122 Solopreneur Success Stories [2024]
Ever dream of being your own boss? The solopreneur path might be the right choice. This business idea revolves around operating a business on your own, without any partners or employees.
The solopreneur journey requires wearing many hats – you'll handle everything from marketing to customer service, and from product development to bookkeeping. While it's a one-person show, technology and outsourcing tools can help manage the workload efficiently.
The appeal lies in complete control over your business and decisions. It’s ideal for those who thrive on independence and have a versatile skill set. It’s challenging, yes, but the flexibility and potential for growth can be immensely rewarding.
Consider starting small, focusing on a niche you are passionate about. Over time, as your expertise grows, so can your business. If you’re looking for an opportunity that affords you both creative freedom and entrepreneurial responsibility, becoming a solopreneur might be your perfect fit.
In this list, you'll find real-world solopreneur success stories and very profitable examples of starting a solopreneur that makes money.
1. Stardew Valley ($300M/year)
In 2011, Eric started working on the video game Stardew Valley as a way to improve his chances of getting a job.
How much money it makes: $300M/year
How many people on the team: 0
Stardew Valley: An indie video game sensation making $300M/year, started by Eric Barone in 2011, with initial sales of $1 million within three weeks.
2. ConvertKit ($25M/year)
In 2013, Nathan set a challenge for himself: build a $5K/mo SaaS in 6 months with just $5,000. He got the idea after reading people's complaints about Mailchimp online, and decided to build a product that addressed those.
How much money it makes: $25M/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 82
Discover how Nathan Barry bootstrapped ConvertKit from a $5,000 investment to a $25 million/year email marketing powerhouse by addressing the main objections of online creators and scaling through a lucrative affiliate program with an impressive $2.08 million/month average revenue.
3. BuiltWith ($14M/year)
While searching for his next idea, Brewer naturally looked at other websites for inspiration. While looking through the source code of a website (a neat trick programmers often do), he found a piece of code unique to Java and could deduce that the website was built using that technology. And then it clicked him. He said: "Wouldn't it be cool to know the exact technology every website uses?"
How much money it makes: $14M/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Discover how Gary Brewer founded and grew BuiltWith into a $14M/year business by offering website profiling tools with pricing ranging from $295 to $995, attracting customers through partnerships and organic traffic.
4. Tabs Chocolate ($11M/year)
While Oliver was learning how to build e-commerce businesses, one day while he saw a girl on Tiktok talking about sex chocolates (8M views and 2M likes), and he was able to see how the product was available in certain local shops but none online. That was his lightbulb moment.
How much money it makes: $11M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Discover how Oliver Brocato grew Tabs Chocolate into an $11M/year business by leveraging Tiktok and social media influencers to drive traffic to his site, all while starting with just $1K in initial costs and a team size of 0.
5. Plenty of Fish ($10M/year)
Markus started Plenty of Fish in 2003 as a way to improve his résumé. A new programming language called ASP.NET was released, and instead of reading books about it, he went ahead and created the site in two weeks to learn it.
Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, plentyoffish.com, archived December 30, 2003
How much money it makes: $10M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Learn how Markus Frind started Plenty of Fish with just $1K, grew it into a $10M/year dating site, and achieved an average monthly income of $833K, all without a team, through innovative product-based marketing strategies.
6. TLDR Newsletter ($5M/year)
Dan was a stock trader in NYC after his education, but his interest in software and engineering led him to create Scraper API, a tool for developers to extract data from web pages.
After running the business for a few years and scaling it to six figures in revenue, he decided to start a newsletter due to his growing fascination with technology and current news.
How much money it makes: $5M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
TLDR Newsletter generates an impressive $5M per year in revenue through strategic ad placements, with founder Dan Ni starting the business for just $500 and growing to 1,000 subscribers within his first month using a combination of Reddit and Quora ads.
7. Justin Welsh ($3.8M/year)
After handling loads of stress as an SVP of sales, Justin decided to step down from his job and start a consulting business. He started creating digital content from there on, and have been moving forward ever since, releasing courses, building a massive following, and double down on his solopreneurship efforts.
How much money it makes: $3.8M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Solopreneur Justin Welsh built a knowledge business through social media with over $2M in annual revenue and no full-time employees, offering flagship digital courses with a monthly revenue of $80K and $45K respectively, through LinkedIn and Twitter growth as well as organic and affiliate marketing.
8. Ship 30 for 30 ($2.5M/year)
Dickie started writing online in 2020.
He was writing a newsletter, but after 9 months, he only had around 300 subscribers.
He decided that if people weren’t going to find him, he needed to go to where the people were and double down on it.
The people were on Twitter, so he committed to writing 30 threads in 30 days to grow his account.
That personal writing challenge turned into the foundation of Ship 30 for 30, which started as a Slack accountability group to help people publish consistently.
How much money it makes: $2.5M/year
How many people on the team: 0
Discover how Dickie Bush grew Ship 30 for 30 from a newsletter with 300 subscribers to a $2.5M/year business using Twitter as a main growth lever and a pricing strategy that went from $50 to $800 for the course.
9. Dan Koe ($2.5M/year)
Eager to choose an unconventional career path and his love for fitness got him to start a fitness YT channel in college, then a freelance course out of his love for web development through which he built an audience, and lot of iterations with failing and succeeding at digital products.
How much money it makes: $2.5M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Learn how Dan Koe, a solopreneur targeting 7-8-figure entrepreneurs with a 98% profit margin and 2.6 million social media audience, built his brand from a fitness YT channel to a successful freelancing business with a strategic content growth strategy and revenue averaging $2.5M/year.
10. Woodies ($2.28M/year)
Cory had previously launched a semi-successful watch brand. Due to his watch business, he traveled a couple of times to China, and after one of the trips, he came back with the idea for wood sunglasses. Wood sunglasses seemed awesome so Cody tried to jump on them early. He was able to sell 8,000 glasses in a week with a launch on Groupon.
How much money it makes: $2.28M/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 1
Woodies, a wood sunglasses brand founded by Cory Stout, reached over $3.5M in revenue in 2018, despite starting with only $15K from a failed business and has succeeded through Amazon sales, spending $50K monthly on PPC and keeping ACOS at 30%.
11. Thomas Frank ($2.1M/year)
In 2010, while in college, Thomas started a blog to share his experiments in getting the most out of college. Since then, he's applied his interests in productivity and self-development to YouTube, several podcasts, a book, and more. He got the idea of this business when he was trying to build a company's wiki and with the difficulties he faced with Google docs, discovering Notion blew his mind.
How much money it makes: $2.1M/year
How much did it cost to start: $5
How many people on the team: 3
This case study explores Thomas Frank's successful business teaching people how to use Notion and selling templates, with sales reaching $2.1 million in two years and template sales currently at $120k/mo, showcasing his journey from blogging and YouTube to e-commerce and SaaS.
12. Miss Excel ($2M/year)
Miss Excel offers an interactive and enjoyable way of learning Microsoft Excel tips and tricks.
