How to Make Money Without Social Media (And Where the Customers Come From)

I asked women on Threads how they make money without posting online. Then I went looking for the part every side hustle list skips.

Every “side hustle ideas” video makes it sound so easy. Tutor! Pet sit! Be a virtual assistant! Then you scroll down to the comments and it’s the same two questions over and over. Okay, but how do I start? And, the way I put it in the episode, how the hell am I gonna find customers?

If you’re not posting every day, that second question is the whole thing.

So I asked women on Threads how they’re making money without posting online all day. (Plenty of women do really well with content, and if that’s you, keep going. This one’s for anyone who wants the money without signing up to be a content creator.)

Some of the replies took me somewhere I didn’t expect. One woman tutors kids with dyslexia out of her home and charges $30 for a 30-minute session. So obviously I went down a whole rabbit hole.

I ended up picking five ways to earn and digging into how you start and where the customers come from. Two of them I know firsthand. I’ve been working online since 2017, starting as a virtual assistant, and I helped my husband run a six-figure appliance repair business in Houston that was all in person. The other three I haven’t tried, so for those I’m going off what women told me in the comments and what the companies and government sites publish. Anything a commenter told me is self-reported, and I haven’t verified it.

The five at a glance

Company and government details checked October 30, 2026. Commenter figures are self-reported and not verified.

Wait, what counts as “without social media”?

This got blurry fast, because a Google Business Profile, Nextdoor and apps like Rover all sit in a gray area. When it came to whether they count as social media, my answer in the episode was “I personally don’t,” so they stayed in. Being findable is fine by me.

For the customer-finding part, I paid a one-time £5 (about $6.70) for DWC Magazine‘s guides on promoting a business offline. (That’s my referral link, and it gets you £2 off.) I leaned hardest on two of them: 100 Ways to Get Publicity Without Social Media and their Where Are My Customers tool. Nobody paid me to mention them, and I’ll tell you every time an idea came from them.

The tutor who gave me the most details

Her reply had more specifics than anybody else’s. She’s certified in a specific reading method and has a master’s in education. Families pay her directly, the kids come to her house, and she charges $30 for a 30-minute session. (Self-reported, not verified.)

For a reference point, the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the median pay for tutors at $20.84 an hour as of May 2025. That number leaves out self-employed tutors like her, so treat it as a rough comparison.

Her specialty is a big reason a family would pick her over some random tutor in the neighborhood. If I were trying this, I’d start really narrow, with one subject and one age group I could show I know.

Then there’s where the lessons happen. Her students come to her. A friend of hers travels to students and is able to charge more because of it. That one decision changes what you can charge and what the work costs you.

Now the boring stuff. The SBA says if you do business under your own legal name, you don’t have to register anywhere. Use a different business name and you may need to register a DBA (doing business as). Kids coming to your house can bring zoning into it too, since the SBA says zoning rules can still apply to home-based businesses. Credentials and background checks depend on your state and on who’s hiring you.

She didn’t share what it cost her to get started. So I don’t have a startup number for you…and I’m not about to make one up.

So where do tutoring students come from?

Her reply never mentioned posting online, so I went looking.

A Google Business Profile is free. If students come to you, you’d list an address, and Google says that address is public. (Something to think about when the address is your house.) If you travel to students, Google lets you hide your address and show a service area instead. That’s what we did for the appliance repair business. We left the location off and listed where we offered service.

The DWC guide had a couple of tutoring ideas I really liked. One was offering a free 30-minute session at your local library or a community group on something useful, like how to tell if your kid is struggling with reading. Libraries already host a lot of free community stuff, and you end up in a room full of parents who now know exactly what you do. Then you turn that same information into a one-page checklist with your name and number on it and leave copies where parents already sit, like the library or the pediatrician’s office (ask first).

You could also partner with someone who works with the same families in a different way, like a speech therapist, and send clients to each other. Then you’re not out there hunting for strangers.

Once a family has been with you long enough to see progress, that’s when you ask for a referral or a review. The DWC guide says to be specific when you ask, because “send people my way” doesn’t give anybody much to work with. The example I gave in the episode was: “Do you know another parent whose kid is like falling behind and they need help with reading this year?” Now they know exactly who to send you.

