12 Profitable Side Hustles for Filipinos in 2024

Last Updated on – Apr 22, 2024 @ 8:29 pm

“Side hustle”, “side gig”, or “sideline” in some cases, is increasingly becoming a common term among young Filipinos. To put it simple, a side hustle is a source of income that isn’t someone’s primary occupation or employment.

For example, you could be working at an office as an accountant during the day and by night, a freelance graphic designer during your spare time so as to bring in extra money.

The benefits of having side gigs are apparent: you make more money than you usually would (it simply improves your cash flow).

Given that nearly half of the Filipino workforce lives paycheck to paycheck, unable to save 10% or more of their monthly income—as revealed by our study, which found that 42.8% fall into this category.

The downsides are just as obvious: Since you’ve already spent 8+ hours on your day job, the rest of your dwindling free time would be exhausted doing extra work.

What follows is a list of the most profitable side gigs you can get into with varying degrees of difficulty.

What is a Side Hustle?

A side hustle is an additional job that provides supplemental income to one’s full-time job. It’s also called a sideline, side gig, or raket.

Typically, it’s something a person loves to do, as opposed to a day job that’s just meant to put food on the table and pay the bills. A side hustle gives employees the chance to pursue their passion or dream job without giving up the financial stability of a regular paycheck. 

However, a side hustle is different from a part-time job. With a side hustle, you can pretty much determine for yourself how long you want to work in a day and how much you want to earn.

This freedom you can’t get from a part-time job, as the employer is the one who decides the employee’s work schedule and salary.

12 Best Side Hustles for Filipinos in 2024

Ready to become rich this 2024?

Improve your cash flow and earn more money in your free time with these 12 side hustle ideas.

1. Freelancing

Estimated Monthly Earnings: from P10,000 – P100,000

A freelancer is defined as a self-employed worker who has no long-term commitments to an employer.

The Philippine business climate in Manila seeks freelancers that have skills in the following fields:

• Multimedia arts (video editing, sound editing, dubbing, voice acting, graphic design
• Creative writing (article writing,  proofreading, copywriting, data entry, transcription)
• Digital marketing (SEO, digital PR, social media management, content marketing, creating promotional campaigns and material)
• Events (organizing, promoting, coordinating, logistics, photography, etc…)
• Teaching (online ESL tutor)
• Admin & customer service (virtual assistant, customer service representative)
• Web & Software Development (programmer, web developer, web designer, QA)

If you are aiming to earn extra income as a freelancer, reassess and reevaluate your skills. Here are a few sample questions to ask yourself when assessing an opportunity:

• Do you have an eloquent command of English and/or another language?
• Do you have a knack for writing and putting character and significance to articles and coming up with substantial topics to write about?
• Do you have a keen eye for proofreading?
• Do you have the proper productive habits, work ethic and the right equipment for video editing or graphic design?
• Do you have the PR skills or a strong technical background in Digital marketing?
• How well do you manage time and delegate tasks when it comes to organizing schedules and events?

If you have any of these skills or have something equally useful in your repertoire, you can sell your skills as a freelancer. There are plenty of online platforms which you can use to sell your services, such as:

• Freelancer.com
• Upwork.com
• Manila.craigslist.com.ph
• 99designs.com
• Jobstreet (for part-time home-based job opportunities)
• OnlineJobs.ph
• Rakuboss.ph

Freelancers tend to earn on a project basis, so your skills need to be competitive, flexible, adaptive and constantly evolving. The difference between a good and great freelancer is that the former meet deadlines, and the other beats deadlines (accompanied by high-quality outputs).

It’s easy to improve your skills by offering your skills for cheap to build a portfolio and client-base. A freelancer becomes more attractive to future clients if he can turn up and show the projects he’s done.

Filipino freelancers make P39,000 per month on an average¹. Some people have built whole careers out of their freelance work, earning anywhere from P10,000 to P100,000 (or even more) per month depending on the quality of their work, and consistency and availability of projects.

You can surely earn more when you start closing long-term projects (that will pay you on a retainer) – and eventually scale it into a business when you start hiring more people to do the work (while you’re focusing on getting more projects).

