Abby B. It can be difficult to discover your personal passions when you’re too busy with a day job. It’s even more confusing if you’re unsure how to use your skills to make an income outside your main profession.
*This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you) if you sign up for a program or make a purchase using my link!
11 Best Side Hustles For Quantity Surveyors
1. Teach online as a part-time tutor
If you were ever interested in teaching, I’m here to let you know that you still have the opportunity to do so – as an online tutor!
The common subjects to teach are mathematics, language, history and science. Not sure what you’re good at? You can become a language tutor instead for both adults and kids.
There are websites you can sign up to as an English tutor. Some may not even require you to have any prior tutoring experience. However, some sites will need you to be a native English speaker to teach the English language.
2. Record and upload videos for a personal YouTube channel
Don’t want to be teaching people individually but interested to share your knowledge with an audience? The best way to start for working professionals is to make videos for YouTube.
YouTube is much less demanding compared to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. You’ll probably need to upload a video once a week or every two weeks instead of editing & uploading on a daily basis.
This makes it possible for busy people like you to become a YouTuber! It’s also a creative side hustle that lets you unwind and avoid burnout from overworking at your day job.
Choose a single niche to focus on with your YouTube channel. It can be about your hobbies e.g. camping, cooking or fishing. You can also make a dedicated educational channel just to talk about quantity surveying (if you love your job).
Common ways to earn with YouTube include advertising income, affiliate income, sponsorships and earnings from selling your own products.
Interesting YouTube channels in the quantity surveying niche:
| What do I need to start? | – A camera to record – Portable microphone for better sound – A video editing software |
Read: What I spent for my vlogging gear in first 6 months
3. Start a blog guiding other quantity surveyors
Aside from a YouTube channel, you can also be sharing written content with a blog. If you love writing over talking to a camera, this may be a good side hustle to get into.
Blogging is an ideal side hustle for introverts or anyone that’s too drained from socializing at their day job. Just like YouTube, it’s not a quick way to earn an income online and even with the right guidance, you may take 12 months to see any results.
Regardless of what other bloggers may say, there’s ample opportunities for you to succeed with blogging – especially if you’re writing in a single narrowed niche like quantity surveying. You can share useful guides for other quantity surveyors and even sell digital products on your website.
Quite similar to YouTube, your blog can bring in revenue from advertisements, affiliates, sponsorships and sales of your own products.
Check out my free article for step-by-step guide on how to set up a blog.
| What do I need to start? | – A WordPress Website – Domain name & hosting – Passion to write for a specific niche |
Read: Why I invested in a blogging coach before doing anything else
4. Offer freelance consultancy services online
Looking for something that will look good on your resume and help you build connections in your main profession? You can become a freelancer for quantity surveying including providing consultancy services.
Depending on the kind of work you’re willing to do, there are tons of opportunities you can find online. Of course, some jobs are best done on site and will need you to come in – so if that’s something you want to focus on, you’ll need to find freelance jobs in your area.
It may be tough to compete online especially against others that are fine with a lower pay rate – it’s always the case regardless the industry. So it’s best to differentiate yourself by using other social media platforms to promote your services e.g. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – just link it back to your Upwork profile.
By leveraging on these social apps, you get to build better trust in your audience, negotiate a better pay rate and get connected with real people in the industry.
Here’s a sample of job listings on Upwork for quantity surveying!
Ways to promote your services:
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- PeoplePerHour
- Indeed
- TikTok (because anything can go viral here)
- Build your own website
| What do I need to start? | – Ability to carry out a job well (according to guidelines) – Good communication skills with clients – Your hourly rate charge (or per project based) |
5. Learn photography and sell photos online with stock websites
Want something different as a side hustle? I highly recommend going into stock photography if you have free time on your weekends.
You can take a stroll at a park or beach nearby, take some photographs of anything nice that you see and these pictures can be sold online repeatedly!
Unlike taking photos for events, stock photography lets you earn passive income by selling any original photos that you own. These photos are usually vet through for quality control so best you invest in a good camera and a basic photography course to get started.
It’s nothing too complicated! You’ll just need to put in a chunk of work to build your collection of photos online before seeing any substantial earnings.
