Useful Gigging Apps You Might Not Know About
The gig economy continues to boom, no doubt benefiting from the rapid growth of freelancing. The transient nature of freelancing makes for lots of free time between jobs (especially early on). The way many freelancers fill this time is through gigging. The two economies are deeply intertwined, so it’s important for freelancers to keep up with the latest, greatest, and weirdest gig apps available. These are a few to keep in mind the next time you need some extra dough, or just have some free time.
MOVING & REPAIR
One of the most common categories of gig apps. Someone is always going to need help moving a couch, driving a U-Haul, or putting up a shelf. An account on one of these apps will be a reliable thing to fall back on.
Do you love cleaning? Are you great at fixing things around the house? Becoming a house cleaner or handyman using Handy could be a good side hustle for you. Unlike similar apps like Task Rabbit, Handy requires you to have previous paid experience (and your own equipment). If you do, the pay could be pretty good and open a whole new world of clients. According to their website, house cleaners can earn up to $22 per hour, and handymen can earn up to $45 per hour.
Using Handy, professionals can have control of their own schedule and take on work when it makes sense. Additionally, Handy streamlines payment by depositing your earnings into your bank account when the job is done.
Roadie isn’t so different from other delivery service apps. Their defining feature is that they probably offer the widest variety of delivery services. They are pretty fast and loose with what it is they deliver and how they deliver it. Deliveries can be anything from a grocery or drugstore pickup to moving a piece of furniture across town. They also do long-distance moves, so if you have a large truck or van, you can take those jobs. It might even be a good idea to use Roadie when planning a move or a trip yourself. It could end up paying for itself.
You can use any car to work for Roadie. You don’t need a pickup (although you probably won’t be able to move very large items in a Fiat) to work the app. You can pick whatever jobs you like and work at whatever hours you like. Roadie also provides you roadside assistance while on a job.
Dolly is an app that focuses exclusively on helping people move. All Dolly independent contractors undergo background checks and are backed by commercial insurance policies. Dolly’s policies and operations are a bit more formal than Roadie’s. You can be either a helper or a hand.
If you have a pickup truck, box truck, or cargo van and can lift more than 75 pounds, you can become a helper and make $30/hour or more. If you don’t have a vehicle but can lift more than 75 pounds and want to assist helpers, you can become a hand and make $15/hour or more. The only special thing you need is a certain level of physical fitness. You don’t need to be Arnold, but you can’t be Twiggy.
RENTING
The ideal side hustle requires no hustle at all. These apps allow you to make money using the things you already own and may not be using. Some might just call this passive income, the more popular options being apps like AirBnb and Turo. But there is more stuff to rent out than your home or your car; way more stuff.
Humans aren’t the only ones who need places to stay. When their owners are away, dogs need some digs as well. Enter Rover, the AirBnb for pets. You can sign up for Rover to become a sitter, taking care of pooches when their owners can’t. You can provide more than just dog sitting if you like (you can charge more if so), such as dog walking, grooming, overnight care, and more. You can even decide which types of dogs you’d like to care for based on their age, size, and breed.
Technically, you don’t need a home to host dogs on Rover. If you don’t want strange dogs coming into your home, you can choose to watch owners’ pets in their home (though offering your home will lead to more work). Most sitters earn between $20-$50 a night, but Rover does take a 20% service fee and competition is unsurprisingly steep.
If you have an extra parking spot, you can rent it and easily earn some additional income with Spot Hero. Simply fill out a form, and you can rent your parking space to drivers looking for a place to park in your area. You set the pricing of your parking spot and receive a check at the end of each month with your earnings. Even if you don’t have an “extra” parking spot, just the one you use, you could still make some dough by renting that spot out and parking your car on the street. If there’s lots of free street parking where you live, why not use the opportunity.
Rentah may be the ultimate renting app. It lets you rent out almost anything, from an apartment to an audio-mixing booth to a band saw to a DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring. You choose what to rent within your community (can only rent within a certain distance of your location), and you set the value of your items while renting on your schedule. If you invite friends to rent on Rentah, the app will share their standard 5% commission on all of your friends' rented items 50/50, forever.
MISCELLANEOUS
“There’s a gig for that” should be this industry’s new colloquialism. There truly is a gig for every service. Whatever you might be good at (knitting, public speaking, nail art, etc.) know that you can earn some cash using said skill through an app.
Hello Tech is an app that focuses on helping customers who need assistance working and operating technology. Basically, if you have cursory knowledge of a certain device or software, you can provide tech support to people on your own schedule. When you first sign up you’ll need to complete a basic skills assessment before offering your services. You can earn between $30 to $90 per job. IT pros get paid out twice per week.
This is a unique one. There are plenty of apps and services that let you complete surveys or do other product testing for money. Gig walk is a similar service but is based entirely on location. On the app you will find small in person gigs. Some might include making observations about the organization of an aisle in a grocery store or the price of printers at your local office supply shop. You’re basically a one-man QA tester. When walking around your city, you’ll get a notification every time you’re near someone looking for a gig walker. You can then accept the job and get paid once the work is complete. You can choose how and when you want to work and won’t need to fill in a time sheet or commit to a contract. Everything that each gig might require you to do can be filled out in the app.
Fancy Hands seeks to provide virtual assistants to everyone. To work through this app you have to apply. You can’t just sign on and work. Fortunately, you don’t need much prior experience to be an assistant, and if you’re a night owl you’re in luck. They like people who are awake at odd hours as they want to offer their services 24-hours a day. It requires only a fast internet connection and the ability to use common websites and software. You can apply to be an assistant and accept tasks on your own timetable. The company offers competitive pay and benefits for its thousands of virtual assistants across the U.S. and opportunities to be promoted to managerial-type positions.
No matter your skills, or the free time you have to make extra money using them, rest assured that there is a potential gig out there for you. Try a few out, and make some money in the process.
