Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The Side Hustle Show
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The Side Hustle Show
By The Side Hustle ShowBusiness
The Side Hustle Show episodes
- 769: 769: This Mom Built a 7-Figure Brand From Her Apartment
What do you do when the product you need simply doesn’t exist?
Alexandra Rutkay is the founder of Citymouse, a diaper bag brand that’s generated almost $2 million in sales in just a few years.
Before this, she was a serial side hustler who’d dabbled in jewelry, print on demand, and Amazon FBA, including one Amazon product she sank $8,000 into and had to liquidate.
The idea for Citymouse came from her own frustration. Heading to dinner with her husband and toddler son, she couldn’t find a bag that fit her diapers, wipes, and bottle without looking like a bulky, traditional diaper bag. So she decided to make one herself.
With no design background, she sketched a rough concept and brought it straight to Alibaba to find a bag manufacturer.
After a few failed samples, she ordered 500 units for close to $10,000, against her husband’s advice to stop investing in new products.
Tune in to Episode 769 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how to go from a rough sketch to a manufactured product without design experience
- how to use preorders and organic TikTok content to fund inventory before it even lands
- how to use AI agents to run ads, PR outreach, and daily business coaching as a side hustle
Full Show Notes: This Mom Built a 7-Figure Brand From Her ApartmentNew to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo — Streamline and scale your customer communications with Quo (formerly Open Phone). Get 20% off your first 6 months at quo.com/sidehustle.Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
52 min - 768: 768: Affiliate Marketing on YouTube: The Path to $15k/mo
Can 100 pieces of content really replace your day job? One YouTuber says yes, and he's doing it with reviews and tutorials that still pay him months after he hits publish.
Jacob Wade runs Roadmap Money, a personal finance YouTube channel built almost entirely on search traffic and affiliate commissions.
He started by writing about budgeting apps and savings accounts for years, but it wasn't until he brought that same expertise to YouTube that things clicked.
One video, "best budgeting apps of 2024," started pulling in daily search traffic.
Nine months ago he had around 7,000 subscribers. Today he's closing in on 25,000, with some months topping $15,000 from the channel.
Tune in to Episode 768 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how to apply a "hub and spoke" content model to YouTube SEO
- how to pick keywords and topics as a small, low-authority channel
- how to turn viewers into affiliate conversions with QR codes and smart calls to action
Full Show Notes: Affiliate Marketing on YouTube: The Path to $15k/mo
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo — Streamline and scale your customer communications with Quo (formerly Open Phone). Get 20% off your first 6 months at quo.com/sidehustle.Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
1 hr - 767: 767: Listeners Share Their Scariest Entrepreneurial Moments
What’s the scariest moment you’ve faced as an entrepreneur?
For Halloween, I asked Side Hustle Show listeners to share theirs. You’ll hear about a 1.1 million-follower Instagram account deleted overnight, a Google update that wiped out 60% of one freelancer’s income, a warehouse that miscounted inventory right before the holidays, and 10,000 unusable DVDs.
You’ll also hear from entrepreneurs who chose to be scared: quitting a job, walking away from an eight-figure business, and laying off a team they loved.
I’ll share a few of my own along the way, including a Google ad ban on my first day of full-time self-employment, a ladder crash from my house-painting days, and a Bitcoin ransom email that came from my own address.
Tune in to Episode 767 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how platform risk (Meta, Google, logistics partners) can wipe out revenue or an entire following overnight, and what to do when it happens
- why owning your audience through email and your own website matters more than ever
- how entrepreneurs recovered from lost accounts, blown inventory, costly mistakes, and layoffs — and what they'd do differently
Full Show Notes: Listeners Share Their Scariest Entrepreneurial Moments
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Freshbooks.com – Get 90% off your first 4 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
46 min - 766: 766: We Found Reddit’s Weirdest Side Hustles
Can you really make money in tickling tomato flowers or selling your own boogers?
Today's episode digs into a pile of genuinely bizarre side hustles pulled from Reddit threads, and most of them actually work.
Alan Donegan from The Rebel School joins the show again to break down a dozen-plus offbeat income ideas, what makes them tick, and how you might replicate the underlying strategy even if you have zero interest in roly-poly bugs or soda can tabs.
Alan's been on the show before, and he and his wife run free business and finance courses that have helped people retire decades early.
He's back today purely for the fun of dissecting strange but real ways people are making extra cash.
Tune in to Episode 766 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how niche pet and hobby communities create surprisingly reliable income from "trash" products
- why solving an annoyance (standing in line, filling out forms, moving furniture) is worth real money
- how strategic partnerships and word of mouth can scale even the weirdest business idea
Full Show Notes: We Found Reddit’s Weirdest Side Hustles
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
59 min - How to Start a Commercial Cleaning Business on the Side: $100k in 9 Months (Greatest Hits)
This week’s guest booked $100k worth of commercial cleaning business in her first 9 months.
Haley Gallagher and her husband are serial side hustlers and were specifically looking for a side hustle they could do after hours.
Seeing an opportunity at a bar he was working security for, Haley’s husband asked if they could take on the cleaning contract.
That job snowballed into more jobs and as they hired employees and grew their business, MoonlightCommercialCleaning.com, they earned over $170k in revenue in their full first year.
Tune in to The Side Hustle Show interview to hear:
- how Moonlight Commercial Cleaning found their first customers
- how they price their work and manage a growing team of cleaners
- some of the mistakes they made along the way
Full Show Notes: How to Start a Commercial Cleaning Business on the Side: $100k in 9 Months
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
51 min - 765: 765: The $50k/mo One-Person Agency
Can one person run an AI consultancy without hiring a team of developers?
