602: $10k/mo On The Side Sharing What You Already Know

If you’ve ever thought about traveling the world while getting paid (and mingling with the rich and famous on the side), Hugo Ortega’s side hustle story may appeal to you.

After spending 9 years working as a yacht crew member and captain, traveling to over 60 countries, the former engineer decided to turn his niche career experience into a fast-growing online course business—Superyacht Sunday School.

Now, it has grown into a full-time business earning $10K/month.

(Sign up for Hugo’s free superyacht training here!)

Tune into Episode 602 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

• building audiences with free valuable content
• turning followers into email subscribers using lead magnets
• boosting sales through live virtual trainings and webinars.
• monetization models like courses, plans, and memberships.

Full Show Notes: $10k/mo On The Side Sharing What You Already Know

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Cantaloupe — An all-in-one platform that powers self-service commerce around the world with innovative technology and software solutions for businesses of all sizes
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!
• Monarch Money — Get an extended 30-day free trial of the top-rated personal finance app.

Free Houses: How to Build a $1 Million Real Estate Portfolio on the Side (Greatest Hits)

Austin Miller built a $1.2 million real estate portfolio at 31 years old — for free.

He’s a side hustling real estate investor specializing in “creative” financing deals — houses he can buy without using his own money.

Austin is the author of Free Houses: How To Build Your Real Estate Investment Portfolio With No Money.

His basic strategy is this:

• Find a killer deal on a house that needs some work.
• Buy it with the creative financing methods Austin talks about in this episode.
• Either do the work yourself or hire contractors.
• Put a paying tenant in the newly rehabbed home.
• Refinance the home with a traditional bank loan and pay back the original funding source.

The end game is positive monthly cash flow from rental income, plus building a long-term wealth through tenants paying off the mortgage.

Austin has developed some unique and interesting ways to hard money and private money to fund his property purchases.

The best part – it’s truly a side hustle that can be done in a few hours a week the end result is passive income from rental revenue.

Tune in to hear how Austin finds killer deals, buys the houses without risking his own capital, and then rehabs them to get ready to rent.

Full Show Notes: Free Houses: How to Build a $1 Million Real Estate Portfolio on the Side

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Squarespace – Start building your professional website today!
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!
• This is Small Business Podcast – Brought to you by Amazon, explore the stories of small business owners as they navigate their path to success!

601: The $100k niche consulting business

When you hear “college admissions essay consultant,” you might imagine some dull, overly formal academic type.

But Carter Osborne from carterosbornetutoring.com took a pretty unconventional path to dominating this niche business.

When he started providing tutoring services on the side, he was just a “broke, desperate graduate student” in need of some extra money.

Carter actually had no formal business training. His background was in political science and public administration—so not exactly the traditional entrepreneurial breeding grounds.

Not exactly the traditional path for an entrepreneur, right?

And yet, the untraditional route Carter took allowed him to build a unique $100k consulting business, with almost all the revenue coming in just half the year.

While Carter’s career path didn’t seem logical as a tutor, he was about to discover an untapped market niche that was waiting to be explored.

Tune in to Episode 601 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

• How to come up with your lucrative side hustle offer
• How to get your first customers
• How to grow the business
• How to handle the delivery logistics as a solopreneur

Full Show Notes: The $100k niche consulting business

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Ladder – Get instantly approved for term life insurance—no doctors, no needles, no paperwork!
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!
• This is Small Business Podcast – Brought to you by Amazon, explore the stories of small business owners as they navigate their path to success!

600: $500k from a $9 membership

Liz Wilcox found herself at a crossroads.

With a growing email list of beginners wanting to learn about email marketing, she knew she wanted to find a way to step away from client work within a couple of years.

She had just signed a huge copywriting contract worth $20,000… her biggest one yet. But instead of excitement, all she felt was dread about the massive project she now had to take on.

And as a single parent, she knew the importance of creating a business that would support her lifestyle and allow her to be present for her family.

This is where the idea of “low cost = low responsibility” appealed to her, as it would allow her to serve her audience at LizWilcox.com while maintaining a manageable workload.

