The Most Profitable Side Hustle You've Never Heard Of Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 I mean, it's almost $1,000 an hour in profit.  February, we did about 21,000. That's incredible. We'll probably do about 25,000 this month. This  is one of those rare businesses that you can start without any money. Exactly. We already have  several venues that are once a month. We sold out our first event in like four or five days.  Every bar, every restaurant has trivia once a week already to happily do plant bingo on another  night.

00:18 If you made 3,000 profit at every event, that's a million bucks a year. And you don't  have a ton of followers, I imagine. No, I have like 200. I don't even really use Instagram. So  maybe just friends and family. So if people want to do something like like this, they don't need  to be influencers. They don't need to have a big following. No. Exactly.

00:35 Anyone could do this.  They want people to come out to their event as well. They have 20 30,000 followers. So they're  sharing our content. So already from the start, we're getting a big reach. The piggyback. The  classic piggyback. What business out there makes $30,000 of profit its first two months and has  zero dollars of startup costs? Plant bingo.

00:49 Of course. I found a couple that owns a plant bingo  business. $30,000 of profit in the first two months right here in Dallas, Texas. We're going  to ask him, "Hey, tell me about your business. How can we copy you? And why is the plant bingo  business so dang good? Let's go play plant bingo and find out for ourselves." Okay, so what gives  you the idea for plant bingo of all things?

01:06 So, it actually started I was watching a Tik Tok  video and I saw a group in California doing it first and instantly like just light bulb clicked  that like this is such a visual thing like I saw it on Tik Tok so other people could see it  on Tik Tok too. Was it like a viral video? Like was it clear? It was a viral video. Yeah. I  mean, it had to been if I saw it because I don't really follow anything that plant related to  start with.

01:31 I looked through their TikTok and they had several million view videos. I checked  their website and they had 10 events next month and half of them were sold out already. Oh wow.  So I was like, "Okay, so there's already proof of concept." So what like what immediately  gave you confidence that this was your idea? So, we have a greenhouse in our backyard that we  converted from a shed to a greenhouse.

01:50 So, we love plants, but we're really good at collecting  them. So, you're clearly entrepreneurial. You check that box. You like plants already. You saw  the demand in the form of a lot of Tik Tok views. You saw the demand in the form of 10 events,  half are sold out. And then you're just like, I'm doing this, right? Kind of. Uh I pitch  ideas to my wife probably three times a week.

02:16 And usually it just it's on to the next thing.  And then the next day she came back and said, "I was thinking about plant bingo a little  bit more." And like that moment I was like, "All right, we're doing this." Cuz she never says  yes to ideas. And I knew she would be perfect for this because she's so outgoing and bubbly. Keep  in mind this is during my maternity leave, too.

02:28 So I was, "Okay, like give me a second. I just been  taking care of our kid for all day long. I need to rethink all this." Well, then just to add some  context to the viewers, you own two businesses and you were pregnant at the time and you have a  full-time job. So, it's like, all right, this is a fourth full-time thing, basically. Yeah. Yeah.  If I saw this idea and I liked it, which I would, my one concern is like, all right, how do I get  all these people to show up in person?

02:57 That feels intimidating. So, how did you do that? Yeah. So,  I mean, we started with our first event at my own venue because I have an indoor soccer facility.  I was like, "Okay, let's just do a really cheap one." So, we did it for $10 a person. We brought  out free pizza. I was like, everyone already goes home with a plant. They're getting free food.

03:15 Like, it's $10. People will easily pay that. And half of it will be our friends and family. And  so, we just did a couple Tik Tok Instagram videos and eventually it just ended up being almost all  strangers and only like four friends and family. And how many people? We had 25 for our first one.  Okay. 10 bucks a pop. That's been our smallest event that we've done.

03:35 And everyone got a free  plant just for attending. Yeah. What was your cost on that plant? So plants typically average  about 10 bucks per person. We'll usually do some plants that are $5 to $10 and then we'll do some  plants that are $25 to $50. So it'll be a range, but we try to average around 10 to 12 bucks a  person. Okay. So you lost money on this first event.

03:53 You knew you were going to do that. You're  trying to work out the kinks, prove the model, gauge the reactions. Do people even like this?  Is that kind of thing? Yeah. It was like, okay, let's see if this actually can work. Let's see  how the logistics work. Let's make sure Steph's comfortable. Well, and then a few days before  that, we went to another brewery where they had just normal bingo.

