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- 🐧 15 expat side hustles to boost your income
🐧 15 expat side hustles to boost your income
Earn $1000's by selling products, self-storage, speaking, writing, and more!
Dexter Zhuang
March 25, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
Hey expats. After talking to dozens of you, I curated an insane list of side hustles. 🤯
You’re such go-getters, I love it!
Today in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
💪 15 real expat side hustles
⚡️ 13 stories of how expats got started
💪 15 expat side hustles
Say it with me: diversify, diversify, diversify.
⚡️Recent tech layoffs and Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse are grim reminders why we cannot afford to put our eggs in 1 basket:
You are the CEO of your personal finances. Just like you wouldn’t want your business to be a one-trick pony, why risk being 100% dependent on only 1 income source in your personal finances?
The world is not a fair place. This may be harsh, but you can’t depend on someone to bail you out like the US Fed did for Silicon Valley Bank.
Create optionality for yourself. A side hustle won’t solve everything, but it’s a first step to taking control of your own cashflow.
😨 “But Dexter I can’t do it! I don’t have any monetizable skills!”
No. Everyone can do a side hustle.
Leveraging your strengths is key. Read the rest of this post to get inspiration from real side hustles built by expats with similar strengths.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Personally, my partner and I have tested lots of income sources (50%+ failed): selling loose leaf teas, selling art, teaching online courses, tutoring, rental property, career coaching, public speaking, consulting, and advising.
😨 “But Dexter, I’m on a work visa that doesn’t permit me to earn additional income!”
Fair - Don’t violate any laws. Or get yourself deported.
Consider opening an overseas business entity. Again look closely at your employer’s and immigration policies to make sure you’re not doing anything illegal.
💡 Be creative, have fun, leverage your strengths, tap into your network, and most importantly — stop waiting around; take action.
I’m thrilled to share this incredible list of REAL side hustles from the Money Abroad community (DM me to add yours, I want to hear!):
All numbers below are self-reported income in USD.
👕 1. Sell a product ($8k+ / month)
What is it: Starting an online business selling a physical or digital product.
How they got started:
“I was a customer of the product for many years and had trouble getting that particular contact lens brand to ship to me. It took a month to receive so I thought I’d contact them and ask to be a distributor for them and initially they weren’t interested but because of my beauty community and marketing background they agreed to do a partnership. It was a very sought after brand, they just had terrible logistics.
A lot of beauty bloggers were talking about it and always complained about how long shipping took. So I knew there was demand for it. I also knew that it would worked great on Instagram because [aesthetically] it was such a dramatic change from no lenses to with lenses so the marketing material was easy to create for that wow factor. First customers was from Instagram with my makeup social community.”
🎤 2. Public speaking / referrals ($750-$6k / month)
What is it: Help others by speaking at events and referring potential leads/customers to businesses.
How they got started:
“When I launched my company, visibility was one of my main focuses on building brand awareness. I was speaking publicly on the stage for different groups and networking settings, and in the process people noticed and invited me to speak on their platforms for free.
After a few speaking projects, I felt confident to charge and wanted a return in investment for the time I spend preparing for these tasks and the skills I acquire to be good in speaking. I got my first few speaking projects from Upwork and referrals.”
📦️ 3. Self storage service ($1.2k-3k / month)
What is it: Renting storage units to a niche customer segment. E.g. students, young professionals, etc.
How they got started:
“My friend and I target two types of people - international students in university and young professionals living in condos downtown. International students - they need help storing their things, like furniture and clothes, when they go back home during the summer. Young professionals - these folks live in shoeboxes with very little storage space, so they need a place to store low-frequency items like ski gear.
So we rented a giant storage unit in the middle of nowhere for a few hundred bucks per month. We then divided it up into smaller sections. We charge people based on the quantity and size of their items. We can pretty much cover the cost of the entire unit with a few people, and the rest is pure profit.”