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The 11 Best Side Hustles for 2026 Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office Podcast · Feb 06, 2026 · Education · 25:14 · EN

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00:00 You don't need to spend a dime before you know which one of these are sellers. It [music] can be that simple, I promise you. There are people making a lot more money doing things that are a lot more simple than this. Competition is basically non-existent. $51,000 in 1 month on Facebook Marketplace. So, here's all my data points. People are doing this and they're finding success.

00:18 The word middleman should not be a pejorative. [music] It is a beautiful thing to be a middleman. Now, net to her each loan origination is thousands of dollars or at least $10,000. So, this is >> [music] >> very real money that she made with a $50-a-month tool. I have 11 business ideas for you. All of these ideas will be approachable, affordable to start, and all of them, yes, can scale.

00:42 Some of these I've touched on very briefly on Twitter or on Instagram, and they're all proven to be popular based on the engagement that I saw on them, but I haven't really gone deep on any of them until now. So, let's count down from 11, my least favorite, to number one, my most favorite, but I whittled these down from like 150. So, even number 11 is a banger.

01:01 I just ask one easy favor of you, whether you're watching on video or listening on audio. If you hear an idea that kind of remind you of a friend or a family member, share this episode with them. That's all I ask. I'm telling you right now, it's not once a month where someone's in my inbox like this saying, "Hey, I started printing artwork on walls and I'm making tons of money."

01:19 You can do residential, you can do commercial. You charge by the square foot and you just show up, you load the design, you load the paint, and you make money. Now, I love this because this is relatively new technology. The company that makes these wall printers only came out, I think, three to five years ago, and these printers were mostly used by businesses to print on their own walls.

01:37 It wasn't used as a service, right? And so, anytime new technology is developed, new service businesses are developed around that technology. I literally have had six to 10 people in my inbox, in my DMs, saying, "Hey, I started a wall printing business. How would you help me find customers?" Or, "Hey, I started a wall printing business. Like, I'm doing restaurants."

01:56 Like, people are this and they're finding success. You charge by the square foot or maybe even the square inch and you know what your paint costs are. That doesn't really vary much. You know what your hard upfront costs are. That's the wall printer. And so it's just a matter of marking up your paint costs and accounting for your time. And the number one reason I love this idea is because of the time lapse effect.

02:14 I'm going to revisit this a few ideas from now. Ideas that are easily spreadable on vertical short form video with time lapses just naturally do better because it sells itself. It's visually appealing. And so if you lived in a city of 50,000, 100,000 and you were the wall printer in the area, you could build a sizable business just within that city.

02:37 There are about 1.8 million retail businesses in the United States alone. And this isn't limited to just retail businesses. It could go in warehouses, in industrial settings, in office settings. I mean I can imagine an Amazon warehouse with a break room that has like training guides printed on the walls. You can finance these machines. They come with a warranty.

02:54 They don't cost all that much. I don't remember the name of the company that prints them but just Google it wall printing machines and you'll see about three or four companies there. Okay, so for idea number 10, this happened about two months ago. It was right around Thanksgiving and I had this John Deere riding mower that I bought 18 months ago and I wanted to upgrade.

03:10 It worked great but I just wanted something bigger so I put it on Facebook Marketplace, listed for 2500. I agreed to sell it for 2200. The guy says I'll come pick it up. So he pulls up in like a Ford F-250 with a trailer. And the interesting thing is on the back of this trailer there are two nearly identical green and yellow John Deere riding mowers already on it.

03:28 And so my light bulb just start going off. I'm like, "Oh, this guy's flipping. This guy's not buying a mower to mow his lawn. He already has two. Like he's running a route. He's probably buying up all the John Deere's he can find on Facebook Marketplace." So he pulls up. He doesn't speak very good English and honestly I can't place the accent. I can't really tell where he's from.

03:47 He looks American, does not sound American. His wife gets out. They've got a toddler running around, and then she's holding like a brand new baby. She speaks heavily accented English. So, I get to talking, and I'm asking him questions like, "What is this for?" And he's kind of being humdrum about it. He doesn't really want to tell me. I'm like, "Dude, come on.

04:04 Like, come on." And so, finally, they're like, "Well, we're shipping these to Bolivia. That's where we're from." Hence the reason I couldn't place the accent. And if you're geographically challenged, that's in South America. So, they said that these mowers sell for 6 to 7,000 in Bolivia. Specifically. And like, Bolivia is not like a super advanced, wealthy country, but it's also not like a third-world country.

04:26 And so, that really, really surprised me. But, I talked to ChatGPT, I started looking it up, I looked in some forums, and it's a thing. And it's not just Bolivia, it's not just riding mowers, but this is just import-export we're talking about here. It's an arbitrage opportunity. These John Deere riding mowers are hard to find there. And Americans don't really see John Deere as like the best quality anymore like we used to.

04:46 At least, that's the perception I have. But, in Bolivia, John Deere is like the gold standard. Like, that's the American brand that's super well-built, and it sells for a premium there. Um so, what these guys do is they buy these mowers, it has to be a John Deere, and they put them in crates so they can stack easier, and they ship them to Lubbock, Texas, which is like a very, very popular shipping lane in West Texas, and then they get on another truck and go all the way down south through Mexico, through Central

05:13 America to Bolivia, and they sell. And I think they said they pay like $1 to $2 a pound for shipping. So, call it like $500 for shipping. He paid $2,200. So, let's say he's $3,000 in this, and he can sell it for six. And he has a dad that lives in Bolivia, so that's kind of his business partner, and that's the whole business. And he had a nice, expensive truck, a big trailer.

