The Best Side Income for Electricians (Ranked by Effort)

Whether you're an apprentice trying to save for your first van, an A-grade on wages looking for weekend beer money, or a sole trader trying to buffer your cash flow, finding a good side hustle is always on a sparkie's mind.

But not all side incomes are created equal. Some will ruin your weekends, expose you to massive legal risks, and barely pay minimum wage once you factor in fuel and materials. Here is the definitive ranking of side incomes for electricians, from worst to best.

4. The "Cashie" (High Risk, Medium Reward)

Doing a cash job for a mate of a mate on a Saturday morning is a tradie tradition. The money goes straight in your pocket, tax-free. But the risks are astronomical. If you aren't a licensed contractor and you don't issue a Certificate of Compliance (CCEW), you are operating illegally. If the house burns down, your insurance won't cover it, and you could face jail time. It's a massive risk for a few hundred bucks.

3. Test and Tag (High Effort, Low Reward)

Running a test and tag side hustle is entirely legal and relatively easy to set up. The problem? It's incredibly boring, highly competitive, and the margins are tiny. You are competing with companies that employ cheap labor to scan hundreds of tags an hour. Unless you secure a massive corporate contract, you'll be driving all over town testing angle grinders for $5 a pop.

2. Smart Home Consulting (Medium Effort, High Reward)

Instead of pulling cables, you use your brain. Many homeowners want home automation (C-Bus, Fibaro, Shelly, or even just advanced Hue/Wiser setups) but have no idea how it works. You can charge a consulting fee to design the system, specify the parts, and then hand the actual installation over to their builder's electrician. It's clean, high-margin work.

1. Lead Referrals (Zero Effort, High Reward)

The undisputed king of side incomes for an electrician is the referral model. As a sparkie, you naturally attract leads—friends ask you to look at their switchboards, neighbors ask you to fix their lights, or random people find your old Facebook page.

If you don't have the time, the licence, or the desire to do the work, you simply forward the lead to an established contractor. If you live in Sydney and you get a lead for an EV charger, a Level 2 defect, or a midnight emergency, pass it on.

It takes 30 seconds to send a text or fill out a form. The referral partner does the hard work, assumes all the legal risk, and pays you a cut of the profit. You can easily make $500 to $1,500 a month in pure passive income just by monetizing the jobs you were going to turn down anyway.