15 Ways To Make Extra Money In Houston, Texas [2024]

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Updated: August 31st, 2022

15 Ways To Make Extra Money In Houston, Texas [2024]

Looking for some quick side hustle ideas in Houston? Or wondering exactly how people are making extra money in Houston, Texas in 2022?

Houston is a premier international destination for businesses. The city's economy is vibrant, its surroundings beautiful, and its population optimistic and spirited. Home to world-class attractions, Houston is an ever-growing center for industry, trade, and tourism.

If you are looking for side gig options here in Houston you'll find plenty.

Whether you're trying to make rent or just need some extra cash in hand or saving up for something special, there are several side hustles in Houston you can take on. You don't need to commit full-time or even be on contract; you can go in, do the job and get your cash. You'll be your own boss!

What is the average cost of living and income in Houston anyway?

Cost of living: $1,955 per month for a single person, $4,545 for a family of four
Average income: $74,000 per year

Considering this, it makes sense if you want to make some extra money.

If you're looking to make money fast in Houston Texas, then here are 15 great side gig options for you.

P.S. Looking for more than just Houston? See our list of 22 ways to make money as a Texan.

1. Become A Delivery Driver

Delivery drivers are responsible for delivering items from one location to another. Delivery drivers may need to deliver various goods like food, furniture, other household goods, etc, plus they are also responsible for loading & unloading.

Becoming a delivery driver is a good side hustle in Houston as there are a lot of businesses that hire delivery drivers. You can earn a good income, work as per your time, and be independent.

Earning Potential: Up to $21/hour

Requirements: To become a successful delivery driver, you must have a valid driving license and your own car. Though no basic education is compulsory but still having a high school diploma or an equivalent certificate will be helpful. You also need to be physically fit as your job will include some heavy loading and unloading.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed

How To Get Started

You can find some delivery driver jobs here or here. Provide whatever documents they require, and work on establishing a strong delivery network.

2. Get A Part Time Bartending Gig

If you live in in Houston and your surrounding neighborhood is filled with bars and pubs, you can work as a part-time bartender and make some extra cash.

If you enjoy socializing and a fast-paced environment, bartending can be extremely lucrative and a fun way to meet new people.

Earning Potential: Bartenders make $14/hour on average.

Requirements: You'll need to meet the minimum age of your state to serve alcohol, a high school diploma & training or certificate in this field can get you ahead of others. You might have to be flexible about working night shifts and working on weekends. Having a positive & engaging personality along with good communication skills can work as a bonus.

Investment needed: $0 starting cost if you have prior experience working as a bartender. Otherwise, a 40-hour bartending program can cost anywhere between $200 - $800.

How To Get Started: You can drop off your CV at your local pubs or bars or, you can apply for bartending jobs on job searching platforms like Indeed or LinkedIn.

3. Help Out At A Veterinary Clinic

If you love animals, then working as a veterinary assistant can be a really satisfying job for you and will bring you some extra income on the side while you're living. As a veterinary assistant, your job will be to bathe, feed, and exercise the animals, provide all the necessary care for them, and ensure a clean and hygienic environment for them.

Earning Potential: Up to $50/hour

Requirements: To apply for a job as a vet assistant, you must have a high school diploma or an equivalent certificate.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed

How To Get Started: You can search for a veterinary clinic that is hiring and apply for the post. More information can be found here.

4. Offer Pet-Sitting Services

If you love pets then pet sitting can be a rewarding & fulfilling business choice for you. Pet sitters provide daily care to pets while their owners are away. They often stay in the homes of the pet owners so that the pets can remain in familiar territory. In addition to caring for pets, they may also provide basic services for the owners, such as collecting mail and vacuuming pet hair.

Pet-sitting services are a popular way to make money in Houston because they can be easily started and there is a lot of demand for them. For most people interested in offering their services, all they need is some basic equipment and a well-written ad. They can also offer additional services like walking pets or grooming them.