As a freelancer, you must also learn how to assert yourself when it comes to charging your clients and collecting your salary, without being abrasive.

Related:

• 20 High Paying Remote and Home-Based Jobs for Filipinos
• How to Make Money Freelancing in the Philippines

2. Sell Online 

Estimated monthly income: P10,000 and up

Since the pandemic, selling online has boomed drastically.

This not only allows you to reach more people, but also enjoy the benefits of affordable ads, reduce your operational and processing cost, and try targeting options, among many others.

You can sell practically every item online. You just have to do proper research to ensure there is a proper market for your item.

There are many ways to sell online. Here are some ideas.

Where to sell items online?

There are many avenues where you can sell your products online. Here are some of the most popular choices of Filipino online sellers:

For more information, check out our in-depth article on online selling.

3. Sharing Economy

Estimated Monthly Earnings: P20,000 – P70,000

The rise of apps like Grab, Lalamove, and Airbnb has given birth to the so-called sharing economy, in which physical assets or services are shared between people for a fee.

By offering convenience to consumers, earning passive income from your assets has never been as profitable and accessible as now.

Learn More: Best Sharing Economy Apps to Earn Extra Money in the Philippines

Enterprising side hustlers can ride on the income-earning potential of the sharing economy in three ways: by providing ride-sharing, logistics, or home-sharing services using their existing assets.

Home-Sharing/Vacation Rental Services

Estimated Monthly Earnings: P20,000 – P70,000

If you own an unoccupied condo or house, or one that has a spare room, you can rent it out and list it on home-sharing sites such as Airbnb or Agoda Homes. Usual guests are tourists and workers who live far from their workplaces and are looking for temporary accommodations.

Depending on your location and the size of your space for rent, you can charge anywhere from P500 to P4,000 per day—and make decent money every month.

When it comes to operational expenses, renting out a room has low-maintenance costs per week. Your main responsibility is to maintain the cleanliness of the room after the customer is done renting it.

You may also need to organize your schedule to meet future tenants who are interested in renting your place to give them keys and let them in. Becoming a host on Airbnb or Agoda Homes can be a high-earning business idea for you if your property is in an attractive location, especially near tourist destinations where a lot of visitors want to spend time in.

Become an AirBNB host	https://www.airbnb.com/host/homes
Become an Agoda host	https://www.agoda.com/homes

4. Buy & Sell (Item Trading)

Estimated Monthly Earnings: P10,000 – P30,000

If you have a knack for spotting good deals and understanding what people like to buy online, and organizing the market in niches, you can make a good amount of money using online sales platforms like:

• Carousell
• Craigslist
• Shoppee
• eBay PH
• Facebook Marketplace

One common thing to do here is to look for cheap deals to buy from and then re-sell them on the same platforms for more.

Alternatively, you can look into going to offline marketplaces such as garage sales, thrift shops and other places which aren’t making good use of online marketplaces to score cheap deals which, in turn, can flip you a good profit using those platforms.

Profit and time invested are less certain as they depend entirely on what you’re looking to sell. Often the time investment relies on moving on deals quickly before someone scoops up something that you see could be profitable.

The main thing you’re creating value for customers here is your ability to spot deals and items for their convenience.

Remember: Buy low, sell a bit higher.

5. Offering Professional or Trade Skill Services

Estimated income: P15,000 – P40,000 per month

There are many other services you can offer to make money on the side. For instance, anyone can get together a few other people and offer to clean people’s houses, cars, condos or else for a tidy sum of money.

There are platforms to offer such services on, such as:

• Raket PH
• GoodWork PH
• StarOfService PH

These platforms create listings for skilled craftsmen and artisans too. Including manual labor jobs for:

• Home repair and improvement
• Moving & trucking services
• Cleaning, electrical, pest control, and plumbing services
• Gadgets and appliance repairs & services
• Food catering services
• Events, performers, and other business services
• Fitness/Personal trainers and more.

They also list licensed professionals such as accountants, lawyers, physicians, and engineers.

