3️⃣ boxes your SIDE HUSTLE should ✅ (and 1 bonus)

Hey Side Hustle Fam!

I look at a lot of businesses. Both for my own portfolio and friends and consulting clients that pay me to help them. And just because I’m a very curious person. I still get 4-5 emails a week from BizBuySell and other brokers with listings. I love it. It keeps my business brain sharp.

And, having done this for over 20 years, I can tell you there are some things that I look for in any business or Side Hustle. I think you need to check these 3 boxes (and one bonus!) to be successful.

Let’s dive in:

• Low-Risk. The best side hustles are low risk so they shouldn’t take a huge investment on your part. A friend sent me a vending route for sale for around $50k. That’s a nice starting point. Only you can decide where you’re comfortable, but it should be an amount that won’t ruin your life if it all comes crashing down. Don’t drop the kids college fund on some random website you found on BizBuy.

  Now for real estate investments, the numbers change a little. You have a hard asset that backs your investment so you can afford to go bigger in my opinion. If people stop washing their cars, we’ll mow down these buildings and put up a convenience store or a Chik-Fil-A.

• Low-Effort. Now we’re talking about your most precious asset: time. A side hustle that consumes ALL your weekends and weeknights is probably going to burn you out and not make you rich. You want a nice side income AND still be able to go to the lake on Saturday right?

  To do that you’ll need something proven, something a little boring by start-up standards, that just makes money from day one without your presence. You don’t need another job, you need to be able to hire someone to do the job for you. So it can’t be something with super specialized training. Simple. That’s why pressure washing, window cleaning, bounce-house and trash can cleaning businesses are so popular right now.

  Stay away from anything that says it perfect for an “owner-operator”! You want to be the owner - not operator.

• Low-Stress. A side hustle is not worth it if it consumes your mind 24 hours a day and keeps you up at night. This generally happens when the stakes are higher. Like when you’re clients are paying you thousands of dollars to perform highly specialized services, or your employees are in high-risk situations (on top of roofs, at the bottom of ditches, etc.)

  That’s why I like lower ticket businesses, like vending, car washes, laundromats, etc. If someone is pissed off you give them their $2.50 back and get on with your day. There is no 911 scenario in my businesses, and that is by design.

• Bonus: Tax Efficient. If you can check all three boxes PLUS this one, now you’re cookin baby. This is another reason real estate is so popular. That’s why I love my car washes, they check all the above AND nuked my tax bill from my other businesses (I tell the whole story right here)

Now I know what you’re thinking “NEWSFLASH, I know all this stuff, where the hell can I find something that checks all this boxes??” The fact is that most people who own these businesses would never sell them. Why would you?

But, you can find some diamonds in the rough out there. Where the previous owner wasn’t too savvy on hiring and systems, and you can implement those things yourself. You can reduce your time invested and still make a nice side income.

Some ideas:

• car washes (ok I’ll stop I promise)

• self storage

• RV/boat storage

• RV parks

• pressure washing

• window washing

• vending machine routes

• dumpster rental

• bounce house rental

• porta-potty rental (you can tell I like rental businesses)

• poop-scooping

• house cleaning

Now it’s your turn. Think of something that checks these boxes, and start looking around. It could be a franchise. It could be that ‘ugly duckling’ business you saw on BizBuySell that - with some good hiring, automation and systems in place - could be turned into a killer side hustle.

Hit me back with your ideas, I’ll tell you what I think…

Stay Hustlin’

Kriss Berg