Tim Armoo founded Fanbytes aged 21, working with brands like Nike, Samsung and Deliveroo on influencer marketing.
In six years, he took the company to a team of 80 people and sold it for an eight-figure sum in May 2022.
Since then, he has invested his own cash into a number of start-ups and speaks about entrepreneurship across the globe.
Festive cash: Our new entrepreneur expert Tim Armoo has seven ideas to boost your coffers ahead of Christmas
As This Is Money’s new expert, he wants to share his insight into the weird and wonderful ways you can make money – cash that can then help you on your way to becoming an entrepreneur.
In his first article, Tim shares his top seven side hustles to make some extra cash during the festive season.
Christmas is always an expensive time of year.
Your niece wants the newest coat she saw on TikTok. Your brother inexplicably wants another power tool, fishing rod, or whatever hobby he’s decided to pick up.
It happens. We love them, but the presents aren’t always cheap.
So, having an extra bit of cash around to soften the blow wouldn’t go amiss. Thankfully, there are some simple ways that you could make some extra money for the festive season.
Here are my top seven simple side hustles that could make you a few hundred quid – or more – in time for Christmas.
1. Sell handmade crafts and products on Etsy
Difficulty: 4/5 Profit potential: 4/5 Earning potential: £2,000+
Etsy is huge right now, with everyone looking to buy last minute Christmas decorations and stocking fillers ahead of the big day.
There’s a way to find the products that are selling well, so why if you’re crafty, why don’t you try to cash in?
You’ll need to sign up to Etsy Hunt, which is a free analysis tool that ranks the most popular products on the site.
Once you’re there, you’ll need to click product at the top and select product database from the list.
You can then choose a product type that is trending with a high number of recent sales in the UK.
From there the information is at your fingertips and create your own handmade version of a trending product and list.
This works well because you already know exactly what is selling well on the platform.
It can be hard to make quality handmade products, but if you’re already handy with a needle, paintbrush or knitting needles, there’s a real chance here for you to make some extra money.
While it’s free to join Etsy, do remember that you will be charged 16p per listing, and when you list you’ll have to pay a 6.5 per cent transaction fee, 4 per cent commission and 20p payment processing fee.
2. Personalised gift services
Difficulty: 3/5 Profit potential: 2/5 Earning potential: £500+
If you love Christmas shopping, offering a personalised gift service is a perfect side hustle for you.
The truth is, most people don’t know where to start when buying presents for friends and family – and it’s why you get the same aftershave from your wife, brother-in-law and sister every year.
Setting up a gift service is simple: offer a service where you act as a concierge for people who want to give incredible presents, but lack the knowledge or time to do so.
The trick is to gather as much information as possible about the person before buying, so if you’re a prolific social media lurker you have a huge advantage!
Offer your services in local Facebook groups. It is the easiest way to find clients for this type of service business.
Profitability wise, you’re not going to make thousands but it’s definitely one of the most fun to do.
3. Social media management
Difficulty: 4/5 Profit potential: 5/5 Earning potential: £2,000+
Christmas is a big time for businesses, big and small, and they can make as much as 40 per cent of their sales just over the festive period.
However, they often struggle to run effective and profitable social media campaigns. Some won’t know what’s trending on TikTok or how to run a Facebook advert.
This is where social media management comes in.
If you understand meme culture, paid ads, or even just how to post great content then you can make a real impact.
If you can make a business an extra £10, they’ll have no problem paying £5. Results-driven services work, and they work well.
But how do you know which businesses make great clients? Follow this simple checklist:
- They have some form of presence. Even if it’s an Instagram account with 100 followers, at least they have one set up.
- Their products are Christmas staples. Think handmade crafts and kid toys rather than insurance brokers.
- They sell online. Companies that only sell in person are much harder to deliver outstanding results for in this case.
Find companies that fit this criteria and reach out to them. Chances are they’ll jump at the chance to make more money.
> Could TikTok help transform your small business?
Got no use for your inflatable Santa? Rent it out this festive season to make some money
4. Rent out holiday decor you no longer need
Difficulty: 2/5 Profit potential: 3/5 Earning potential: £300+
If you have a lot of unwanted Christmas decorations in the attic that you once loved and have since forgotten about, then renting it out could be the easiest side hustle for you before Christmas.
You might be regretting the 6-foot inflatable Santa or 22 metres of tinsel you swore you needed, but you could be sitting on a pile of cash.
The first thing you need to do is head to your local Facebook group and look for older people in your area.
Message them advertising your rent-a-decor service and if you want to make a bit of extra money, you could offer to put it up for them.
Why older people? They’re not going to take the risk of climbing a ladder to put up their own Christmas decorations, but they might still want their house to feel festive.
That’s where you come in. You could make up to £1,000.
5. Personalised Santa recordings on video
Difficulty: 2/5 Profit potential: 4/5 Earning potential: £1,000
Do you have a beard? Do you have white hair? Has the Christmas weight come early this year?
Even if you answered no to these questions, you’re still in luck because you could still be a convincing Santa for kids in your local area.
All you’ll need is a cheap Santa costume which you can either rent or buy cheaply online, and dress up. Stuff a pillow under your shift for added effect and hit record on your phone.
That’s it. You can easily make between 10 and 20 recordings of these in an afternoon if you’re quick with it.
The trick is to build as much context as possible on the children you’re filming the messages for. The easiest way to do this is to ask the parents for their name, age, a nice thing they did this year and a toy they really want (provided the parent is buying it for them for Christmas).
Again, Facebook groups are probably the best place to find clients for this service.
It’s very simple but highly profitable and you could make up to £1,000.
Rent out your Christmas decorations or set up a tree removal service this month
6. Christmas tree removal service
Difficulty: 3/5 Profit potential: 2/5 Earning potential: £300+
You might be thinking of putting your Christmas decorations up this weekend. Who doesn’t love getting into the festive spirit with Wham on in the background?
Come early January, you have to start thinking about taking it all down. How did everything fit into that box? Did we always have this much stuff?
We’ve all asked ourselves these questions in a fit of grumpiness, full of turkey and mince pies.
So be the solution that everyone needs.
Charge a small fee for your time and, if needed the price of storage, to help people take down their Christmas decorations.
The best clients are likely to be those that are incredibly busy, either with work or extended family, or older generations who had their son-in-law put the decorations up but he’s now too busy to take them down.
Truth is, taking down the decorations is a lot more fun when you’re getting paid for it.
7. Christmas game kits
Difficulty: 4/5 Profit potential: 4/5 Earning potential: £1,000-2,000
A staple of family Christmas celebrations is party games, so why not take advantage of that and make your own?
It’s not something I’ve seen many people do so if yours is a hit, you could be onto a winner.
Here’s the play:
- Create a simple, downloadable game kit on a PDF. This can be as simple as written instructions, or as developed as storylines and characters – it’s your call.
- Now take your PDF and add a bit of colour and branding to it. My suggestion is to use Canva.com to design these. Completely free software that makes design easy for anyone.
- Finally, list your PDFs on marketplaces such as Etsy to reach a wide number of people for extremely low cost.
All of a sudden you’re now a party game mogul occupying the living rooms of every house in the UK. Maybe not every house, but dream big.
This does take a bit of work, but realistically you could do this in a weekend. The beauty of this idea is once you’ve made it, you can sell it an infinite amount of times.
Work once, sell twice.
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