05:32 I assume he did well. But, wait, there's more. There's two other parts to this business idea number 10. Well, really one part. And that's lawn mower flipping again, in a different way. So, then I'm on YouTube, and I come across this video here, which I'll link in the show notes. I really want you to watch it. It's one of the best YouTube videos I've seen all year.

05:50 Right here. The title is Flipping Lawn Mowers Until I Can Afford My Dream Car, Episode 1. This guy's name is Noah, n o w a h. He lives in Minnesota or something. He's like 16 or 17 years old. He only has 17,000 subscribers. This video has over 300,000 views, and I was enthralled the entire time. I watched the whole thing. He's trying to save up to buy a car.

06:11 So, coincidentally, he has a green and yellow John Deere mower. And he goes through the process of ordering parts and fixing it and the fuel pump and the fuel filter, and he doesn't know what he's doing. He's asking ChatGPT. And he ended up making like a thousand bucks. Okay? So, then I connected this data point to another data point. I was actually on Facebook Marketplace because I was looking at interesting listings that I could make content about.

06:31 I want to make a video where I buy food from people on Facebook Marketplace and ask them about their business and how much money they're making. So, I was doing that, and I see this guy listing a riding mower. And then I click on his profile, and he's got a ton of listings for riding mowers, like 30, 40 listings, just in Dallas-Fort Worth area. And so, I DM'd him, and I'm like, "What are you doing, man?

06:51 You got this like this riding mower business?" And he was very ho-hum about it. And it seemed to me that he was just buying broken riding mowers on Facebook Marketplace, fixing them up, and selling them in mass on Facebook Marketplace. So, I'm like, "That's interesting. If you have this many listings, you're probably doing very well." And then the third or fourth data point, I lose track by this point, I saw was also on YouTube.

07:11 I came across another video right here by this guy named Matt Haul. He has 761 subscribers. That's 761, not thousand. His video has 41,000 views, and it's called How I Made $51,000 in 1 month on Facebook Marketplace Flipping Lawn Mowers. Okay, so here's all my data points. The guy in my own front yard who I sold my actual lawn mower to, the guy on Facebook Marketplace with a ton of listings, the kid on Facebook up in Minnesota flipping lawn mowers for profit, and then this other guy on YouTube who made $50,000

07:43 supposedly flipping lawn mowers. By the way, I'm going to have him on the pod. He's meeting with my team right now. So, there'll be more info on that later. But, I start going down this rabbit hole of riding lawn mowers on Facebook Marketplace and flipping them. And people are making a lot of money doing it. And the thing is is most of these things are about the same.

07:57 When I had my riding mower, the freaking belt kept breaking even though it was brand new. And I had to learn how to fix a few things and I'm not mechanically inclined or handy whatsoever. But, then it got pretty easy cuz I knew what I was doing and that's, you know, how anything in life goes. So, idea number 10 is flip lawn mowers on Facebook Marketplace either by selling them to another country or fixing them up and reselling them.

08:18 You could buy one for under a thousand bucks. You could fix it for, who knows, 50 to 500 bucks in parts. It might take you many hours, right? It will not be an efficient use of your time to start, but over time it will be. And especially if you live in an area, a metroplex with over 500,000 people, you can scale this business. Throw a hitch on your car, get a trailer, rent a trailer from U-Haul, freaking MIH, make it happen.

08:39 All right, idea number nine. Today's edition of only in Germany, this guy takes simple driftwood, simple LED lights from Amazon, couple tools, some spray paint, and he makes this awesome decor that he sells for 300 to 1200 dollars US. And it's in Germany. So, if you're in Germany, compete with him. If you're not, own the market. He started on Etsy, now he has his own website, and he's doing six figures a year.

08:57 Okay, so this guy gets branches, pieces of wood, dead wood, driftwood, etc. He gets a router, I think that's what it's called, woodworking tool, that cuts out notches in the wood, and he gets these LED light strips that you can buy on Amazon for like 15 bucks, and he lines it down the driftwood, he sands the driftwood, he stains it, he puts mounts on it, and it's wall art.

09:18 And it's lit from behind, it's backlit. And it looks awesome. A lot of the commenters were saying this is AI, this is It's not AI. This guy's real, went to his website, I did my research, and he's got a thriving business. So, what's the idea? Copy him. Sell that. If you like working with your hands, if you like building, woodworking, do this. How do you find customers?

09:34 Organic vertical short form video, just like this one. By the way, all of these videos will be linked in the show notes. Okay, idea number eight I posted about on Twitter just a few days ago. This idea blew my mind. I was on a call with this woman named Christie. Shout out Christie. We just met on this call and she is a mortgage broker. And her kids were talking about, you know, you should use these AI tools to make AI-generated videos to grow your business and she's like, "I don't know what that means.

10:00 How do I do that?" So, she used this tool called HeyGen and she took a headshot of herself. That's it. Just a headshot. She uploaded it and she said, you know, make a video about home equity lines of credit, like an instructional video of 60 seconds. Make it look like I'm sitting in a nice office talking. So, here's the video. I won't play all of it.

