Side Hustles

Over the past century, many companies that we recognize today started as a side hustle for a person who just wanted to make a few extra bucks.

In 1969 Yankee Candle started when a 16-year-old melted some crayons in a jar as a present for his mother. A neighbor asked him to make her one for $2. In 1998 he sold the company for 500 million dollars and today they have over 500 stores worldwide.

In 2005 an artist created Etsy to sell his works of art and buy from other artists. In 2016 Etsy went public for 100 million

In 1995 Craigslist started when a guy sent an email to his 12 friends about things he wanted to sell and events in the San Francisco area. Those 12 friends sent it to their friends and today Craigslist covers 700 cities in over 70 countries.

Under Armour started in the 1990’s when a college athlete got tired of how cotton shirts stuck to his body when he sweated. He developed a shirt that would soak up the sweat and dry quickly. Today Under Armour has billions of revenues each year

Instagram started when a young guy created a mobile website that was picture based and launched it as an app in 2010. They had no revenue and no sales and sold the company to Facebook in 2012 for one billion dollars. Today it has over one billion active users.

Last but not least – Henry ford took left over scrap wood from making Model T’s and developed a method to make charcoal briquettes and created a whole industry as a side hustle. In the 1950’s Ford Motor company sold the Charcoal company to Edward Kingsford and today we have Kingsford Charcoal.

I could write many pages on this topic, but the point is that sometimes an idea comes to the most unlikely people who take that idea and create a whole industry with it. Don’t ever discount an idea that pops into your head because just maybe, it is divine intervention, and you were meant to do it. KT

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