10 side hustles for students that fit around classes

How the list is ordered

Cheapest and fastest first. Everything here is pulled from our longer list of 20 businesses to start in 2026, filtered for things that run from a laptop or a phone, cost under a few hundred dollars to start, and can be paused for a fortnight without dying. If you don't own a laptop, the phone-only cut overlaps with this one.

1. Clipping: short-form videos for brands, paid per view

A brand, podcast or app puts up a budget and invites people to make short vertical videos about it. You cut the clip, post it on your own TikTok, Reels or Shorts account, submit the link, and you are paid for the views it earns. No follower minimum, because what's being bought is attention, not your audience. It is the cheapest business on this list to test: the whole experiment costs an evening.

How the money works. Campaigns pay a rate per 1,000 views (the CPM), with a cap per clip so one viral post can't drain the budget. Rates vary by campaign and platform; on Shoot the brand funds the budget before anyone posts, earnings move into your wallet on a 72-hour cycle after views are verified, and you can withdraw from $10. Shoot's fee is 7% and it is taken at withdrawal, never from your views.

Disclosure. We run a clipping platform, so read this entry with that in mind. It is on the list because it genuinely needs no capital and pays on output rather than on audience size, and the catch above is real: the people who earn are the ones who post through the slow first two weeks.

Who it's for. Anyone who already spends time on short-form video and would rather be paid for the instinct. It also stacks: clippers routinely run it alongside a job, a degree, or one of the other ideas below. Payouts need an ID check and you must be 18 or over to withdraw.

Full guide: how to make money clipping videos

2. Online tutoring

The oldest side business on the list and still one of the quickest to a first payment. Maths, languages, coding, music and exam prep all have steady demand, and tutoring platforms handle the finding and the billing for a cut. Rates climb once parents refer you, which they will if the grades move. Good for students, who are closest to the material.

3. Reselling and flipping

Buy under-priced things (trainers, vintage, furniture, electronics, event tickets where it's legal) and sell them for what they're worth. It's one of the few businesses here where you learn the whole loop, from sourcing to customer, in your first week. Sneaker and vintage resellers now sell as much through short-form video as through listings, which is where this starts to overlap with the first entry.

4. Ghostwriting and copywriting

Founders, consultants and executives want to post on LinkedIn and X and don't have the time or the knack. Ghostwriting their posts, newsletters and sales pages is quiet, well paid at the top, and sold entirely on samples. Write three posts for someone whose work you follow, send them over, and quote a monthly package. It's a good fit for a writer who'd rather not be on camera.

5. UGC creation: product videos for brands, flat fee

User-generated content (UGC) is a brand paying you to make a video that the brand posts in its own ads. Unlike clipping, you don't need the post to perform on your account, and you're paid a flat fee per deliverable, typically tens to a few hundred dollars depending on the brand and usage rights. The work is finding clients: cold DMs, UGC marketplaces, and the brands you already use. It pairs naturally with clipping, since the same filming skills feed both.

6. Video editing service

Every podcaster, YouTuber and small business posting video needs someone to cut it, and most of them hate doing it. Short-form editing (turning a 40-minute episode into ten clips) is the most in-demand slice right now, and the easiest to prove: edit a creator's public episode unasked, send them the result, and quote a monthly rate. Clipping is the fastest way to build the portfolio for this, because you get paid while you practise.

7. Social media management for local businesses

Restaurants, gyms, salons and shops need someone to post three times a week and answer DMs, and the owner isn't going to do it. Charge a monthly retainer per account, keep the roster small, and batch the filming. It is one of the few businesses here where walking in the door beats any online pitch. Short-form is the format they'll ask for, so the clipping skill set carries over directly.

8. Digital products and templates

Spreadsheets, planners, Notion systems, presets, Canva templates, sold on a marketplace or your own storefront. Make once, sell many times, no shipping. The products that sell solve a narrow problem for a narrow person (a budget for nurses, a content calendar for wedding photographers), and they sell through the maker's own short-form content far more than through marketplace search.

9. Faceless YouTube or TikTok channel

Channels built on narration, stock footage, screen recordings or compilations, with nobody on camera. They can earn from ad revenue, affiliate links and sponsorships once they have an audience, and some do very well. The honest version is that it is a media business with a long ramp, and the ones that last pick a narrow topic and publish on a schedule for a year before the numbers are interesting. Worth running as a slow build beside something that pays sooner.

10. Paid or sponsored newsletter

A weekly email on one topic for one kind of reader, monetised by sponsors, a paid tier, or both. Newsletters work because the audience is yours in a way a social following never is: no algorithm sits between you and the inbox. The trade is time. Most writers who get there spent a year publishing to a small list, then used short-form video (their own or clippers') to feed it.

Fitting it around a timetable

• Pausable ones: 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10. Clipping, reselling, UGC, digital products, a faceless channel and a newsletter all survive a week of nothing. You lose momentum, not clients.
• Client ones: 2, 4, 6, 7. Tutoring, ghostwriting, editing and social media management pay sooner but someone is waiting on you. Tell clients your exam dates up front and take fewer of them in May and December.
• Term-time rhythm. Most students do best with one pausable hustle running all year and one client hustle picked up in the quiet terms.
• Keep the money separate. A second bank account or wallet for hustle income makes tax and student-finance questions far simpler later.

How to pick one

1. 1

   No money and no portfolio: 1 or 2.

   Clipping needs nothing but a phone and pays per view from the first approved post. Tutoring needs a subject you just passed and a calm camera presence. Both can start this week.

2. 2

   A little money and a good eye: 3.

   Reselling is the fastest first dollar on the list if you have fifty dollars for stock and know what trainers or vintage are worth.

3. 3

   You write well: 4 or 10.

   Ghostwriting pays within weeks once one founder says yes. A newsletter pays much later but is yours.

4. 4

   You can edit: 6, then 1.

   Editing for other creators pays per project and teaches you what performs. Clipping uses the same skills and pays on the result instead.

5. 5

   Give it the whole term.

   Every entry here looks dead in week two. The students who earn are still posting, pitching or listing in week eight.