10:20 >> Hi, I'm Christie Olson. I'm a mortgage loan officer and real estate agent and I help people build wealth through real estate by using strategies real homeowners are actually using. Okay, so you get the idea. The crazy crazy crazy part about this story is that she only had 480 followers on her Instagram page. This is her personal Instagram, okay? And she posted about 10 of these videos and they got between 200 and 500 views each, okay?

10:43 So, we're talking 3 to 5,000 views total, in aggregate. And it looks pretty real, kind of. But then you look a little longer and it's like the mouth movement's weird and, you know, if you know what you're looking at, then you'll know this is AI. But here's the crazy part. She got 10 new loan originations from these videos. Now, net to her, each loan origination is thousands of dollars or at least $10,000.

11:09 So, this is very real money that she made with a $50-a-month tool. And this isn't about the tool. This is not sponsored. This is about making AI-generated video content at scale using AI tools like these. I don't care if it's cringeworthy. I don't care if you're afraid that people think it's AI. It works. And if you don't want to do it yourself, then offer this as a service to people like Christie, to people that want to grow their business on social media, to people that have a headshot that they could send you that

11:39 you could simply upload to this $50 a month tool and charge $1,500 a month for 10 videos or whatever it is. It can be that simple, I promise you. There are people making a lot more money doing things that are a lot more simple than this. I am always hunting for ways to help you start businesses and make more money. That's literally why I do this. So, let me tell you about something that saves me hours every single week.

12:00 Most business owners are drowning in subscriptions. They've got one tool for emails, one tool for leads, they've got funnels, booking, and that's not running a business. That's babysitting software. HighLevel kills all of that. HighLevel is one platform, emails, CRM, funnels, scheduling, automations, all of it is built in and the time you save is time that you can spend actually making money.

12:26 Plus, it has this missed call text back feature that automatically texts leads when you can't answer the phone. And if you ever want to white label it to resell it as your own software to clients, you can do that, too. Recurring revenue built right in. It'll change the way you think about business, so check out gohighlevel.com/tkopod and they will give you a 30-day free trial to see what I mean.

12:49 All right, idea number seven. I'm amazed at how much she's charging to clean car seats in the middle of nowhere, Derby, Kansas, population 26,000 people. Here's how she's doing it and how you can do it, too. She found customers, she simply videos herself doing her job and posted it to her Instagram page. She only has 2,600 followers and she is swamped with demand.

13:09 And how she cleans the things, she follows the manufacturer instructions. She picks them up in bulk, she cleans them all at the same time, she drops them off at the same time, she gets paid in advance and leaves them on the doorstep. This minimizes the interaction time, therefore maximizes your profit. Specialized equipment, materials, chemicals, none of that.

13:26 We're talking a simple vacuum and cleaning supplies from Dollar General. You can basically guarantee that you'll never have competition in this business because people aren't willing to work in ways like this to make money. 50 bucks per car seat. I went through a bunch of the comments, people would pay up to $200 for this. And competitors are charging 75 to 125.

13:40 She spends a little less than an hour to clean each one, which means that your profit could be between 80 and $120 an hour, which at a 40-hour job, that hourly wage would be $200,000 a year. Okay, so I know what you're thinking. I don't want to clean car seats. No one wants to clean car seats. That's why if you have small kids, your car seats are disgusting.

14:01 That's the opportunity. So, the question is do you want to start a business more than you want to avoid cleaning car seats? If not, then fine. Find a different business, right? Find a sexier business. But if so, then this is a great business for you because there's a need for it. I don't think people are going to start caring about being clean less.

14:18 Like Jeff Bezos said, right? Like people aren't going to suddenly want to pay more for things or to get them shipped slower. His whole thesis about Amazon was that we always need to make things cheaper and faster because people will always want both of those things. People are going to continue to want things to be clean and tidy and germ-free. That is a true principle.

14:37 This rides that wave. It's a relatively new industry, so keyword difficulty is not that high. Competition is basically non-existent. You can grow it with content. And don't charge 50 bucks a car seat. Like that's nothing. Charge 150 bucks. People would pay that. All right, time for idea number six. I love good business ideas that have a good way of marketing them.

14:56 And this one has maybe the best guerrilla marketing strategy I've ever seen. Here's what you're going to do. Go to the neighborhood, go find out when the trash day is in any given neighborhood. And the day of or the day before trash day, you're going to get big shiny flyers printed. You're going to slap them on these garbage bins with your ad, your QR code, etc.

15:11 And that evening when the kids are outside, the parents are getting home from work, you're going to drive around the same neighborhood blasting "Ain't no bunny don't pass me, I'm just so fresh so clean" with a big magnet on the side of your vehicle advertising your bin cleaning services. Don't wrap your vehicle cuz that's thousands of dollars. You're just trying to test the concept before going all in at this point.

15:29 You charge 25 bucks per bin, takes you 5 minutes with a pressure washer. You do 20 in a day, that's 500 bucks in a day. Your startup costs are less than $1,000. I just spent an hour talking to a guy making six figures doing just this. Okay, so way back in October 2024, I interviewed a guy who makes six figures doing this. He quit his six figure job to do this up in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, I think.

