. Many of these jobs are listed in “Town Work” and other publications. Night shifts are sometimes conditional, such as three days a week and eight hours a day, but the work schedule can be flexible depending on negotiations. In some cases, they will only work on weekends.

A side job that pays an hourly wage is the “Corona Vaccination Reservation Service. It’s a simple job where you pick up the phone and do some simple typing. This is a type of receptionist work at a call center, but if you want to work hard in a short period of time, you should apply for it. To begin with, many call center jobs offer night shifts. It is not always possible to find a job near your home like at a convenience store, but it is a good idea to look for a job with a location relatively close by.

Although many women are said to apply for these jobs, it is the child-related businesses that attract attention as a place to work in your spare time or as a spot job. These include picking up and dropping off children at daycare centers and school-age children in the morning and evening, and assisting at night shifts at daycare centers and school-age children.

If you register with a babysitting company, local family support center, or social welfare council, you can get orders for pick-up and drop-off work only in the morning or once a week.

Assistants at nursery schools and schoolchildren’s centers do not require any special qualifications, and some of them are recruiting for relatively short shifts such as 6-8pm. Since private management is more common than public management nowadays, many jobs are posted on Town Work. If you are used to handling children, even men should apply.

Security guards and traffic guides for nighttime construction work can also be done on a one-time basis or once a week. Those with experience, such as those who had a part-time job as a student, or those who are certified as traffic guards (Level 2), will be given preferential treatment.

As you can see, there is a surprisingly wide range of hourly side jobs. However, because of the long hours required, if you have to work at a company during the daytime and then take time off to do a side job, you will not have time to rest your body, which will only damage your body. If you want to increase your income, you should set a rule such as “until I save 500,000 yen” or “increase my monthly income by 30,000 yen. For example, if you want to open a convenience store in the future or work for a security company after retirement, you should have a goal in mind to motivate yourself.

(2) Side job as an intermediary: Affiliate business is a typical example.

Many affiliates are struggling to start up online stores.

This refers to all side jobs that act as intermediaries between companies and customers.

A typical example is “pay-per-click” or “pay-for-performance” advertising, which is a type of Internet advertising distribution method. These are the so-called affiliates who introduce products and services on blogs and social networking sites and get paid for it. To earn money as an affiliate, register with an ASP (Affiliate Service Provider) distribution site as shown in the table below. If you choose an advertisement from among them and distribute it on your blog, etc., you can earn money when readers respond well to your advertisement. However, according to the “Affiliate Market Survey 2019,” 6.6% of people earn more than 30,000 yen per month, and 70.2% earn less than 1,000 yen per month, so you can see how tough it is.

If this is the case, for example, if you know someone who runs a store, you can set up an online store and sell your products online. If the products sell well, they can receive a commission. You can hone your skills by gathering customers and devising ways to present your products, and you can also gain know-how in online marketing. Opening an intermediary site on the Internet also has the advantage of being low-risk, as you don’t need to purchase anything.

On the other hand, if you partner with a company that you don’t know, and if you proceed with unclear rules regarding commissions and the division of roles, you may have trouble collecting your commissions. Start by proposing brokerage services based on your own acquaintances.

(3) Side hustle of business: Use your ideas to create an “online store

Start up your own online store at low cost.

A side hustle in business is to earn extra income from the business itself, such as running your own online store, or investing in a restaurant or nail salon and becoming the owner. The latter is risky, and it is the former that you should aim for.

When it comes to online stores, the disadvantage of opening an online store on Amazon or Rakuten is that you will be charged a high commission fee and have little income. On the other hand, even if you set up your own site, there is no way to attract customers. Recently, however, an e-commerce site service called “Shopify” has emerged, which allows you to set up an online store at low cost without the hassle of managing a server or network, or introducing payment methods. Then, you can update your Instagram and Twitter feeds daily to attract customers. If you are a niche store and not looking for big sales, you can find a way to win in this age. It would be even better if you include your own hobbies in the mix.

