Editor-DN
When Kyle Stockford went a few months without a painting, he decided to take up a side hustle.
It was 2021, and Stockford was one. Full time abstract artist With no sales to make colorful collages, he needed another way to subsidize his life – so he turned to his brother, who did people’s yard work and assembled Ikea furniture through taskcraft. was helping to do
Stockford signed up to do similar gigs making “$16 to $18 an hour,” he says. But the real money was in helping people move: that’s what the 29-year-old now charges. $98 per hour on Taskrabbit to load up your Chevy Express van with other people’s stuff and move them around the Boston area.
College transfer season is his busiest time of year: According to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, Stockford’s side hustle brought in $9,740 in revenue in August 2023 alone. It brought in between $3,000 and $5,000 in other months, leading to just $36,600 in extra cash last year.
“I’ll be doing taskscripts for a while,” Stockford says. “Here’s how he built his movement.”
‘I’m Driving This Big Van Around, And I’m Not Making Any Money’
Stockford bought his van in 2018 during his final year at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He wanted a vehicle that would help him transport paintings from Massachusetts to potential buyers.
After about a year on Taskrabbit, Stockford “got kind of worried about the fact that I’m driving around in this big van, and I’m not making any money from it,” he says. are He bought straps, running blankets, gloves and some bungee cords to prepare his vehicle, and himself, for a more intensive set of jobs.
“It wasn’t much,” he says. “Probably about $50 worth of supplies [Harbor Freight Tools]”
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Stockford says he started charging $65 an hour, and booked an early gig helping two Northeastern University students move from the school’s campus to their new apartment. The job took less than two hours, he says, and earned him about $130.
“I was struggling, because it was just me,” Stockford says.
Focusing on smaller tasks — like one-bedroom or Facebook Marketplace pickups — helped him book more jobs per day. He also learned to work very hard in customer service.
“I started to realize how stressful moving can be for people,” he says. He would tell them, “Don’t worry, it will be over in about two hours.”
‘I can work three weeks a year, earn money’
Construction of Stockford’s depot in 2022 paid off last year. “2023 was crazy,” he says. “I worked pretty much every day in August” and about halfway through September.
He added that he found himself improving on the gig. If he was working with college kids, for example, he knew to ask for keys or codes to get in and out of dorm rooms. He’ll bring door stoppers and a roof rack for mattresses, park as close as possible and, depending on the job, bring in another tasker to help.
“You know what to expect after a while,” says Stockford. “It’s like trashing the same group of furniture and the same pair of clothes.”
Stockford lives on the south coast of Massachusetts, so traffic in and out of Boston can be difficult – and the gigs themselves can be exhausting. “A lot of walk-ups on the third floor,” he says.
But despite the seasonal nature of the side hustle, it’s been successful enough for Stockford to hold down full-time work. He balances moving 10 to 20 hours per week with a part-time job as an art handler and preparator at Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art.
The combination of gigs also gives him time to continue working on his art. “I could work three weeks a year, make a lot of money and then call it off,” says Stockford.
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