If you didn’t know, stock photographs are usually purchased by content creators and large online websites to use within their content and marketing materials.
Stock websites you can join to start:
| What do I need to start? | – A good camera & photography skills – Basic photo editing skills – Consistency to upload photos frequently |
6. Create and sell online courses for quantity surveying
Love the idea of teaching but want to sell something that’s related to your current profession? You can create online courses for quantity surveying and host it on any of the learning platforms I’ve listed below.
Working professionals are often unsure of the skills they have – when their entire profession or career is a learning module of its own. You just need to structure your knowledge and experiences into bite-sized courses and make it understandable for others.
Creating online courses is generally time consuming as it requires different media types (videos, images) and goes into greater details. So be realistic with yourself and set a manageable timeline you can stick with from the start.
Good news is, you’ll only need to record these classes once and update them from time-to-time!
With your own online courses, you can then work on building an online community for your personal brand. This would open all kinds of doors for your career growth as a quantity surveyor.
Some sites you can host online courses on:
| What do I need to start? | – A niched course idea – Well thought out module – Tools to record your lessons e.g. screen record, microphone |
Creating courses is too much work for you? Here’s a list of digital products you can make to sell on easy platforms like Etsy. I’ve made a quick guide on how to make these products too!
7. Rent out your vacant property on Airbnb
If you’re generally well-paid at your current job and expecting a good growth in your career, you might want to look into creating passive income streams.
One that doesn’t require much work and would give a good return over many years is real estate. This can mean buying and selling properties but you can also look into long term or short term rentals.
Instead of just leasing out your space for a year or two, you might want to turn it into an Airbnb for shorter stays. Depending on your location, short term rentals (per night/week) can make you a lot more monthly revenue than long term ones.
This is especially true for locations in demand by tourists!
| What do I need to start? | – A vacant room or property – Some home deco make the place rentable – Platform to market the space |
Check out: A beginner guide to become a host on Airbnb
8. Sell digital products for Excel on Etsy
Tech-savvy and love working with Excel sheets? You can make money on the side by selling Excel templates online on marketplaces like Etsy.
Depending on your personal interests, you can create Excel templates for budgeting, for record-keeping or data analyzation. They are considered digital products as you don’t have to ship out anything and buyers only need to download the file you’ve sold.
If you didn’t know, Etsy allows listing of digital products where customers get to download the file immediately (ZIP or PDF format) upon purchase. As a seller, you’ll only need to upload new products and answer to enquiries.
Not too keen on Excel templates? Check out my long list of digital products to sell on Etsy that can be sold repeatedly and earn you a good passive side income.
As you’ll only be making your products once, there is almost no production cost involved with every new sale.
| What do I need to start? | – A digital product idea – Tools to create the digital product – Platform to sell on |
9. Become a pet caregiver in your area
Too stressed at work to be doing anything serious as a side gig? You might find pet-sitting therapeutic if you love pets!
To make things easier, you can sign up to sites like Rover or WagWalking and register yourself as a pet caregiver. You don’t have to be looking for clients on your own and can start ASAP.
Your pay can vary depending on the type of service and area but pet sitters typically make $15-20 per visit. By just making 10 visits, you can bring in at least $200 in a single weekend.
Services you can include with pet sitting:
- Walking
- Home boarding
- Sleepovers and night care
- Training
- Bring to vet
- Basic grooming & care
- Travel trips
| What do I need to start? | – Good skills with pets e.g. dogs, cats – Tools for the service you want to offer – Socializing to get clients |
10. Start your own dream small business
As an experienced quantity surveyor, you’ve negotiated for project costings way too many times to not be good at it. If there’s one skill you can bring into your side hustle, it’s the art of negotiations!
You can make use of your skills for your own small side business. Contrary to what you may think, it doesn’t take ten or a hundred full-time employees to be calling your side hustle a real business.
It can be as simple as dedicating your weekday nights and weekends to strategizing, executing on ideas and running the daily operations on your own (or with the help of your partner). If you’re unsure of what business to start, watch YouTube videos and you’ll find something that interests you.
