A Side Job in Montenegro: 12 Ideas from Real Data

The query "dodatni posao" (side job) is live in Montenegro, and local: on 23.09.2026, the first three suggestions were side job Nikšić, Herceg Novi and Podgorica, ahead of Belgrade and Novi Sad. People are looking for extra income in their own town.

This article does not offer a wish list. We matched all 25 requests that have come through the platform against 86 categories and 43 registered professionals, and picked out the categories where demand exists but supply does not, or barely does. That is a more honest starting point than any list of "top ideas".

First: how to read these ideas

Three warnings, so that nobody sets off with the wrong expectations:

• We do not publish earnings estimates. We do not have enough completed jobs to say "this brings in X euros a month", so we do not write it. Where a published price exists, we give it with its source.
• The sample is small: 25 requests over five months, one platform.
• An empty category is not a guarantee of work. It means nobody answers when a request comes in, which is an opportunity, but someone still has to find you.

Six gaps: the demand exists, the professionals do not

1. Roof repair and replacement. A request came in; registered professionals in that category: none. Seasonal work with a clear way in (working at height takes equipment and experience, but not much capital).
2. Cakes and pastries to order. Three requests, zero professionals. The lowest start-up cost on the whole list; it is done from home, but check the rules for trades carried out in a flat.
3. Boat services (cleaning, small repairs). A request exists, and nobody is in that category; Kotor and Tivat are the natural base.
4. Electronics and GPS. A request came in; there are no professionals. In the related categories (phone, laptop and TV repair) one professional is registered for the whole country, and Russian-language queries ("ремонт телефонов", "ремонт кондиционеров будва", i.e. phone repair, air-conditioning repair Budva) show that foreigners are actively searching for this.
5. Small repairs / handyman. One registered professional in the country, while "kucni majstor podgorica" and "majstor za sve podgorica" (handyman Podgorica, jack of all trades Podgorica) are live queries. This is the easiest way in for someone who already has tools.
6. Air-conditioning service. Two professionals in the country, in Podgorica and Herceg Novi, and none in Budva, where demand is highest and where breakdowns in summer cannot wait.

Six categories with room, but also competition

1. Painting and decorating. Eight professionals, but also the only category with a published price: from €1.50/m² in white, materials included, and two published hourly rates in a directory (€12 and €15/h). Getting started is cheap, and the market is getting used to pricing per m².
2. Regular and deep cleaning. On classifieds sites, flat cleaning shows prices of €10 to €12 (the only category apart from painting where ads give a number at all). In summer the coast needs more people than it has.
3. Cleaning between guests (Airbnb). Three professionals, all in the south. The work is seasonal, paid per turnover and tied to one or two owners.
4. Furniture assembly. One registered listing, in Podgorica. An ideal side job alongside a regular one: it takes an hour or two and is done in the evenings and at weekends.
5. Plasterboard work. Two professionals in the country. Needed as back-up by painters and tilers, and often a bottleneck in refurbishments.
6. Tiling. Three professionals for the whole country, and in Podgorica four professionals offer complete bathrooms against one tiler: the most concrete bottleneck we have measured.

Where the people are, and where the jobs are

Empty categories are not the only opportunity; there are empty towns too. On our data, Ulcinj and Kolašin have requests and not a single registered professional, and Nikšić and Berane have one each. Budva has the most requests (13) and the most urgent ones (8 of the 9 marked "as soon as possible").

If you are choosing where to do your side job, the combination with the least resistance is an empty category in the town where you live, not the most popular category in a town 60 km away.

The season decides which job picks you

The curve of requests on the platform climbs towards summer: April 2, May 11, June 12. That is not chance but the rhythm of the coast: guests arrive, apartments fill up, breakdowns become urgent.

From this follows a simple split of the ideas by season:

• Summer (June to September), on the coast: cleaning between guests, air-conditioning service, small repairs, furniture assembly. The jobs are short, paid per turnover or per call-out, and need a fast reply; the urgent requests come almost exclusively from there.
• Autumn and winter (October to April), the whole country: painting, plasterboard, tiling, refurbishments. The jobs are longer, prices calmer, and the client has time to compare three quotes.
• All year round: roofing (weather permitting), electronics, cakes, furniture assembly.

If you do your side job alongside a permanent one, this split matters more than the idea itself: summer jobs take evenings and weekends in season, winter jobs take whole days.

What you need before the first job

• Register your activity. A side job without receipts hits a wall with the first larger client: companies, agencies and landlords ask for a fiscalised receipt, and the electronic fiscalisation system is run by the Tax Administration. What the tax framework for tradespeople looks like we set out in how a tradesperson works legally.
• Write down a price. Of 43 profiles, 23 publish some price, while buyers search in large numbers with queries containing the word "cijena" (price).
• Photograph your first job. 26 of 43 profiles have photos and none has a certificate; at the start, an album is your only reference.
• Set a realistic radius. Twenty profiles sit at an untouched 25 km.

How to get your first clients without a budget we described in nine channels, where the work is by town in the demand barometer, and registering as a professional is free. You can look at your category in the services overview.