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From Zero to Side Hustle
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“We made it to the weekend, chat”
🎬 Jared Hess made Napoleon Dynamite for about $400,000. The offbeat small-town comedy went on to gross more than $46 million in theaters worldwide.
It didn’t need a Hollywood-sized budget. It needed one unmistakable character, a specific setting, and jokes people kept quoting.
That’s the playbook we look for in small business: a tight budget, a clear audience, and an idea memorable enough to spread on its own.
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First Up, Our Sponsor
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The Sunflower Patch That Sells One Day A Year
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Every summer, families, couples and photographers go looking for a field of sunflowers to walk through and take pictures in. Most farms near town grow corn and soybeans, not photo backdrops.
They want the photo and a bucket of flowers. They don't want to grow a field.
That's the gap: people will pay to walk through a field they'd never plant themselves.
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
Plant sunflowers and zinnias, charge admission to come pick, and sell stems by the bucket. Knobstone Flower Farm in southern Indiana charges $20 an hour for up to four guests, plus the stems they pick.
The farm makes money from flowers. But the big days come from events.
►David Coates runs Knobstone on half an acre of cut flowers and about five acres of wildflowers and sunflowers. In a presentation hosted by Purdue Extension, he showed his August 2023 u-pick making $4,015 in profit over five weeks. One festival day, with 500 tickets at $29, made $10,950.
Zooming out: the field is the venue. Once people come for the flowers, they'll come back for anything held there.
Think: photo sessions, wedding portraits, a concert night, a fall pumpkin weekend.
🥢The winners will be the ones who plan the event before the bloom. One festival day made more than twice what five weeks of picking did. Tickets, not stems, carry the farm.
🍜 The risk is land and weather. You need a field near a city, and one storm can flatten a season. Crowds also need insurance, parking help and toilets: Coates's festival cost $5,050 to put on.
You might also like ⇢ A New Jersey Farm's $18 Sunflower Admission, Tractor Ride Included
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What's your take?
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7 Pet Grooming Businesses For Sale Under $75,000
These are pet-grooming businesses listed for sale on BizBuySell this month, each with the seller's stated yearly cash flow (what the owner takes home before loan payments).
Walton, Kentucky · mobile grooming van · $35,000 asking, $47,100 cash flow
Harris County, Texas · grooming spa · $45,000, $60,000
San Dimas, California · boutique salon, seller financing offered · $50,000, $61,000
Fresno, California · grooming salon · $60,000, $53,000
Palm Beach County, Florida · 34-year-old grooming business · $70,000, $55,000
Jensen Beach, Florida · grooming shop · $72,500, $36,612
Tampa, Florida · pet salon · $74,900, $54,451
🍱 Pick of the litter: Walton, Kentucky. It costs less than the yearly cash flow the seller claims, and it's a van, so there's no storefront lease to take over. Ask the broker for a year of bank statements before you believe the $47,100.
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Hungry yet?
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Enough talk. Go cook.
Reply and tell us what you'd charge admission to. Forward this to the friend with a field and no plans for it.
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