It began with a question many people probably think about after payday.
A member of the Facebook group Zimbabweans in the UK asked others to share how they were making additional money outside their normal jobs.
No inboxes, the poster said. Share the ideas openly.
And people did.
The answers were remarkably varied.
One woman said she knits and crochets during her spare time and was preparing for an October market day. For her, the craft brought in “a few £” while also giving her something else: a form of therapy.
Another person said they clean offices for £20 an hour. Someone else sells on eBay. Then came perhaps the comment that best captured the whole discussion:
“My side hustle is NHS.”
The original poster immediately asked whether that meant picking up extra shifts.
That one exchange raises an interesting question about what we now call a side hustle.
For some people, it means building a completely separate business.
For others, it simply means finding more hours.
From crochet to China
The discussion moved far beyond overtime.
People mentioned selling on Vinted, Amazon and eBay. Others talked about trading, digital marketing, food delivery and cleaning. One contributor described sourcing goods from China, while another said they had started travelling there and could assist others with sourcing, group buying and navigating markets.
Crafting came up repeatedly.
One commenter said handmade products could command surprisingly good prices, while another described knitting and crocheting for sale. The conversation around online income included digital marketing, affiliate marketing, teaching skills, services and AI-assisted work.
But something else was happening in the comments.
People weren’t only sharing ideas.
They were finding each other.
Someone who mentioned cleaning was asked where they found customers. Elsewhere, a person looking for a cleaner asked whether anyone offering the service was in Oxford.
Someone describing a China logistics business was quickly asked whether another member could use the service.
A conversation about earning extra money had started behaving like a small marketplace.
Not every “side hustle” is entrepreneurship
There was also a noticeable difference between two kinds of answers.
Some involved building something: crafts, reselling goods, importing, digital services or a small business.
Others involved selling more of the resource people already have — their time.
Extra NHS shifts. Cleaning. Deliveries. Additional support work.
One participant said they combined trading with extra shifts in support work.
That distinction matters.
A person can technically have several income streams while still depending entirely on their own working hours.
There is nothing wrong with that. An extra shift can be the simplest and most reliable way to increase household income.
But it is different from building an income source that might eventually operate independently of those hours.
And perhaps that is why the original question attracted so much attention.
People weren’t necessarily looking for the next big company.
Some simply wanted to know:
What are other people doing that actually brings in a few extra pounds?
Then came the visa question
Among all the suggestions, one commenter introduced another dimension:
Were the people describing these side hustles Certificate of Sponsorship holders or dependants?
That is an important distinction, because people’s permission to undertake additional employment or self-employment can depend on their individual UK immigration status and visa conditions.
So the conversation cannot simply be turned into a list saying: Here are 20 side hustles Zimbabweans should try.
What one person is permitted to do may not be permitted under another person’s immigration conditions.
It also means that some of the comments — including claims about cash work, trading or particular earning opportunities — should be understood as individual experiences, not Tandara recommendations.
Maybe the “side hustle” tells a bigger diaspora story
There is an easy way to read this discussion: Zimbabweans are entrepreneurial.
There may be some truth in that.
But there is another interpretation.
Why are people who already have jobs looking for more work?
Is it ambition?
The cost of living?
Money being sent home?
Saving for property?
Trying to build financial security?
Or simply the realisation that relying on one salary feels increasingly risky?
The Facebook discussion doesn’t answer those questions.
It does something more useful for Tandara: it raises them.
Because behind the eBay stores, crochet hooks, cleaning jobs, delivery apps, China sourcing and extra NHS shifts is a larger conversation about what financial survival — and financial progress — looks like in the diaspora.
And that may be the real story.