Top 5 Lucrative Side Hustles for Caregivers

As a caregiver for seniors, you know your craft pretty well. Occupational therapists and physical therapists are essential for our senior citizens, after all, and the home health care job market continues to surge throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, you might be thinking you want to supplement your income by doing something just as fulfilling — and just as lucrative.

Let’s take a closer look at the best jobs for caregivers that you can do on the side.

Virtual Assistant:

It might seem far-fetched, but many people are making money as virtual assistants these days. VAs offer services like document organization, human resources paperwork, taking phone calls, and scheduling appointments — all from their own home offices. These days, small businesses tend to use these resources frequently.

Marketing Consultant:

Freelance marketing professionals are able to work from home, make their own hours, and set their own rates. If you have a flair for writing and advertising, or maybe have a marketing degree gathering dust in your drawer, consider this career! Affiliate marketing is also an option — where you recommend products to other consumers in exchange for a referral bonus.

First Aid Instructor

Chances are you already have your first aid certification -- but if you don’t, you can easily get it, and then take classes for how to become an instructor. Once you’ve passed these classes, you can offer your services! The American Heart Association has a database of resources that will become available to you once you are certified to teach.

Healthcare Writing

The internet is full of opportunities for a knowledgeable professional like yourself to post ideas and expertise about the health care field. Start your own blog or reach out to medical advice blogs and offer your ideas — you can even market your own blog and try to optimize traffic by creating content specifically designed to be picked up by Google’s SEO scanners.

Medical Transcriptionist:

Put your typing fingers to work! You can make extra money by creating written transcripts of meetings between healthcare providers and their patients or colleagues. The demand for this type of work will be going up as the demand for essential healthcare services increases. For this work, you’ll need to be versed in medical terminology.

Create a business:

Important Reminder: Consider Forming an LLC

As you form your side business and think about how you can be fulfilled while at the same time increase your take-home pay, you should consider how this side hustle will be structured as a business. For instance, forming a limited liability company (as known as an LLC) can bring several key benefits to the “COVID preneur,” including tax advantages, improved flexibility, and less paperwork than a traditional sole proprietorship. Not to mention the namesake of this particular business structure — it offers less liability, so your personal assets would be protected if something happens to the business. Be sure to use an online formation service to avoid the hefty lawyer fees associated with forming an LLC.

If you are going to form a side hustle, there is no time like the present. Starting a business during the pandemic seems like a risk, but there has been a surge in small-business formations in the past year. Join the nearly 31 million small business owners who are forging ahead!

Thank you so much for Harry Cline for writing this blog post!