So Liz had the idea to create her flagship offer The Email Marketing Membership – a set of done-for-you email newsletter templates that members could access for just $9 per month.

Tune in to Episode 600 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• How to come up with ideas for your own recurring revenue membership
• How Liz built her own email list and audience
• How to improve retention and continue delivering value to members

Full Show Notes: $500k from a $9 membership

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• US Bank — Get a 75,000-point sign-up bonus with the US Bank Business Altitude Power World Elite Mastercard, and earn 2X points on everything you buy for your business.
• Squarespace – Start building your professional website today!
• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!
• This is Small Business Podcast – Brought to you by Amazon, explore the stories of small business owners as they navigate their path to success!

599: Vending Machines: The Path to Your First Passive Profits

Tired of trading time for money at your 9 to 5 job? Looking for a way to make passive income with minimal startup costs and overhead?

Then starting a vending machine business may be perfect for you.

The vending machine industry was valued at $42 billion last year and is expected to grow at 8.1% from 2024 to 2030.

Profitable vending machines are everywhere — offices, apartment buildings, gyms, airports.

Wherever people gather, there’s an opportunity to provide convenient access to snacks, drinks, and other bestselling impulse-buy items.

And it’s a great market to get into because it’s extremely fragmented, with vast potential for growth. No national player owns more than 5% market share.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How the vending machine business model works
• The step-by-step process to go from zero to $1,000+ in monthly passive income
• Finding ideal locations and signing contracts
• Buying used machines vs leasing new ones
• Stocking, restocking, and maintenance procedures
• Risks to watch out for and mitigation tactics

Full Show Notes: Vending Machines: The Path to Your First Passive Profits

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• US Bank — Get a 75,000-point sign-up bonus with the US Bank Business Altitude Power World Elite Mastercard, and earn 2X points on everything you buy for your business.
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!
• This is Small Business Podcast – Brought to you by Amazon, explore the stories of small business owners as they navigate their path to success!

598: 21 Little Life Upgrades for 2024

What’s one small change you could make right now to instantly improve your life?

I’m talking about tweaks that are completely within your control—minor upgrades that deliver outsized returns on your happiness.

Today we’re talking 21 little life upgrades—small purchases, shifts, and habits you can adopt this year to improve your life.

I’ll be sprinkling in some of my own tweaks throughout, but we’ve also got a ton of suggestions from the Side Hustle Nation community on everything from work hacks to health habits to home upgrades.

We actually did a whole previous episode on life upgrades back in 2020, Episode 418, with a completely different set of upgrades and tricks.

I definitely encourage you to check that one out as well for even more upgrade inspiration!

I guarantee you’ll find at least one new idea to try out here.

Full Show Notes: 21 Little Life Upgrades for 2024

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• US Bank — Get a 75,000-point sign-up bonus with the US Bank Business Altitude Power World Elite Mastercard, and earn 2X points on everything you buy for your business.
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• The Science of Scaling Podcast — A framework to help guide entrepreneurs through the scaling process!
• This is Small Business — Pulls back the curtain on pivotal moments in the journey to success for small business owners!

Scaling Up a Service Business: From Idea to $400k in Monthly Recurring Revenue (Greatest Hits)

Three years ago Design Pickle didn’t exist. It wasn’t even an idea in founder Russ Perry’s head yet.

That’s why it seems crazy to me that today the unlimited graphic design service is doing $400k in monthly recurring revenue!

Back in 2014, Russ was running a creative agency, but he started to hate everything about it. “I felt like I was in a prison of my own creation,” he said.

By January 2015, he’d shut down his agency and started working as a freelancer. Not wanting to build a similar prison again, he sought out a different business model — one with a simpler service offering that was designed to scale.

From taking on a friend as his first client to now completing more than 800 design jobs a day, it’s been an incredibly quick ascension and a great example of how to scale a service business.

Tune in to hear how Russ grew his business from zero to $410k+ in monthly recurring revenue in less than 3 years.

We cover his marketing strategies, his hiring best practices, and what Design Pickle does to keep customers coming back month after month.

