Hello, hive friends! How is life going? I was brainstorming what to write about for my blog this week when I saw the Asean Hive Community Challenge by @justinparke, and it was a very exciting topic—it’s all about side hustles.

In Filipino, we have an informal term called "Raket," which is the English equivalent of a sideline. We call a person who has many sidelines or is a pro when it comes to sidelines a "Raketera" (pertaining to a female or raketero if it’s a male), and I’m proud to say that I’m a certified Raketera.

Being a single mom at a young age actually helped expose me to hustle culture. It’s not something that I would recommend, but life happens, and what we can do is move forward, learn from our mistakes, and be better.

Back when I was in college, one of my first sidelines was project making. I’m the one who makes research papers, essays, edits videos, makes presentations, and all other projects for my classmates for a fee ranging from ₱100 to ₱1,000, depending on the complexity of the project.

Photo by Windows on Unsplash

It was a decent sideline for a student like me back then who really didn’t have a main source of income. It was a way for me to earn money, which then helped me through my on-the-job training and until graduation.

Even after I graduated and found a decent job in the corporate world, I still have my side hustles every now and then. I’m a big fan of buy and sell, and I usually get wholesale products from Shoppee and resell them every time I go home to the province, or I usually buy things here in Cebu and sell them back in Guiuan for a higher price. Things that I sell vary from clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, food, or just about anything under the sun that is trending or in season.

I think one of the main reasons I love to buy and sell is because I’m a hard seller at heart. I used to go around town selling my homemade Longanisa back then, and with the use of social media, selling just got a whole lot easier.

I shared about my Longanisa Selling Journey on a previous blog and also wrote a blog about the time when I was selling Drip Coffee as a side hustle

Another thing is that I love editing pictures and modeling the material. I’m very hands-on when it comes to my side hustles. from buying to product photoshoots, down to editing and marketing. I’m just in love with the process, and the profits just feel like an added bonus.

I have also tried to sell ukay-ukay. It’s thrifted clothes sold by the bundle. I was so excited when I got my first bale. It was like opening a very big present in front of you, and down came all the clothes.

The bale weighed about 45kls I think I got over 200 trousers that time. I really invested a lot of sweat and effort sorting the thrifted trousers into categories to see how many of them are worth selling, and once I was able to sort the ones with good quality, I washed them and prepared for the photoshoot.

The ukay-ukay sideline was not much of a success; I was unable to sell out all the items, but at least I was able to get the investment money back.

At other times, when I don’t sell ukay ukay bales or brand new clothes, I often do a general cleaning of our closet to check for items that I can sell. like the old clothes of my kids, just like the example below.

Aside from the usual buy-and-sell sidelines, I also have another one that is very close to my heart and something I am always excited about.

My Fave Sideline

It's Hosting

I do hosting for birthdays, debuts, or even weddings, but one of my biggest breaks was years ago when I was able to host concerts in our local community.

If I had to choose, I would say hosting is my favorite side hustle. I love talking, and every time I have the microphone on, it’s game time. I really enjoy entertaining and meeting people. However, with the demands of my full-time job right now, it’s been awhile since I was able to book any hosting gigs, but my doors are still open just in case something pops up that works with my schedule.

So for now, you can just see me post items for sale on my social media account every now and then.

All these side hustles have helped me a lot, especially when my kids started going to school; they were able to cover some of the expenses. It’s no joke raising children on your own, so we really need to be full of ideas on where to get extra money apart from our full-time job, and now I am just thankful that I have also found hive. I’m not only revisiting my love for writing once again, but at the same time, it also helps me build the savings fund I’m starting for my kids.

So that’s it from your certified Raketera single mom. How about you? Do you have any other side hustles? You still have a few days before the challenge ends, so go ahead and share your story with us. I’m excited to know where and how you earn extra money.

Ma. Morena is a nature enthusiast, an optimist and outgoing person who loves turning her adventure and thoughts into writing.

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All photos were taken and edited by me unless stated otherwise. Images may have been shared to my social media accounts prior posting to the blog.