The lowest stake information I can share is about my side-most hustle: TaskRabbit.
For those unfamiliar with this app (including many of my peers), TaskRabbit pairs customers, who need a random job done, with "taskers," who perform said duty for an hourly rate. Taskers receive reviews, and the app measures our rates of acceptance, and response time. These add up to a summary which clients can browse before hiring.
While popular tasks include errands, cleaning, and cooking, the most common is assembling IKEA furniture.
Lucky for me, I'm a born-and-raised IKEA lover, and I've been assembling their products since middle school. I'm also lucky to have acquired--mostly through gifts--a relatively complete toolkit.
My adoration for IKEA and few months working for a cabinetmaker makes TaskRabbit the perfect gig to fill in my week and budget. TaskRabbitting pays my highest wage, and makes the least use of my college degree.
Being quite new to the app, the three tasks I've completed have come far between. While I've had only positive interactions with clients, none have reviewed me, so increasing my business seems like a Catch-22 right now. I guess I can just boldly ask them for positive review from now on (the audacity!).
A tasker I worked alongside, last Friday, told me it's a matter of patience. He--an actor--has been a tasker over a year. He had the rest of his day scheduled with more tasks. Most of his days were like this, he told me.
We both chuckled about how ridiculously easy the whole thing seemed.
The manager of the beautifully sleek office where we worked that Friday, insisted that we help ourselves to their well stocked snack stash. "We also have a fridge of cold drinks," the receptionist told me as I grabbed a bag of trail mix (it had walnuts and pecans!). Bashfully, I grabbed a Coke and a Chewy bar. For starting at $19 an hour, Taskrabbitting sure has the perks.