In addition to selling goods, you can also create and sell your own books, and offer online courses as well.

The first step in finding clients is to register with an intermediary site.

The first step is to register on an intermediary site to find out the needs of the world.

Nowadays, side jobs that offer the abilities of your main job to other companies or individuals are promising.

Whether it’s system engineering, consulting, online advertising management, marketing, accounting, or human resources, you can use the skills you’ve cultivated in your day job for your side job. You may be wondering what you can do and how to find customers, but the first step is to register with the intermediary sites listed in the table on the left. The mainstream of “Lancers” and “Cloudworks” is to apply for jobs by yourself from among the many projects. “For example, if you are looking for a job in human resources, you may want to register on the site. For example, if you are working in human resources, you can apply for one-off jobs from among the openings and gain experience. At the same time, don’t forget to advertise the jobs you can do to your friends, and search for jobs by word of mouth.

Teaching someone the skills you have developed in your day job can also be a good side job. You can write a textbook on how to make power point presentations, open your own website and sell it online, or publish your lessons on YouTube.

However, not everyone can do a side job using their main job. If you are an engineer, a consultant in a specialized field, or someone who has unique skills and a rich network of contacts, it is possible to earn high rewards. However, if your main job is in sales or customer service that does not require any special skills, it is difficult to make it work as a side job unless you have a good track record.

(5) Side jobs using your hobbies: Illustration, manga, sports, hosting, etc.

Get an objective evaluation first.

A hobby-based side hustle is a side hustle that utilizes the skills you have acquired through your hobby, such as illustration, cartooning, writing, or photography.

When using your hobby as a side hustle, it is important to get a third party’s opinion to see if you can get work based on your skills. Creative work does not have clear evaluation criteria, so it is a good idea to have an advisor who can give you an honest opinion about your work.

It is also important for your branding to enter awards and contests to get an objective evaluation. Good results will increase the client’s trust in you and lead to higher unit prices.

However, when accepting a job, it is absolutely not advisable to cut corners on the project because you are just an amateur, even if it is an extension of your hobby. Therefore, just as you would do if you were working in your day job, prepare well and do not cut corners until the follow-up. It is also essential to meet deadlines.

The first step in finding a job is to register with a crowdsourcing service. Among them, “Coconara” has a wide variety of posted projects, so all you have to do is post your work, develop your self-promotion well, and wait for an order. If you’re a regular customer, you’ll be able to get a second appointment.

6) Investing on the side: Invest in stocks and real estate in your spare time.

What are the “three points” that must be followed?

Investment side jobs can be done from home and within a limited amount of time, so they are suitable for people who are busy working at companies. You can invest in stocks, FX (Foreign Exchange Trading), crypto assets (Bitcoin, etc.), etc., and try out the ones that seem to suit you best. It is also a good idea to learn at investment schools, but do not simply trust sales pitches such as “you can win for sure.

There are three points for beginners to invest as a side job. The first is to diversify your investments by industry and region for stocks and mutual funds, and by country for foreign exchange. The third is to have a long-term perspective. The third is to have a long-term perspective, and these points should never be forgotten.

(7) Side jobs as an agent: data entry, pet walking, flyer distribution, etc.

Simple, easy-going work! Analog work is also available.

Substitute jobs are data entry, video editing, and other tasks that anyone can easily do once they learn the ropes.

On the other hand, it is a job that can be done by anyone and can be replaced at any time, so speedy and accurate work is required to be valued by the client.

At first, even if the unit price is low and you have to pay a commission, you should take jobs from intermediary sites such as “Cloud Works” and see how it goes. After that, it is necessary to increase the number of direct orders and increase the profit margin by using social networking sites. The advantage of ordering online is that you can control your own time as long as you meet the deadline.

Analogue jobs, such as pet walking and cleaning services through word of mouth, are also surprisingly popular.

From the September 24, 2021 issue of FRIDAY