Time billionaires

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Updated: July 18th, 2023

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Time billionaires

5 income streams for a 4-hour work week

It’s possible to build 6 and even 7-figure businesses without having to kill yourself.

Yeah, to build a SpaceX competitor or something like that you probably need to work more hours. But if you’re looking for a great work-life balance, these are great businesses.

What do they have in common? They all are online businesses that can pretty much work on autopilot but first, the founders had to build the right systems.

These founders have focused on optimizing processes, outsourcing some unimportant tasks, and using technology to their advantage.

We put together 5 ways to make money that are perfect for those who still have full-time jobs (some of these founders also have them) but still want to give it a go and work on a side hustle.

#1. Online courses

Case study: This founder went from using Food Stamps to building a $1.2M/year business

A business that started with the goal of generating leads for his freelance gig ended up being something completely different.

Today the business generates over a million dollars per year with virtually no ad spend and the best part is that he only works 5 hours a week.

But, how? By eliminating much of what’s unnecessary (greatly inspired by Tim Ferriss), having the right business model (digital products = no logistics, no people involved in the sale), and making a few part-time hires.

More online courses businesses:

#2. Content

Case study: This $84K/year blog

What started as a lifestyle blog quickly became a niche blog about curly hair after one post about it got viral and the traffic skyrocketed and messages started coming in.

Today she works about 15-20 hours per week on the blog and hopes to cut them down soon. Her goal is to grow organic traffic and revenue so the focus now is on writing SEO blog posts and nailing down email marketing.

Besides generating revenue from ads and affiliates, she created a couple of digital products and shares the process in great detail.

Having a virtual assistant that works 5 hours per day answering emails, managing Pinterest and other administrative tasks also takes a lot of weight off her shoulders.

#3. Newsletters

Case study: This $420K/year investment tips newsletter

It all started with a bunch of popular Twitter investment/finance parody accounts.

After spotting a viral Reddit movement around Wall Street investments, he decided to create a newsletter to track those stocks. But he also writes about small favored value stocks that typical Wall Street hedge funds can’t or won’t touch.

He was able to channel around 20K free subscribers from those Twitter accounts.

The newsletter today has over 82K subscribers and it generates $35K/month, and it just requires 5 hours of work per week to write the newsletters.

More newsletter businesses:

#4. E-commerce

Case study: This $1M+/year super niche e-commerce

Another business born based on a specific need that the founder had. Shocked by the price of some car accessories, started talking with an expert to see if they could build these parts at a cheaper cost.

Quickly found out on different online forums that he was on to something since there were only a few competitors in the market that were overcharging customers because there wasn't a lot of competition.

The best part? He only puts around 5 hours a week into this business and has since started.

How? A killer (but super simple) SEO game that he shares with plenty of detail.

More e-commerce businesses:

#5. Flip stuff

Case study: This $60K/year side hustle

We’re talking about a side business that has been going on for 20+ years. Started in the early 2000s selling sneakers on eBay and message boards for sneakerheads.

While most 10-year-olds were playing video games, this kid was sourcing inventory and building a profitable business. Baller.

Today the business generates between $4K and $7K per month, with only 10-15 hours per month of work. As a family man with 3 kids, 2 dogs, and a full-time job, process optimization is key.

More stuff you can flip to make money:

Quick hitters

(1) This former pro-basketball player bootstrapped a $120K/year e-commerce brand. After retiring, he couldn’t get a job interview. Not one. So he had to create his own opportunity. Funded this business with all his savings, and he’s grinding hard to make it happen.

Building a DTC brand is hard. There’s lots of competition and almost every niche is saturated. But if you can crack the code, a huge reward awaits:

$300K/month cat furniture -> Awesome niche. Slick product.
$45K/month pillows -> Cracked Instagram. Moved to B2B customers.
$4M/month shoes -> Found a way to stand out in a super-saturated market.

(2) This guy used NFTs to launch a $60K/year soda brand. Besides seeing a cool use for an NFT besides speculation, it’s incredible to see how many drink brands we feature. Years ago, you could name 90% of the drinks in a supermarket. Today, the barrier to creating your own drink brand has lowered a lot.

$2M/month party punch -> Took different designs to parties to see which people were crazier about.
$7K/month soda shop -> They grew from farming cocktail ingredients to syrups, to opening a shop.
$300K/month vodka brand -> Found success thanks to the old-school in-store tastings.

Thanks for reading!

meet the author

David Bustos

Hey there! 👋 I'm David, and if you ever got an email from Starter Story, I probably wrote it. With a background in working with startups and writing, being part of this team is kind of a perfect fit for me.

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