04:11 So, they had like 200 people  and like you won free beer and that was it. And it was like, oh, we definitely can make this work. If  there's 200 people here, people are going to want free plans. This is going to work. Yeah. So, you  saw a different bingo concept where the only prize was free beer. Yeah. But those are also free free  games to play. So, like most most breweries will have trivia nights.

04:33 They'll have brewery nights  just to get people in the door to support that. Like the hardest part is getting 200 people to  show up. It's not getting people to 200 people to pay 30 bucks. It's getting them to show up. So,  even though they didn't have to buy a bingo card, 200 people to show up for bingo, that's proof  of concept. That means that you could get that many people to show up, especially if they  there was like the allure of a prize to win, right?

04:54 Yeah. That was our whole thought. like if  we're already giving them a prize to take home, we're providing a fun entertainment night for them  and they get to go home with something. So, it's a winwin for them. So, actually that first day when  we decided to do it, we started Instagram account, we started Tik Tok account, we started a website,  we started our got our logo set up.

05:06 So, we got everything all set up to use the brand. So, what's  stopping you from bringing a bunch extra and selling these things to your attendees? We thought  about that. One thing you do need if you want to sell plants, you have to have a license for it.  No way. Yeah. Really? you. It's regulated by Texas government, the plant people, the plant police.

05:26 So, we could get it's not that difficult to do. Okay. The last thing you want to do if you start  a business is not incorporate. You got to get an LLC. You need a tax identification number and you  need a registered agent. Busy can take care of all of that for you. I use Bizzy. Don't use the  other guys. I've started over 80 businesses and my life was a nightmare until I discovered Bizzy.

05:46 It is the best service out there for helping you incorporate, stay legal, stay compliant, so you  can focus on what you do best, and that's growing and running your business. Check out busy.com.  That's biz.com. How many views did those first videos get? So, our first ones probably didn't get  too many. I mean, maybe 500 to a,000 most. Mostly friends for those first few uh videos before I  actually had content of our events.

06:10 Yeah. So, these were like just your personal Instagram  and Tik Tok pages. Yeah, it was shared through our personal accounts basically. Okay. And you  don't have a ton of followers, I imagine. No, at the time I have like 200. I don't even really  use Instagram. Steph probably has a thousand, maybe just friends and family. So, if people want  to do something like like this, they don't need to be influencers.

06:31 They don't need to have a big  following. No, exactly. Anyone could do this. We made Facebook events for it. The fact that when  we're partnered with a brewery, they want people to come out to their event as well. So, they  have 20 30,000 followers. So, they're sharing our content. So already from the start we're getting  a big reach. The piggyback the classic piggyback.

06:50 That's what you're Is that kind of like the big  quote unquote secret to this is piggybacking with someone that's going to co-promote you? Yeah,  definitely. I mean there's no reason to try to do it all ourselves when there's plenty of people  that want to share. And that was like that's what drew us to it the first time was how visual it  was. We know breweries and restaurants, they're going to want as many people to come in through  the doors.

07:07 We usually use times that aren't very busy for them to start with. So, it's just a  win-win for them. If they get people in the door, then they're selling more drinks and food. So, how  does it work with a brewery in this case? Like, do you pay them? Do they pay you or is it just an  understanding? Yeah, exactly. We pay zero to them, they pay zero to us.

07:25 We do all the work. We market  it and then we just hopefully they want to share it with their people, but otherwise we collect  the money. We do everything on our side. So, for the brewery side, they don't have to do anything  and they just have 100 people, 50 people walking in through their door. Yeah. So they're hoping  that a they can make extra money that night.

07:39 B a small percentage of those people will convert to  regulars for them. Yeah. Exactly. And some of the people that come out to our events are regulars  at their venues already. People typically go once a week to some of these places. So they want to  look for something new to do at that same place they already liked. So aside from breweries, what  are some other types of venues that are receptive to something like this?

08:00 So our first target was  always breweries. Um just because I knew they did bingo trivia nights already. Uh we've got into  chicken and pickle because again it's similar concept. Basically anywhere though that has you  know enough seating for it. We've had PTA groups reach out to us. We've had HOA associations reach  out to us. So it's literally anywhere that you can get people you know together.

08:24 And I would imagine  your target customer is like 39year-old like me that probably goes to breweries. I don't but I'm  an exception. And likes plants. I'd say 85 90% of our audience is women between 25 and 55. You know,  they might like plants, but they're just looking for something fun to do. Yeah. I mean, you'll have  the groups that are out there for date nights.

