How can one income stream turn into a whole lot more?
Simplify first, diversify second—that’s an idea I have always advocated on the show.
The first step towards diversifying is to have something working. But how do you know it’s time to diversify?
That is exactly what Bjork Ostrom (our previous guest from Ep 46) has done as he (and his wife Lindsay) masterfully “stacked” multiple online businesses that have developed out of their original food blog, Pinch of Yum.
This 10-year-old blog has been a launchpad for Food Blogger Pro (a guide for aspiring food bloggers), Clariti (for optimizing your site's content), and the holding company, TinyBit.
And this is the framework he uses to decide if an idea is worth pursuing.
Full Show Notes: Side Hustle Stacking: How One Extra Income Stream Can Lead to More
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Starting a service business on the side is one of the fastest ways to build extra income. It's flexible, low-overhead, and you can probably start with skills you already have.
“I had a lot of drive underneath me," Abbey Ashley told me, about starting her service business back in 2013. "I was super pregnant and I hated my job so much,”
Abbey started offering her services as a virtual assistant, and connected with her first clients at local networking events in Washington, DC. My the time her maternity leave was up--just a few short months--Abbey had booked enough work to not have to go back to that job she hated.
On top of that, she only had to work 20 hours a week to do it, and could work from home.
There are almost no barriers to entry to starting a freelance service business, and the startup costs are minimal. (All Abbey did was make business cards for networking.)
In fact, it was a service business, a house painting business in my case, that was one of my first entrepreneurial adventures.
Over time, Abbey scaled her virtual assistant business from just herself at $20-30 an hour, to her own little virtual agency, to $75 an hour and up for some specialized work.
Full Show Notes: How to Start a Service Business to Replace Your Income, Step-by-Step
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Google's Helpful Content Update (HCU) hit a lot of online businesses hard with its new update.
Even well-established and authoritative websites experienced a significant drop in their rankings.
That's why I went behind the scenes with Kelan Kline from The Savvy Couple, whose online blogging side hustle did well even after the update.
Kelan built his online business up from making $50 in the first year to now seeing around 500k pageviews a month. That led to his online business making seven figures last year.
Tune in to Episode 605 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
Full Show Notes: Blogging in a Post-HCU World: The Savvy 7-Figure Online Business
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Ever wish you could get a piece of the Amazon pie?
Corey Ganim of coreyganim.com did just that, banking $3.2 million in sales by selling other people's products on the e-commerce giant's platform.
And he didn't have to deal with the massive upfront costs and headaches of manufacturing his own products.
Corey got started in early 2019 and went full-time with his unique wholesale business model by mid-2020.
He's since built a multi-million-dollar business buying brand-name inventory at wholesale prices and reselling it on Amazon at a profit.
In this episode, Corey shares his best tips and insights featured in his book, The 5 Pillars of Amazon Wholesale and his free Wholesale Challenge training.
Full Show Notes: How to Make $3.2M/Year Reselling Products on Amazon
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One of the most common questions I get is, "What if I don't have any skills? Can I still start a side hustle?"
On the one hand, I totally get that feeling.
If you're a teacher, tutoring might seem like an obvious side gig. If you're an accountant, you could freelance or start a bookkeeping business.
But not everyone's skills neatly align with a natural side hustle. So what do you do if you don't think you have any marketable skills? Is there still a path to earning extra income on the side?
Yes, there absolutely is! And that's what I'm breaking down in this post—your four options to start a profitable side hustle, even if you think you're skillless today.
Full Show Notes: What Side Hustles Can You Start if You Don't Have Any Skills?
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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:
Full Show Notes: $10k/mo On The Side Sharing What You Already Know
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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:
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
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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:
Full Show Notes: The $100k niche consulting business
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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:
Full Show Notes: $500k from a $9 membership
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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:
Full Show Notes: Vending Machines: The Path to Your First Passive Profits
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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
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