And a commenter pointed out that gas and travel time come out of that $30 too. So do taxes, since nobody’s taking them out of your pay when you’re self-employed. (More on that at the end.)

Virtual assistant work is how I started

This one I know personally. In 2017 I was a virtual assistant, and I got my start on Upwork.

Upwork is a freelance marketplace where business owners post the tasks or projects they need help with. It works a lot differently now than when I started, but basically you spend “Connects” to bid on jobs, and the business owner looks at everyone who bid and decides who to hire or interview. It was competitive then. It’s even more competitive now. I still think it’s a good place to start if you’re new to VA or admin work.

One woman in my replies described her VA work as inboxes, calendars, research and admin. Someone else mentioned bookkeeping. Business owners are basically paying you to take things off their plate.

If you’re wondering whether you could do this, I wouldn’t overthink it. Write down every task you handled at your old jobs (or your current one, if you’re starting on the side). Managing calendars, setting appointments, running social media, keeping track of inventory, whatever it was. Then look on Upwork and see if people are hiring for those things. They probably are. (There’s a whole post on figuring out your transferable skills if you want help with that list.)

You probably already own what you need, like a computer and internet. The paperwork is basically the same as tutoring. Your own legal name works, and a different business name means looking into a DBA with your state. Before you take anyone’s money, get a written agreement that spells out your scope of work, so the client can’t keep piling on more and more tasks. That’s called scope creep.

Where my clients came from after Upwork

For me, Upwork was just the beginning. After that, a lot of my work came through word-of-mouth referrals, and the business grew from there.

A consultant in my Threads comments said her work comes from reputation and referrals too, and she put it so well:

“Your reputation becomes your resume.”

That’s so true for service businesses. Your first client might be a lot closer than you think. It could be somebody you know through work, or someone from church or your neighborhood who has a business and needs what you do.

DWC’s Where Are My Customers guide laid out an order for this that made so much sense to me. Start by asking a couple of people you know, or have already worked with, whether they need ongoing help every month. Then go back through old coworkers and people you’ve lost touch with, one at a time, with a personal note that mentions something real and tells them what you’re doing now. If you need completely new people, go where business owners already gather, like your Chamber of Commerce meetings. And before you pay anything to join a chamber, find out who’s in that room and whether they’d want what you offer.

One more idea from the episode is a small free audit. You offer to look at how someone handles their inbox or invoices and tell them what you see. It can save them time and take some stress off their plate, and they get a little taste of what working with you is like.

Are virtual assistant jobs a scam?

Some of them, yes. One comment on my post with a whole bunch of likes asked where the real virtual assistant jobs are, because everything she was finding was a scam.

She’s not being paranoid. I hate that people see VA work that way, but it happens. Some of these “jobs” just want to sell you a $27 PDF. Others are phishing for your personal information, like your phone number and email address.

The FTC specifically warns about fake virtual assistant jobs. In the setup it describes, the person who “hires” you sends a check and tells you to deposit it, keep part as your pay and send the rest to someone else. The FTC says the check is fake and will bounce, and the bank will want you to repay the full amount. It also says honest employers will never ask you to pay to get a job.

So if it smells fishy, let it go.

Pet sitting, where the app is your storefront

Pet sitting came up in the replies as one of those very normal skills people turn into money. Pet owners can pay you directly, or you can go through an app. I haven’t done this one, but Rover publishes almost its whole process, so I’m using it as the example.

On Rover, you pick your services and set your rates. Your profile can include testimonials if you’ve already done some pet sitting. There’s a safety quiz, plus a background check that includes ID verification. The profile review costs $49 to $79 depending on where you live, and that fee may change over time. Rover’s help center puts the background check at 1 to 10 days (occasionally a few weeks), and it’s nonrefundable.

So this is not an “I need some money by Friday” gig.

Getting paid takes a minute too. Your payment shows up in your account 2 days after the booking ends, and then it can take up to 5 business days to hit your bank. You’ll need your Social Security number and bank info to get paid out. Sitters keep 80% of each booking, per Rover. So if a customer pays $100, you keep $80…and that’s still before gas and taxes.