Most of Miss Excel’s revenue comes from selling nine courses and a bundle.
Kat started her career in consulting where she taught Excel training workshops for her company around the country. But when COVID lockdowns hit, Kat realized she wasn’t happy with her job.
Kat loved teaching Excel, she liked helping people, and she loved to dance. A friend suggested, ‘What if you put your Excel tips on TikTok?’ 48 hours later, she posted her first 14-second video.
How much money it makes: $2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 3
Founder of Miss Excel, Kat Norton, built a viral social media account that teaches millions how to use Excel, amassing 950K followers on Instagram, 939K on TikTok, and hitting $2M in revenue by 2023, all with startup costs of just $1,000 and a growth strategy focused on TikTok dance trends.
13. Design Joy ($1.74M/year)
Brett had started with sharing his design works on social media (even the scrappiest ones). With time, he was able to refine his skills more and more, and fast forward to today he runs this agency with 50 clients as a solo designer and has 10x'd his prices from when he started.
How much money it makes: $1.74M/year
How many people on the team: 0
Learn how Brett Williams scaled Design Joy from a weekend project to a $1.74 million/year design agency, handling 50 clients solo, by mastering productized services and leveraging platforms like Product Hunt and Indie Hackers for growth.
14. T is for Tame ($1.44M/year)
Becky had been an ex-ad executive and spent most of her days developing ads for her clients. When she found no good product to tame her twins' hair, she wasn't suprised. She had always dreamt of working on something she believed in.
How much money it makes: $1.44M/year
How much did it cost to start: $30K
How many people on the team: 0
T Is for Tame's founder developed a safe and clean hair product for babies which generated an 85+% revenue growth for their business when they recently expanded into Target and Walmart, while they remain focused on deepening their relationships with customers through micro-influencers and employing social media tools.
15. Modern Producers ($1.44M/year)
A former music producer himself, Mordern Producers is Adrian's way of giving back to the music production community and leveling the playing field between up-and-coming, independent producers and the big league industry players. Helping other artists achieve success is the driving motivation for Adrian.
How much money it makes: $1.44M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Modern Producers is an e-commerce platform that sells software and tools for modern music producers and has more than doubled its revenue annually, earning $1.1 million in sales in 2019.
16. Lingoci(Now known as LanguaTalk) ($1.44M/year)
While working at an agency in London, Alex was taking online Swedish lessons with a tutor through a site. However, he wasn't satisfied by the quality of all the tutors there, and only liked one named Isabella. It then struck him that he could build such an online tutoring site, except hire only carefully scrutinized tutors for a better user experience.
How much money it makes: $1.44M/year
How many people on the team: 0
Founder of Lingoci shares how he launched his online language tutoring platform with just $300 and no coding skills, and has since grown it to around $60k/month in revenue, mostly through Google Ads and a focus on continuous improvement.
17. Allbe Canada ($1.2M/year)
Jordan's background is in nutritional science as a lecturer at a medical school, which gave him the foundation to understand the complexity of human health and nutrition. However, the true motivation behind founding Allbe Canada came from something other than his professional background, when his mother was diagnosed with a chronic disease. The reality that her health could be improved by altering her lifestyle habits, including nutrition, was a major wake-up call. He began researching extensively, exploring the potential of dietary supplements in supporting overall health. The idea for Allbe Canada sparked during this time, to create a product that could support people's health naturally and holistically.
How much money it makes: $1.2M/year
How many people on the team: 1
This case study article is about the founder of Allbe Canada, a health supplement venture in Canada, that has achieved annual revenue in the ballpark of 7 figures, exemplifying their commitment to scientifically backed, high-quality supplements and the trust of their health-conscious customers.
18. Carrd ($1.2M/year)
Carrd is a sleek, intuitive one-page website builder designed with simplicity and speed in mind. It caters to a variety of needs, from personal profiles to landing pages, all while offering a seamless user experience. Unlike other site builders that aim for complexity, Carrd focuses on the essentials, allowing users to create beautiful sites within minutes, with no prior signup required.
AJ got the idea for Carrd out of a desire to branch out from his routine work of designing and coding website templates. This routine work had become too easy and almost monotonous, prompting him to seek a new challenge that would leverage his extensive skills in a fresh way.
He realized that while he was looking for something different to do, he still wanted to stay close to his core expertise in web design and development. He wanted to build for a simple idea that could serve a broad audience.
This drive to innovate within his domain, coupled with his recognition of users' desires for simplicity and efficiency in web building tools, spurred him to develop Carrd.
How much money it makes: $1.2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 10
Carrd, a simple one-page website builder, has amassed over 800,000 users, 1.2 million sites created, and $1.5M/year revenue, with the founder AJ leveraging his web design skills and the power of Product Hunt and Twitter for massive growth.
19. Attributer ($1.2M/year)
The founder, who worked in B2B marketing, couldn’t find a tool that showed which channels were converting leads, sales opportunities, and customers. So he built the tool himself, and recognizing its potential, he turned into full-time entrepreneurship.
How much money it makes: $1.2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Marketing attribution tool Attributer.io has generated $60k in annual recurring revenue just five months after launch, with a focus on search engine optimisation for high-intent keywords to acquire customers for the platform, offering a lesson in market-first startup development.
20. The Recording Revolution LLC ($1.2M/year)
When Graham was laid off from a finance startup that ran out of money, he wanted a freelance source of income. Eventually, he started blogging about his experience in studio as an audio engineer while in college. This content resonated with a huge audience on google and youtube, and Graham ultimately decided to monetize them through courses and bootcamps.
How much money it makes: $1.2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
Recording Revolution founder, Graham Cochrane, generates over $1.2m per year whilst only working five hours per week, through his online music education business that teaches people how to record and produce their own music at a professional level from home.
21. Visualise Value ($1M/year)
After a few years of working on agencies, Jack was operating at a level where he could hear and see what brands were paying for work.
That's when he realized that he could offer 90% of the services his employers were providing, but take home a greater share of the margin if he went out alone.
How much money it makes: $1M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Learn how Jack Butcher transitioned from a creative director to founder of Visualise Value, now making an impressive $1M/year by offering unique visuals and creating a community-driven digital platform.
22. Forte Labs ($1M/year)
Tiaogo came to believe that practical life skills were one of the greatest areas of need in youth education, but that they required new, more engaging ways of teaching. With the unexpected success of his first course, he ventured into Forte Labs full time.
How much money it makes: $1M/year
How many people on the team: 12
A case study on Forte Labs, an education company founded by Tiago Forte, with a revenue of $1M/year as of 2019, coaching over 20K people on using technology to boost productivity globally.
23. TeamFFLEX ($984K/year)
Ryan recognized the limitations of gyms, from people not being able to afford it to people who aren't able to hire a trainer due to availability issues. Taking this online could be massive. Not physically fit at the time and ready to dive into self-development, Ryan started TeamFFLEX with zero dollars and a lot of drive within.