15:49 And he's doing great. Now, there are some downsides to this business. It's dirty, it's unsexy, it's hard to scale. I said $25 in that video. I don't know how realistic that is. I think it's going to be closer to 15. I can't remember exactly what he said in the episode. We'll link to that episode in the show notes. But, just like car seat cleaning, right?

16:06 People aren't going to suddenly want their garbage bins to be even dirtier. This is also a relatively new industry and you can start it very cheaply because good pressure washer. And I say good, I don't mean one that you could like use commercially thousands of times, but like a solid pressure washer you can buy for hundreds of dollars. So, you're in business.

16:24 All right, number five, this is a two-parter. These are both food ideas. What did Pablo Picasso say? Good artists copy, great artists steal. This candy company admits that this is their best-selling product. >> What the freak is stopping you from buying one of those chocolate fountains for a few hundred bucks on Amazon? Posting up at your local farmers market, buying some Lay's potato chips.

16:40 Your chocolate fountain will draw the eye of the passersby. You say, "Hey, do you want some of this?" "Yeah, I'd love some." "Cool, let me make it in front of you." Pour out the fresh melted chocolate on top of the chips. They're watching >> their own product being made, which means you can sell it for more. You crush it down, you bring a fan to cool off the chocolate more quickly.

16:53 They pay 20 bucks, you bag it up 5 minutes later when it's cooled. And you're in business for what? 500 bucks? Or you could sit around and think of a hundred reasons why this won't work, or you could just go test it. >> All right, so this one kind of speaks for itself. It's visually appealing, you make good money, you learn a bunch of skills, and you parlay those earnings into something else.

17:10 Maybe something that you enjoy more or might be more profitable, etc. Now, along with that idea, there's another sweets idea for all you Utah people. Let's go ahead and check this one out. What in the Utah sugar capital of the world am I looking at here? Let me explain. This is happening in India. What is it? It's hot chocolate, better presentation.

17:27 They get the marshmallow fluff, they put it around the rim, they burn it. An extra 2 minutes of labor bring your $6 hot chocolate to $9 hot chocolate. Last I checked, it's pretty damn cold outside. Why don't you post it up with a freaking 6-ft plastic folding table from Costco slaying this hot chocolate with this design and presentation? Your only competitors are your doubts and fears.

17:46 All right, that's it. You got like marshmallow fluff around the rim of your standard like hot chocolate cup and you get one of the little torches that you get on Amazon or whatever and you burn it, make it look nice, you put some Oreo crumbles on top, pour hot chocolate in there. It costs a tiny bit more, but you can charge a lot more. Same thing, farmer's market.

18:01 All right, idea number four is freaking mom right here is making six figures a year turning kids trash into parents treasure. How it works is very simple. You take all your kids artwork, ship it to this lady and she arranges it on this big canvas. She's got an eye for it and then she sells it back to you for hundreds or thousands of dollars. As long as there are parents who love their children, this will be a viable business idea.

18:22 Okay, so you're taking your kids artwork, you're putting on a canvas that you buy from Hobby Lobby, you arrange it in a nice eye-pleasing way and you put some resin over it or whatever and you turn a bunch of little pieces of artwork into one giant piece of artwork that you sell back to the parents who sent you the artwork. So, if you saw how many tens of millions of views this stuff gets, there's a market for this.

18:41 You're selling nostalgia, you're selling a parent's love for their children. And I think this is very approachable, it's very cheap to start. And you know what you could do? You could even lay out all the artwork, take a picture of it, upload it to ChatGPT and say, "Hey, how should I arrange this? I don't have an eye for this stuff. I'm not very artistic.

18:56 How can I arrange it?" And it will tell you based on first principles of design. Oh, and remember at the beginning when I asked you if you think of any ideas or any friends, family that might like these, please send it to them. I just wanted to quickly remind you of that. And if someone's sent this to you because they had you in mind, please subscribe to this.

19:10 I think you'll like this channel. And idea number three, well, you guys probably already know this idea because I covered it like a week ago. So, I'm only going to touch on it for like 30 seconds, but it's wholesale distribution. Gas stations, convenience stores, gift shops, whatever it is. I just can't get this business idea out of my head. And people don't really like it because it's it's unsexy.

19:29 You think you have to have sales skills, but you don't. You just need to be willing to talk to people. In case you missed the episode, it was only posted like a week ago, episode 270. This business idea makes vending machines look dumb. And it does. It really does. You don't need a vending machine to sell jerky or candy or chips or sodas or whatever.

19:46 So, I'm going to revisit that idea because I love it so much. Number two, I covered this one like a year and a half ago very briefly, but I want to go a little deeper on it. You've probably seen this guy. His name's Spencer. And his channel's called SB Mowing, and I'm just going to show a short clip from it. I was doing some work today in the area, and I drove by and I saw your lawn was getting a little bit long.

20:05 I was wondering if I could cut it and clean it up completely free for you. Yeah, I'll do it for free. Okay, so there needs to be a name for this. I'm going to call it goodwill time lapse videos because it is one of the most brilliant uses of the internet that I've ever seen. You're doing good and you're making money at the same time. You go around, you knock on people's doors, you say, "Hey, you need a new roof?

20:24 You need pressure washing? You need landscaping, fencing, fence washing, house painting, whatever? I will do it for free. The only thing I ask is that I'm able to video it and post it on the internet." That's like a whole industry. And I talked about this a year, year and a half on the podcast saying like, "More people need to do this." Why? Because SB Mowing / SB Pressure Washing has 50 million subscribers across platforms.