08:47 It's girls night. But yeah, it's a pretty wide  range. There's probably like only 10% of people that actually are plant enthusiasts. They really  know what they see when they look here. Everyone else is just like, "Oh, that's fun. I love plants.  I want to have some more in my house." Yeah. Yeah. And the men that are there usually just come in  with their wives, I imagine.

08:59 Typically, I mean, we'll have, you know, a handful of men that are  really interested and excited to win more plants. We had one that actually scared me and Steph  the other night because he screamed so loud when he won bingo because he was so excited to win  some plants. So, yeah, it's such a wide array of different people. Yeah. Bingo Loco. Yes. Are they  like a pioneer in this unique bingo space?

09:16 100%. Uh, we've actually talked about trying to go out  to a Bingo Loco just to see what and she loved it. Yeah. Bingo has always been just dark room  with a bunch of grandmas essentially and so like trying to find a fun way to make it more unique.  Like people love winning things. So bingo is just perfect for anyone but it needs to be you know  updated and has more incentives to come out versus just your typical you know win a couple dollars.

09:43 Yeah. Now are you paying about the same for plants today? Usually the prize plants now range from 20  to $60 retail. Okay. And the consolation prizes are $5 to $10. So your first event you charge 10  bucks. What do you charge today per person? So now we charge $30 per person. We also started selling  extra bingo boards. So we typically average if we have a 50 person event we'll sell an extra 30  boards or so.

10:06 30 bucks gets you in the door. How many bingo cards or books? I'll get you one sheet  with 10 boards. So basically we'll do 10 rounds of bingo. You'll get a board for every round. Any  food anymore? No food, no drinks. That's kind of up to them with the venue. We try to make sure  we have places that have those options. You're probably hoping for without any employees like  a 60 to 70% gross profit margin basically.

10:26 Yeah. Okay. And then after your prize plants, what does  your net profit margin end up being? Depends on the event. We typically range about 75 people per  event. So if we're doing that times 30, I mean, yeah, we're probably taking home 50% at least. It  depends. Like we have hosts that we can hire to help run the events. So if we are bringing them  in, it obviously drops a little bit, but yeah, the margin still range pretty high.

10:51 Probably with  setup and take down. Are you here for like three, four hours? Yeah, for a small event, we could be  in and out in three hours. Okay. If it's a bigger event, like this past Sunday, we had 150 people.  We were there for about four hours just cuz we wanted to make sure it's our first time at the  venue. We want to make sure we know how the setup goes.

11:08 Once we go back to venues, it's pretty quick  and easy. Kind of like everyone's paying like 33 bucks on average, give or take. I mean, a big  event would be 5,000 bucks. Yeah. I think we did about 5,300 for the Sunday for 150 people because  the benefit is we also have we figured out we have no shows so we can actually oversell our events or  we can do walk-ins.

11:24 So we actually probably sold 160 tickets to 150 person event and then we sold  Yeah. another $500 of bingo boards. Yeah. What has you been your best event ever? Your biggest  event. That was it this past Sunday. So that was our fifth event. Tonight will be our sixth. Okay.  So every event before that was 50 people besides our very first one. This is brand I mean, you're  2 months old.

11:45 Yeah, exactly. So, 5,300. What was your take-home profit after that? We probably took  home about 3,000 and that was after paying two hosts, 200 each. Wow. Um, but you were here, too.  Yeah. So, me and my wife were both there helping run it. We just didn't know how or would it need.  So, you could easily run it with two people. It's just nice to have a little less stress for the  event.

12:07 Yeah. We don't run it because we need the money. We run it because we enjoy it. I like the  money. Yeah. So, like I don't mind making a little bit less to make it easier. That's almost $1,000  an hour in profit. So, month one, how many events did you do? Month one, well, I count January,  February, March. So, January, we had one event. Okay. That was our very first one.

12:27 February, I  think we had four events. Okay. And what was your revenue and profit from those roughly? So, it's  a little hard to say because all of our revenue comes so far in advance of our events. Yeah.  So, January we did about 2,700 in revenue. Okay. February we did about 21,000. March we'll probably  do about 25,000 this month because April alone we have nine events planned.

12:51 Yeah. Um and yeah the  events sell you know weeks months in advance which is great for our cash flow. So 27,000 your  second month. 21,000 our first month. Your second month. Yeah. Which is really like your first  full month like your first when you're really rolling. Yeah. Exactly. That's incredible. Halfish  profit. A little over half. Yeah. Probably.