How much money it makes: $984K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
This case study is about a former personal trainer who launched his online personal training platform, TeamFFLEX, starting with no money and a lot of drive, and grew it into a 6-figure business in less than a year, now doing $48,000 a month with potential for continued growth.
24. The Five Day Startup ($960K/year)
Scott had been employed at a Fortune 500 company, and while being proud of his achievements, he wanted to venture into something beyond that. While he wanted to live his dream of travelling and earning money online, he started many businesses to fund them. Eventually, landing on e-commerce, failing a few times, and realizing the mistakes overtime, he started doubling down on Amazon, and then to ecommerce consulting.
How much money it makes: $960K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Scott Bartnick, engineer and founder of The Five Day Startup, discusses how he transitioned from dropshipping to creating his own brand, his success with eCommerce and Amazon consulting services, and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to get started in eCommerce.
25. Buttondown ($900K/year)
Justin built Buttondown to scratch his own itch — all of the other email tools he tried were either super-heavy (like Mailchimp or ConvertKit) or wanted to own his entire blogging presence like Medium or Substack. There wasn’t anything that just let him drop in a <form> tag into a blog and automatically send out emails, so he decided to build something just like that on a hunch that other people shared his use case.
How much money it makes: $900K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 1
Buttondown, a newsletter software built by an engineer disillusioned with the complicated and feature-laden email tools available, became a profitable and growing business powering over tens of thousands of customers and adding over $1,000 monthly, all made possible by keeping it simple, surgical, and functional.
26. CASTANET ($732K/year)
Started reaching out to people he knew who either owned a business or had higher-up positions in a business in order to brainstorm business ideas. A consistent theme that came up was lead generation. There's always a big demand for good leads and salespeople are willing to pay.
How much money it makes: $732K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 0
Discover how an aspiring founder turned countless failed projects into a $61,000/month LinkedIn outreach tool by leveraging strategic networking, relentless customer engagement, and a savvy reseller model to scale rapidly without hiring a single employee.
27. Snooze Fest by Jayne Havens ($720K/year)
Jayne left her career to focus on being a mom and became an expert in infant sleep. She started helping her friends, which led to more referrals. She turned her hobby into a career by enrolling in a sleep consultant certification program and launching her own business.
How much money it makes: $720K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Pediatric sleep consultant earns up to $12,000 per month within the first year of launch and surpasses $454,000 in annual income by offering sleep consulting services and creating her own sleep consultant certification course with mentorship and support for students.
28. 10k Customers ($720K/year)
After walking away from her previous company, Lucy wanted the capital to fund another venture, which led to freelancing, and then consulting her skills that she had learned in the past. From there on, Lucy had begun building her program.
How much money it makes: $720K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
10k Customers CEO Lucy Bloomfield shares her process of building profitable, leveraged product companies and turning their focus to helping non-product-based companies build self-liquidating front-ends, resulting in $1 million in revenue through phone sales and 17.5% net profit in the previous year.
29. Urban Tastebud ($612K/year)
Bryan discovered subscription boxes while working on a gluten-free menu blog. His article about the best gluten-free subscription boxes became successful, which led him to focus on niche-specific subscription boxes.
How much money it makes: $612K/year
How much did it cost to start: $210
How many people on the team: 0
Urban Tastebud is a profitable affiliate marketing blog specializing on subscription box reviews that now draws in $51,000 a month; the founder started by writing quick easy-to-read list articles and has remained profitable for 9 years by his consistency while focusing on growing his content and using social media platforms such as TikTok and Pinterest to increase traffic.
30. Browserless ($600K/year)
Browserless was something Joel stumbled upon while building other things. At the time, he was building a wishlist app for his family to create birthdays and holidays list, which required gathering items across the internet in one place. As a developer, he couldn't find an easy way to do that and the existing options were costly.
How much money it makes: $600K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
One-person SaaS business browserless allows users to automate tasks with a web browser, generating about $28,000 in sales for the month of September, and gained traction through blogging and supporting customers one-on-one.
31. Horkey HandBook (Fully Booked VA) ($588K/year)
Gina started a virtual assistant side hustle while working a full-time job in personal finance. She documented her journey and soon gained a following of like-minded individuals. This led her to launch a VA foundation course, which has grown into a 7-figure business.
How much money it makes: $588K/year
How much did it cost to start: $205
How many people on the team: 0
Gina, a personal finance worker turned virtual assistant, started a side hustle that evolved into a 7-figure business, The #FullyBookedVA System, which offers courses and support for new and existing virtual assistants seeking to launch and grow their business, with features including weekly group coaching, client leads, and specialization tracks.
32. Keto Girl Nutritionist ($540K/year)
While working as a healthcare specialist, Priscilla saw the need for support among patients with thyroid imbalance. This led her to develop a passion for the keto diet as it is essential for women with Hypothyroidism & Hashimoto’s. Seeing improvements in the initial clients she coached, she decided to help such patients through her private program.
How much money it makes: $540K/year
How much did it cost to start: $300
How many people on the team: 0
Keto Girl Nutritionist's founder, Priscilla Blevins, shares how she started her multi-six-figure online private practice, offering a high-ticket group coaching program for women with a thyroid imbalance, went from making $150 a month to $45,000+ a month within one and a half years, all while utilizing Instagram as her primary marketing strategy.
33. Eli Mason ($540K/year)
Christopher bought this business from the original founder in 2017 after he fell in love with their products at local bottle shops. He was struggling to make a good cocktail on his own, and this was the first one his wife also loved!
How much money it makes: $540K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 0
How Christopher Thomas turned a struggling cocktail mixer brand into a consistent low five-figure business by investing in e-commerce growth and customer reviews, focusing on all-natural ingredients, and revamping the website and packaging.
34. Website Rental Coaching ($504K/year)
The daily workload at his 9-5 job at General Electric as an HR left Luke unfulfilled from his career, and while he was searching for a profitable side gig, he realized that websites are like digital properties. With a top-ranking lead generation website, he could rent it to local businesses and earn a steady monthly income. Luke quit his job at the 6-month mark and hit six figures by the one-year mark of starting this business.
How much money it makes: $504K/year
How much did it cost to start: $8K
How many people on the team: 0
Luke Van Der Veer's Website Rental Coaching business teaches people how to create passive income by renting lead generation websites to local businesses, which has helped him generate $42,000 per month as of April 2022.
35. Web Designer Academy ($504K/year)
Shannon experienced a panic attack at her job, and decided on to start freelance web design business on the side (as that is what she actually loved about her job). Eventually, she started with her free 5-day website challenge, and kept reiterating over and over, still while working in her job.
How much money it makes: $504K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
How Shannon Mattern built a DIY web design training business from scratch that now generates $10k/month in revenue through affiliate commissions and courses, without outside investment or debt.
