You do not need to play in a band to be part of the burgeoning ‘gig economy’. Nearly everyone has skills or assets they can exploit in their spare time to boost their income – or save money by using one of a new wave of technology-driven services.
The Mail on Sunday shows you how to work the gigs.
The market for everything from renting out a spare room or parking space for cash to selling hobby crafts or skills over the internet is expanding rapidly. Now worth £500million a year, it is expected to grow to £9billion by 2025. Here is how you can participate.
If you have a spare room in your home, a drive that sits empty or even a garden shed with space not crammed with debris, then there are opportunities to make these dead spaces earn money by finding people who need a room or storage.
You can find lodgers through an online marketplace such as gumtree or other online services such as Weroom, mondaytofriday, SpareRoom and EasyRoommate.
For those who do not fancy a full-time lodger, then there is the holidaymaker market – with Airbnb and Wimdu among the main options for renting out a room part-time.
Homes can also be rented out for film and photography shoots, earning owners between £700 and £3,000 a day. Location agencies include Shootfactory, Lavish Locations and Amazing Space.
Growing demand for space from companies wanting to organise meetings or bonding sessions with fellow workers, who perhaps normally work from home, is another potential gig.
Vrumi, currently London-based but expanding nationally next month, provides a listing of homeowners happy to rent out their properties by the day at prices affordable to up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
A property can prove a valuable asset when offsetting the cost of a holiday. By swapping with other homeowners you can get a free holiday almost anywhere in the world – or earn rental for a home while away.
Among the best known of the home-swapping websites are Home Base Holidays, HomeLink, homeforexchange, HomeExchange and Love Home Swap.
To rent out your home instead of swapping, consider onefinestay, which does all the hard graft – from preparing your property to rent with toiletries and bed linen, to cleaning once the guests have gone.
It is possible to make even the smallest spaces earn their keep by renting out a loft, cupboard, cellar or garden shed to someone needing to store items. To find a would be storer, visit websites Storemates or Spareground.
Garages and driveways can also be great money-spinners if rented out to drivers wanting an affordable and convenient place to park.
According to parking website JustPark, it is possible to earn £800 a year on average for a driveway, although in-demand spots near railway stations or music and sports venues can generate £3,000 a year.
It is free to list on JustPark with the renter paying a 20 per cent fee to the website. Similar websites include YourParkingSpace and Park On My Drive.
CASH IN ON CARS
The average cost of driving a car in London works out at £20 an hour, according to car sharing network Zipcar. Its sums take into account the fact a car tends to sit on a drive (or road) for 96 per cent of its lifetime and includes unavoidable bills such as road tax, maintenance, depreciation and insurance.
Drivers only actually use their vehicles for 182 hours a year. By giving up car ownership altogether and joining a service such as Zipcar, you can pay as you go, paying £5 to £10 an hour (plus a membership fee of £6 a month or £59.50 a year). You have to be disciplined though, as bringing a motor back late incurs a £35 fee.
If you prefer to be an owner but want to cut costs, think about hiring out your car to a service such as RideLink. Similar in concept to Zipcar, its fleet is made up of vehicles belonging to thousands of car owners.
The difference is that owners set their own prices and renters can often find better value deals than from mainstream hire firms. Car sharing is another boom area where drivers cut journey costs by offering passengers lifts in return for a payment towards fuel costs.
Because drivers do not make a profit on such arrangements, it should not impact on motor cover – but check with your insurer first. Lift sharing websites include BlaBlaCar, GoCarShare and Liftshare.
Mat Gazely knows a thing or two about the gig economy, working for Zopa, one of the biggest players in the peer-to-peer lending market. Such lending allows individuals with spare cash to lend it directly to other people at rates far more attractive than they would receive by depositing cash in a bank or building society savings account.
Mat, 32, says: ‘Just before I joined the company in 2013 I thought I’d better try out the service so started saving this way – earning about 5 per cent on my cash.’
He used it to save towards buying an engagement ring for his fiancee Fleur Vidler, 30 – and a deposit on the couple’s home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Mat, who works in London, turned to BlaBlaCar to save money on his commute from home. He says: ‘I looked into trains and found it would cost me up to £12,000 a year. So I now share my car with a passenger, who pays £10 each way, and I drive one-and-a-half hours and pick up the Tube where my parking is free.’