You can also explore other personal and/or B2B services such as:

• Fitness or Wellness Coaching
• Virtual Event Planning
• Personalized Meal Planning Services
• Personal Shopping Services
• Drone Photography Services
• Home Organization Services
• Voice-Over Services
• AI Integration Services

Of course, social media is a powerful tool to market your services to people looking for them. As with anything else, your earnings depend on the service you provide and how well you do in the field.

6. Content Publishing

Estimated income: P5,000 and up (depending on niche & audience size)

We live in a world where we look to our favorite influencers to buy the latest beauty product, outfits, or even trending restaurants.

The power of social media and influencer marketing is undeniably strong. If you can excel in a certain niche, it is possible to build an online empire.

Content publishing refers to the process of creating and distributing information or materials to an audience through various platforms and formats.

This can include written articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, visual content, and social media posts, among others – serving purposes such as entertainment, education, brand awareness, or audience engagement.

Content publishing involves several key processes:

Here are some ways you can make money from content publishing:

How to Monetize your Vlog, Blog, or Microblogging Platforms?

7. Financial Advisor or Insurance Agent

Estimated Monthly Earnings: P20,000 – P50,000

This may come as a surprise to some, but being a financial advisor or insurance agent for a large company can be incredibly profitable if you have the necessary interpersonal skills to go along with it.

The job description mainly revolves around offering financial advice and educating people about insurance policies, and how these services can help your potential clients’ lives in the long run.

These jobs are often advertised as flexible with time, with high earning potential – which is true, as your salary would be on a commission basis (around 40% – 50% commissions per sale).

Granted that you have the necessary PR skills, you’ll earn as much as you’re capable of selling.

Successful agents can earn six digits a month for every 20-30 hours a week spent meeting with clients, but that depends entirely on one’s ability to network, market and sell the services.

Doing the math:

If you can sell at least 3 insurance policies worth P20,000+ (per annum) every month, you can modestly earn around P30,000 per month (and assuming your clients will continue on with their policies, you’ll receive the same amount in the succeeding year).

What makes this side hustle lucrative?

According to 2019 data, only 36.11% of the population in the country are insured³, which means there are millions of Filipinos out there that will eventually need to have one. And there’s VUL, an insurance policy that offers both life insurance and investment features.

Although, in order to become an agent, one must take the appropriate certification exams in the Philippines. These prerequisites can cost up to P6,000 total (P2,020 for the Insurance Commission Exam for traditional and VUL, while the License costs P3,030 – which is valid for 3 years). So study up to get yourself certified and licensed to work for companies such as AXA, Manu Life, or Pru Life.

Useful resources:

• Requirements for Agent’s Application for License
• Insurance Commission (PH)

Bigger institutions like Sun Life Financial do offer free certification/licensing exams, including free reviewers (reading materials) and free seminars.

There are also different types of insurance products that you can choose to sell (though non-life insurance products will require a different type of license), such as:

• Life Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Accident Insurance
• Car Insurance
• Business Insurance
• Home & Property Insurance
• Travel Insurance
• Pet Insurance

8. P2P Lending

Estimated Annual Earnings: 6% – 30% of the money invested

A side hustle doesn’t have to take so much of your time. Case in point: investing your money in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. 

As the name implies, P2P lending involves lending money to borrowers (through online platforms such as Blend PH and SeedIn) and earning interest from it. 

Compared to other investments such as stocks and mutual funds, P2P lending is less complicated and easier to learn. It also requires only minimal investment.

For as low as P5,000, you can already become a lender on a P2P lending platform.

Related: How to Invest in P2P Lending: Top 7 P2P Lending Sites in the Philippines

9. Live Video Streaming

Estimated Monthly Earnings: P15,000 – P500,000+

Love gaming? Turn your hobby into profit through live streaming.

You can stream a video of yourself playing games online for other gamers to watch on platforms like YouTube, Facebook Gaming, and Twitch.

There are various ways to earn side income as a gaming streamer:

• Advertisements
• Subscriptions/Pay per view
• Donations or tips from fans
• Affiliate sales
• Sponsorships and brand deals
• Selling your merchandise

If you live stream on Facebook, the company will even pay you 55% of the advertising revenues if you have 2,000 followers and a video with at least 300 viewers watching at the same time.