36. ReviewsOnMyWebsite ($492K/year)
Motuz came up with the idea when he was looking for a widget to embed Google reviews into his friend's website. He realized that many business owners would find such a widget useful, and so he decided to invest his resources into building a profitable solution.
How much money it makes: $492K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2.5K
How many people on the team: 0
ReviewsOnMyWebsite is an online reputation management software helping small businesses collect, monitor, and display online reviews to establish trust and improve brand reputation, which has helped over 35,000 businesses convert more leads by simplifying the process of collecting feedback and displaying customer reviews.
37. increasing.com ($480K/year)
Jamie realized the potential for Amazon affiliate links as a revenue stream while working on his social project. He added these links to his niche websites and scaled his project to commercial success.
How much money it makes: $480K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
A 26-year-old Londoner turned to SEO and niche blogging in 2019 as a last resort to fund her social project to feed the homeless and increased her revenue to $81K in December 2022, mostly through affiliate commissions and organic searches via SEO, doubling down on affiliates for 2023.
38. Zenmaster Wellness ($480K/year)
A pay cut at his job, and a friend's success in this niche inspired Matt to start during the pandemic.
How much money it makes: $480K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Matt Oney quit his full-time job to pursue his side hustle full-time: an affiliate marketing-based content site called ZenmasterWellness that generates around 80k monthly visits and average monthly revenue of about $40,000 by leveraging SEO and affiliate partnerships.
39. WrumerSound ($420K/year)
While purchasing a used car, Jure had access to the car's live RPM data through an OBD2 diagnostic device. This gave him the idea to develop an application that could utilize this data to create realistic engine sounds, which led to the birth of WrumerSound.
How much money it makes: $420K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2.5K
How many people on the team: 0
Founder achieves breakthrough with WrumerSound, an e-commerce brand specializing in a device called Wrumer that simulates engine sounds through a car's speakers, generating $35k in monthly revenue and growing.
40. Media Maven ($402K/year)
Christina never wanted to be a business owner. She just wanted to have a flexible schedule because she had two young children, and no one would let her work remotely in 2015. So, she felt like there was no other choice but to start her own business.
How much money it makes: $402K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 1
Case study: Christina Nicholson built her PR agency, Media Maven, from scratch and now generates an impressive $33,500 in monthly revenue. By leveraging her background in journalism and utilizing strategic content creation and media exposure, she attracts clients who already know, like, and trust her without the need for a dedicated sales team.
41. Plasfy ($375K/year)
The idea for Plasfy, a revolutionary graphic design software, emerged from recognizing the unmet needs and frustrations of graphic designers in the market.
How much money it makes: $375K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Plasfy is a graphic design software that offers a user-friendly platform with powerful features, allowing anyone to unleash their creativity and design eye-catching graphics; the company has gained tremendous traction, with over 200,000 designs created by its users, and has collaborated with freelancers from various countries to develop advanced features and thousands of templates.
42. moonwater ($363K/year)
After taking a 40% pay cut to escape management consulting, Mike spent a decade in startups before founding moonwater, now averaging $30K+/month in revenue with a 93% margin by helping high-potential startups grow faster and more efficiently.
How much money it makes: $363K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
Case study: How a former management consultant started his own growth studio, moonwater, and achieved average monthly revenue of $30K+ with a 93% margin by offering growth audits, advisory services, and fractional operating to 7 & 8-figure startups.
43. Plug and Law ($360K/year)
Besides the horrible work schedule, she didn’t like helping the “big corporations” make money as a lawyer and wanted to be able to make a difference.
After leaving her day job, she started Plug And Law, a legal tech company helping to fill a huge gap in the market and making legal knowledge more accessible.
How much money it makes: $360K/year
How many people on the team: 1
Erika Kullberg founded Plug and Law, a legal tech company, after gaining popularity on social media, growing her YouTube channel to over 180,000 subscribers, and amassing 5 million TikTok followers in just one month, with her business now making an average of $30K/month and $360K/year.
44. Financial Samurai ($360K/year)
Sam started a personal finance website during the 2009 economic crisis. An advertiser offered him $1,000 to advertise on his blog, which he saw as an opportunity to focus on his financial advisory blog.
How much money it makes: $360K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Financial Samurai founder, Sam Dogen, shares how he turned his cathartic writing hobby into a personal finance site that generates over $10K a month in passive advertising revenue and has over 1 million organic visitors a month, as well as his tips on starting and growing a business, and diversifying clientele.
45. Display Pros ($360K/year)
Founder's friend approached him for help in designing a booth display. The final product stood out and caught the attention of other exhibitors, which made the founder realize its potential.
How much money it makes: $360K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Founder Ryan Schortmann started a custom trade show display company offering easy-to-use, portable display kits for small and medium-sized businesses that have since hit over $30k in monthly revenue, reinvesting in marketing efforts to increase online sales.
46. Pat Stedman Dating and Relationship Coaching ($360K/year)
He started by sharing valuable insights about attraction and seduction from a NYT best-selling book with friends experiencing dating and relationships isues. Recognizing his expertise, he quit corporate job & launched the business.
How much money it makes: $360K/year
How many people on the team: 0
This case study follows Pat Stedman, founder of The Dynamic Man, LLC, and his journey to building a successful dating and relationship coaching business that now earns around $25,000 - $35,000 per month through coaching services and passive income products like his 19-hour video masterclass.
47. OceanZen ($300K/year)
The founder's passion for marine life led her to notice the environmental impact of plastic waste and fishing nets during her travels. Through extensive research, she found a sustainable way to dispose of these materials and established a swimwear company that uses fabric made from the waste.
How much money it makes: $300K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
OceanZen is a successful sustainable swimwear brand that has manufactured and sold thousands of bikinis worldwide, after being launched by Steph with only $5000 in her final year at university.
48. Brooklyn Butcher Blocks ($300K/year)
Nils had a solid background in fine woodworking and constantly worked on new projects, including a cutting board-making venture. When his product was featured in the New York Times, he felt confident in his idea and decided to launch the business.
How much money it makes: $300K/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
How many people on the team: 0
How Nils Wessell turned his love for woodworking into a profitable business grossing between $220K to $350K annually by making handcrafted cutting boards, and how he expanded his business into other creative projects with NilsWalker Designs.
49. Writing Revolt ($300K/year)
Getting fired was what had finally propelled her into starting her own freelance writing business, and she thought that the urgency of having no backup plan was what had really pushed her to succeed.
How much money it makes: $300K/year
How many people on the team: 0
A freelance writer who started from scratch and built a multiple six-figure online business, helping freelance writers learn how to make money online, through online courses in freelance writing and blogging, and focusing on YouTube and email newsletter marketing efforts.
50. Velvety ($288K/year)
Lorena saw a gap in the industry and she wanted to introduce the concept of ethical fashion to the largest amount of Australian people as possible.
How much money it makes: $288K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 0
Velvety is a sustainable and ethical online store that offers vegan fashion and lifestyle products, that has grown to become profitable after 3 years in business thanks to Facebook and Pinterest Ads, as well as SEO and hired professionals.
