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8 Profitable Side Hustles Specific to New Zealand

Avoid pitfalls and time-wasting part-time opportunities with our exclusive guide to sustainable and lucrative side hustles.
Updated 8 November 2023

Summary
  • Side hustles have become popular throughout New Zealand as more people look to make incremental income.
  • This guide has been put together to help you decide what side hustle is best for you, making sure you evaluate all the options and take into account relevant considerations. 

Our guide covers:
Must-Read Related Guides:

Know This First: The Side Hustles (Probably) Best Avoided, As Outlined by MoneyHub Founder Christopher Walsh:

  • Important: There’s a lot of snake oil out there, with people promising flows of money without having to do much at all. The catch is always the same – you need to pay an upfront fee. These ‘gurus’ promote themselves heavily on YouTube, selling everything from foreign exchange trading platforms to ‘education investments’ where you become a management consultant.
  • Unless you are comfortable with losing money upfront, side hustles that seem too complicated and heavy in upfront fees are probably best avoided.
  • Every week MoneyHub receives at least one email from a New Zealander who has looked for a side hustle that has involved an upfront payment before turning sour. It leaves emotional pain and embarrassment.
  • I've seen so much throughout New Zealand - dodgy investment schemes, pyramid selling products, property investment schemes that risk your home, religious-themed multi-level marketing and online trading courses. All of it is best avoided.
  • This guide contains only genuine side hustles with a proven track record of delivering a regular income to those who provide their time and skills.
Christopher Walsh
MoneyHub Founder and Head of Research

Our Top 8 Side Hustles for New Zealanders

Our list includes everything from passive side hustles (renting a spare room and saving money) to on-demand side hustles like rideshare driving, creative work and dog walking. If you have any suggestions or tips, please contact our research team.

Rent a spare room - it's immediate extra money and does have tax benefits

If you rent or own a home, and there's a spare room, you can earn up to $40,000 "tax-free" by deducting the costs from the income. Yes, you will have people in your house, sitting on your sofa, using your kitchen etc., but the extra money can be considerable.

How does this work? 
It can be complicated and requires some calculations, but if you persist, there are savings to be had. Firstly, for flatmates, you can deduct the allowable rental expenses incurred when you live with your flatmate(s). While your income will be boosted from a spare room revenue, you can minimise the tax you need to pay by calculating what you incur as a percentage of the total use. The IRD helpfully outlines this step-by-step guide.

Renting out a room to boarders or homestay students offers up to $40,000 per year of tax-deductible costs
The IRD lets you deduct up to $194 per boarder per week under its standard cost method. There is a maximum of four boarders, so the total allowance is just over $40,000 per year ($194 X 4 rooms X 52 weeks). However, this method assumes you'll include expenses such as power, phone, internet, food, streaming subscriptions etc. You'll need to pay for these from the "revenue" you receive.

Estimated earnings: $100 to $300 a week, depending on the property and location. Tax deductions will vary based on your use and how many rooms you can rent/offer to boarders.

Sign up for Online Surveys

Online surveys will never be as lucrative as a part-time job or starting a business. Still, they do provide reliable, incremental income to those prepared to help market researchers know more about spending habits. Best of all, they can be completed whenever – this NZHerald podcast explains how they work, and why they can be a good idea.
 
Estimated earnings: Someone who regularly submits surveys can realistically make around $100 - $200 per month. We suggest registering with iSay, Homescan and Digital Voice (in that order) to start making money online. These top three survey websites are all part of massive global companies and pay rewards as promised, with no trickery. The more you do, the more bonus opportunities there are.

Our guide to online surveys highlights the best companies operating in New Zealand. For example, Nielsen Digital Voice pays $10/month in vouchers just to have its software installed on your computer - no effort is needed.
MoneyHub's Top 3 Reliable Picks - Register in seconds for free with our top three trusted survey websites:
  • Our research highlighted three leading survey websites that reliably and consistently reward New Zealanders.
  • We suggest registering with iSay, Homescan and Digital Voice (in that order) to start making money online. Our top three survey websites are all part of massive global companies and pay rewards as promised, with no trickery. The more you do, the more bonus opportunities there are.
  • Registering takes only a few seconds for each site and you can opt out at any time if you are no longer be interested in the surveys offered.
Christopher Walsh
MoneyHub Founder and Head of Research

Find a part-time job that has regular hours

There are plenty of part-time jobs available, and dedicated part-timers get more opportunities for better shifts. Part-time jobs provide money, new friendships and a variation from the routine.
 