This is perhaps why gamers claim they’re making more money on Facebook Gaming⁴ than on Twitch and YouTube.

Not a gamer? Don’t worry. Since COVID-19 hit, other streaming categories are finally having their moment in platforms that used to be dominated by gaming.

People are logging onto streaming platforms to watch people eat, do their make-up, learn something new, and a lot more. Here are the different streaming categories you can try apart from gaming:

10. Digital Product Sales

Estimated Monthly Earnings: P10,000 – P500,000+

Selling digital products is a popular and potentially lucrative way to make money online.

Digital products are items that are created and distributed electronically, and they can include a wide range of content such as eBooks, courses, software, music, artwork, templates, and more.

Here’s how selling digital products works and some tips on how to make money from it:

How Selling Digital Products Works:

Tips for Making Money from Digital Products:

1. Identify a Niche Market: Target a specific audience or niche. Products tailored to a particular group often face less competition and can command higher prices.
2. Create High-Quality Content: Ensure your product is of high quality and provides value to your customers. Good reviews and word-of-mouth can significantly boost sales.
3. Leverage SEO and Online Marketing: Optimize your website and product pages for search engines. Use online marketing techniques to attract traffic and convert visitors into customers.
4. Build an Email List: An email list is a powerful tool for direct marketing. Use it to notify subscribers about new products, updates, or promotions.
5. Use Analytics: Track your sales and website traffic using analytics tools. This data can help you understand your audience better and refine your marketing strategies.
6. Offer Bundles or Discounts: Bundling products or offering discounts for multiple purchases can increase the average transaction value.
7. Update Products Regularly: Keep your digital products updated and relevant. This can include adding new content, fixing bugs, or improving the design.
8. Create a Sales Funnel: Develop a sales funnel to guide potential customers from awareness to purchase. This could involve free trials, samples, or introductory offers.
9. Collect Feedback and Testimonials: Use customer feedback to improve your products. Showcasing positive testimonials can also help in building trust with potential buyers.
10. Diversify Your Offerings: Once you are established in one area, consider expanding your range of products to cater to a broader audience or the same niche with different needs.

Selling digital products requires initial effort in creation and setup, but it can offer a sustainable income stream with relatively low ongoing maintenance, especially if the products are evergreen and continue to be relevant over time.

11. Drop Servicing

Estimated monthly earnings: Php15,000 – P50,000 or more

Drop servicing refers to selling a service that is carried out by another party. When you outsource a service instead of doing it yourself, you will be able to save time and resources.

In a way, you act as the middleman or agency. You don’t need to set up any physical store to do this, especially if you plan on focusing on online work.

Drop servicing works in the same way as drop shipping, only you sell services instead of a physical product.

When done right, this side hustle can be extremely profitable. Drop servicing is an incredible business idea for people who can manage a team of people to deliver various services to clients.

You may not realize it yet but drop-servicing is everywhere in the Philippines.

You may have even experienced it when you hired a cleaning service to clean your home and they sent a freelance representative, or you hired a company to handle your business’ Tiktok page that outsourced the job to a freelance social media manager.

Wondering what services you can try for this side-hustle? Here are some examples:

• Digital products (books, software programs, online courses, webinar content, printables, workbooks)
• Sales and marketing (SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, market research)
• Writing (academic, technical, scripts, blogs, copywriting)
• Production (podcast, audio, video)
• Accounting and bookkeeping
• Design (animation, video editing, art, illustration, graphic design)

Of course, drop servicing doesn’t have to be an online business. If you want to follow an offline model, you can drop service the following:

• Dog walking
• House cleaning
• Pest control
• Gardening

Thanks to drop servicing, you can scale your business in a way that would be impossible to do if you’re working alone. After all, you can only do so much.

There’s no limit to drop servicing since you are not bound by the number of hours you can work in a day. The major thing you just have to ensure is delivering consistent work quality to your clients.

How to get started in Drop Servicing:

Because the demand for freelancing has increased drastically over the last few years, it has become easy to set up a drop service company in the Philippines. 