20:49 That was a year ago. Probably 60, 70 million at this point. That's a lot of money. If you monetize that right, that could be over 10 million dollars a year of net profit with a very small team. You just got to have some tripods, some GoPros, some iPhones, some editors in the Philippines, and you've got to be willing to copy the format of this guy or other people like him.

21:08 Shout out to you, Cole Simpson, my friend, who's in Columbia, South Carolina, doing this exact thing. He didn't get the idea from me, he thought of it himself, and he has an eye for YouTube, and he's crushing it. His videos are getting millions of views, and he's making six figures a year on YouTube right now, and he's only been doing it for a matter of months.

21:26 Next year, he'll probably make seven figures on YouTube. That's just from YouTube. That doesn't include sponsorships, merch, memberships, or anything. There are thousands of home service ideas. So, use ChatGPT to come up with ideas that are more time-lapse friendly, more visually appealing. You don't need to say, "Oh, SP Mowing already does mowing and pressure washing, so I got to think of something different or new."

21:45 No, you just need to think that guy has 60 million followers, I can do the same thing and just start siphoning off some of those. Or, I can do the same thing and make it a little different and start siphoning off some of those. But, I would also test 10 different concepts. Soft washing, fence restoration, fence painting, house painting, indoor, outdoor, roof washing.

22:04 It's funny cuz I just had a conversation with Cole about this today, and he's doing roofing, which is very, very expensive, but that also sells because people generally know that a roof is is expensive, and so that converts to more clicks cuz the effort is conveyed from the video to the viewer, which helps increase retention, which helps increase the reach that YouTube gives your videos, right?

22:25 But, it doesn't have to be an expensive service because SP Mowing does mowing and pressure washing and has tens of millions of subscribers. That's why this is idea number two, and it was almost idea number one, but idea number one just has that cool factor, and there's just no replacing an idea with an awesome coolness factor, a testosterone factor.

22:43 So, here we go. A 30-mph jet boat that costs about 80% less than a jet ski. How do you monetize that? Number one, go to Alibaba, buy one of these from China, sell that sucker on Facebook Marketplace. Be sure to put the word jet ski in the description because then it will appear to to searching for jet skis. And when they see how much cheaper it is than an actual jet ski, they're going to buy.

23:04 I guarantee you you can make a thousand dollars profit per unit. Number two, if jet ski rental is a business, why can't jet boat rental be a business? You charge 20% less cuz it's not as fast as a jet ski, but you pay 80% less for the unit. So, you come out way ahead. Okay, so what you're looking at in this video is a jet boat, which basically it's it's like a jet ski, but a little uglier.

23:23 And they're shipped directly from China in a crate, and I think they cost like mid hundreds of dollars, high hundreds of dollars as opposed to a jet ski that's you know many thousands of dollars. Guys, I've done this. I've imported a dozen different things from China. High ticket, low ticket, $5 things, $5,000 things, electronics, non-electronics. You go to Alibaba, you go to AliExpress, DHGate, Temu, and you just start DMing manufacturers and asking for samples and just talking to them, hopping on WhatsApp late at

23:51 night cuz there's a 13-hour time difference. Take a flyer on an order or two. Make sure they have good reviews. You can go If you go through Alibaba, you can do like the Alibaba assurance thing where they will make sure that your purchase is insured so you don't get scammed. Go to Alibaba and start looking for things that look really interesting and copy and paste those pictures over to Facebook Marketplace at varying price points and see what kind of interest you get.

24:15 You don't need to spend a dime before you know which one of these are sellers. Like they've got mini Jeeps on there, jet boats, they've got golf carts for 1,500 bucks. Like start importing crap. But before you import it, list it on Facebook Marketplace to see which ones get the most clicks, the most messages, the most impressions. Keep track of all of it in a Google Sheet and even pre-sell it.

24:36 Like take a $50 deposit, a $500 deposit. Meet with a guy and tell him exactly what you're doing. It's no secret these are coming from China. Most people just don't want to take the risk. They don't want to wire money to China. They would rather pay a surplus for that same item so you can risk your money and wire it to China. That's the whole reason I was in business for 15 years importing and exporting to and from China because people don't want to take the risk.

24:57 The word middleman should not be a pejorative. It is a beautiful thing to be a middleman. All right, that's it. Those are my 11 favorite business ideas of Q1 2026. These are all beginner-friendly, approachable, affordable to start. They can all scale. Thanks for hanging out in the corner office. Love you all.

🧠 AI Summary

Eleven beginner-friendly, affordable-to-start side hustles for Q1 2026 are presented, including wall printing, lawn mower flipping, handmade decor, AI video services, specialized cleaning, food vending, personalized artwork, wholesale distribution, goodwill time-lapse services, and importing products from China. The central approach is to validate demand cheaply through listings, content, deposits, and customer conversations before investing heavily. Visually appealing services and products can gain customers through short-form video, while unglamorous local services can benefit from low competition.