The hours may be inflexible - you may start on Friday night and Saturday night hours, which aren’t sociable, but those loyal (and reliable) are often rewarded with better shifts. Part-time positions can lead to full-time jobs and tend to pay weekly, so you won’t wait long for money. Our guide to part time jobs extensively lists options available.
 
Estimated earnings: Around $18 - $20/hour (minimum wage, or slightly above minimum wage)

List services on Fiverr

Fiverr is a huge marketplace for business owners looking to engage professional services, such as logo design, content writing, PowerPoint preparation, web design and even app building and video marketing. What you earn depends on the value of the services you offer, known on Fiverr as ‘gigs’. For example, a web design gig is more valuable than a data entry gig, but it also can be more competitive as many sellers offer their services.
 
Our guide to working on Fiverr explains the opportunities, pros and cons. If you’ve been thinking about becoming a Virtual Assistant, Fiverr lets you ‘try before you commit’ by taking on ad-hoc work for specific one-off projects.
 
Alternative: If you’re skilled in crafts and not so much in design services, ETSY is a popular platform to sell homemade craft items. The website attracts millions of buyers daily, and customers can order from all over the world. Like Fiverr, ensuring a long and happy existence on the platform revolves around consistently delivering quality and keeping buyers happy and informed.
 
Estimated earnings: Fiverr charges a 20% fee. For example, if you charge $100 for a service, you’ll receive $80, and Fiverr keeps $20. How much you earn depends on what you offer and how many clients order your services.

Buy and Sell on Trade Me

Using Trade Me to flog imported goods is possible, but it takes a lot of skill, and there is some risk. The most popular items are phone chargers, cases, battery packs, and adaptors. However, there is no golden ticket to Trade Me riches – it’s hard work fielding questions, and if you don’t deliver or ship on time, you risk reputational damage.

Estimated earnings: It’s impossible to put a number on potential earnings as every Trade Me business is different, but there is money to be made from regular small-value item sales. Our Trade Me selling tips has helpful information to boost sales.

On-demand services for neighbours and those in your area

Dog walking is big business. People love their dogs, and many are comfortable spending whatever it costs to ensure their dogs are happy. If you’re available from 9am to 5pm, setting up a dog walking service can be a lucrative option. Better still, the more dogs you manage, the higher your hourly earnings.
 
If dogs aren’t your thing, becoming a local babysitter is another option. While the hours will almost certainly be in the evening, babysitting and child-minding are in-demand services. While apps and websites exist to list your services, the old-fashioned approach of word-of-mouth often works best. 
 
Alternatively, many households are happy to pay for cleaning services if you don't want to look after dogs or children. If you find cleaning stress-relieving or deeply satisfying, this could be the side hustle for you.
 
Estimated earnings: It ranges; a one-hour dog walk could command as much as $20, but if you have five dogs on the go, that’s $80 to $100 per hour. Babysitting earns minimum wage; a three-hour booking will earn around $60. Cleaning can pay low wages, so you’ll need to market yourself as a premium service to avoid getting minimum wage rates. If you do so, a house cleaning that takes an afternoon (four hours) could earn as much as $150.

Drive for a rideshare company (like Uber) during peak hours and surge events

There’s little point logging on to Uber trying to pick up customers at 8am on a Saturday when there’s no demand - you’ll earn peanuts. However, with a few simple tactics, you can increase your earnings. Sporting events and concerts can often be big honeypots of Uber bookings; people leaving stadiums and theatres all at once increases what you can earn.

Additionally, not everyone goes home – they can bar-hop and then need a ride home when the bars close (another time for surging demand). So, a rugby match that finishes at 9:30pm can provide 3-4 hours of high-demand Uber bookings and reward drivers with extra money. If there’s bad weather, more demand equals more money. Traffic may be heavier (i.e. leaving the roads around a stadium), but the laws of supply and demand mean the value of the rides surge. The problem, however, is car insurance – most standard policies don’t cover ride-sharing, so you’ll need to invest in appropriate insurance.

As an alternative, Uber Eats and other food delivery apps let you take advantage of surge times (i.e. 5pm to 9pm), and if you use your bike, you won’t need to worry about insurance.

