The Side Hustle Show

The Piggyback Principle is a business idea framework that looks at popular market trends or “ecosystems” and seeks ways to support or supplement those trends.

It’s a faster way to start a business because you can capitalize on what’s already hot with an additional or complementary product or service.

Basically, your side hustle can ride piggyback on a larger business or trend. You could even say that my now-retired shoe-business was a piggyback business on the e-commerce trend and the comparison shopping trend.

It’s a concept I first wrote about 10 years ago, but at that time, I took a pretty narrow view by just talking about marketplace trends.

At that time, it was things like the rise of WordPress, or the popularity of the Paleo diet.

Now, I’ve broken this principle into three stages:

And to make this practical, I’m bringing in real-world examples from fellow entrepreneurs who’ve used this approach to build real businesses.

Here are the new and updated trends for the Piggyback Principle in 2025.

Full Show Notes: The Piggyback Principle: The “Lazy” Way to Build a Successful Side Hustle

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

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OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

When you think of side hustles, flipping 2,000-year-old Roman coins probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

But for Dean Kinzer, what started as a nod to his dad’s hobby turned into a $86k/year side hustle, one built around history, storytelling, and a very specific type of collector.

Dean runs KinzerCoins.com and The Ancient Coin Hour on YouTube, where he shares his love for ancient coins and educates others who are curious about the space.

Here’s how he did it.

Tune in to Episode 668 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Full Show Notes: How I Built an $80k/year Side Hustle in an Obscure Niche

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

What are the best side hustle trends you should look out for in 2025?

These might impact what business you start and how you think about scaling it.

And to help me out is a longtime friend and a friend of the show, Spencer Haws from NichePursuits.com.

He’s been covering online side hustles even longer than I have.

Almost all our content starts from the question of, "How do I make extra money?" To answer that, it’s important to know where the market’s been, where it is, and where it’s potentially going.

Tune in to Episode 667 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Full Show Notes: 10+ Side Hustle Trends for 2025

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

What if you could make $300 an hour filming short videos with your phone … and you didn’t need a single follower to get started?

That’s the side hustle Megan Collier carved out for herself with UGC (user-generated content).

Think of it as getting paid to create authentic-looking social media content for brands, even if you're not an influencer.

And she’s not alone. Brands are hungry for this stuff.

In just a couple of years, Megan built her side hustle into a six-figure income stream and quit her day job in 2023.

Let’s take a look at how she did it, and how you can, too.

Tune in to Episode 666 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Full Show Notes: $300/hr as a Content Creator, w/ No Audience Required

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

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Josh Belk is a full-time college student, he works full-time in web design, and in what little spare time, he’s started a $6,000 a month mobile detailing business with his younger brother.

This idea came about when Josh connected the dots between obsession and opportunity.

On the obsession side, Josh would always see his brother out in the driveway cleaning his car.

On the opportunity side, he received an email about business ideas anyone could start, and mobile car washing was one of them.

He asked his brother if he wanted to team up to see if they could make some money cleaning cars — and with that, Belk Mobile Detailing was born.

Tune in to hear the full podcast episode to hear how the pair:

Full Show Notes: Zero to $6k a Month With a Mobile Detailing Business

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

Cody Berman is no stranger to selling digital products.

He’s known in the side hustle world as the "printable guy" and co-founder of Gold City Ventures, but when Internet skeptics told him the Etsy market was "too saturated now" compared to when he started in 2018, Cody accepted the challenge.

And proved them wrong.

From zero to $1,000/month in 116 days with a brand-new Etsy shop, with no followers, no email list, and no marketing. Just skill and data-driven decisions.

(If you want to shortcut the learning curve, check out his course:

(sidehustlenation.com/etsyprintableslaunch)

Tune in to Episode 665 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

Full Show Notes: The Path to $1k/mo with Mini Digital Products

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Gusto — Get 3 months free of the leading payroll, benefits, and HR provider for modern small businesses!

I can almost guarantee you've heard the phrase the "money is in the list."

And all the experts, myself included, extol the virtues of building your email list, right? Because it's the platform that you own and control.

But the question is, are you building an email list of buyers?  Subscribers are great, but you're not buying groceries on subscribers alone.

Pete Boyle is the founder of growthmodels.co and he  has a unique list-building and business-building strategy that throws free lead magnets out the window in favor of low-priced products, starting at just $1, and has seen some exciting results, including $4,000 in just 10 days.

Tune in to Episode 664 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

(Start your own $1 product experiment at growthmodels.co/dollar.)

Full Show Notes: The $1 Product Challenge

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

I’m not usually one to fall for those flashy, too-good-to-be-true money hacks.

But when someone tells me they’re making $200 an hour in their underwear just opening bank accounts? You bet I’m curious.

That someone is Dylan Sexton from dylansbonuses.com, and he’s been pulling in consistent weekly income by playing the bank bonus game.

No shady stuff. No switching your entire financial life around. Just a super smart (and surprisingly low-effort) system that banks actually want you to take advantage of.

Tune in to Episode 663 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Full Show Notes: Bank Bonuses: How I Make $200/Hr Opening New Bank Accounts

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

OpenPhone — Get 20% off of your first 6 months!

Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!

Vending machines are a classic passive income source that continues to be profitable today.

We had Mr. Passive himself, Mike Hoffman, on the show before to talk about how to scale up his vending machine business.

And one of his mentees is here today.

Anthony Kolodziej from H&H Vending scaled his vending operation from zero to over $50k per month in just 16 months.

That’s 30+ locations, thousands of transactions, and a strategy that turns vending into something way beyond the old-school snack machine in the corner of a breakroom.

Tune in to Episode 662 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Want to go deeper? Check out Mike Hoffmann’s Vendingpreneur training program. (Side Hustle Show listeners get 10% off!)

Full Show Notes: From Zero to $50k in Vending Revenue in 16 months

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Most people look at a golf glove and see, well, just a golf club… white, plain, forgettable.

But Randall Pulfer and his co-founder Tyler, with zero experience in manufacturing, no background in design, and a full-time day job, sold $100k worth of golf gloves as a side hustle.

ChippGolfCo.com is now a brand that’s making waves in the golf scene.

Randall breaks down how he pulled it off from coming up with the idea, finding the right manufacturing partner, and making those first crucial sales.

(Want to try one for yourself? Head over to ChippGolfCo.com and use promo code HUSTLE for 15% off your order.)

Tune in to Episode 661 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

Full Show Notes: How We Sold $100k Worth of Golf Gloves on the Side

New to the Show? Get your personalized money-making playlist here!

Sponsors:

Airbnb — Discover how much your home could be worth and find a professional co-host today!

Mint Mobile — Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month!

Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

OpenPhone — Streamline and scale your customer communications with Open Phone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/sidehustle.

Shopify — Sign up for a $1 per month trial!