🔑 Key Points

  • Wall printing can serve residential, retail, warehouse, industrial, and office customers, with pricing based on square feet or square inches.
  • Lawn mower flipping can involve repairing broken mowers for resale or exporting John Deere mowers to markets such as Bolivia.
  • Handmade backlit driftwood decor reportedly sells for $300 to $1,200, and the featured business reached six figures annually.
  • AI-generated videos can be produced as a service for businesses using a customer's headshot and a tool such as HeyGen.
  • Car-seat and garbage-bin cleaning are relatively new, low-competition services that can be marketed through content.
  • Farmers-market food concepts can increase perceived value through visual preparation and presentation.
  • Goodwill time-lapse videos combine free home services with permission to film and publish the work online.
  • Product importing can be validated through Marketplace listings, interest tracking, and pre-sales before placing an order.

✅ Actionable items

  • Offer wall-printing services to residential and commercial customers, charge by area, and account for paint, equipment, and time.
  • Buy broken riding mowers on Facebook Marketplace, repair them, and resell them.
  • Test exporting products such as John Deere riding mowers through established shipping routes and local business partners.
  • Create backlit driftwood artwork using wood, a router, LED strips, sanding, staining, and wall mounts.
  • Use HeyGen or a similar AI video tool to create short educational videos from a client's headshot and sell production as a monthly service.
  • Collect car seats in bulk, clean them according to manufacturer instructions, return them in bulk, and collect payment in advance.
  • Test garbage-bin cleaning with flyers, QR codes, vehicle magnets, and a pressure washer before investing in a vehicle wrap.
  • Sell chocolate-covered potato chips or enhanced hot chocolate at farmers markets using visible preparation and presentation.
  • Arrange children's artwork on canvases, use resin or similar finishing materials, and sell the finished piece back to the parents.
  • Approach gas stations, convenience stores, and gift shops about wholesale distribution of products such as jerky, candy, chips, and sodas.
  • Offer free mowing, pressure washing, landscaping, fencing, or painting in exchange for permission to film and publish time-lapse videos.
  • Test multiple visually appealing home-service concepts, including soft washing, fence restoration, fence painting, house painting, and roof washing.
  • Find products on Alibaba, AliExpress, DHGate, or Temu, contact manufacturers for samples, check reviews, and validate demand through Facebook Marketplace listings.
  • Track Marketplace clicks, messages, and impressions in a Google Sheet and consider taking a $50 or $500 deposit before importing.

💡 Business ideas

Wall-printing service01:13

Use a wall printer to create artwork, branding, or instructional designs directly on walls.

For
Residential, retail, warehouse, industrial, and office customers
Solves
Provides large-scale wall decoration or information display.
Validate by
Serve a defined local area and promote visually through time-lapse short-form video.
  • Restaurant walls
  • Warehouse training guides
Lawn mower flipping08:11

Buy, repair, resell, or export riding lawn mowers.

For
Facebook Marketplace buyers and overseas buyers
Solves
Makes hard-to-find or repaired riding mowers available to buyers.
Validate by
List and sell mowers on Facebook Marketplace.
  • John Deere mowers exported to Bolivia
  • Broken mowers repaired and resold
Backlit driftwood decor08:41

Turn driftwood and dead wood into illuminated wall art.

For
Home decor buyers
Solves
Provides distinctive handmade decorative artwork.
Validate by
Sell through Etsy, a website, and organic vertical short-form video.
  • Driftwood with LED strips
AI-generated video production10:00

Create short business videos from a customer's headshot using AI video tools.

For
Professionals and businesses seeking social-media content
Solves
Produces regular video content without requiring the client to film themselves.
Validate by
Create and publish sample videos or sell a package of 10 videos monthly.
  • Mortgage educational videos
Car-seat cleaning13:00

Clean children's car seats using basic cleaning supplies and batch processing.

For
Parents of young children
Solves
Removes dirt and germs from heavily used car seats.
Validate by
Post cleaning-process videos on Instagram and accept advance-paid bulk pickups.
  • Pickup, batch cleaning, and doorstep drop-off
Garbage-bin cleaning15:01

Pressure-wash residential garbage bins after trash collection.

For
Households in local neighborhoods
Solves
Cleans dirty garbage bins.
Validate by
Use neighborhood flyers, QR codes, and vehicle magnets before committing to a vehicle wrap.
  • Cleaning 20 bins in a day
Chocolate-covered potato chips16:32

Prepare potato chips with fresh melted chocolate in front of customers.

For
Farmers-market visitors
Solves
Offers an eye-catching prepared snack.
Validate by
Test sales at a local farmers market.
  • Lay's potato chips covered with chocolate
Enhanced hot chocolate17:20

Sell hot chocolate with marshmallow fluff, torch-browned toppings, and Oreo crumbles.

For
Farmers-market visitors and cold-weather customers
Solves
Creates a more visually appealing premium drink.
Validate by
Test the product from a folding table at a farmers market.
  • $6 hot chocolate presented as a $9 drink
Children's artwork canvas collages18:06

Arrange children's artwork on a canvas and finish it as a large keepsake.

For
Parents
Solves
Converts scattered children's artwork into a displayable family keepsake.
Validate by
Use examples and social-media demand to test interest.
  • Canvas artwork finished with resin
Wholesale distribution19:19

Distribute packaged products to retail locations without relying on vending machines.

For
Gas stations, convenience stores, and gift shops
Solves
Supplies retail locations with sellable snacks and drinks.
Validate by
Talk directly with potential retail customers.
  • Jerky
  • Candy
  • Chips
  • Sodas
Goodwill time-lapse home services20:12

Perform free home-service improvements and monetize the filmed transformations.

