One Of My Best Side Hustles Yet
Want to make $35–40+ from delivering food? Here’s how
Co-Story — written by James
I often get funny looks from people once they determine that I side hustle as a food delivery courier. After all, I’m an informed lawyer who graduated from a top-tier school of law and worked at an enormous firm making six-figures per annum. People like me simply aren’t alleged to be doing “low-level” work like this.
But for me, these food delivery apps — apps like Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub — have always made tons of sense. I can turn them on whenever I would like, work for as long or as little as I would like, and basically side hustle and make extra cash whenever it works on behalf of me. Even better, I don’t need to use a car to do my deliveries (I’ve always opted to do my deliveries whilst using a bike).
It has now been five years since I first started delivering with these apps and out of all my side hustles, food delivery has easily become my favorite and most lucrative side hustle. I’ve gotten to the purpose where I’m so efficient that I’m ready to consistently average $40 or more per hour.
It seems crazy, but it’s true! And with the proper strategy, delivering food with apps like Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub is often very rewarding. The amazing thing is that this is often a side hustle that just about everyone can do.
Why a Food Delivery Side Hustle?
As a fast little bit of background, I ask about food delivery because of the on-demand delivery apps that allow you to order food from local restaurants. The apps might differ counting on where you reside, but generally, the four main food delivery apps within the U.S. are Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub.
These delivery apps differ in various ways, but the essential concept is the same. You check in to deliver on these apps as an individual. Whenever you would like to try to do deliveries, you merely log onto each app. When customers place orders, those orders get sent to available delivery couriers within the area. If an order gets sent to you, you’ll get information about what amount the delivery job pays, which restaurant to pick up the food from, and where to drop off the food. you’ll then chose to accept or reject the order.
So why would a lawyer spend their time doing this sort of work? On behalf of me, it comes right down to three main reasons.
First, I find food deliveries fun. One of the foremost appealing aspects of those food delivery apps is that the incontrovertible fact that you don’t need a car to try to do them. I’m a bicycle commuter and that I enjoy biking, therefore the incontrovertible fact that I can deliver food using these delivery apps works rather well for my lifestyle. I already bike for fun and exercise anyway. Delivering food basically means I can get paid to exercise and explore my city. And as another advantage, using my bike means I avoid all the expenses that come with a car. (Note: Although you don’t get to own a car in most markets, most food delivery companies still require you to possess a legitimate driver’s license)
Second, the cash you’ll earn delivering food with these apps may be a lot better than you’d think. Most of the people don’t consider food delivery service as something which will be high paying, but within the right areas and with the proper strategy, it is often very lucrative. You would possibly even make more on an hourly basis than what you create at your 9–5-day job. Indeed, for the past year, I’ve regularly averaged $40 or more per hour doing deliveries. These results won’t be typical and therefore the amount you earn will, of course, vary counting on your market. But in many cities, a high hourly rate is extremely possible, assuming you understand the simplest ways to use these delivery apps.
Finally, delivering food may be a good way to require advantage of an idea I call the Reverse Latte Factor. If you’re a private finance enthusiast, you’ll have heard about the Latte Factor, which is that the concept we spend small amounts every day without even realizing it. Over time, those small amounts add up. By cutting these small daily expenses and saving the cash we might have otherwise spent, it’s possible to return out with many thousands of dollars over time because of the magic of interest.
If the Latte Factor works by cutting small expenses, then the Reverse Latte Factor works within the other way. That is, if we take the opportunities ahead folks to earn small amounts of additional money daily, that cash, when saved and invested over the future, also can add up to many thousands of dollars (or even 1,000,000 dollars)
Take a glance at the below chart to ascertain what you’ll have if you earn just an additional $5, $10, $20, or $30 per day and invest all of it.
You’ll be surprised at what proportion it adds up to (the chart assumes a 7% average annual rate of return, which I feel may be a reasonable assumption).
The math here is incredible. Earning an additional $10 per day and investing all of it means you’ll have quite $360,000 after 30 years. If you double your daily earnings to an additional $20 per day, you’ll have quite $700,000. Make it $30 of additional income per day, and you’ll become a millionaire — all from doing something as simple as delivering food!
How Much are you able to Make Doing Food Delivery?
As with any gig economy app, the quantity you’ll make varies and can depend upon a mixture of where you’re located and therefore the way strategic, you’re with once you work and the delivery jobs you accept.
Delicate Your Time
One thing to believe with these food delivery apps is that your income is earned, not with the time you spend working, but rather with the tasks that you simply complete. Thus, understanding the difference between the trading time for money vs. trading tasks for money is vital. Your goal is to work out the simplest thanks to complete your delivery jobs within the most effective manner in order that you’ll earn the foremost money within the shortest amount of your time.
As I’ve mentioned, I regularly earn $40 or more per hour doing food deliveries. That sounds ridiculous because food delivery isn’t a talented position that might seemingly garner such a high hourly rate. But once you break it down, you’ll see how it’s possible.
Specifically:
• I primarily do deliveries during peak delivery hours (i.e., lunch or dinner). this enables me to finish more deliveries during a shorter amount of your time since there are more hungry customers during these peak hours.
• I typically average between $6 to $8 per delivery job. this is often done by rejecting low-paying orders and only accepting orders that meet my pay criteria.
• I can usually complete around 5 to 6 deliveries per hour. I do that by running multiple delivery apps, accepting orders that I do know I can complete quickly, and dealing during a small, dense area that I do know alright.
