In this new Gilded Age we’re living through, the one thing everyone needs, apparently, is a side hustle or two (unless you’ve got a trust fund or have inherited a stock portfolio). Side hustles are great for folks who need just a bit more money but don’t necessarily need (or have the ability to get) a second full- or part-time job. If you’ve got the sort of skill set that allows you to work remotely (say, writing, or App development) you can probably sign up for a freelancer task site and earn a few extra bucks just doing small projects. If you’re physically fit and available, you can also do one of those “rabbit” style sites that pair you with folks who need manual labor or small repair projects taken care of. That’s true of anyone living anywhere, of course. Wherever you call home always has some specific opportunities for side hustles that might not be universal. Hoboken’s no exception—here are a few ideas for profitable side hustles that are very Hoboken-specific.

Parking Wrangler

We’ve all seen the episode of Seinfeld where George almost goes insane trying to cover for the guy in their NYC neighborhood who moves everyone’s car on street cleaning day. If there’s one thing people need, it’s help like that with parking. Whether managing alternate side of the street parking regulations and avoiding those annoying tickets, or moving a car left in a time-sensitive spot or other services, why not advertise your clean driving record and gather up some car keys? Considering how many people are under severe parking stress in this town, you could clean up taking some of it off their plates.

Package Angel

Walk down just about any street in Hoboken during the day and you will see literally dozens of packages sitting outside doors. Most delivery services bringing your Amazon Prime or Nordstrom’s packages put immense pressure on their workers to handle ever-larger delivery routes in ever-shrinking time frames, so packages just get dumped on stairs, sidewalks, or inside storm doors, insecure and exposed to the elements. While Amazon tries to convince everyone that installing special locks that give their delivery folks access to your house is a good idea, a simpler solution is you offering to pick up packages for folks and either storing them with you, or using a key to drop them inside.

Barstool Warmer

Hoboken is a drinker’s paradise in many ways, but how often have you arrived at your favorite watering hole on a weekend evening to find a wall of people? Or planned to watch a game at a bar only to find yourself standing, crushed into a corner, by the surely illegal crowd? Now imagine some industrious person set up a side hustle where you could book them to show up at your fave bar at, say, 4PM, secure a table, and hold it until you arrived? My goodness, life as we know it would change forever. And someone would make a pretty good living, especially if they insisted that all the beers and snacks they consume while holding the seat had to be covered.

Pet Sitter/Walker

This one isn’t exactly obscure or unique to Hoboken, but it’s still a big part of life here. You can see just by walking around that dog walkers are very much in demand, as are pet sitters. Getting paid to hang out at someone’s house and play with their pets isn’t a bad gig, although you should either be experienced and comfortable dealing with elderly pets or those who need medicines or up front about your lack of comfort there. But if you can get a few clients in this line you can make some good money just making the rounds of a few houses every evening after the Day Job. Finally, if someone wants to take on a side hustle sitting outside houses on Friday and Saturday nights and then stalking loud, obnoxious drunks as they go home, and then waking those obnoxious drunks up at ten o’clock by shouting outside their windows, we’re pretty certain a lot of people would pay you for it. Hit us up. What Hoboken-specific side hustles can you think of? Let us know!

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