Earning Potential: Up to $17/hour

Requirements: A high school diploma or GED, a proven track record as a pet sitter, familiarity with animal behavior, and excellent organizational skills are required for this position.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed

How To Get Started: To start a pet-sitting business, create an online presence by setting up a profile on a pet-sitting website such as Rover or Care.com, and network with friends and family members who may know people looking for sitters. You can also put up flyers in your neighborhood or post about your services on social media.

5. Learn Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing. An affiliate marketer earns a fixed sum as a commission to market products or services from another brand.

If you are good at sales and marketing, have good technical aptitude, and have good communication skills then doing affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative ways to make extra money in Houston. It allows you to work on a flexible schedule and the revenue you generate can even exceed your full-time job.

Earning Potential: Up to $28 to $192 per hour

Requirements: To become an affiliate marketer, you will need to research the available affiliate programs, evaluate market demand, and analyze the competition. The next step would be to identify a niche in which you can influence your audience by creating and publishing top-notch content. Find companies offering affiliate marketing programs on the internet and reach out to them via emails or social media channels.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed if you have a laptop and fast internet connection.

How To Get Started: Decide on a platform (Ex: Instagram, Youtube, etc.) > Pick your niche > Look for affiliate programs to join > Produce great quality content > Push traffic to your affiliate site > Encourage people to click on your affiliate links > Convert those clicks to sales.

6. Get A Job As A Data Survey Associate

A data survey associate is responsible for conducting surveys & collecting data using various mediums like focus groups, interviews, market analysis surveys, public opinion polls, questionnaires, literature reviews, and file reviews. If you love doing research, enjoy meeting with new people & interacting with them, and have excellent interpersonal skills & social skills, plus well-acquainted with various social platforms then this job is for you.

Earning Potential: Up to $49/hour

Requirements: Minimum a Bachelor's degree but if you have a Master's degree or Ph.D. in a respective field it will work as a bonus. Have to have excellent analytical & problem-solving capabilities, need to put attention to detail, plus critical thinking & communication skills are a must.

Investment needed: $0 investing if you want to work as a data survey associate.

How To Get Started: Search for data survey associate jobs on ZipRecruiter and Indeed and apply right away.

7. Become A Customer Service Rep

As a customer service representative, you'll need to listen and respond to customers' queries, resolve their complaints to the satisfaction of the clients, process orders, and provide information about the company's products and services.

Becoming a customer service rep can be a good side hustle idea for you if you have good communication & quick decision-making skills, plus a problem-solving mentality.

Earning Potential: Up to $22/hour

Requirements: A high school diploma or its equivalent certificate is a must to become a customer service rep in Houston. However, many employers prefer to hire those with some college education. Other than basic educational qualification you will need to possess three main qualities - professionalism, patience, and a "people-first" attitude.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed

How To Get Started

You can search for customer service representative jobs here.

8. Sell Your Stuff Online

If you're looking for one of the easiest ways to make quick money in Houston, then it's by selling your things. Whether it's through eBay or Craigslist, sell off the things you don't need anymore and watch that dough stack up!

Potential: Depends on the items you sell

Benefits: Make extra cash while getting rid of things you don't need anymore, free up space in your house.

How to get started: You can start by setting up accounts on eBay and listing the items you want to sell.

Learn how Adam makes $10K/month selling sports cards on eBay.

9. Run errands for people

Aptly named, the app Favor lets you drive around doing personal delivery assistance tasks for strangers! From picking up their dry cleaning to food, you'll go out on the run and collect the tips afterward.

Unlike Uber or Lyft, you'll only be doing the strangers a favor (and you won't have to deal with them in your car).

Potential: Earn anywhere between $10 - $11 per hour, and keep all the tips you make!

Benefit: You can get some of your own errands done while making some extra cash on the side!

How To Get Started: You can get started through apps like Task Rabbit & Favor.

Learn how William made $130,000 in one year on Task Rabbit.

10. Become A Retail Sales Associate

A sales associate is a retail employee who greets customers on arrival and helps them with purchases. If a customer has a problem with a purchase, such as a damaged item or incorrect size, the sales associate will be the one assisting them with returns and refunds.

If you are thinking of becoming a sales associate, it can be great to make money as a side hustle in Houston.

