When you hear the term ""side gig,"" you might think of earning a bit of extra cash by delivering takeout through DoorDash or petsitting through Rover. But a side gig can also be a gateway to a new full-time income stream. In 2016, Jacobson In 2016, Jacobson founded Emerald Consulting. Over the last seven years, he's worked with world-renowned brands like Christian Dior, 3M and Adobe and become a top-rated service provider on Upwork, where he charges $150 per hour. For anyone who wants to build a six-figure income from the ground up, Jacobson says, ""My advice is to figure out what you do better than anyone else and create a side gig around that. Figure out where your ideal customers or clients are and do everything you can to land that first gig."" ""This was a necessary step to build up enough side income to cover my monthly expenses,"" Jacobson says. And it worked. By the end of his second year freelancing, he had earned six figures.