3 High-Income Skills You Can Turn Into A Side Hustle In 2024 (2024)

There are skills...and then there are high-income skills. All skills are not created equal. Some are evergreen, some will be obsolete within 10 years thanks to artificial intelligence, and others are in hot demand. The key to a thriving career is to evolve and adapt your skill-set to ongoing changes, find ways to complement your day job with a side hustle so you can be financially secure, and find a "gap in the market," as entrepreneurs call it.

Look for a window of opportunity where there is high demand but little supply, or where the market is showing steady growth and a large appetite, and there you have discovered the secret to significantly upending your value to employers, your salary potential, and even starting your own successful side hustle.

While there is certainly a wide range of in-demand, high-income skills, for the purpose of this article let's take a look at three of them and analyze how they can benefit your career and even boost your salary through turning them into side hustles.

1. Project Management

The demand for project managers is set to significantly increase over the next few years, as a predicted 25 million will be needed to fill the gap across various industries globally. While project management skills are the lifeblood of successful initiatives and products, and are needed in almost every industry imaginable, a few of the most popular sectors with opportunities for the invaluable expertise of project managers include technology, construction, manufacturing, and finance.

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But you don't only need to look for project management jobs. Particularly if you already have experience delivering successful project outcomes, you can leverage your results and expertise to develop your personal brand as a project management expert or consultant.

Over time, gather the testimonials and positive feedback from your initial clients to promote your services further. Think closely about making your side hustle unique and your services indispensable, by specializing by industry or by specific area of expertise. For example, you might decide to be a project management consultant for the finance industry, or to be a project risk management specialist.

2. Software Development

The rapid advancement of technologies such as AI and machine learning calls for more software developers, with the outlook for this skill seeing a 25% surge in job demand over the next eight years up until 2032, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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If you already work as a software developer, you can use your previous experience to your advantage as an independent contractor, and advertise your services via freelancing platforms such as Toptal and Upwork. If you've just graduated and don't yet hold a role in this field, start off with smaller, cheaper projects to gain experience and to add to your portfolio. This can help you secure your first role as a software developer.

3. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is one of the fastest-growing in-demand skills for 2024 with Coursera ranking it in their top 10 list of business skills for the year. While the 6% average growth projection rate for jobs with this skill set may not appear to be as flattering as the 25% surge in demand for software developers, it is still more than the average rate, and the digital marketing industry is set to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2030 according to Coursera's report. This is a promising sign for anyone seeking to venture into this profession as a career, and make a profitable side hustle from it.

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There are a number of side hustle ideas you can generate from your digital marketing skills, such as:

• Freelance writing
• Social media management
• SEO optimization and consulting
• Email marketing campaign services
• Video marketing
• Branding consulting services
• Marketing strategy consulting

Finally, whatever high-value skill you choose, it's essential to remember that you are not immune to career upheavals. Even a high-income skill will easily become irrelevant and obsolete if you don't continue to develop and upskill yourself and undertake research into industry trends. So today, take time to identify areas in your career that could do with a makeover, polish them, and leverage your existing expertise to provide value, not only to your employer, but to your wider industry through your side hustle. This ensures a more robust career with increased earning potential.

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