He also rents out the drive of his Cheltenham home occasionally through JustPark, netting £8 a day.
Mat adds: ‘Fleur runs her own children’s clothing label, Belle Enfant, and we go to Paris twice a year. Each time we use Airbnb. We hope that we have earned a good enough reputation as guests so that when we finally use our own home as hosts we will get a good rating.’
TIME IS MONEY
Those who have some free time can use their bike to generate extra income.
In London, for example, restaurant delivery service Deliveroo employs scores of cyclists and scooter owners to pick up orders from outlets that do not offer their own takeaway service. The pay is £6 an hour plus £1 per delivery.
New arrival, London-based Pedals, also recruits cyclists for delivery jobs posted online that they can pick to fit in with their normal journeys.
An alternative is community delivery service Nimber. It connects people wanting items delivered with so-called ‘bringers’ – those who can carry a package while on the move. This means you can earn cash, negotiated online with the sender, by delivering, for example, on a daily commute to work.
Over-18s with a mobile phone and handyman skills can consider TaskRabbit, a peer-to-peer website that puts odd-jobbers in touch with those who need tasks done.
Once a request for a task is posted, hourly rates are listed for the ‘taskers’ considered most qualified for your job and the buyer chooses.
For those with professional skills, such as web design, legal or marketing nous, there is People Per Hour. The website advertises a variety of freelance roles – with job-seekers negotiating directly with the buyer.
Those who have an artistic bent and enjoy making things can expand beyond craft fairs by using Etsy, an online marketplace for all things handmade.
You can convert time into money, but keep an eye on insurance and tax
The instant gratification provided by the gig sector is allowing thousands of participants to convert time into money – but it can be tricky for those whose gig experience takes off to know their responsibilities in terms of financial management, insurance and tax.
Daniel Dinay, of financial software firm IntuitQuickbooks, says: ‘There are challenges from insurance to tax and those who start doing it full time will need to read up on how to offset expenses against income.’
The good news is the taxman is keen to support those taking part in the gig economy.
For example, under the Government’s Rent a Room scheme, householders can now earn up to £7,500 a year (up from £4,250 in the 2015-2016 tax year) from a lodger without paying tax on that income.
For those who rent out their home on Airbnb, for example, or sell goods on internet marketplaces, there are new tax allowances worth a total of £2,000 a year, aimed at cutting out red tape for the smaller operators.
The new rules mean those who earn up to £1,000 a year from money made from renting out space in their property pay no tax. Micro entrepreneurs selling products or services online from home can also earn £1,000 a year tax-free.
One key area to watch when joining the gig economy is insurance, especially when renting out areas of your home and property.
Brian Brown, at insurance analyst Defaqto, says: ‘It is likely many kinds of claim will not be paid if an insurer didn’t know about a change in circumstance.
‘For instance, if you allow someone to use your drive your insurer might exclude certain things, such as damage to fencing or from the leaking of fuel from their vehicle on to your drive.’
He also says renting out rooms through Airbnb will most likely mean that any theft or accidental damage claim will be excluded.
Humphrey Bowles, of Belong Safe – a provider of insurance with its eyes set on the gig sector – says: ‘The solutions so far sit with a homesharing website’s “guarantees”. Many hosts may believe they have insurance when they sign up because of the guarantees mentioned and use of phrases such as “peace of mind”.
‘But in the terms and conditions for Airbnb, for example, it includes wording such as “Airbnb strongly encourages you to purchase separate insurance that will cover you and your property for losses caused by guests” and “the entire risk…remains with you”.’
Belong Safe, Bowles believes, can alleviate such concerns, allowing hosts to buy cover by the day, when a guest is staying, and covers all risks. Underwritten by insurer Hiscox, it costs from 78 pence a day outside London and up to £4 a day in London. One drawback is that the excess is a hefty £1,000.
Mortgage lenders may also get a bit twitchy with homeowners if they find out they have been letting a room without telling them. In theory, they can call in the loan.
David Hollingworth, mortgage broker at London and Country in Bath, says: ‘With lodgers, a lender will want to receive a “consent”, so the lodger understands they have no rights if the property is repossessed.’
With short-term lets such as Airbnb, it is more of a grey area. He says: ‘This is something most lenders haven’t caught up with yet. Homeowners will find some will be more amenable than others.’
UK DAILYMAIL
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