13:07 Yeah, especially cuz the first I mean we've only started  bringing in hosts recently. Yeah. Um so yeah, I mean there wasn't really a whole lot of cost  besides the plants and some initial initially more than half, right? Yeah, probably more than  And as you scale that percentage will drop, but the real number will increase. Exactly. And  like to start with all we bought was a speaker, a microphone, bingo boards, some dobbers, few  hundred bucks in plants.

13:29 Yeah. Some dobbers, some boards that you can print out, a speaker, a  mic. Is that about it? That's basically it. Yeah, we have a foldup table. We bought some stickers.  Yeah. But yeah, there's really not much. And even like half the venues we go to have speakers and  microphone there to do trivia. You just buy plants and print some papers. Yeah. Exactly.

13:50 Are you  going to advertise an event a month in the future, collect the money already, and then use that  to buy your plants, use supplies, so you really don't even have to start with anything. So, this  is one of those rare businesses that you can start without any money. Exactly. Because you can you  pre-sell the event. Oh, man. This business just has everything.

14:05 But like if you just wanted to put  everything else aside and go all in on this, like what can the market handle? How many events could  you do if you really wanted to scale it? We're trying to stick around eight events per month. You  know, one during a weekday, one during a weekend, and we seem to be able to fill that so far.  And then I think we can mix in another three to four private events per month.

14:25 Okay. So that way  you're not actually having to sell those. They're bringing the revenue already to you with the  people. And that's kind of where we're looking to do, you know, the max per city. But we've already  had people from 50 different cities reach out to us. How do we do this in our city? Wow. So, we're  trying to figure out, okay, do we want to try to help people in other cities?

14:42 What does that look  like? We'd love to go to Austin because we think it'd be great down there. It's a short drive.  We could easily host ourselves. Especially in a metroplex like this, you could do them if  you wanted to every night. You could. Yeah, you absolutely could. You could just do the same  venue like twice a month or something. 15 venues and you could do one a night.

14:58 Yeah. We already  have several venues that are once a month. We have one venue that we haven't even hosted at  yet that area wanted to do once a month for the rest of the year because we sold out our first  event in like four or five days. Yeah, every bar, every restaurant has trivia once a week already.  Yeah. To happily do plant bingo on another night.

15:16 If you made 5,000 or sorry, 3,000 profit at  every event, not saying that's realistic, and you did an event a night, that's a million  bucks a year. You're probably like stressing out just thinking about all the logistics because  you're buying plants and you're moving things and your food and calling and networking, marketing.  Like, I'm not saying it's easy, but like this could be a million- dollar business in one area in  one city for sure.

15:33 Is there another type of bingo genre that you kind of have your eyes on or some  like if people are watching this and they're like, I love the concept of a bingo business. Plants  aren't for me. We thought about that cuz we want to do different theme nights. So, we actually have  like a mystery plant night coming up. I pitched the idea of book bingo, but I'm not a book person.

15:52 Steph is like, I don't know. Maybe it could work, maybe not. But I don't see why not. I think  anything that's like costefficient and you can get a bunch of easily. Yeah. Like I think you could  do with anything. Yeah. So if someone is watching this and they want to start a business like this,  what advice would you give them? First thing, just reach out to your community.

16:13 Like there's  so many different Facebook groups for plants in literally every single town, city, and they're  tight-knit communities. So if you find a fun event or plan a fun event for them, they'll help  support you. As long as you're kind of you're not just marketing yourself, you're like marketing a  plant community. You're learning teaching people about it.

16:32 And just do videos. Tik Tok, Instagram  has worked amazingly well for us. Yeah, it's very clearly correlated to our views on Tik Tok, to  our sales and tickets. So to find customers, post organically to Instagram and Tik Tok. You don't  have to have a ton of followers. Pick up the phone and call a restaurant owner, brewery owner, events  owner, chicken and pickle, pickle ball, like anywhere that hosts people of at least 50 people.

16:50 Yeah. You can even do this in your backyard. Like I've seen other people that literally just set  up tables and just host it at their own place. Yeah. If people want to reach out to you or your  business or find you, where can they find you? So, we're the social greenhouse. Uh, you can find  us on our website, the social greenhouse.com. You can email us events@thesocialgreenhouse.com.  Tik Tok, Instagram. Okay. Thank you. Next rest.