For
Homeowners needing services and online audiences
Solves
Provides property improvements while creating engaging content.
Validate by
Test multiple service concepts and publish time-lapse videos.
  • Mowing
  • Pressure washing
  • Roofing
  • House painting
Imported product resale or rental22:42

Source products from China, validate local interest, and resell or rent them.

For
Facebook Marketplace buyers and recreational customers
Solves
Makes imported products available locally while absorbing supplier and transaction risk.
Validate by
Post product images at varying prices, track engagement, and pre-sell with deposits.
  • Jet boats
  • Mini Jeeps
  • Golf carts

🏗️ Business models

Local specialized service12:00

Provide a focused physical service in a local market with low equipment costs and limited competition.

  1. Acquire basic equipment and supplies
  2. Market locally through content or direct promotion
  3. Batch jobs to reduce interaction and travel time
  4. Charge per item or service
  • Car-seat cleaning
  • Garbage-bin cleaning
  • Wall printing
Import arbitrage and middleman resale22:42

Identify products that can be sourced more cheaply from China or locally and resell them where customers will pay a premium.

  1. Find products and manufacturers
  2. Test demand through Marketplace listings
  3. Collect interest, messages, or deposits
  4. Order inventory after validation
  5. Resell locally or export to another country
  • Jet boats
  • Mini Jeeps
  • Golf carts
  • John Deere riding mowers
Content-led free-service model20:12

Perform home services for free in exchange for permission to film the transformation and monetize the resulting audience.

  1. Identify properties needing a visible improvement
  2. Offer the service for free
  3. Record the work
  4. Publish time-lapse videos
  5. Monetize audience reach through platform revenue and other channels
  • Mowing
  • Pressure washing
  • Roofing
  • Landscaping
  • Fence restoration
Wholesale distribution19:19

Supply products directly to retail locations such as gas stations, convenience stores, and gift shops.

  1. Choose products
  2. Approach retail locations
  3. Place products in stores
  4. Earn through product distribution margins
  • Jerky
  • Candy
  • Chips
  • Sodas

💰 Monetization

Per-unit or per-area service pricing $50 to $200 per car seat; $25 or closer to $15 per garbage bin; wall printing by square foot or square inch 12:13

Charge customers based on the amount of work performed.

  • Car-seat cleaning
  • Garbage-bin cleaning
  • Wall printing
Product resale margin $300 to $1,200 for driftwood decor; $20 for chocolate-covered chips; $1,000 profit per jet boat was projected 08:41

Buy or produce products at a lower cost and resell them at a higher price.

  • Driftwood decor
  • Farmers-market food
  • Imported jet boats
Monthly AI video service $1,500 a month for 10 videos was suggested 11:29

Create recurring social-media video packages for businesses.

  • AI-generated mortgage videos
Audience monetization Cole Simpson was reported to make six figures a year on YouTube; sponsorships, merch, and memberships were also mentioned 20:50

Monetize large audiences built through free, visually compelling service videos.

  • SB Mowing-style content
  • SB Pressure Washing-style content
Software white-label resale HighLevel offered a 30-day free trial; pricing for resale was not provided 12:15

Resell HighLevel as branded software to clients for recurring revenue.

  • White-labeled CRM, funnels, scheduling, and automations

📣 Marketing

Sales

  • Approach potential wholesale customers directly.
  • Offer advance payment and batch pickup or drop-off for cleaning services.
  • Pre-sell imported products with $50 or $500 deposits.

Branding

  • Use time-lapse transformations because they are visually appealing and naturally demonstrate the service.
  • Use visible preparation and presentation to increase perceived value.
  • Test a concept with magnets instead of expensive vehicle wraps.

Distribution

  • Etsy and an independent website for handmade decor
  • Farmers markets for food products
  • Facebook Marketplace for local resale and demand testing
  • Wholesale placement in gas stations, convenience stores, and gift shops
  • YouTube and other platforms for goodwill-service content

Customer acquisition

  • Organic vertical short-form video
  • Instagram job-process videos
  • Neighborhood flyers and QR codes
  • Vehicle magnets
  • Direct conversations with retail businesses
  • Facebook Marketplace listings

🔍 SEO & discoverability

Strategies

  • Use organic vertical short-form video.
  • Include the term "jet ski" in jet-boat Marketplace descriptions so listings appear to people searching for jet skis.
  • Use visually appealing transformations to improve video reach and retention.

Other channels

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Etsy

Content strategy

  • Create time-lapse videos of wall printing, cleaning, repairs, and home-service transformations.
  • Test 10 different home-service concepts.
  • Use ChatGPT to identify more time-lapse-friendly and visually appealing service ideas.

Keyword research

  • Car-seat cleaning was described as having relatively low keyword difficulty.

