My ongoing journey through the vast sea of ChatGPT plugins has led me to integrated apps that work well as entertainment curators and everyday chore enhancers.
I’ve come to notice that a lot of my friends and family have begun the process of working for themselves during those rare hours when they don’t have to answer to anyone else. Side hustles have been a thing for ages, but I’m starting to see a lot more people adopt them in this increasingly unstable job market.
ChatGPT’s plugin marketplace features a wide range of tools that work inside the chatbot to offer people with small businesses the crucial assistance they need. I’ve come across a bunch of highly recommended picks that assist side hustlers with specific tasks, which are tied to marketing/branding, selling digital-only products, learning about your side hustle’s earnings and more.
The seven ChatGPT plugins included below are worth trying out if you’re serious about making your side hustle grow. And with the following prompts, you’ll get a good idea of just how beneficial they can truly be.
1. Canva
It’s one thing to have the actual framework for a good business idea in mind. But it’s a whole other thing when you need to create the sort of promotional materials that will bring attention to whatever you’re selling.
The Canva plugin comes in handy for that second situation, since you can prompt it to create a first draft of your promotional material design, refine it through further conversations and do some amateur editing of your own through Canva itself to make it look as presentable as possible. The Canva plugin is quite useful for freelancers, dog walkers, personal trainers, etc., who need eye-popping promotional flyers to market their business.
Here are some prompts to put the Canva plugin to the test:
- Create a professional promotional flyer for my [type of side hustle]. My ideal customers are [audience]. My main offer is [service or product], priced at [price]. Include a compelling headline, three benefits, a clear call to action and space for my contact details. Use a modern, trustworthy design that works for both printing and social media.
- Create five coordinated Instagram posts for my [business]. The posts should introduce my service, explain a common customer problem, showcase the benefits, answer a frequently asked question and promote a limited-time offer. Give each post its own headline and visual concept while keeping the branding consistent.
- Develop a visual brand identity for my side hustle, [name and description]. Suggest a color palette, font pairings, logo direction, photography style and social media template. My target audience is [audience], and I want the brand to feel [three adjectives]. Use these guidelines to create a consistent set of marketing designs.
2. Etsy
You probably shop on Etsy already. For those not in the know, it’s a global online marketplace that connects buyers with independent small-business owners, artists, and creators. And for those side hustlers who need assistance with product research and rewritten copy for their wares, whether physical or digital items, the Etsy plugin can assist in that regard.
Here are some prompts to try with the Etsy plugin:
- I want to start an Etsy shop selling [product category]. Research current customer needs and competing listings, then suggest [number] specific digital products I could create. For each, explain the target customer, the problem it solves, the competition and how I could differentiate it. Separate verified findings from hypotheses.
- Rewrite my Etsy listing for [product]. Create an informative title, a compelling opening paragraph, a detailed description, buyer benefits and relevant keyword ideas. Avoid unsupported claims and keyword stuffing.
- Design a digital product bundle for [target customer] who struggles with [problem]. Suggest [number] complementary files, what each should contain, a pricing hypothesis and three ways to make the bundle more valuable than a standalone product.
3. Stripe
Stripe is an online payment processing platform that lets businesses accept credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets through websites and apps. For anyone who relies on Stripe to accept payments, it’s definitely worth tapping into its ChatGPT plugin to analyze the revenue, customer activity, subscriptions and refunds their business brings in.
Here are some prompts to try with Stripe to analyze your side hustle’s financials:
- Analyze my Stripe sales for the last [number] days. Rank my products or services by revenue, transaction count and refund rate where available. Identify the strongest performers and recommend three experiments to improve sales.
- Review my subscription data and summarize new subscribers, cancellations, refunds and recurring revenue trends. Identify potential retention problems and suggest practical ways to investigate them.
- My target is to generate [dollar amount] per month from my side hustle. Using my available transaction history, calculate my average transaction value and estimate how many monthly sales I need. Show the assumptions and distinguish gross revenue from profit.
4. Todoist
Todoist stands out as one of the preferred tools for anyone who needs something to properly manage their tasks. For side hustlers who want to put the rare free hours they have once they’re away from their main gig to good use, prompting the Todoist plugin to come up with action plans that could result in achieving realistic goals could prove to be beneficial. It should become easier to be more consistent with how you’re approaching your side hustle milestones when you have a proper task list in place to tackle.