For drop shipping to work, you just need a freelancer/person who is willing to do the work for a set amount of money, and a client who is willing to pay more for that service. Here’s how you can set up your own drop service business.

It’s important to note that you won’t become an overnight millionaire with this side hustle. Building your reputation takes time and finding a client who is willing to pay a huge amount may not be on the horizon for the first few months of your business.

Eventually, this side hustle may even become your main source of income.

12. NFT Gaming

Estimated Monthly earnings: Php10,000 – Php50,000

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are unique digital assets you can buy and sell for cash in the digital space. Some of the most popular NFT games today include:

• Axie Infinity
• Splinterlands
• Lost Relics
• My Defi Pet
• Crypto Blades

Even though you don’t have knowledge or interest in the world of cryptocurrencies, this side hustle can still be a great source of income. In recent months, different NFT games have taken the world by storm, with Axie Infinity leading the pack.

Just in April, the game’s daily active users were only 30,000. That number went up to 1 million in August 2021 ⁵. Filipinos love playing games, and earning money while playing is a dream come true for gamers. 

While the most common way to earn money through NFT is by playing the game, you can also get your foot in the door by breeding and selling rare items and owning NFTs.

How to Start a Side Hustle in the Philippines

Ideally, you begin a side hustle when you have a day job that funds your living expenses and will serve as your fallback in case your gig doesn’t turn out well. 

But it’s never easy to run your side hustle on top of a 9 to 5 job. You need to have the right mindset, ability to prioritize things, and enough preparation before diving in.

Here are the steps to start your side hustle properly while working a full-time job.

Tips to Succeed in your Side Hustle

Here’s a recap of tips to maximize your success with your side hustle:

1. Do something you’re good at – you have skills, you just need to know which ones you can reinforce and sell. There’s no point in selling something you’re bad at, chances are you’re not going to be making money anytime soon.
2. Research. You need to know the market to break into it. How much competition are you up against, what type of customers and niches are you targeting and how much should you be charging?
3. Don’t forget it’s a side-hustle. Only put so many hours into this as you can spare. If you want to be entrepreneurial and end up opening your own proper business out of this, you’d better work like it’s your only hustle.
4. Fund your side hustle through savings. Taking on debt is a bad way to start a side hustle. As much as possible, use your savings. Even better, start a side gig that won’t require much funding, using resources you already have. 
5. Commit to a strict schedule. Treat your side-hustle schedule like your day job in the sense that you observe a fixed schedule. Decide the number of hours you can devote each day for your side gig and schedule it after your normal work hours. 
6. Focus on giving your best performance at your day job. You can’t afford to lose your full-time income. Also, your employer can be a client or a business partner when you go full-time with your business. So never compromise the quality of your work just because you’re juggling two jobs. 
7. Don’t work on your side hustle in the office. Using company resources or time for your side gig is both unethical and a possible violation of your employment contract. Don’t risk getting the ire of your employer.
8. Don’t quit your full-time job too soon. Wait for your side hustle to reach your ideal income level (ideally at least 75% of your full-time income) before you hand in your resignation.
9. Always add value to your customers. Think of more ways you can better help your customers through the services you provide. Be creative! And always go the extra mile. In doing so, you can keep them loyal to you because you’re able to give more value for their money.
10. Form your support system. You can’t accomplish everything alone. Whether you run your side hustle on your own or with a business partner, you need people who you can turn to for guidance and support. These include mentors, colleagues, and friends who can share ideas and honest feedback with you.

Side Hustle FAQs

In conclusion, when it comes to side hustles, keep trying and never stop learning.

You’re not going to make thousands of pesos on your first day, your first project or during your first gig.

Also Read: 

• 10 Best Business Books for Young Entrepreneurs
• Best HMO for Freelancers & Self-Employed in the Philippines
• 35 Powerful Time Management Tips that Work
• 10 Ways to Make Your First Million
• 11 Money Mistakes Filipinos Make (and how to avoid them)

Get a grasp of the market and experiment with how you position yourself in the market. Try out some strategies and keep selling and building your presence until you find your niche.

1. DOLE.gov.ph
2. Philkotse
3. Inquirer
4. Business Insider
5. Fortune