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🚀 From zero to side hustle. From broke student to business owner—one noodle packet at a time. This is The Ramen Hustle, your weekly playbook for turning side hustles into main income streams. No fluff, no theory. Just moves that pay.
IN TODAY’S EPISODE
☎ The side hustle replacing $40K receptionists
🔉 From hobby to income: podcast earnings breakdown
🛋 She paid off $10K in 5 months flipping furniture
📩 $4,000 and a couch became 7 million subscribers
Want to feature your side business in an upcoming newsletter? Click here
——— Let’s Begin ■□□□□□□□ ———
FRESH IDEA
Small businesses miss 30 to 60% of incoming calls during and after hours. That's 60 to 120 lost bookings every month. AI voice agents now answer calls 24/7, qualify leads, and book appointments directly into calendars. Here's why this works: unlike courses (one time purchase), communities charge monthly. Members help each other, which cuts your support load to almost nothing. You're not selling information. You're selling access and accountability.
One guy built an AI agent for a local HVAC company using Eleven Labs for the voice and n8n for automation. It handles 60+ calls monthly. Books 8+ appointments they would have missed. Owner pays $1,200 setup and $200 per month.
Callin.io case studies show dental practices using AI scheduling dropped no-show rates from 23% to 8%. New patient acquisitions increased 31%.
The business model: set up AI agents for local businesses like dentists, HVAC, salons, and real estate agents. Charge setup fee of $500 to $2,000 plus monthly management of $100 to $300.
The pitch is simple: never miss a call again. Target businesses drowning in missed calls and appointment no-shows. The demand is massive and growing.
Rate this hustle:
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RESOURCE
Stop guessing. Start scaling.
See the top-performing Facebook ads in your niche and replicate them using AI. Gethookd shows you what’s actually working so you can increase ROI and scale ad spend with confidence.
——— Great start ■■■□□□□□ ———
NUMBER CRUNCH
A podcast with 10,000 downloads per episode can charge $500 to $900 for a single sponsored ad spot. The podcast advertising industry hit $2.43 billion in 2024.
The metric that matters: CPM (cost per 1,000 downloads). Standard rates according to Influencer Marketing Hub: pre roll $15 to $18, mid roll $25 to $30, host read sponsorships $25 to $40.
Earnings by tier: 1,000 to 5,000 downloads gets you $100 to $500 per month. 10,000+ downloads reaches $500 to $2,000 per month. 50,000+ downloads commands $2,500 to $10,000 per month.
Beyond ads: affiliate marketing, premium content on Patreon, merchandise, consulting. Castos research shows niche audiences with high income listeners command higher CPMs than broad entertainment shows.
Key insight: a finance podcast with 5,000 listeners can out earn a comedy podcast with 50,000 because advertisers pay more to reach people with money.
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INSIDER ACCESS
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🔑 This is actually more than just a calculator…
It’s a rent (or mortgage) - destroying game engine.
You plug in multiple variables, and this thing instantly turns that scary number into a bunch of tiny, winnable missions:
👀 A simple daily goal and weekly goal
📈 You’d need X sales of a $10 or $20 product
🚩 You’d need Y hours at $20 or $50/hr
💰 You’d need Z clients at $100 or $250/mo
🚀 Plus so much more…including solutions
It basically taps you on the shoulder and says:
“Relax. Here are 5 different ways this could work. Pick one and run the play.”
——— Keep it movin’ ■■■■■□□□ ———
AI EDGE
Learn AI in 5 minutes a day
What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.
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TOOL CHEST
Furniture Flipping 101
Lilly Skjoldahl got a $10,000 dental bill and had no idea how to pay it. She started flipping furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Within five months, the entire debt was gone.
Her first flip: $50 nightstand plus $15 in supplies sold for $195. Her best flip: free dresser plus $40 in supplies sold for $700. That's $650 profit or about $82 per hour.
Within a year, the side hustle income passed her full time public health salary. The US Sun covered her story when she hit $37,000 per month with revenue ranging from $15,000 to $37,000 depending on inventory flow.
The model: buy cheap or free furniture from Facebook Marketplace. Refinish with basic sanding and painting. Add new hardware. Sell for 3 to 10x what you paid.
Skills needed: sanding, painting, hardware replacement. All learnable on YouTube in a weekend. Side Hustle Nation has a full guide on the process.
Platforms: Facebook Marketplace dominates. Some sellers also use OfferUp and local consignment shops.
Best items to flip: mid century modern, farmhouse style, solid wood pieces. Avoid particle board. Success factors: consistent sourcing, good photography, fast response to inquiries.
——— Just keep swimming ■■■■■■■□ ———
CASE STUDY
How theSkimm Proved Email Isn’t Dead
In 2012, Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin quit their jobs at NBC with $4,000 in savings. They sent their first newsletter from their apartment couch to 400 friends.
Seven years later, theSkimm reached 7 million subscribers. They raised over $29 million in funding from investors including Google Ventures and Spanx founder Sara Blakely.
The formula: daily newsletter summarizing news for busy millennial women. Conversational tone like texting a smart friend. Consistent delivery at the same time every morning.
Growth tactics: Skimmbassadors earned perks for referrals. Oprah tweeted about it. Consistent PR outreach to publications. Marie Forleo interviewed them early on.
The lesson: pick a specific audience. Deliver consistent value. Build community around the content. Email isn't dead. Your execution might be.
——— Congrats 🎉 ■■■■■■■■ ———
READING MATERIAL
💡 Nick Woodman bootstrapped GoPro by selling cameras from his van — borrowed from parents, targeted extreme sports niche, went from zero to billion-dollar IPO in 2014 without VC
💰 U.S. home prices went negative for first time since 2023 — down 1.4% last 3 months with Austin dropping 10% as affordability shock meets rising inventory
⚡ Ethereum could hit $6,500 in 2025 — analysts predict new all-time highs driven by network improvements and institutional demand after spot ETF approval
🏆 Etsy seller turned $200 investment into multi-six-figure business — A Jar of Pickles grew slowly without taking loans, hit $100k revenue in 2020, now employs 3 people
🧑🏻🏫 Solo founder made first six figures in 4 months — built coaching business while working full-time before quitting corporate job with six-figure salary
That's a wrap for today. If you found this useful, forward it to someone who could use some hustle inspiration.
See you next issue.
— The Ramen Hustle Team