If you’re nearing your retirement age, it would be an even better time to start your dream business (without spending too much). Not everything is about making money, it’s about exploring your passions while you still can.
Some small business ideas you can look into:
- Candle-making
- Cleaning
- Sticker printing
- Food truck
- Vending machine
- Car wash
- Landscaping
- Handyman
- Woodworking
| What do I need to start? | – A small business idea – Some budget to get tools to start |
11. Sell custom designed merchandise with print on demand
If you think that you don’t have the time to run a business on the side or looking for a business model that runs with minimal supervision, you should try print on demand – here’s seven reasons why POD is for you.
Print on demand is basically an online business model where you’re selling your own designed merchandise through printing partners that will do the operations for you. It works quite similar to dropshipping as you don’t need to purchase any inventory prior to receiving an order or manage your orders physically.
Once a customer makes a purchase, POD suppliers like Printify and Printful will print your designs on their ready merchandise and ship it out to your customers directly.
The chunk of work lies in making designs – you can use tools like Kittl then upload your designs to merchandise like sportswear, doormats and even pet products (more down below). Alternatively, you can purchase ready ones on marketplaces like Envato Elements or Creative Fabrica.
If you’re always working at your desk, you’ll love these well-designed mats in your study!
| What do I need to start? | – Basic designing skills – A laptop to work with – An initial niche and product |
Can’t decide what product to design and sell? Check out my product guides before deciding!
- Tote bags for print on demand
- Tumblers for print on demand
- Phone cases for print on demand
- Posters for print on demand
- Leggings for print on demand
- Jewelry for print on demand
- Candles for print on demand
- Doormats for print on demand
- Hoodies for print on demand
- Pet products for print on demand
- Socks for print on demand
- Pajamas for print on demand
- Blankets for print on demand
- Baby clothes for print on demand
- Wrapping paper for print on demand
- Puzzles for print on demand
- Stickers for print on demand
- Athletic wear for print on demand
- Hats for print on demand
- Journals for print on demand
- Greeting cards for print on demand
- Mugs for print on demand
Which Side Hustle Should I Choose?
Unsure which side hustles for quantity surveyors you should go for? Here are the top 6 things to consider when deciding which is best for you.
- How much time can you commit to it?
- Consider how much time you can set aside for your side hustle for weekdays and weekends
- What type of income are you looking for?
- Do you want to make income actively or passively while you sleep?
- What sparks interest & passion in you?
- Choose a side hustle that aligns to your personal goals and interests as it keeps you motivated
- Are you an extrovert or an introvert?
- Different side hustles requires different level of communication with the outside world, are you comfortable meeting new people every day?
- What is your current partner or friend up to that you can leverage on?
- Doing something with a friend or partner makes things easier and more manageable
- How soon do you need to make extra money?
- Not all side hustles make the same amount of money in the same pace, do you need money today or in a year’s time?
Bottom Line
Starting anything new when you’re in your comfort zone can be scary and slow. It’s just the same for anyone looking to start a side hustle while having a demanding day job.
Ultimately, you’ll need to decide on what you want to focus on – your career or your side business – or both. It’s not impossible but it’s surely a challenge of its own!
That’s why, I always encourage my readers to build passive income streams aside from having a stable full-time job.
Here are 11 best side hustles for quantity surveyors:
- Teach online as a part-time tutor
- Record and upload videos for a personal YouTube channel
- Start a blog guiding other quantity surveyors
- Offer freelance consultancy services online
- Learn photography and sell photos online with stock websites
- Create and sell online courses for quantity surveying
- Rent out your vacant property on Airbnb
- Sell digital products for Excel on Etsy
- Become a pet caregiver in your area
- Start your own dream small business
- Sell custom designed merchandise with print on demand
I’m not one to brag, but blogging has changed my life. I’ve been able to earn an income passively while on a coffee date and traveling with my family. With everything, it takes time to learn and not an overnight success – to speed things up, get yourself a blogging coach before starting.
These are my blogging resources to help you out:
- Step-by-step guide how to start blogging in your free time
- Why you need a blogging coach right from the start
- Worried of exposing yourself? You can blog anonymously
Photo by Annas Zakaria