Simon Bergeron runs Lemonbrand.io, a one-person business that’s part digital agency, part consultancy, with some micro SaaS on top.
He manages a team of about 500 AI agents doing ongoing work for clients.
Simon tried to pick a niche, but referrals kept pulling him into golf clubs, dentist offices, manufacturers, and accounting firms. The common thread was team size.
Solo operators rarely need outside help, and big companies get bogged down in politics. Teams of 5 to 200 people turned out to be the sweet spot.
His mantra is “measure first, then automate.”
Tune in to Episode 765 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how to land your first AI automation client without a tech background
- why an "inbox audit" is the most valuable discovery tool for finding automation opportunities
- how to structure pricing so clients stay without feeling trapped
Full Show Notes: The $50k/mo One-Person Agency
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
57 min - 764: 764: 17 Surprising Businesses That Can Make Millions
What do hermit crab food, glitter bombs, and dog sunglasses have in common? They're all real businesses making real money by solving weird, specific problems nobody else wanted to touch.
Steve Chou, from My Wife Quit Her Job, is back for his fifth appearance on the show, dating back to 2015.
He's the author of The Family First Entrepreneur, and he built two successful side hustles before leaving his day job.
This episode continues the business idea donation series Steve and I have done a few times before, the kind where we just brain-dump a bunch of fascinating, often ridiculous business ideas we've stumbled across.
Past installments include Episodes 657, 563, and 530 in the archives.
Tune in to Episode 764 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how niche pet products can quietly turn into multimillion-dollar businesses
- why "waste" products like dung, lost luggage, and old furniture can become profitable inventory sources
- how emotional triggers like fear, novelty, grief, and humor drive viral product sales
Full Show Notes: 17 Surprising Businesses That Can Make Millions
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
54 min - 763: 763: He Makes $3,000 a Year Every Time He Gives a Restaurant a Free Chalkboard (And He’s Done it 200+ Times)
What if you could earn $3,000 a year from a whiteboard you give away for free?
John Schierman of MegansDailyDish.com places free chalkboards and whiteboards in restaurants and other busy venues.
The venue uses the board for daily specials. John sells small ad spots along the bottom to local businesses.
He's placed more than 200 of these boards so far. Each one brings in around $3,000 a year.
(Check out John's Community Boards program! New students get a free 15-minute coaching call with John and a free board!)
Tune in to Episode 763 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- how to place free chalkboards and whiteboards in restaurants and other high-traffic venues
- how to price, sell, and fill advertiser spots around the board
- how to turn one placement into a referral engine for more locations and more advertisers
Full Show Notes: He Makes $3,000 a Year Every Time He Gives a Restaurant a Free Chalkboard (And He’s Done it 200+ Times)
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
50 min - 762: 762: Buy Buttons, 10 Years Later
What if the hardest part of your business isn't building the thing, but finding someone to buy it?
Ten years ago, I wrote a book called Buy Buttons. The premise: instead of building a store or website and hoping somebody finds it, go set up shop where the traffic already is, where buyers are already buying.
The book covered over 300 platforms and marketplaces across niches. A decade later, I wanted to revisit the idea.
Are those platforms tapped out? What new ones have shown up? And does the same principle work offline?
This episode is a tour through the legacy platforms that are still thriving, the newer marketplaces that could be the next big wave, and a few examples of entrepreneurs applying the same strategy in the physical world.
Tune in to Episode 762 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:
- which "legacy" buy buttons platforms from 2016 are still worth building on today
- newer marketplaces like Whatnot, Outschool, and Teachers Pay Teachers that didn't exist (or weren't obvious) a decade ago
- how to apply the buy buttons strategy offline, from mobile coffee carts to vending machines
Full Show Notes: Buy Buttons, 10 Years Later
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
1 hr 2 min - $1000 a Week Tutoring on the Side (Greatest Hits)
The ACT is a college entrance exam used by many colleges to rank students applying to their schools. The subject matter covers English grammar, reading comprehension, math, and science.
Millions of students take the test each year and the test prep business rakes in over a billion dollars a year.
As a Side Hustle Nation reader, I want to show you how to get some of that money!
Don’t fret if you aren't a teacher. I'll give you resources to gain the skills and they cost $0.
Full Show Notes: $1000 a Week Tutoring on the Side
New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!
Sponsors:
Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!Monarch — Get an extended 30-day free trial!About The Side Hustle Show
This is the entrepreneurship podcast you can actually apply!
The award-winning small business show covers the best side hustles and side hustle ideas. We share how to start a business and make money online and offline, including online business, side gigs, freelancing, marketing, sales funnels, investing, and much more.
Join 100,000+ listeners and get legit business ideas and passive income strategies straight to your earbuds. No BS, just actionable tips on how to start and grow your side hustle.
Hosted by Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation.
49 min
About The Side Hustle Show
From the publisher's feed
The Side Hustle Show is the podcast for part-time entrepreneurs who are looking for business ideas, actionable tips to start a business, and killer strategies on how to turn their side hustle dreams into a growing business. We cover all aspects of starting a business and making money (online and offline), including small business marketing, sales, websites, social media marketing, blogging, time management, and more. Our topics include passive income ideas, niche sites, self-publishing, software and app development, coaching and consulting, freelancing, affiliate marketing, and much more.
Learn how to turn your business idea into your own thriving small business. Starting your own business gives you the freedom and opportunity to quit your job. It doesn't take a high-flying start-up to make money or create an awesome lifestyle business.
Hosted by Nick Loper, Chief Side-Hustler at Side Hustle Nation (.com).