This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features 26-year-old Emely Cepeda, a Boston-based dental student who earns extra money with the online marketplace Taskrabbit. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Emely Cepeda

What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
I started tasking when I was entering my second year of dental school, so I was a full-time student.

When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
I started using Taskrabbit in August of 2022. I was looking for ways to make money since the cost of living in Boston is so high (I mean $3 for a box of pasta? Come on now!). I looked at so many other ways to make money, and since I have a background in catering and food service (waiting tables and bartending), I was looking at jobs in that area — the only thing that stopped me was the lack of flexibility within those jobs and not being able to make my own schedule, since school was my main priority.

Related: She Started a Furniture-Flipping Side Hustle to Pay Off a $10,000 Dental Bill. It Surpassed Her Full-Time Job's Income Within a Year — Earning Up to $37,000 a Month.

I looked into other apps like UberEats, DoorDash and GrubHub, but it just didn't seem ideal to me to be in a car going places and not having full control over my income. I saw a TikTok that talked about Taskrabbit, and well, here we are! I knew I needed something that I could control,........

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