🧭 Frameworks

Validate before investing24:14
  1. Find potentially attractive products or services
  2. List or promote them before purchasing equipment or inventory
  3. Track clicks, messages, views, and impressions
  4. Collect deposits or pre-sales
  5. Invest after demand is demonstrated

🧰 Tools & AI usage

  • ChatGPT — Research export opportunities, troubleshoot mower repairs, arrange artwork, and generate business ideas.04:27
  • HeyGen — Create AI-generated videos from a headshot.10:00
  • HighLevel — Combine email, CRM, funnels, scheduling, automations, and missed-call text back in one platform.12:15
  • Google Sheets — Track clicks, messages, and impressions from Marketplace product tests.24:34
  • Alibaba — Find products and manufacturers, request samples, review suppliers, and use purchase assurance.23:43

AI is used for

  • Generate instructional business videos from a headshot — Help a mortgage broker create social-media content at scale.10:00
  • Diagnose and repair riding mowers — Help a teenage mower flipper identify repairs and parts.06:21
  • Arrange children's artwork on a canvas — Provide design guidance for a person without an artistic eye.18:49
  • Generate time-lapse-friendly home-service ideas — Identify visually appealing service concepts for content creation.21:34

📊 Numbers mentioned

Costs

  • An LED strip for driftwood decor was described as costing about $15.
  • The AI video tool used by Christie cost $50 a month.
  • Garbage-bin cleaning startup costs were described as less than $1,000.
  • A solid pressure washer was described as costing hundreds of dollars.
  • Jet boats were described as costing mid hundreds or high hundreds of dollars.

Growth

  • The listed businesses were described as scalable.
  • A local wall-printing business could serve a city of 50,000 or 100,000 people.
  • A lawn-mower flipping business could scale in a metroplex with over 500,000 people.

Pricing

  • Driftwood decor sold for $300 to $1,200.
  • AI video production was suggested at $1,500 per month for 10 videos.
  • Car-seat cleaning was priced at $50 per seat, with reported competitor pricing of $75 to $125 and potential customer payments up to $200.
  • Garbage-bin cleaning was discussed at $25 per bin, with a later estimate closer to $15.
  • Chocolate-covered chips were priced at $20.
  • Hot chocolate was described as increasing from $6 to $9 through presentation.

Revenue

  • $51,000 in 1 month was reported for Facebook Marketplace lawn-mower flipping.
  • The driftwood decor business was reported to be doing six figures a year.
  • A featured garbage-bin cleaner was reported to make six figures.
  • Cole Simpson was reported to make six figures a year on YouTube.

Traffic

  • Noah's lawn-mower video had over 300,000 views and his channel had 17,000 subscribers.
  • Matt Haul's channel had 761 subscribers and his lawn-mower video had 41,000 views.
  • Christie's AI videos received 200 to 500 views each, totaling 3,000 to 5,000 views.
  • SB Mowing / SB Pressure Washing had 50 million subscribers across platforms at the time referenced.

⚖️ Advantages, risks & lessons

Advantages

  • Low startup costs
  • Beginner accessibility
  • Scalability
  • Low competition in some specialized services
  • Short-form video can demonstrate the work visually
  • Demand can be tested before major spending

Risks

  • Lawn mower flipping may require many hours initially.
  • Garbage-bin cleaning is dirty, unsexy, and hard to scale.
  • Importing from China involves supplier, payment, and inventory risk.
  • AI-generated videos may have visibly unnatural mouth movements.
  • Food businesses require testing whether customers will buy the product.
  • Some revenue examples were presented as reports or projections rather than guaranteed results.

Lessons

  • Unpopular or unglamorous work can create opportunities because fewer people want to do it.
  • New technology can create new service businesses around that technology.
  • Visual content can function as both marketing and proof of the work.
  • A middleman can create value by taking on sourcing and transaction risk.
  • Demand validation should happen before significant equipment or inventory purchases.

💬 Quotes

You don't need to spend a dime before you know which one of these are sellers.

Summarizes the recommended validation-first approach.00:00

The word middleman should not be a pejorative. It is a beautiful thing to be a middleman.

Captures the value proposition of import and resale businesses.24:36

👤 People & companies

Noah

Teenage Minnesota-area creator who flips lawn mowers while saving for a car.

05:37
Matt Haul

YouTube creator whose video is titled "How I Made $51,000 in 1 month on Facebook Marketplace Flipping Lawn Mowers."

07:14
Christie Olson

Mortgage loan officer and real estate agent who used AI-generated videos to attract loan originations.

10:18
Jeff Bezos

Referenced for the principle that customers continue to want things cheaper and faster.

18:18
Pablo Picasso

Referenced for the quote about good artists copying and great artists stealing.

02:30
Spencer

Creator behind the SB Mowing channel and goodwill home-service time-lapse format.

19:57
Cole Simpson

Creator in Columbia, South Carolina making goodwill home-service videos and reportedly earning six figures annually on YouTube.

21:50
John Deere

Manufacturer whose riding mowers are flipped domestically and exported to Bolivia.

03:07
HeyGen

AI video-generation tool used to create videos from a headshot.

10:00
HighLevel

Business platform offering email, CRM, funnels, scheduling, automations, missed-call text back, and white-label resale.

12:15
Facebook Marketplace

Marketplace used for selling, buying, testing, and flipping products.

02:13
Etsy

Initial sales channel for the featured driftwood decor business.

08:56
Alibaba

Import platform used to find products, contact manufacturers, check reviews, and use purchase assurance.

22:42
AliExpress

Import marketplace mentioned as a source for products from China.

23:43
DHGate

Import marketplace mentioned as a source for products from China.

23:43
Temu

Import marketplace mentioned as a source for products from China.

23:43
U-Haul

Trailer rental option for transporting riding mowers.

08:36

🔗 Links mentioned