15 TESTED Ways to Earn Money in Pakistan
I remember reading about people who have already done what I wanted to do. Reading about it gave me the confidence that “if they can do it, then I can do it too!” I share my stories with you in the same manner – to show you it is possible, and then to show you how it is possible.
When I was at college, I had a very simple reason to earn money. I wanted to make money so I can spend it. Revolutionary I know.
But there was a challenge, that if you want to earn money in Pakistan, you are told that you have to cheat and lie to do that. That was my biggest fear. I wanted to earn money in an honest, ethical manner. I saw some people following the easiest ways of earning money in Pakistan, but that was based on dodging or downright cheating.
But God is Kind, and I was able to find teachers and entrepreneurs who were doing it right.
It is only God’s Grace that I was able to make money as a student in Pakistan. I was in University between 1999 and 2004, and during that time, I was earning 30,000 rupees per month average. Back then, you could buy one tola of gold for about 6,000 rupees. Compared to today (in 2024), this is equal to earning a million rupees per month, and that as a student! This still sounds ridiculous to me, but you can read about my earning money as a student story on that detailed blog post.
This gave me the confidence that it is possible to earn money in Pakistan, and do it in an honest, ethical manner. So by God’s Grace, this money-making business ideas list is different.
How to Earn Money in Pakistan, the Unusual List
This is not your usual list of earning money in Pakistan.
This is different. And hopefully more useful because I have actually done each of the listed businesses. And none of them as such were “easy”. They are simple, yes. As you will see in this detailed post, many of the businesses you can still start today, many from the comfort of your home… and be ethical and honest and very profitable at the same time. InshAllah.
Some of the business ideas answer the question: how to earn money online in Pakistan? And other business ideas are offline businesses that you can start.
I have tried to be brief and helpful, but these are 15 ways of earning money — and it is packed with actionable ideas for you to start (or improve) your journey of making money in Pakistan.
Note: One can easily make a full-time income doing any of these projects. Some of the ones listed here still contribute to my bottom line one way or the other, by God’s Grace.
The idea behind these offline and online business ideas is not to get rich quick, in fact, it is not even to get rich the way we understand rich to be.
The idea is to creatively start projects, explore different opportunities and see which one might stick, which one suits you and your choice of lifestyle. That’s actually a very high level of freedom one can work towards. InshAllah.
So, in no specific order, here are the 15 projects you can start to make money…
1. Sell Website Design
I have earned money by selling website design to local (Pakistan-based) companies.
This is first thing I did, while still at college.
I would just walk into stores and such, and ask if they want a website. Many a times, this approach did not work (I now know why it didn’t work), but sometimes, it did. I made my first website in the year 1999, or 2000 I think. Never looked back, as they say.
How you can start selling website design (in Pakistan and anywhere else for that matter)?
You can sell website design services much more easily if:
- you dress up like a bloody CEO! No one wants to give money to this kid in a t-shirt and flip flop chappals. You’ll be a kid even if you are 40 when you go to client meeting wearing a t-shirt and flip flops
- if you think you can finish the project in 7 days, then tell the prospect that you will finish the project in 21 days. Yes, don’t double it to 14, triple it to 21. Then deliver it in less time and you’ll get yourself a very pleased customer. Also you get to say “I/we overdeliver in our services”!
- Make sure everyone knows that you are now making websites; your first few customers will definitely come from within your close network of friends, so ensure they all know. We talk at length about this absolutely fundamental concept of community circles in our free Masterclass on Branding.
2. Make Money with Freelancing
Nowadays (in 2025), earning money from freelancing in Pakistan is the “in” thing, and a lot of college students from different universities across Pakistan are trying their hand at freelancing. Which is great.
Warning: a lot of YouTube videos make it sound way too easy. Just make a Fiverr profile, make some gigs and book your world tour.
Another warning: it is actually pretty straight forward to earn some money from freelancing. You may start earning a few thousand rupees here and there. But to make freelancing your full-time career, I’ve got two pieces of advice for you. One, it will take longer than you think. And two, don’t do it for the long term unless you really enjoy that kind of lifestyle.
Back in the day, I had a large group of friends and none of them were doing freelancing!
I guess back then being an entrepreneur or a freelancer in Pakistan was not considered as cool as it considered now – I was considered unemployed, not self-employed! 🙂
In those times (between 1998 to 2002), the biggest marketplace for international freelancing projects for Pakistanis was Elance. It was later merged into Upwork, which is of course now the biggest freelancing marketplace in the world. Fiverr came much, much later.
Screenshot of my old account
My Experience as a Freelancer from Pakistan
I got a total of 2 projects, totaling a whopping 600 US$ – that was a decent bit of money for a student in Lahore.
Both projects were web applications (back in the day, we’d call them databases or software, surprise, surprise – now they’d be called apps!).
And it seemed to take forever for me to actually start bidding on projects, as I would only stalk other contractors/providers, see their earnings stack up, telling myself one day, I will earn as much.
Turns out I didn’t want the sheer level of commitment and time it takes to open an office, manage a team, and run a business. This was my first experience with knowing the difference between running a business and owning one; I know now that I don’t want to run businesses, I would rather own a business that somewhat doesn’t need me to run (to know more about this owning and running thingy, check this post).
How can you earn money with Freelancing from Pakistan
I will tell you both ways of earning money with freelancing, one method is the online one, and the other one is where I feel the most money can be made!
Online Freelancing from Pakistan
- You can sell a lot of different services on Upwork or Fiverr.
- There are just tons and tons of different categories to choose from, from accounting, to writing, to graphic designing, to software development and a whole lot more. So whatever your current skill, or whatever skillset you want to develop, you can try your hand there.
PRO TIP: Focus on writing a winning proposal. This means you have to learn selling and you will have to learn copywriting. I am not kidding but this will be the number one difference between you and the others bidding for the same projects – your ability to write clearly and powerfully is a super-power, trust me!