Estimated earnings: $25-$35 per hour is standard for an Uber or Ola drive, but you need to deduct petrol and car costs from that amount. This is why only operating during surge periods can be far more lucrative. 

Cut down on expenses

The easiest way to have more money is to spend less. Expenses, big and small, all add up – it’s far easier to cut back on unnecessary purchases than it is to spend 10 hours a week on a side hustle.
 
Estimated earnings: Cost-cutting, if done with discipline, can easily ‘earn’ an average household around $50 to $100 a week. Our 20 Easy Ways to Save LOTS on Household Bills guide covers how you can cut down on costs you won’t miss, or don’t see the benefit of. 
MoneyHub's Top 3 Reliable Picks - Register in seconds for free with our top three trusted survey websites:
  • Our research highlighted three leading survey websites that reliably and consistently reward New Zealanders.
  • We suggest registering with iSay, Homescan and Digital Voice (in that order) to start making money online. Our top three survey websites are all part of massive global companies and pay rewards as promised, with no trickery. The more you do, the more bonus opportunities there are.
  • Registering takes only a few seconds for each site and you can opt out at any time if you are no longer be interested in the surveys offered.
Christopher Walsh
MoneyHub Founder and Head of Research

​How to market and promote your side hustle

  • Marketing can be expensive, but it doesn’t need to be if you do it right.
  • What side hustle you choose will influence what marketing you'll need. Platforms like Fiverr, Trade Me and Etsy all have millions of visitors every week, so landing a sale depends on how you promote yourself using sales copy.
  • The best way to succeed is to look at the sales description from top-rated sellers and adapt it to your product or services. This way, you’re using a proven formula. To build trust, you’ll need to have multiple customer reviews and ensure they are 5-star or similar.
 
If you’re setting up a side hustle that is based on offline services, then you should promote it both offline and online. For example, if you’re offering dog walking, pet minding, babysitting/childminding, gardening/watering or lawn mowing services, the best way to establish yourself is as follows:
  1. Put together some flyers and distribute them around the neighbourhood. If you come up with the words and details, you can pay around $30 on Fiverr.com for a professional to design it. This makes you stand out, and, being local, trusted. The more local you look, the higher the chance of success.
  2. Set up a Facebook Business page (it’s free), invite your Facebook friends to like it, and this will give you traction. Ask customers to leave reviews.
  3. Promote your services on Facebook groups for the relevant local area and special interest, also look at websites like Neighbourly and any other website that has a strong local following.
  4. Consider a Google Business listing (it’s free). This puts your business on Google Maps, meaning people searching for your services can find you. Best of all, you don’t need a website – Google lets you link a Facebook Business page to your listing.
  5. Regular letterbox flyer distribution gets you remembered – printing the ads is cheap, so a monthly mailout around your local area can help boost your customer numbers. 

How do I decide which side hustle is right for me?

Deciding on the right side hustle takes some consideration - we've listed what's most important to help you maximise the value of your time.

It has to be worthwhile financially; otherwise, there’s a risk you’ll give up

Consider what your time is worth and price your services accordingly. For example, don’t undersell your time and skill. If you’re launching a business, never offer to do anything for free – you won’t be taken seriously, and it will be hard to win clients. Additionally, your expertise has value – don’t agree to do online surveys if it takes one hour to earn $2. There are great market research survey platforms desperate for more New Zealanders; sign up for the right one.

Convenience is essential to sustaining the side hustle

Side hustles need to be nurtured and developed; for this to happen, they need to fit in with your lifestyle and routine. People like online surveys, because they can load them up on their phone while they wait for an appointment or relax at home. If you live near a supermarket, working there part-time is more accessible than having to cross town using a bus (which may not be running after your shift finishes). In summary, the easier it is to do the side hustle, the longer you will want to do it.

A side-hustle that you dread doing won’t last long

Life is too short for toxic side hustles – they have to be fun. If you don’t like dealing with helicopter pet owners, dog walking may not be for you. If you don’t like deadlines, working online using Fiverr or Etsy probably isn’t suitable. And if you are in the habit of being a TV remote hog, sharing your home with a flatmate may cause issues. The success of a side hustle comes down to how much you enjoy it. If you find something that you like, you’re giving yourself the highest chance of success.