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From Zero to Side Hustle
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Humbly accepting the recognition you deserve
🎤 Before she became famous, Rihanna worked as a cashier at a Bridgetown convenience store and spent her spare time recording demos. One of those demos reached Jay-Z, and the rest became a career.
There’s a useful business lesson in that. The work you do every day gives you a close-up view of what people need, what annoys them, and what they will pay to make easier.
Sometimes the best business research is the job you already have.
Cheers to another Friday!
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First Up, Our Sponsor
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𝘐𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥. 𝘋𝘐𝘛 𝘈𝘨𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘊 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦: https://bit.ly/4bzuWCi
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Laser-Cut Name Tags For The Nurses' Station
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Hospital staff wear the same scrubs and badge all shift, and most want one small thing that's theirs: a stethoscope name tag, a bright badge reel, a Nurses Week gift for the unit. The hospital doesn't sell those.
Mass-made versions don't have your name on them. A custom one takes a machine most people don't own.
That's the gap: nurses want something personal on their gear, and nobody at the hospital makes it.
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
Buy a desktop laser, cut and engrave colored acrylic, and sell personalized pieces to one uniformed group at a time. A home craft laser from Glowforge runs $899 to $999.
The business makes money on each tag. But it grows through the break room.
►Eric Street, a bedside nurse in Indiana, started making gifts for nurse friends during COVID and made $4,000 to $5,000 his first year. Coworkers kept asking if he had a website. Today he clears well over $100,000 a year working about 30 hours a week.
Zooming out: every uniform comes with a built-in customer list.
LaserCraftworks sells stethoscope tags for $17.99 and a Nurses Week gift set for $100, mostly to repeat buyers and referrals.
Think: vet techs, EMTs, dental hygienists.
🥢The winners will be makers who pick one profession and learn what it carries. Street's biggest lesson was packing detail into every product listing so Etsy searchers find him.
🍜 The risk is the equipment bill. Street started on a $4,329 xTool P2 and later added an $8,000 apparel printer, so the cash goes out before the orders come in. Start smaller than he did.
You might also like ⇢ Is a Laser Engraving Business Profitable? A Maker Runs the Margins
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What's your take?
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From A Lost Rental House To Nine Pet Resorts
Phil Miller runs Pawville, a group of nine dog boarding, daycare and grooming resorts across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
What died: His first investment was rental property in a rough part of south St. Petersburg, Florida, paid for with savings from working on cruise ships. One house was nearly burned down, and he lost about $50,000 to $60,000.
What they tried next: He went back to the ships to rebuild his savings, then at the end of 2006 bought a pet supply store for $300,000. It did about $100,000 a year and had 2,500 square feet of empty warehouse behind the sales floor.
♻️ What carried over: His credit. The rental wiped out his cash, but his credit stayed intact, so a bank gave him a conventional loan with $50,000 down. He turned the empty warehouse into kennels, something the retail-only seller never wanted. Construction took six months instead of three, and he piled up more than $100,000 in credit card debt before boarding paid off.
Where they are now: Nine locations doing $1 million to $2 million each a year, plus a private equity partner since 2024.
The rental took his cash. His credit got him back in the game.
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Four Ways To Get Paid For A Pickup Truck
If you own a pickup, it can earn money on weekends hauling things for people who don't have one.
What you can build with it:
-Moving and delivery jobs on GoShare- hauling furniture and store purchases for customers who book by the hour — up to $60/hour average
-Bulky store deliveries on Bungii -bringing big retail purchases home for shoppers, paid same day — up to $45/hour
- Small moves on Lugg - the entry tier for pickup drivers, covering small moves and store pickups — about $28/hour plus tips
- Moving help on TaskRabbit- loading, hauling and unloading for local customers — from $40/hour
🥄 The best one: Bungii, because it pays the same day and runs in more than 110 U.S. markets, so there's a decent chance the demand is already in your town.
Sign up for two of these this weekend, take five jobs and write down what you cleared after gas.
The apps teach you the work; the customers who ask for your number afterward are where the real margin is.
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Hungry yet?
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Enough talk. Go cook.
That's the plate. Reply and tell us which uniform in your life deserves its own little shop. Forward this to the nurse who has lost three stethoscopes this year. See you Monday.
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