Full Show Notes: Scaling Up a Service Business: From Idea to $400k in Monthly Recurring Revenue (in Under 3 Years)

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Squarespace – Start building your professional website today!
• Factor — Get 50% off America’s #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service w/ code sidehustle50!
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• My First Million — Explore new business ideas based on trends and opportunities in the market!

597: Website Rentals: The simple local websites that earn $1000/mo each

Miao Rios was listening to the Side Hustle Show episode “Rank and Rent” with Luke Van Der Veer about creating niche websites to rank them on Google, then renting out the leads to local service businesses.

She decided to give it a try, and just 3 months after creating her first site, she got an unexpected call.

It was from the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, inviting her new website business to bid on a large demolition project for a local school.

Despite having no actual demolition capabilities, Miao took a chance responding to the tender.

She partnered with a qualified local contractor, got help polishing up the bidding documents, and ended up winning the $5,000 job!

In this episode, you’ll learn how Miao of blackbirdseo.com builds and ranks her sites to earn $1000-$1500 per month passively. More importantly, you’ll get a blueprint to find profitable niches and service providers to create your own side income stream.

Tune in to Episode 597 of the Side Hustle Show to learn about:

• Finding profitable niches and locations
• Building out niche sites to rank locally
• Getting high-quality leads
• Partnering with reliable service contractors

Full Show Notes: Website Rentals: The simple local websites that earn $1000/mo each

Free Listener Bonus: 50+ Rank and Rent Niches

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• US Bank — Get a 75,000-point sign-up bonus with the US Bank Business Altitude Power World Elite Mastercard, and earn 2X points on everything you buy for your business.
• Notion – Try Notion AI for free!
• Factor — Get 50% off America’s #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service w/ code sidehustle50!
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

596: An Online Course Business Turns 10: Lessons from $4M in Online Piano Course Sales

You may remember the story Jacques Hopkins first shared on the Side Hustle Show in 2017 about his online piano course.

Over the past decade, he systematically scaled Piano in 21 Days, into a powerhouse brand that generated over $4 million in sales.

Now in 2024, I connected with Jacques again to get an update on his current projects and perspective looking back on his entrepreneurial wins and lessons learned over the past years.

Like all savvy business owners, his approach and focus has evolved quite a bit during that timeframe.

Tune in to Episode 596 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• Jacques’ online piano course business after 11 years and over $4 million in sales
• Elements of building a successful online course business
• How Jacques’ passion has shifted after doing this side hustle for over a decade
• What Jacques is focused on next with his coaching program and podcast

Full Show Notes: An Online Course Business Turns 10: Lessons from $4M in Online Piano Course Sales

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• Squarespace – Start building your professional website today!
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Factor — Get 50% off America’s #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service w/ code sidehustle50!
• The Hustle Daily Show – Your daily news podcast about irreverent and informative takes on business & tech!

595: The Million Dollar Weekend / Business Idea Giveaway Show

What if I told you that you could launch a million-dollar business this weekend? Sounds crazy, right?

I recently had the pleasure of having Noah Kagan back on the Side Hustle Show podcast.

You might remember him from Episode 237 about brainstorming and validating business ideas.

Noah is a serial entrepreneur and founder of AppSumo, The Noah Kagan Youtube channel, Noah Kagan Presents podcast, and several other successful ventures.

He recently launched a new book called Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours.

Throughout our conversation, we brainstormed numerous side hustle business ideas that listeners could pursue this year.

Noah also shared his insights on idea validation, launching quickly, and much more.

Tune in to Episode 595 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

• How to quickly validate and launch a side hustle idea
• Multiple promising side hustle concepts to pursue in 2024
• The importance of pre-selling a product idea before building it
• Why services businesses make for promising first side hustles
• Actionable tips for overcoming “analysis paralysis” and launching faster

Full Show Notes: The Million Dollar Weekend / Business Idea Giveaway Show

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

• US Bank — Get a 75,000 sign-up bonus with the US Bank Business Altitude Power World Elite Mastercard, and earn 2X points on everything you buy for your business.
• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!
• Factor — Get 50% off America’s #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service w/ code sidehustle50!
• HubSpot — Connect your data, teams, and customers on one customer platform that grows with your business.