If you skip the app

Going solo means checking your city and state business license rules and asking an insurance agent about liability coverage. You’re taking care of somebody’s animal, so you want to know you’re protected.

Off the app, you’re the storefront, which means people need a reason to trust you. Referrals do the most work here. If friends and family will let you pet sit in exchange for a testimonial, that helps a lot when you’re new. You can also trade referrals with businesses that serve the same pet owners in a different way, like a groomer or a dog trainer. And when somebody sends you a client, thank them like a person. A handwritten card or a free walk lands a lot better than a random “thanks” two weeks later.

One big thing if you use Rover at all. Rover says that if you meet a client through Rover, the booking has to happen on Rover. Setting it up there and finishing it off the app breaks its terms and can get your account deactivated. Going direct is for the clients you found yourself.

What brought jobs to our repair business

Someone in my replies basically said there’s money in solving regular-ass problems, and listed cleaning, landscaping, property maintenance and bookkeeping. I’m using cleaning as the example because it’s easy to see who pays: households and small offices.

This is the other one I know a little about firsthand, through a different service. My husband ran an appliance repair business in Houston, and I worked in it with him. It was a six-figure business, all in person, so we got to see exactly where the jobs came from.

We were set up with home warranty companies, and they’d send us jobs. We called in every day, so it was an ongoing relationship. They can give you a headache sometimes (I won’t pretend they’re always easy to work with). Still, they’re a way to get jobs without touching social media, and if you do repairs or another trade, that’s where they can come in for you.

We also did guerrilla marketing, which for us meant real signs out in the community. We put them up around the highways and near the Walmart entrance, anywhere people would pass on their Saturday chore runs. Like I said in the episode, “We weren’t relying on digital marketing.”

And I managed our Google Business Profile, which had all five stars. We were very proud of that.

The last piece was giving five-star service every single time. My husband brought the hospitality from his restaurant background into the business. We sent thank-yous and brought gifts. I remember one client whose husband had just passed, and we took her flowers. That’s just being a real human being and treating people the way you’d want to be treated.

If you’re thinking about cleaning

Pick one service, and pick a service area that doesn’t have you spending your entire life in a car. Google says a service area shouldn’t be more than about two hours of driving from where you’re based.

Licensing is local, so please don’t copy something you saw on TikTok from another state and assume it works where you live. Check your local business rules. Startup costs are usually supplies plus whatever licensing or insurance your area requires. Nobody in my comments shared what it cost them to start, so look up the real numbers where you are.

DWC’s guide had two ideas that fit here. One is a five-visit package. Somebody books one cleaning with you, and you offer five cleanings at a discounted price. They keep coming back, and if you’re doing a great job and getting all the dust off the windowsills, they’re ready to book more when the package runs out.

The other is getting on approved vendor lists, like your city’s or a property management company’s. My old apartment building had one, and they offered my husband a spot on it for a fee. We didn’t end up doing it. Still, like I said in the episode, “it’s worth it if you’re able to, you know, bang out 20, 30, 40 jobs within the same building.”

With any local service, the drive from one side of town to the other is unpaid. Count it when you figure out what you’re really making.

AI training and website testing, where the platform finds the work

This one works differently. You’re doing work for a company that needs it, so there’s no business to start and no customers to go find.

A couple of my past guests on She Chose Again have talked about AI training. In Brandy’s story, she was taking freelance training work and AI training projects whenever they were available.

DataAnnotation‘s starter assessment takes about an hour, per its FAQ, and you only get one shot at it. You usually hear back within a few days whether you’re approved. There’s no signup fee, and they pay through PayPal. General projects start at $25 to $50 an hour. Coding work starts at $40 and goes up to $150-plus, and work that needs advanced degrees or professional licenses starts at $40 and goes up to $125-plus. For general work, it asks for a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, and you’ll have to verify your ID.

Website testing pays a lot less. For UserTesting, you need to be at least 18 with a microphone and a verified PayPal account, and you have to pass a practice test, which isn’t paid. Pay depends on the test, and you see it before you accept. One UserTesting help page lists $10 for a standard 15 to 20 minute test. Payment usually lands in PayPal about 14 days after you finish, and UserTesting doesn’t withhold any taxes.