Here are some prompts to try with Todoist to handle your tasks:
- I have five hours per week to grow my [side hustle]. My goal is to [specific target] within [number] days. Break the goal into weekly milestones and tasks, estimate the time needed for each and prioritize activities most likely to produce paying customers.
- I have [number] minutes tonight to work on my side hustle. My outstanding tasks are [list]. Choose the three highest-impact tasks I can realistically complete, allocate time to each and tell me what I should deliberately postpone.
- I want to launch my [product or service] in [number] days. Create a week-by-week launch plan covering customer research, offer development, pricing, marketing, sales setup and launch-day activities. Make each task specific and actionable.
5. Calendly
Calendly can work hand-in-hand with ChatGPT to create or update the events that cater to your side hustle duties. It’s especially useful for tutors, coaches, personal trainers, photographers, etc., who need help booking their appointments for their clients. Managing your side hustle’s busy calendar and the time you need to allot to it away from your full-time job becomes less of a headache with the Calendly plugin doing most of the heavy lifting.
Here are some prompts to use with Calendly to help manage your time:
- Help me create a [number]-minute discovery call for my [business]. Suggest an event title, description, booking questions, buffer time and cancellation policy. Make the experience welcoming and professional.
- Help me set up three appointment types for my [coaching, tutoring or consulting] business: a free introductory call, a standard paid session and a longer premium session. Recommend suitable durations and explain what each booking page should communicate.
- Help me configure appointment availability around my full-time job. I can take clients on [days] between [times]. Suggest a realistic schedule that leaves room for preparation, breaks and follow-up work.
6. Wolfram
Wolfram acts as more of a computational tool that easily breaks down the numbers you need to properly run your side hustle. For instance, a freelancer could rely on the Wolfram plugin to find out how many billable hours they need to work each month to stay afloat. Or an online merchant could use it to discover how discounts and base product costs could affect their profit margins. This plug is tailor-made for side hustlers who want to actually test the numbers that impact the major decisions you make in regard to your small business.
Here are some prompts to test out with Wolfram to break down your side hustle’s numbers:
- I'm launching a [type of side hustle]. My materials cost $[amount] per job, other variable costs are $[amount], and each job takes [number] hours. I want to earn $[target] per hour before tax. Calculate the minimum price I should charge, show the formula and compare three pricing options.
- My side hustle has monthly fixed costs of $[amount], and I sell my product or service for $[price]. Each sale costs me $[variable cost] to fulfill. Calculate my break-even sales volume, monthly revenue needed to break even and the sales required to earn $[profit target] before tax. Show the calculations.
- I currently complete [number] jobs per month at an average price of $[amount]. Model my side-hustle revenue and estimated operating profit over the next 12 months under conservative, moderate and optimistic growth scenarios. State every assumption and explain which variables have the biggest impact.
7. Chat With PDF
It can certainly be a bit overwhelming when it’s time to sift through all the contracts, market research, reports, invoices, etc. that flood your inbox as you try to manage your side hustle. The Chat With PDF plugin is one of those essential tools that can get the most useful information out of those aforementioned documents without you having to read through every page. Asking ChatGPT what to ask when dealing with business documents, then presenting the prompt it gives you to the Chat With PDF plugin alongside your uploaded PDF, is a set of actions worth taking.
Here are some prompts to test out with Chat with PDF to get answers from your business documents:
- Analyze this contract for my side hustle. Summarize my obligations, payment terms, deadlines, cancellation rules and potential red flags. Quote the relevant sections and page numbers. Flag anything I should ask a lawyer about.
- Analyze this market research report. Identify the three most promising opportunities for a small side business, the customers each serves, the evidence supporting demand and the biggest risks. Separate the report’s findings from your own inferences.
- Review this pricing guide and extract the rates relevant to my services. Organize them by service type, experience level and pricing model. Cite the source pages and identify any missing information I need before setting my rates.
Bottom line
There’s so much that goes into starting and managing a side hustle. With ChatGPT’s collection of plugins comes a wealth of practical tools that can save you a lot of time and give you back those precious hours for the tasks that require more of your actual input.
The seven plugins I’ve listed here and the prompts that accompany them can aid anyone with a side hustle. Making a concerted effort to set aside calendar time, create & promotional material and summarize the finer points of a business-centered PDF gets a bit easier with these plugins.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok.
More from Tom’s Guide