Earning Potential: Up to $18/hour

Requirements:: To become a sales associate, you will need to have an Associate's degree or high school diploma. Also, you'll need an understanding of customer service and sales. If you have basic skills in math, good communication, and a positive attitude, it will be beneficial for you.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed to become a sales associate.

How To Get Started: You can find sales associates and other relevant jobs on Indeed.com.

11. Sell Used Books

Selling used books is a great choice to earn some extra cash on the side. You can sell some of the used books from your own collection or you can purchase new or used books for the sole purpose of selling them to make some profit from them.

For a book that is brand new, you should take 25 percent off the original list value. If it's a used book, you can take 25 percent off the price that you paid for the book.

Earning Potential: Depends on the original price or the price you paid for the book, its condition, and whether it's a rare or limited edition collection.

Requirements: Need to have good knowledge of books & their market value. Plus, do market research and learn more about the book flipping business.

Investment needed: $0 needed as you are selling books from your personal collection.

How To Get Started: You can sell used books on some of the following websites -

12. Start Babysitting

If you love spending time with babies then the babysitting business can be a fulfilling and rewarding business for you to venture into. This is a very well-paid job in Houston and plus it's quite flexible since you can choose your working hours and work independently.

Earning Potential: Up to $23/hour

Requirements: You should be responsible & reliable, should be punctual, creative & playful, must possess a lot of patience, have good manners, and should not have any criminal background. It will be a bonus if you have a driving license and have done a basic babysitting course.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed

How To Get Started: Network and let your family, friends, and neighbors know that you are interested in working as a babysitter. Look for mom's groups on social media platforms, and contact your local kindergarten or junior schools. You can also sign up with apps that connect parents with babysitters such as UrbanSitter, Bambino, or bubble.

13. Get A Part Time Job As A Waiter / Waitress

As a restaurant server in Houston, you will need to attend to customers, make suggestions as per their liking, wait tables, handle queries, deliver checks & receive payments.

Earning Potential: Servers make $13.95/hour (on average) + tips

Requirements: If you can show any previous waiting or restaurant serving experience you'll get a preference. Other than that you'll need to have patience, be good at customer service, have a pleasant personality, pay attention to customer safety & cleanliness, and be reliable & responsible. Having a high school diploma is also helpful for your resume.

Investment needed: $0 investment needed to get started as a restaurant server.

How To Get Started: Reach out to people in your circle and ask them whether they know someone in the restaurant business. Or apply for restaurant server jobs on Indeed.

14. Work As A Part Time Night Trash Collector

If you have a few hours at hand at night time and looking for ways to earn some extra cash in Houston, then becoming a night trash collector can be an option you might want to consider.

As a trash collector, you will collect trash & recycling bags from apartment doors and take these bags to dumpsters within the complex. (It likely does not require offsite driving and/or discarding, or not carrying any large items).

Earning Potential: Up to $21/hour

Requirements: Must be at least 18 years of age and physically fit to perform the task, should know how to read, write, and speak English well enough to do the essential paperwork and to be able to communicate to customers, and should go through a criminal background check.

Investment needed: $0 investment!

How To Get Started: You can apply through platforms like Indeed and start working as a part-time garbage collector.

15. Start Freelancing

Freelancing is not just a trend. It is a way of life for many people. The internet has made it easier than ever to find freelance work and make money online in Houston.

Post your skillset on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, and anyone in the world out there can hire you for a job.

Earning Potential: You can make as much money as you want as a freelancer (you set your own rates).

Requirements: You'll need to chalk out a plan, and pin down a particular skill that you want to utilize to offer freelancing services like content writing, social media marketing, website development, web research, and so on. Then you'll need to find a freelancing platform, create your profile, set up your rate, and start finding work. One skill that will really come in handy is your client communication skills.

Benefits: Enjoy the freedom that comes with the lifestyle, set your own hours and work from home, and take on multiple clients at once.

How to get started: Sign up at Upwork or Fiverr.

Freelancing is no joke. Learn how David makes $80k/month as a freelance writer.

Not looking for extra income, but rather a better job? Find a new job in Houston:

Traveling around Texas and looking for extra income in other cities? Check:

Resources:

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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