On the low end, if I average $6 per delivery and complete 5 deliveries per hour, I earn $30 per hour. On the high end, I can average $8 per delivery and complete 6 deliveries per hour, resulting in an hourly rate of $48 per hour. once you break down the numbers during this manner, you’ll see how it’s possible on behalf of me to get this type of income delivering food.
Of course, it likely isn’t possible to earn $40 per hour doing this full-time just because the demand for food throughout the day isn’t consistent — restaurant demand tends to be at the very best during lunch and dinner hours, then drops off tons outside of these hours.
But this is often why food delivery service works so well as a side hustle.
If you’re not living off this money and are instead treating it as extra income, it’s possible for you to figure only during the simplest times once you can make the foremost money.
Food Delivery Strategies You’ll Use
Making money with these food delivery apps requires using the proper strategies. Here are some food delivery strategies you’ll use to assist you create the foremost money.
Use a bicycle instead of a car
One of my favorite food delivery strategies is to prefer to use a bike, instead of a car. There are tons of reasons why employing a bike is right when delivering food.
• Most food delivery demand is in dense, downtown areas where restaurants and other people are located. A bicycle allows you to quickly move through traffic.
• Using a bicycle means you don’t need to affect parking, which may be a serious problem in busy areas for a delivery driver.
• A bike allows you to avoid all the prices that accompany operating a car, which results in more profit at the top of the day.
• Delivering employing a bike comes with improved health, which has an indirect monetary benefit.
You don’t need to stick with only using a regular bike either. Over the years, I’ve expanded my modes of transportation to incorporate electric bikes and electric scooters also. These accompany the additional advantage of allowing me to maneuver through my city even faster, all without breaking a sweat.
Take Advantage of Multi-Apping
An advanced technique, and one that I like to recommend everyone eventually learn to try to do, is to run multiple food delivery apps at the same time. This is often key if you would like to significantly increase your earnings.
Here’s an example of how multi-apping works. If I’m getting an order from one restaurant, I’ll often get delivery requests from other apps in the same area. By accepting these additional orders, I’m ready to essentially double or triple the pay I’m making within the same amount of your time. So, if I’m delivering one order that pays me $6, by accepting additional delivery jobs, I can turn what would are a $6 delivery into a $12 or $18 delivery in about an equivalent amount of your time.
Therefore, I always tell people to check-in for each food delivery app in your city. Most areas in the U.S. have Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. counting on where you reside, there could also be more options also.
Note that running multiple delivery apps may be a skill that takes time to find out. You would like to possess an honest understanding of how each delivery app works and the way to piece together orders in order that you’re delivering all your orders in a timely manner. It’s far more important to form sure that you’re delivering orders on time in order that you don’t get bad reviews or get deactivated.
That said, with practice, you’ll get a far better sense of which delivery jobs to simply accept and which to reject, and the way to piece together different delivery jobs into one smooth, continuous route.
Use Food Deliveries to Earn Money for the Things You’re Already Doing
The thing that originally attracted me to those food delivery apps was how well they might fit into my day-to-day life. I used to be working long hours as an attorney once I first started with these delivery apps, so I didn’t have tons of spare time to travel around delivering food. However, I found that I could fit my food deliveries into the items I used to be already doing.
For example, at the top of every workday, I might activate my food delivery apps and appearance for orders going back towards my house. Since I used to be already biking home, delivering food along the way essentially allowed me to urge purchased my commute home.
Lately, I do not need to commute, but whenever I’m going anywhere, I nearly always activate my food delivery apps to ascertain if I can devour a delivery along the way.
Think about how you’ll use food deliveries to urge purchased the items you’re already doing. If your bike is a sort of exercise, delivering food is a simple thanks to getting purchased your exercise time. Or believe your commute and the way you’ll incorporate deliveries into that commute. the pliability of those apps makes it very possible to suit deliveries into your day-to-day life.
Think Like a Business
One mistake that I see tons of gig workers make is treating themselves as if they were employees, instead of independent contractors. You’ve got to recollect that these food delivery apps have chosen to classify their workers as independent contractors. Meaning if you’re working with these apps, you’re essentially a little business.
As with any business, you simply want to simply accept work that’s profitable to you.
While these apps don’t offer you the power to line your own pay, you’ve got the power to essentially create your own pay by accepting only those orders that meet your criteria. Don’t be afraid to say no to jobs that don’t add up for you.
Work Only During Peak Hours
One reason I like to recommend a food delivery side hustle is that it means you’ve got the advantage of having the ability to figure only during times once you can earn the foremost money.
Food delivery tends to be busiest during lunch and supper time hours, therefore the best way to maximizing your earnings is to only work when demand is high. I tend to only work during lunch or dinner hours when demand is at its peak. If you’re doing this full-time, you would possibly not have that luxury. But if you’re using this as a side hustle, you’ll prefer to work only you’ll make the foremost money.
Final Thoughts on Making extra cash With Food Delivery
One of the things I enjoy about the current state of the side hustling world is how easy it’s to suit various side hustles into my day-to-day life. We sleep in a world where it’s possible to form extra cash every single day, whenever you are feeling like it, just by turning on your phone.
There’s tons of power in having the ability to earn extra income in small, piecemeal chunks like this. Not all folks have the time or ability to spend months or years building a business that may or won’t earn any income.
But I bet most folks can spare half-hour or an hour every day doing something like this.
Making an additional few bucks every day won’t appear to be that big of a deal. But with enough time and consistency, that cash really does add up.
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