I signed up with a company called Mercor (that’s my referral link). They had me do some assessments, and then “they actually sent me a job offer that was sixty dollars an hour to do some writing.” I didn’t end up taking it. From the offers I’ve seen, Mercor’s pay starts at about $30 an hour and goes up from there, and Mercor’s own listings say rates are set per project, so it really depends on the role. That kind of work is training the AI to give better results as people use it.

The catch with this whole category is something I said in the episode: “you don’t have any control over how much work shows up. The platform does.” You might get several jobs one week and then one job in three weeks. For extra income, it’s worth checking out. I wouldn’t count on it to cover your bills.

How do you tell if a gig is legit?

The complaint I kept seeing under job videos on YouTube was that finding legit opportunities starts to feel like a whole job by itself. A lot of remote jobs turn out to be contractor gigs, and people with years of experience get screened out by so-called entry-level requirements. Before you hand some random person your information or your money, the FTC has a few things to check.

Start by searching the company or person’s name with words like “scam” or “complaint.” Unexpected job offers by text or on messaging apps like WhatsApp are a red flag, because the FTC says real employers won’t contact you that way. Honest employers won’t charge you for the promise of a job. And no legit employer will send you a check to deposit and then ask you to send some of it back. You can report a fake job to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

My own rule is a lot simpler:

“If I have to pay you before you pay me, I’m out. It’s not for me, it’s a no.”

What works for every one of these

For every one where you find your own customers, it kept landing on the same basics. Have one sentence that explains what you do in plain English, so simple that anybody can hear it and think, okay, I need to go to her for that. Then start your own list of everyone who’s hired you or asked about what you offer, with their emails or phone numbers, and stay in touch. Like I said in the episode, “That’s one list that no app is ever going to be able to take from you. It’s yours.”

The hardest part is picking one thing and sticking with it long enough to see if it works. “And I’m guilty of this too.” I’ll try something, and when it doesn’t work in a week or two, I’m already on to the next idea. So before you start collecting 12 more ideas…give the one you picked a real shot.

The less cute math: taxes

Every one of these is self-employment income, including the platform work. Nobody’s taking taxes out for you.

Self-employment tax is 15.3% (that’s Social Security plus Medicare), and per the IRS it kicks in once your net self-employment earnings hit $400 for the year. That’s on top of regular income tax. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file, the IRS says you generally need to make estimated tax payments during the year.

Now, 1099s. For payments made in 2026, a business generally has to file a Form 1099-NEC for a contractor once it pays them $2,000 or more in the year, up from $600 before. That rule covers payments a business makes as part of its business, so a parent paying you for tutoring generally isn’t sending you one. Payment apps and online marketplaces generally have to send a 1099-K once you get more than $20,000 across more than 200 transactions, though they can send one for less. None of that changes what you owe. The IRS says you have to report all your income, even if you never get a 1099.

Keep your receipts too. The IRS says deducting certain expenses can lower what you owe, so sit down with a spreadsheet (or a paper and pen) and add up everything this is going to cost you. A tax pro can tell you your real number.

So where do the customers come from?

After all that digging, almost every answer led back to other people: a parent telling another parent, an old coworker who needs help every month, a groomer with a client who needs a sitter, a home warranty company calling with a job. The platform work is the one exception, and there the platform sends you the work and also decides how much of it you get.

If you’re posting and it’s working for you, girl, keep doing that. This one’s for the women who heard “build an audience” and immediately wanted another option.

Now I need to hear from the women who are doing this. If you make money without posting all the time, how did you get your very first customer?

She’s Getting Paid for This is an Out of Edits series where I go down the rabbit hole on the surprising ways women are making money, then dig into who’s paying, what it costs to start and how the money works. Comment figures in this post are self-reported and not verified. Company and government details were checked October 30, 2026, and can change. I’ve done virtual assistant work and helped run a local service business, but I haven’t tried the others. Nothing here is sponsored. The DWC Magazine and Mercor links are my referral links. This isn’t financial or tax advice.

Want the next one? I write about money AND life every Sunday in Okay, Now What?

More from She’s Getting Paid for This: Who’s Paying $190 an Hour for Gift Wrapping?