Hustle 101

Tired of trading time for money at your 9 to 5 job? Looking for a way to make passive income with minimal startup costs and overhead?

Then starting a vending machine business may be perfect for you.

The vending machine industry was valued at $42 billion last year and is expected to grow at 8.1% from 2024 to 2030.

Profitable vending machines are everywhere — offices, apartment buildings, gyms, airports.

Wherever people gather, there’s an opportunity to provide convenient access to snacks, drinks, and other bestselling impulse-buy items.

And it’s a great market to get into because it’s extremely fragmented, with vast potential for growth. No national player owns more than 5% market share.

Making extra money on the side often requires finding ways to create leverage.

Leverage means getting paid multiple times for work you only have to do once, and making money without having to actively do the work yourself.

One side hustler who has cracked the code on leveraged profits is Steve Slagle. By day, Steve works construction jobs. But outside of his 9 to 5, he now earns over $2500 a month from Beachside Ice, his ice vending machine business.

In this episode, Steve takes us through the world of vending machine location negotiations, landowner compensation, and the importance of maintaining positive relations. We explore the finer details of partnering with manufacturers, securing permits, and overseeing installation and delivery.

Around 72,000 people search “how to start a business” in Google every month. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

If we dive a bit deeper into the search data, we can see the specific types of businesses aspiring entrepreneurs are looking for information on.

Here’s how the data stacks up.

What if I told you that you could launch a million-dollar business this weekend? Sounds crazy, right?

I recently had the pleasure of having Noah Kagan back on the Side Hustle Show podcast.

You might remember him from Episode 237 about brainstorming and validating business ideas.

Noah is a serial entrepreneur and founder of AppSumo, The Noah Kagan Youtube channel, Noah Kagan Presents podcast, and several other successful ventures.

He recently launched a new book called Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours.

Throughout our conversation, we brainstormed numerous side hustle business ideas that listeners could pursue this year.

Noah also shared his insights on idea validation, launching quickly, and much more.

Making an extra $100 a day through side hustles might seem out of reach for many people. So how did one side hustler earn over $10,000 in just 100 days?

Jaclyn “Jackie” Mitchell (@jaclynmitchell) set out to save for a down payment on a house by breaking a big goal into bite-sized daily targets. By earning $100 every day over 100 days, she ended up netting a total of $10,972.

How’d she do it while working a full-time job? By relentlessly testing quick-hitting side hustles, working in public to hold herself accountable, and opening herself up to unexpected income from building an audience.