101 Best Side Business Ideas You Can Start While Working a Full-Time Job

12. Local Business Consulting.

If you've developed valuable skill sets or certifications within your industry over the years, consider putting your skills to use in your free time by offering your consulting services to local business owners. Whether you're an expert marketer, business strategist, or manufacturing aficionado, there's likely a local business owner who's willing to pay you to help them solve an issue with their company. Start with this 18-step checklist to becoming a local business consultant from Karyn Greenstreet.

13. Phone Case Business.

There's a huge growing market for mobile phone accessories, and plenty of handmade sellers are raking in 6 and sometimes 7 figures from their phone case businesses. With turnkey solutions likeCase Escape readily available, you can now get ready to go kits that'll give you everything you need to start your own phone case business. Once you're up and running, you can sell cases on Etsy, Amazon Handmade, and Fancy. I know one seller who clears around $60,000/yr through Etsy alone.

14. Affiliate Sales and Marketing.

If you already have a website that's driving in targeted traffic, a great way to make passive income from the content you're already creating, is through affiliate marketing. ShareASale, Clickbank,Skimlinks and Rakuten are a few of the best affiliate networks and tools that can help you make money from the content you already produce. Check out this extensive list by Justine Grey, covering the 59 Best Affiliate Programs for Business Bloggers.

15. Virtual Assistant.

Have a knack for staying organized? If you're a jack of all trades, you should consider working as a virtual assistant. You can find great gigs on Elance, Indeed, or Upwork. It can be an awesome way to rub shoulders with some very important people, build up your professional network, and you'll have the added perk of being able to start this as a home based business idea. Becoming a virtual assistant can be a particularly great side business if your partner's job means you're constantly on the road—for example if you're the husband or wife of a coach or athlete, which makes regular moving a way of life.

16. Remote English Teacher/Tutor.

Teaching and tutoring English as a second language is a great way to make a solid side income, not to mention opening doors for you to travel the world if you'd like. While full ESL (English as a Second Language) accreditation is recommended, as long as you’re a native speaker, there are people in countries such as Hong Kong or the UAE who are willing to pay upwards of $25/hr for you to teach them English via Skype. Indeed, Learn4Good and Remote.co often have remote english tutoring jobs posted, check back frequently. Then once you land that remote gig, you'll need somewhere more professional than your dining room table to meet with students—check out this post about how to find places to work remotely.

17. SAT Tutor.

If you had a knack for standardized tests and had no trouble acing the SAT, ACT or other college exams, why not start tutoring high schoolers on the side? Parents of all economic backgrounds are more than willing to shell out upwards of $100/hr to the right tutor, if it means their son or daughter will get admitted to the college or university of their choice. See this quick checklist for starting an SAT tutoring business from the Work At Home Mom. Whitney over at Rookiemoms also has a cool story to share about a stay-at-home mom making $40/hr helping kids out with homework.

18. Social Media Manager.

We're all guilty of spending too much time on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest sometimes, so why not get paid to put your expertise to work? Lots of companies, especially startups or those in retail or travel, have heavy social media presences and are constantly in need of people to help build their brands online. You can find these types of opportunities on sites like Flexjobs and CareerBuilder.

19. Google Paid Ad Specialist.

If you know a thing or two about paid internet marketing and are comfortable with Google, a great way to make some extra income on the side is to manage a company’s Google Ad Campaigns, and gradually start bringing on more clients as your consulting business grows.

20. Start a Blog.

Think blogging is no longer a viable source of income? Think again. Tens of thousands of bloggers, creating content on topics as diverse as scrapbooking, home cooking, travel, film, lifestyle, and more are launching self-employed careers thanks to a combination of blog subscribers, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and other revenue streams. Your first step is sharpening your writing abilities, understanding what your audience craves and learning how to write a blog post that drives traffic and brings you readers on a regular basis. Once you can write within your topic area with confidence, move on to Amy Andrews' ultimate free Guide to Making Money Blogging to pick up some tips on how to start monetizing your traffic. Even blogging about tech gadgets and products you love can turn into a profitable side business; take AwesomeStuffToBuy for example. If you want to speed up the process of building your blog, I recommend setting up quick, affordable and easy website hosting with a company like HostGator and then hiring a talented freelance designer or developer on a high quality marketplace like Crew.