How to Cash in and Kill it on Taskrabbit

how to kill it on task rabbit

Gig economy tasking services like TaskRabbit, AskForTask, and AirTasker, pay people to complete the to-do lists of others.

This can be anything from assembling furniture, hanging a painting, yard work, cleaning, painting a bed room, groceries, professional services, virtual tasks, and so much more.

We’ve been asked many times here at the Casual Capitalist the types of jobs people can do on tasking services to make money. There answer is almost anything. And we really mean everything.

Back in 2018, a woman hired an actress to impersonate her at a birthday party. I am not making this up, please fact check me.

I don’t know about you, but I usually send my condolences if I can’t make a party.  Not Marissa from Oakland though.

Marissa posted on TaskRabbit asking for an actress to attend her friend Holly’s party. And yes, she found someone.

Tasking and freelancing are becoming more popular in North America. There are currently 57 million Americans who freelance, an increase of almost three million since 2018.

SO why are people flocking to these new income streams?

They understand that you can enjoy the flexibility of being your own boss and make some serious cash doing it. This post singles out TaskRabbit as it the most popular of these platforms. But, there are many others worth checking out (see below).

Please meet Dobb. Between July and August of 2015 Dobb worked 5-6 hours a week on TaskRabbit and pulled in $1000 a month. That’s less than 1 hour a day. Dobb is a retiree who is supplementing his fixed retirement income with the sharing economy. Good for you Dobb.

Some sharing economy tasking services even provide higher pay than traditional jobs or owning your own business. 

According to the New York Stern School of Business, wages on TaskRabbit across every task category are higher than the Bureau of Labor Statistics average for the same profession.

Please take that in for a moment.

Even if you have no experience in a current task category, surely there is something you’re good at. Consider Max, a 45 year-old California resident who is good at fixing stuff. Although he is a marketing consultant, Max set out to work part-time on TaskRabbit. The flexibility and income potential appealed to him.

Max’s specialty quickly became assembling furniture and fixing appliances. On average, Max earns $3,000 a month working on TaskRabbit. That’s part-time.

Do you live outside of North America? No problem, both Airtasker and TaskRabbit allow for virtual tasks. For simplicity however we will focus today only on TaskRabbit. But, in Part 2 of Secrets of the Sharing Economy (release date: January 2016) there is an entire chapter dedicated to these various platforms.

TaskRabbit is the most widely used tasking service and is available worldwide. TaskRabbit is present in most major U.S. cities, as well as the UK. For my Canadian readers, please check out AskForTask.

Some quick facts about TaskRabbit:

TaskRabbit employs 30,000 taskers;
Only 10% of the TaskRabbit workforce are full-time taskers;
Full-time taskers earn between $6,000-$7,000 a month; and,
According peers.org, the average hourly wage on TaskRabbit is $48.
For security, TaskRabbit completes a criminal record check on all taskers. They also offer $1 million in insurance in case of injury or damage.

Once a task is complete, TaskRabbit pays out immediately and taskers are rated. Taskers are paid through the TaskRabbit platform, so no money is exchanged.

If you are a TaskRabbit superhero, there is the Elite Program. If this status is achieved, you become more visible on the TaskRabbit platform and can charge more. This is comparable to the Airbnb Super Host status, but for a tasking service.

Although most tasks you need to be physically present, TaskRabbit offers virtual tasks. These can be completed from anywhere in the world. Tasks include computer troubleshooting, web design, research, data entry, and being a personal assistant.

If all this isn’t enough to convince you to try TaskRabbit, consider they are now working on a health insurance program for their taskers.

Are you good at assembling furniture? Moving? fixing or installing stuff? Are you a cleaner? Can you do online research or yard work? Can you paint? All these activities can earn you money on TaskRabbit.

Platform Stacking
In a previous post we discussed the benefits of platform stacking. This strategy is the most applicable to tasking platforms. Not only can you platform stack with many sharing economy platforms, but you can also use freelancing sites as well.

For instance, if you complete virtual tasks such as online research, you can also list your services on Upwork.com to increase your exposure. If TaskRabbit works for you, then register for other services as well. This will expand your pool of customers by the thousands simply by registering on a website.

Other tasking services worth checking out include:

AskforTask (Canada)
Field Agent (North America)
Gigwalk (Worldwide)
Streetspotr (Europe)
Roamler (Europe and South America)
MyTaskAngel (UK)
Thumbtack (US)
Airtasker (Australia)
Handy (North American and UK)
Your Reputation

Always remember to manage your reputation capital on these platforms like your life depends on it. Because your sharing economy life does depend on your reputation.

Action Step: Go to TaskRabbit now and check out the various task categories. Pick out one or two that could work for you. Once you have done this, comment below on the categories that could work for you and why. This will help other Casual Capitalists decide what is right for them. Once you’ve done this, check the types of tasks people are posting in your neighborhood. Could becoming a tasker work for you?

Happy tasking!

The Casual Capitalist