51. Pursuit of Passive Income ($264K/year)
Michael was looking for a passive income generating approach when he stumbled upon blogging and decided to venture.
How much money it makes: $264K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
This case study is about a blogger who turned his passion into a business that generates $20k per month, mostly through affiliate marketing and consulting, by focusing on long-term sustainable passive income streams through blogging.
52. Tcc media ($264K/year)
Michael, a medical marijuana enthusiast, visited Arizona and noticed a gap in the market for reliable media featuring cannabis products. He decided to create a niche blog to fill this gap.
How much money it makes: $264K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50K
How many people on the team: 0
Cannabis Cactus Magazine, the only 100% independently owned & operated monthly cannabis publication in the US, has grown to a monthly revenue of over $20k with 90% customer retention, serving over 80,000 readers nationwide with a goal to educate and entertain cannabis consumers.
53. Visa List ($264K/year)
Hari realized that the visa application process lacked a one-stop online resource for travelers. He decided to aggregate all relevant information and present it in a simplified format.
How much money it makes: $264K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 0
Visa List is a successful micro start-up that provides one-stop visa information for travellers, earning $5000/month on average with 350K monthly active users and has helped over 2 million users with their visa requirements, all starting from a personal frustration with visa processes.
54. Lazyjack Press ($252K/year)
The idea for a prep brand came to Miriam while she was attending her alma matter during Law school, and happened to notice tacky looking ties that were worn by the students. Shocked to see they were made by reputed brands, she did some research and was instantly connected with the idea, even without a background in fashion.
How much money it makes: $252K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Lazyjack Press, a luxury men's accessories brand, offers high-quality, Italian silk ties, pocket squares, bow ties, and socks with uniquely named designs and a focus on fun, appealing to audiences of all ages, and is primarily sold through trade shows and pop-up shops.
55. Pathpages ($250K/year)
Modest has been an entrepreneur since a young age, starting with two e-commerce shops that he owned. From there on, he owned a marketing agency and then further down his career, he established a ui ux design studio. It was only until then, learning the ins and outs of working online did he recognize the value of digital products, and now strives to build his own digital product empire.
How much money it makes: $250K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Pathpages founder grew his digital product business to over $300k in revenue and 200,000 followers with no paid ads, while helping over 120,000 people get organized and productive using Notion.
56. Clean Eating Kitchen ($240K/year)
Carrie developed the business idea while experimenting with a vegan diet and seeking connection in an online community.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $3.5K
How many people on the team: 0
Carrie Forrest's food and wellness blog, Clean Eating Kitchen, gets 650,000 page views per month and earns a monthly revenue of $20,000 through ads, sponsored posts, and affiliate income; her success has been tied to her use of SEO and educational background to stand out in an oversaturated niche.
57. Dilly Dally Games (Mexican Train) ($240K/year)
The game development started as a project for Christian's masters degree in computer science, and was going to sell software licenses on eBay and ship the game via CD.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Dilly Dally Games, run by solopreneur Christian Tuskes, has over 10k daily active users and earns between $16-17k per month from ad revenue due to its unique appeal to a demographic underserved in the gaming industry, as well as its focus on long playing times.
58. NOVO watch ($240K/year)
As a watch fanatic from childhood himself, Steve had took a leap to enter into the watch world as an entrepreneur. He kept repurposing materials to make watches and eventually started his own store.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Novo Watch creates unique, handcrafted watches made from reclaimed materials, with the Coalbanks collection watch selling out immediately and achieving their first-ever $16,000 day.
59. Upvoty ($240K/year)
With a background in building online businesses, the founder needed a customer feedback solution for his own business.
The founder did not find any suitable tools for his SaaS platform, so he decided to build Upvoty on the side to “scratch his own itch.”
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How many people on the team: 0
A case study on the founder of Vindy and Upvoty, who used his experience with his first startup to quickly grow his second startup to over 100 customers and $500 MRR, all while financing everything with the profits of his first company.
60. navyBLEU ($240K/year)
Erin found inspiration on her Instagram and started an online store that sells navy-colored items. Her spouse supported her idea.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
How many people on the team: 0
Navy-obsessed Erin Hornyak founded navyBLEU, an online boutique dedicated to the color, which has seen approximately 250 orders from 210 customers to date and attracted the attention of influencers and a boutique PR firm to spread the word.
61. The Flooring Girl ($240K/year)
Debbie started her blog as a marketing tool for her flooring store.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How many people on the team: 0
A home décor blogger turned her website into a $20,000/month business thanks to SEO, which drives 400k pageviews/month, as well as Pinterest, with over 300k pageviews/month, and through diversifying her income streams and traffic sources.
62. Black Luxe Candle Co. ($240K/year)
Brittany was enthusiastic about gifting within her family, so instead of buying physical presents, she started making candles. After posting a picture of one of her creations online, she received inquiries from people curious about how they could purchase one of her candles. After giving it some thought, she decided to turn her hobby into a business.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Learn how a candle designer increased her sales from $4,800 in 2019 to $40,000 in 2020, with a net profit of $12,000 in November alone, by focusing on creating a luxury experience with her candles and showing them in a non-traditional way.
63. BalloonWorks ($240K/year)
Rilee was tasked with using balloons to bring some excitement to a friend's gender reveal party. The exposure she received from this opportunity led to her being featured on social media by Kim Kardashian, boosting her confidence and validating her vision.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How many people on the team: 0
BalloonWorks quadrupled revenue and doubled its team in 2019, without any outside funding, while specializing in creating dynamic balloon installations for brands and celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Kyle Richards, and Maybelline Cosmetics.
64. Draft ($216K/year)
Passionate about UX design since the very start, Nick wasn't able to get a job in this industry. He began with writing a book about to how to get started in UI UX and became one of the earliest hit projects of Kickstarter back in 2008, raising over $10k. 5 years later, taking a month off from his UX job, Nick decided to continue with working independently like he did with his book, and formulated Draft, a company that he runs entirely on his own terms even after a decade.
How much money it makes: $216K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 1
Learn how Draft, an interaction design consultancy known for their influential books on design & technology, has thrived through word-of-mouth and niche outlets, bringing in an average of $18,000 a month split between consulting and educational work.
65. ReferralHero ($216K/year)
He was working for a startup in the event analytics space. A customer suggested a feature for attracting more attendees to events. The idea was to allow people to jump higher in the queue by inviting (or referring) more people to the event.
Several months later, remembered the idea and decided to build an MVP referral program as a widget instead of a web application.
How much money it makes: $216K/year
How many people on the team: 0
ReferralHero is a profitable, referral marketing platform with over 6,000 customers and MRR of around $18,000/month, built by founder Manuel Frigerio as an MVP in just four days, with growth coming from content marketing and SEO.
66. Brex International, LLC ($216K/year)
Brett's passion for woodwork inspired him to design an easy-to-use and effective alternative to the cumbersome traditional featherboard.
