The Best 13+ Side Hustles for Accountants

With all the expenses brought on by modern life, it’s not surprising that many accountants are looking for ways to earn extra income.

Luckily, there are lots of opportunities for professional accountants to leverage their skills into a lucrative side hustle.

This article explores the best side hustles for accountants, picked according to factors such as income prospects, flexibility, and skill overlap. Read on to learn more about each one of them.

1. Bookkeeping Services

Average Hourly Rate (US): $19.28/hour

Working as a freelance bookkeeper is a logical choice for a professional accountant looking for a side hustle. Bookkeeping is always in high demand and requires a set of financial skills that most accounting professionals already possess.

Virtual bookkeeping services require no special education or license, and accounting experience is certain to help with gig prospects. Still, you may want to get an official bookkeeping certification to improve your credentials even further.

Dedicated platforms for connecting bookkeepers to potential clients, such as bookkeepers.com, are a good choice for professionals looking for a place to offer bookkeeping services.

2. Tax Preparation Services

Average Hourly Rate (US): $15.41/hour

If you work as an accountant, you’ve certainly had people constantly approach you with questions related to their tax forms. While this doesn’t count as accounting expertise per se, there’s no reason not to try and earn money out of it.

Filling out tax returns and providing basic tax consultant services is a simple job for everyone with experience in working with finances. During tax season, gig opportunities should constantly be rolling in, making it a lucrative option.

A clever option for professionals looking to work in tax prep is to consider tax prep platforms like H&R Block.

3. Accounting Consultancy

Average Hourly Rate (US): $39.25/hour

Becoming an accounting consultant is an excellent way to turn your accounting knowledge into profit. Many clients — mostly small business owners — will need occasional consulting services on financial matters, at quite lucrative rates.

Consulting duties may include a broad range of activities, including financial planning, advice on tax laws, or help with setting up accounting and bookkeeping processes.

Guru.com is a platform dedicated to finding highly skilled freelance professionals, that presents a solid option for consultants of all sorts.

4. Freelance Accounting

Average Hourly Rate (US): $22.61/hour

If your full-time accounting job doesn’t pay enough, choosing to offer freelance accounting services is always an option. It allows you to use your accounting skills for a side hustle that lets you set your own hours and fully plan your own schedule.

Setting up this accounting side hustle is extremely simple, and only requires registering your own business and getting a hold of specialized accounting software. Still, make sure that it doesn’t create any potential conflicts of interest with your full-time job.

You can use Accountingfly to help prop up your freelance accounting side hustle.

5. Financial Coaching Services

Average Hourly Rate (US): $20.03/hour

Holding an accounting job means having lots of direct experience with financial processes, making many experienced and successful accountants qualified to serve as business management experts and provide relevant financial advice.

Thus, financial coaching is a common side hustle for many accountants, who leverage their professional experience to help develop clients’ personal finance skills or coach small businesses on budgeting, cash flow, and overall profitability.

To find jobs as a financial coach, consider applying to Toptal’s panel of financial experts.

6. Freelance Writing

Average Hourly Rate (US): $25.24/hour

Content writing is in perpetually high demand, which includes writing on finance-related topics — fintech is an especially popular one. Accountants can use their professional knowledge to write about those topics or choose to focus on a completely different niche.

Writing services are typically paid for at a per-word rate. The rates tend to be low for new writers but dramatically increase with experience and proven expertise. Therefore, experienced writers can expect to earn significantly more money than what may initially seem like modest prospects.

Freelance writers can find gigs through platforms such as Writers Work.

7. Creating Online Courses

Average Hourly Rate (US): $41.80/hour

After years of professional experience in accounting, you’ve probably accumulated enough knowledge to create a successful online course. The course can cover any topic from tax preparation to accounting software tutorials.

While creating an online course takes a lot of effort, once it’s finally launched it becomes a steady and lucrative source of passive income since you can sell it repeatedly without any additional work.

You can create and sell courses through online learning platforms such as Udemy.

8. Starting a Podcast

Average Hourly Rate (US): $15.52/hour

Podcasting is an incredibly affordable side hustle that still leaves a lot of room for steady profit. With time and growth, podcasts earn sponsorships, affiliate partnerships, and open their way to other methods of monetization that may help them grow into a substantial business.

You can start a podcast on virtually any topic or niche, but professional accountants may want to prioritize an accounting-related podcast.

You can launch, host, and promote your podcast through many different platforms, such as Podbean.

9. Online Market Research

Average Hourly Rate (US): $20.30/hour

Market research is a crucial part of the product development pipeline, and brands will pay significant money for insights related to their products, and to learn about customer behaviors and preferences.

That’s where researchers come in — their job is to conduct paid market research and deliver studies to the client. Such research may involve surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups, and other forms of data collection.

To find gigs and facilitate research, market researchers use platforms such as User Interviews.

10. Real Estate Investment

Average Hourly Rate (US): $67.24/hour

Digital real estate investments are among the most popular side hustles in general, due to their ability to generate passive income at a high level. Although real estate costs a lot, the payback is usually worth it.

Luckily, it’s perfectly possible to start small — with a sum as low as $10-$100 — and check back each month or quarter to pay out your first dividends.

Arrived is a portal that provides prime investment opportunities to new investors.

11. Online Tutoring

Average Hourly Rate (US): $19.65/hour

Many students see accounting, economics, and bookkeeping as their most dreaded subjects, so they’re on the lookout for tutors who can help them prepare for their classes.

There are hardly any better people to help them with this than professional accountants ready to share their knowledge and earn money on the side while doing so.

Online tutoring is facilitated through dedicated platforms such as Wyzant.

12. Virtual CFO Services

Average Hourly Rate (US): $33.84/hour

Many startups and small businesses opt for outsourcing their CFO (Chief Financial Officer) tasks instead of having a permanent in-house position.

As a freelance job, CFO services are a popular side hustle for accountants knowledgeable about the strategic side of business finances. The tasks expected from a CFO include overseeing all accounting, transactions, and tax reports, creating financial strategies, and maintaining financial records.

Paro, a freelancing platform for financial experts, is the best choice for freelance CFOs looking for online work.

13. Blogging

Average Hourly Rate (US): $15.16/hour

Starting a blog or niche website opens the opportunity to monetize it through ads and marketing. While developing the blog to the point where it starts earning money is a long-term commitment, it can be very profitable once the project finally takes off.

You have complete freedom in deciding your blog niche — while it may be related to accounting or finances, you may also want to pick a completely unrelated subject.

There are several popular blogging and website-building platforms that can help you with this, with WordPress as the most popular one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Side Hustles to Consider

• Virtual Assistance: A virtual assistant gig involves helping clients with various administrative tasks remotely. Most of these tasks don’t require accounting qualifications but are ones that everyone in the profession has had direct experience with.
• Remote Marketing: Remote marketing is a popular side gig choice for many professionals. It’s also one that lots of accountants will find familiar and enjoyable, due to knowledge of finances that often impacts marketing strategies.
• Digital Wholesaling: Digital wholesaling is a property investment strategy centered around discovering property to be sold and transferring contracts to interested buyers. Accountants’ knack for finances makes them the perfect people for this gig.

Wrapping Up

As a professional in a finance-related field, it’s not hard to find promising gig opportunities. Still, finding the perfect side hustle for accountants that lets you earn extra cash while making use of all your skills requires a fair bit of knowledge.

We hope that this article managed to help. If it does, make sure to share it, and feel free to comment if you have any extra suggestions.