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From Zero to Side Hustle
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Accidentally printing 200 copies instead of 20
📰 The New York Times has delivered a newspaper every morning for more than 170 years. The format changes, the stories change, but the basic promise does not.
That predictability is the product. You know when it arrives, where it goes, and what you're getting.
We like businesses built the same way. The customer shouldn't have to decide whether they need you every week. The service just shows up, does the job, and becomes part of the routine.
Come on in.
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First Up, Our Sponsor
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Giant Jenga Out of the Trunk
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Lawn-game rental means dropping off giant Jenga, cornhole and giant Connect 4 at a backyard party, wedding or company picnic, then picking them up afterward. Hosts want the fun. They don't want to buy, store and haul oversized games they'll use twice a year.
That's the gap: hosts want the games for one afternoon, not a garage full of them forever.
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
The money comes from renting games. But it grows from repeat weekends, because the same set earns again every Saturday for years.
►Gordon Buchanan started Triangle Lawn Games as a side project in 2018 while working as a marketing manager in Raleigh. He bought three games, built a simple booking site and got his first order a couple of weeks later. By May 2024 it had 30+ locations and 43 employees, per Booqable.
Zooming out: anything people use once a year and hate storing can be rented by the day.
A 2025 breakdown puts a four-game starter set at about $445, with giant Jenga paying for itself in three or four rentals.
🥢The winners will sell bundles and delivery, not single games. Delivery turns a $130 bundle into a $189 order.
🍜 The risk is that every booking lands on the same day. Capacity is capped by how many drop-offs you can make on a Saturday morning, and rain cancels parties. Your busiest days are all the same day.
St. Louis Game Rentals is run by a couple with day jobs who let customers pick up near work or home, at $50 a game. What you're really building is a stack of games in the garage and a calendar of weekends booked by people who never want to own them.
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What's your take?
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You Can Hire A Professional Cuddler To Come Over
Professional cuddlers are trained practitioners who meet clients for a session of platonic hugging and holding, with rules agreed up front, and many will come to your house. On Cuddlist, a directory of certified practitioners, one East Bay cuddler lists $100 a session whether you visit her or she visits you.
Before listing, practitioners complete a two-week certification in consent and boundaries.
🤯 And they're not the only one. Cuddlist's directory runs from California to Minnesota to New Jersey, and in Portland, Cuddle Up To Me also makes house calls.
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Don't Miss This
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States Now Pay Parents To Hire Tutors
Homeschooling used to mean parents paid for every class themselves. Now 18 states run education savings accounts, state money parents can spend on approved tutors, classes and books, and much of it is spent online.
Texas is the new giant. Its program drew more than 130,000 applications, gives homeschool families $2,000 a year, and had only about 200 tutors, therapists and similar providers signed up at launch.
The friction is paperwork, not teaching. Each state approves its own vendors: Texas wants academic tutors to hold a Texas teaching certificate, while Arizona asks only for a high school diploma.
The class marketplace Outschool is approved in 16 states and calls Texas's July 1 payout its biggest ESA money day ever. At the small end, music teacher Katie Gettys charged about $10 to $12 per child per hour for group classes and earned nearly $69,000 her first year.
Where the trend branches next:
Help for kids with disabilities, whose Texas accounts reach $30,000
SAT and ACT prep for homeschooled teens
Music and language lessons, in states that count them
Small-group classes where four families split one hour
► The money goes to tutors who are approved vendors in the state where the families live.
If you already teach or tutor, find your state's vendor application this week and check its credential rule first.
If you already teach or tutor, find your state's vendor application this week and check its credential rule first.
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Hungry yet?
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Enough talk. Go cook.
That's the plate. Reply and tell us the thing you bought for one party that's been sitting in your garage ever since. Forward this to whoever always ends up hosting. See you tomorrow.
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