How much money it makes: $216K/year
How much did it cost to start: $45K
How many people on the team: 0
This case study follows Brett Burdick, founder of Brex International, LLC, and the creation of his patented spiral featherboard designed to improve safety and quality in woodworking, which has now generated $18k per month, with 87% of sales coming from Amazon.
67. Thriving Best Sellers ($180K/year)
Steve, while he running an Internet digital marketing company back in 1987, had helped his then-wife and his daughter publish a book while they both blogged about their travel stories. It was at this point he realized how powerful becoming a best-seller can be. Encouaged by a coach, Steve had then put together his first program.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Steve Kidd's Done For You program has helped thousands of authors write, publish and market their books, with 156 people becoming best selling authors and reaching over 180,000 people in 2016 alone, and since then Kidd has been working on expanding his offerings and services while aiming for an average annual sales of $10 million.
68. Buddy Web Design & Development ($180K/year)
Scott was interested in a career change, prompting him to learn coding to open up more career opportunities in the software development industry. After training, he put together a freelancer profile on Upwork and secured some projects. Fortunately, freelancing panned out and led to the evolution and growth of Buddy Web Design & Development.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Buddy Web Design & Development founder Scott Daigger transformed his one-person freelance business into a growing team bringing in around $25k per month in just six months, offering services such as website design and development, logo design, graphic design, branding, web content writing, e-commerce, blogging, and search engine optimization, targeting primarily growing businesses looking to refresh or “level up” their online presence, with a particularly large portion of clients in the healthcare and medical device space.
69. Meraki Design House ($180K/year)
Eman noticed that her intricately handmade shoes often sparked curiosity and questions about their Indian-inspired look. The appreciation for the handmade shoe’s uniqueness and their ability to take on the wearer’s footprint, and her instinct that many others would also value these qualities , led her to start Meraki.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Meraki Design House founder Eman Bachani shares how she started a $15k/month Asian-inspired handcrafted footwear e-commerce company, with a focus on working with South Asian artisans and tapping into new markets during COVID through collaborations and influencer marketing.
70. Studio Wombat ($180K/year)
Maarten had started building plugins, mainly to learn more about how WooCommerce worked, and to his surprise, people were interested. That's when he had decided to sell them on Studio Wombat.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
This case study follows the journey of a web application developer to founding a profitable business selling WooCommerce plugins, with five different plugins selling at around $49 per year each, making well over $15,000/month.
71. AlmondClear ($180K/year)
Leslie had been suffering from red bumps on her body for 20 years. She visited several dermatologists but the problem persisted. One day, she decided to visit an aesthetician who recommended mandelic acid. Within three weeks of using it, her problem was gone, bringing her immense relief. This experience motivated her to start her own business so that she could share her discovery with others.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Almond Clear, a line of skincare products formulated with mandelic acid, saw a revenue increase of about 20% each month for the first nine months after launching on Amazon in December 2017, finishing the first year of sales averaging around $15,000 per month in revenue.
72. Dropcloth Samplers ($180K/year)
Rebecca taught embroidery and introductory textiles classes in Chicago when she started making samplers. Fabric shops started reaching out to inquire about purchasing the designs to sell and she realized the business potential.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Rebecca Ringquist turned a side project of hand-drawn embroidery samplers into a full-time job, grossing over $15K a month with her business Dropcloth Samplers, which she launched accidentally after selling a few samplers at an end of session craft sale that prominent bloggers bought and posted about.
73. Online Solitaire ($180K/year)
Holger was excited to explore a new programming language and generate some passive income. He had come across the success story of the creator of Bingo Card Creator who earned passive income through their website. This inspired him to develop something similar, and he began working on an online solitaire game.
How much money it makes: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
Designer-turned-developer creates Online Solitaire, an online gaming website that features popular solitaire games such as Klondike, Spider, and Freecell, earning about $1,500 each month from SEO and optimization tools like Moz and Firebase.
74. Unicorn Platform ($168K/year)
As a startup folk with an experience in building various tech projects, plus being an ex-cofounder of a web development company, Alexander saw how users struggle with making good landing pages, and he applied his skills and experience to build an easy builder!
How much money it makes: $168K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 2
The founder of Unicorn Platform, Alexander Isora, created a landing page builder which generates over $2,200 in MRR and hosts 2,819 websites. Isora developed an MVP, created crowdfunding, and attributes the success of his product to a good MVP, reputation, and offering good support for customers.
75. Coco & Bubbles ($168K/year)
Elise quit her job to start a scented candle business. She found a suitable business name, Coco & Bubbles, and bought the abandoned business for $3000. One day after relaunching, she received over $2000 worth of wholesale orders, giving her a huge confidence boost.
How much money it makes: $168K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
How one founder bought an existing candle business for $3,000 and grew it to making $14k per month by focusing on wholesale opportunities and direct relationships with manufacturers for cost-efficient sourcing.
76. Crowd Work News ($156K/year)
Starting a remote work blog was both a pain point for Sireesha (while she was searching for remote jobs) and a way to earn a passive income.
How much money it makes: $156K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
Sireesha Narumanchi shares how she turned her passion for flexible, remote work into a successful blog generating five figures a month by focusing on affiliate marketing, email marketing and SEO.
77. Seniman Calligraphy ($156K/year)
Ruth had a passion for creating things with her hands, especially during the holidays when she loved to give gifts. She picked up modern calligraphy as a hobby and soon discovered that making bespoke custom wedding invitations allowed her to combine all the things she loved. After three months of regular practice, she decided that her skills were good enough to do calligraphy work for others, so she started the business.
How much money it makes: $156K/year
How many people on the team: 0
An inspiring case study of how one woman turned her passion for calligraphy and bespoke wedding invitations into a successful business that now grosses an average of $13,000 a month, using Instagram as the main driver for attracting and retaining customers.
78. Sauce Writing ($150K/year)
He realized the potential of writing when he landed his first job in Marketing. His mission was to learn everything he could about copywriting. In parallel, he created a personal blog and built a decent following. People loved his writing, so he decided to launch a writing school.
How much money it makes: $150K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 0
Sauce Writing's Valentin Decker started an online writing school just before the pandemic, helping over 100 students last year and aiming for up to €150,000 in revenue in 2023 with an emailing list of 5K people.
79. Bank Statement Converter ($150K/year)
Angus was doing his taxes and going through a pile of bank statement PDFs, with no visible way of viewing them in a clean CSV format. Angus tried building a code to see how hard could it be to convert the contents of a PDF into a CSV file. As he realized it extremely tough, he thought he was onto building something worthwhile.
How much money it makes: $150K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 0
Bank Statement Converter is a web app that extracts transaction data from PDF bank statements, with a monthly recurring revenue of $12,500 USD and steady growth in usage, attracting customers through cost-per-click advertising, cold outreach, and content marketing.
