The List of Physician Side Hustles

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physician side hustlesPlease note that this is a growing list as I come across new ideas and receive submissions as well. So check back often and feel free to submit your own ideas down below. If you’d like to talk about these topics in real-time, feel free to join our private FB group, Passive Income Docs.

With the ever-changing state of medicine, the increasing burden of student loan debt, and
the dissatisfaction and burnout that comes along with all of it, physicians seem to be searching for alternatives or other ways to make income. Perhaps it’s to supplement / replace their current incomes or perhaps it’s a way to transition out of medicine altogether. Either way, the notion of the “side hustle” or “side gig” seems to be growing in acceptance amongst the physician community.

To qualify as a side hustle, it must be something that you can initially start while continuing your day job as a physician.

Why even have a side hustle?

(Related: 5 Reasons Why Doctors Should Have a Side Hustle)

  • Hedge against changes in medicine or your current job.
  • Increases your bottom line to help you achieve financial independence quicker.
  • Maybe it’s just something you’re passionate about and enjoy doing.

Is it worth it?

At the end of the day, that’s a personal decision. You have to figure out whether it’s worth it to you after answering the following questions amongst many others:

  • How much can you make?
  • What’s your time worth? Should you just work more at your current day job?
  • Is it something that you’re interested in?

Ultimately I believe that side hustles start with having the right attitude. Your success will be predicated on your drive & determination, which, if you’ve made it this far in your medical career, you already have plenty of.

Without further ado, here’s my growing List of Physician Side Hustles (with some examples, ex, of doctors doing those very things):

Make Extra Money Using Your Medical Degree (Non-Clinical)

Clinical 

  • Locum Tenens – National Assoc. of Locum Tenens Org., Equal Access Health
  • Pick up shifts at an urgent care center or start your own
  • On Demand Doctor visits – Heal, Pager
  • Concierge Doctor
  • Physicals for the military – MEPS
  • Medical Review Officer – Drug & Alcohol Testing  – AAMRO
  • Medical Director – home health/hospice, infusion centers, IV hydration clinics
  • Clinical Lab director

Educate Others

Real Estate Opportunities

Businesses

Online Businesses

Patent / Invention

Investing in Companies

Stock Market

Writing

  • Medical Writing – SEAK
  • CME content writer
  • Medical Journal Editor

Traditional Media / Online Media / Social Media

Public Speaking

  • Pharmaceutical industry lecturer
  • Paid guest lecturer at conferences

Aesthetics

Transportation

  • Drive Uber or Lyft (Believe it or not, I’ve actually heard of some docs doing this.)
  • Rent out ad space on car – Wrapify
  • Rent out your car – Turo

Coaching

Lending

Freelancing

Others

Any that you’d like to add to the list – your own, your colleague’s, etc? Feel free to share below, message me, or join the discussion on our Facebook group (Passive Income Docs). Thanks!

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49 COMMENTS

  5. That’s quite the list! With so many links, even — thank you for including my “side hustle.”

    I would add locum tenens work to clinical. I’ve done locums between jobs and on “vacation” weeks to turbocharge my debt paydown timeline.

    While more clinical work is usually more lucrative than most side hustles, most of us are interested in working fewer clinical hours, not more. Many of these non-clinical income-generating activities are fun and / or interesting in ways that our day / night jobs are not. So you get income diversification and skills diversification.

    Cheers!
    -PoF

    • Yes, doing locums is a great side hustle, so obvious it escaped the list. It’s on there now, thanks!

      I think people also value the flexibility that comes with some of these side hustles – do it when you want so you can focus on things you value more, like spending time with your family. Thanks for the input.

  12. I don’t think I saw medical director jobs for home health/hospice, infusion centers or clinical lab director. Many of these are MD rubber stamp jobs. Supper easy, good pay for the minimal time required. I rubber stamp 3 drug testing labs, 2 hospices and an infusion center. Worth looking into..

  14. Great list! That would be pretty cool to get an Uber and talk to a cardiologist about your heart health lol. Two birds with one stone. I think physicians have lots of opportunities to side hustle and keep things interesting whether in clinical practice or other stuff.

  15. Looking for a gig I can do 8pm-midnight

    Motivated and eager to rip into something but alot of the side hustles are limited in how much you can do

    Suggestions? Caveat – want to work from home – so not moonlighting

    Is there a way to do case reviews – but an unlimited amount?
    I like the motivation of a non salaried side hustle – so if I want to do 20 cases in a week or 200 is up to me and the work is available.

    Thanks

    JustSayin

      • YES- totally agree I can cram more work in the day, but ultimately not worth it. Which is why I have cut back at moonlighting – diminishing returns. Are you asking me would I start a business – of course. Whatcha have in mind?

        JustSayin

      • ok – so what business to start?

        ivy trained internist/hospitalist

        i’m buying 1-2 homes per year -> cash flow 8-10+% per property

        i do expert witness work

        i moonlight

        but I want something that can scale – thoughts?

    • Side hustles require time, energy, and sometimes money. Unfortunately residents are short on all three of those things. Your first priority should absolutely be to get through your training because most likely your physician income is going to be the majority of your earnings in your lifetime. That said, I don’t think it hurts to try something if you have a little extra time or energy again as long as it’s not at the expense of your training. Start by figuring out your goals – are you looking for $50-100/week, or are you trying to hit a home run that will someday allow you to cut back on medicine, or is it something else? That will help you decide what would make sense. Get back to me with those if you can and I can give you a better answer.

      • I’m just looking for additional outlets for income. On my easy rotations, I have the time and energy to devote to them. I want something in which I can use my degree and work for something or someone medically related as an intern. Thanks

  17. Out of residency for coming up on 10 years

    I have multiple streams of income but if you really want to be a stickler – I’d say its still equivalent to trading time for money but at a much better rate.

    I want to use my evenings – call it 30 hours a week – to build something that scales, that will eventually make money 24/7. Thoughts?

    Or is the play – just bank cash from ‘moonlighting’ side hustles that currently increase my income by 50% and then invest in real estate for instance

    Thanks for the coversation

    JustSayin

  21. I am a 3rd-year family medicine resident. My hustling journeys started with me starting an orphan care organization, that changed my life and continues to do so. The website for the orphan care organization is ShapingDestiny.org
    I also have a real online business whose main website is KennethMD.com. I share lessons I’m learning about health, leadership, and productivity. Over the last 3 years of residency, I’ve been fortunate to make about 20-25K of passive income each year from my online businesses associated with KennethMD.com. I’m definitely not where I want to be but I’m excited about what the future holds.
    Another hustle blog I have is TimeofCare.com. I started that blog as my learning notebook while in the second year of residency. It’s growing quickly and having more than 10K users per month, I’m thinking of collaborating with other MD entrepreneurs to create win-win content for timeofcare.com that helps expose their own ventures while allowing them to contribute content that is helping other medical learners. It’s only just the beginning for TimeofCare.com.

  23. That is an impressive list. I appreciate the ideas. In my experience, one key to maximizing income is to take side jobs that can be done concurrently with other work eg attend on a low acuity ward, take call for low acuity patients, medical advising for insurers such as workers compensation. I have found these side hustles to be lucrative and very efficient from a dollars per hour perspective.

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