80. UrbanPLR ($144K/year)
Pankaj had recently been laid off from his job and was exploring options for generating passive income. During his search, he came across PLR Products, a website that enables resale of digital products that are pre-designed. Leveraging his WordPress web design expertise, he established his own business
How much money it makes: $144K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 0
Case study: Pankaj Singh turned a $100 investment into $125,000 within a year by building and launching two PLR membership sites, UrbanPLR and PLRLime outside of a hospital ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering flexibility, scalability, and the potential for passive income in the digital product business.
81. Teacher Jade's Writing Academy ($144K/year)
Jade was working on her masters and she started a side hustle as a teacher to earn extra income. Soon, what started as a side job became her career path and led her to starting her online courses business.
How much money it makes: $144K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50
How many people on the team: 0
Teacher Jade's online academy and consulting services, which teach youth and adults how to offer online classes, resulted in a five-figure monthly income with increased enrollment through Outschool, leading to the creation of a second business and a plan to expand course offerings and salaries for her teachers.
82. Bestowe Gifting ($144K/year)
While attending an event, Catherine started to realize the importance of having a side hustle, and that realization fueled her passion. She reached to family and friends for mental and emotional support towards starting her business.
How much money it makes: $144K/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
How many people on the team: 0
Bestowe Gifting quadrupled their sales during the pandemic by shifting to online sales and offering unique, locally sourced gifts, resulting in a successful eCommerce side hustle that allowed the founder to pay themselves and expand their custom business.
83. Client Portal ($132K/year)
The founder worked previously as a freelancer. She faced difficulties in finding a suitable platform to manage her clients' project assets. Despite trying different project management tools, the quality of these tools proved to be subpar, which led to her using email as the primary mode of communication.
Determined to find a better solution, she decided to create her own platform. She developed a page on her website that allowed clients to log in and access all the project assets that had been collected. She shared her experience with others about the portal and how it had helped her manage customer projects. After receiving a lot of encouragement from her peers, she eventually decided to sell it.
How much money it makes: $132K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Laura Elizabeth built a $4-10k/month lightweight project management tool for WordPress called Client Portal, which provides clients with a branded, accessible space to access project deliverables and status updates, and has grown organically with the aid of podcasts, email courses, and Google searches.
84. Sophie Crew Photography ($120K/year)
The idea came to Sophie when she saw how her iPhone wasn't enough to click her new born's picture portrait. She did enjoy the process though, after which she bought an entry-level DSLR camera and began her studio!
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Sophie Crew Photography, a newborn photography business in San Diego, was started by a former high-school French teacher in 2009, and has developed a strong brand reputation over 14 years through high-quality photography, SEO optimization and word-of-mouth marketing.
85. 52Frames ($120K/year)
Started as a personal project for Yosef's personal photography improvement, he eventually started a Facebook page for other enthusiasts to join as well, and ran it that way as a passion project for over a decade, with people participating in weekly photography contests. It was only until 2021 when Yosef launched a premium site membership that generated him enough revenue to quit his freelancing career in video production.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
52Frames is an online photography community that started as founder Yosef Adest's passion project, which grew into a successful business with over 3,000 photo submissions weekly and 700 paying members after ten years of incremental growth and centred around community building, organic word of mouth, and delivering value to customers.
86. Hyperfluent ($120K/year)
While the country was recovering from the effects of the Great Recession, Eva, like other graduates was having trouble finding a job. She took a road trip to decide the career path she wants to take, and remembered jotting down three of her passions: children, travelling, and languages. This was the start for Hyperfluent.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 0
Eva Rosales founded Hyperfluent, a language acquisition consultancy service, which incorporates personalized consultations, tutoring and translational services, language immersion programs, and more, and can make a monthly profit of $9,000-10,000.
87. ANTHONYKDO INC ($120K/year)
Anthony's passion for filming and moving led him to create films that were appreciated by his audience. As he gained more recognition, he started receiving requests to create films for others. After his first successful client project, he was convinced of his entrepreneurial potential.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How many people on the team: 0
A nomadic Canadian filmmaker started their creative business six years ago and now has over two dozen loyal clients scattered across six different countries, earning between $7000-15000/month, with a website built on WIX and no traditional marketing approach, relying on word of mouth and social media, they operate like an agency these days aiming for more meaningful work.
88. picjumbo ($120K/year)
Viktor wanted to create an online passive income opportunity by selling his photos. However, all the paid sites rejected his images for being low quality. This rejection made him angry but also fueled his desire to start his own business.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
Picjumbo is a free stock photo site created by solo founder Viktor Hanacek that has amassed 150,000 monthly visitors, 5,000 free photos, over 10,000 premium photos, and brings in over $10,000/month in revenue through advertising and premium membership.
89. RailsDevs ($120K/year)
Joe was an independent contractor, and had some folks willing to work with him around 2021. Swamped with work, he didn't have the bandwidth to interview them, and came up with an idea to note their details down in a spreadsheet. As he shared the sheet with businesses in his network, a couple of people had landed the gig! That was the moment he realized a business is waiting to be built.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
RailsDevs is a reverse job board for Ruby on Rails developers, which encourages organic conversations between developers and hiring businesses resulting in 30+ developers finding new jobs through the platform in just a year, with the company making an average of $10,000 per month through monthly subscriptions and hiring fees.
90. Optimize Yourself ($120K/year)
Zack's coaching business was born out of his personal desire for self-improvement. He spent years experimenting with various strategies to improve his well-being, and his successful transformation caught the attention of others. Inquiries about his methods led him to establish a coaching business.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How many people on the team: 0
A Hollywood film editor and director generated over $160,000 in revenue from his online coaching program with a list of under 5000, and currently generates around $10,000/month via the program while balancing a full-time job editing television, with his flagship product 'Focus Yourself' generating $50k in part-time sales in the first year.
91. Endorphitness ($120K/year)
Perry knew she wanted to work in the fitness industry since college. She started as a personal trainer and her clients inspired her to start an online coaching consultancy.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
Haley Perry, founder and CEO of Endorphitness, built an online platform offering at-home health and fitness programs that has grown to garner $10K in monthly revenue through a one-stop-shop for all things health and fitness related and a loyal customer base that values the sense of community fostered through the platform.
92. Vagabond Heart ($120K/year)
Mike’s idea was a combination of his interest in vintage clothing, style, and old movies, with his love of menswear and fashion, and travel.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 0
Serial entrepreneur grows modern vintage-inspired travel patch company to over $5,000 in monthly sales volume with a 100+% growth rate by expanding product line and utilizing online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon.
93. Screw The Cubicle ($120K/year)
Lydia Lee started Screw The Cubicle as a blog to document her own transition from employee to entrepreneur. After receiving a message from a reader asking about coaching services, she decided to explore coaching as a way to help others navigate career transitions. Through beta testing and refining her coaching process, Lydia was able to create self-guided courses and build a successful business, generating approximately $10,000 per month in revenue.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $3K
How many people on the team: 1
Screw The Cubicle's Lydia Lee started a location-independent coaching business that generates an average monthly revenue of $10,000, helping corporate professionals transition to independent careers by offering self-guided courses and personalized coaching programs.
94. Framed Tweets (Now its Sticker Mule) ($114K/year)
Zach was avoiding a New Year's party his parents were hosting downstairs and scrolled through Twitter - suddenly he thought "what if you could frame a tweet?" That night, he built a simple website & tweeted a link to some random people he found on Twitter, and the next morning woke up to find Framed Tweets featured on Product Hunt, Mashable, Uncrate, and a few other websites.
How much money it makes: $114K/year
How much did it cost to start: $999
How many people on the team: 0
Framed Tweets, an online store that offers customers the opportunity to frame tweets as art, started by grossing $20k in its first year and increasing to $110k in the second year, and now has monthly gross sales of $20k from Instagram ads, spending about $300 a day.
95. Steers Consulting Group ($108K/year)
He ventured into the coaching and consulting business after a series of pivotal moments in his career, learning the ins and outs of sales and realizing the need for effective sales coaching in the startup world.
How much money it makes: $108K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
Learn how Stephen Steers, a sales consultant and coach, used his near-death experience in the construction industry to fuel his passion for storytelling and sales, eventually leading him to develop a method called Context selling, earning him about $9k per month part-time.
96. Sync2Sheets ($108K/year)
Leandro, a former freelance software developer from Buenos Aires, pivoted from freelancing to building Sync2Sheets, a tool syncing Notion databases with Google Sheets. Launched rapidly in just two weeks, the product now boasts $9k MRR and over 400 paying customers, including Canva and Wix.
How much money it makes: $108K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
A Software Engineer turned SaaS founder shares the journey of building Sync2Sheets, a Google Workspace Add-On that syncs Notion databases with Google Sheets, generating $9k MRR with over 400 paying customers, strategic marketing tactics, and plans for expansion into other services.
97. Tons of Thanks ($100K/year)
Having learned about blogging back in 2013, Heidi wanted to enter a niche she could perform well in. Thank you writing was one space she was good at, having written notes since her childhood. Seeing the examples of other such notes and cards on the internet felt way too generic to her, and she knew she could better than them.
How much money it makes: $100K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10
How many people on the team: 0
Heidi Bender started Tons of Thanks in 2014, developing it into the go-to resource for over 15 million people to write meaningful thank-you messages, handling ad revenues, SEO and learning to not give up even when the "passive income" point is reached.
98. Love & Logic ($96K/year)
Angela had been the co-founder of a large successful agency for over a decade. However, her work-life balance wasn't optimal, and she was struggling to juggle roles between an agency owner and a creative person. Finally, she decided to take the leap and start her own solo creative studio with a clear mind and a focus on freedom.
How much money it makes: $96K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2.5K
How many people on the team: 0
Love & Logic is a profitable solo creative studio, specializing in brand identity, animation, and motion graphics, averaging around $8k per month, targeting ethical brands, local authorities, and universities with a clear brand strategy, manifest, and reputation for quality and value-based pricing.
99. Moneypicks ($96K/year)
Tyler started betting on sports during the World Cup 2008, and he ventured into this not to make money, but to help people. No wonder when he did started charging, business flooded through the door.
How much money it makes: $96K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Learn how a 27-year-old entrepreneur uses his love for sports and numbers to make $200-$600 per day by predicting the outcome of sporting events with his proprietary systems, which produce winners at a 60%+ rate, all without any significant startup costs or overhead.
100. FITnancials ($90K/year)
Financials initially started as a fitness blog when Alexis had lost 60 pounds while in college and people came to her for advice. With time however, it blossomed into something Alexis was passionate about, which was helping women manage, save, and earn more money.
How much money it makes: $90K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
How many people on the team: 1
Learn how one woman turned her personal finance blog into a $7.5k per month business through affiliate marketing, ad revenue, and sponsored partnerships, and discover the tools and resources she used to grow her business and achieve work-life balance.
101. Y2 Lending ($84K/year)
Eugene was laid off from his tech job in the summer of 2022. While going back to corporate would give him the required financial standing, he didn't want to be miserable again. Finally, he pulled the trigger and opened a HELOC.
How much money it makes: $84K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
Real estate lender and investor, Eugene Nilus, discusses launching his private and hard money lending business, which has been making between $6,000-$9,000 a month since opening, sharing tips on networking, attracting customers, and building trust, with the goal of scaling to lend 100 million dollars by 2024.
102. Money Tamer (Now HerPaperRoute) ($84K/year)
A zookeeper by profession, Steffa started this finance blog when she had her son as a way to earn a passive income and fulfull her interests, and entering this niche stemmed from her interest in finance, which she even joked among her coworkers in the zoo.
How much money it makes: $84K/year
How much did it cost to start: $300
How many people on the team: 1
Learn how Steffa Mantilla transitioned from being a zookeeper to earning $7,000/month gross income through her personal finance blog, Money Tamer, by offering digital printables and focusing on SEO and email marketing.
103. AirTrackBot ($84K/year)
The idea came to the founder because he was tired of the tedious and time-consuming process task of manually checking airline websites daily, to see if fares dropped.
To solve this, he decided to create a chatbot that could automatically tracked flight prices and sent him notifications on Telegram when prices change. He was confident that many people like him could benefit from this. After a month of development, the first iteration of the product was released.
How much money it makes: $84K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
AirTrack, a Telegram chatbot that tracks flight prices, has over 900,000 subscribers, generates $7,000 per month and grew from 0 to 10,000 users in its first week by strategically using chatbot catalogs, press coverage and product launch platforms like Product Hunt, Reddit, Betalist, Indie Hackers, and Hacker News.
104. Kelsey Vetter Co. ($78K/year)
During the pandemic, Kelsey wanted to leave the corporate world and start making money online. She stumbled upon dropshipping and decided to start a print-on-demand Etsy shop. She soon realized that this business was too similar to her corporate job, but loved the Pinterest marketing aspect of the business. She decided she had the skills to turn this into a business.
How much money it makes: $78K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2.5K
How many people on the team: 0
Kelsey Vetter grew her Pinterest Marketing + Strategy company, generating $5,500 to $9,500 monthly since her first month where she made $675.
105. No-Code MVP ($72K/year)
Bram had extensive experience working and coaching with early-stage startups, and No-Code MVP became an outlet to let all that knowledge into a product.
How much money it makes: $72K/year
How many people on the team: 0
A stay-at-home father created No-Code MVP course, which teaches people the mindset, process, and tools they can use to build and validate their startup and business ideas without any knowledge or learning how to code, generating $8,000 in a pre-sale over 3 weeks and is on track to make $6,000/month.
106. Food Truck Empire ($64.8K/year)
Stemming from an idea to start a food truck business himself, Brett was shocked to see no information available on the internet on how to start one.
With his experience as an online marketer in his full-time job, he saw huge search results for keywords like "food trucks for sale". That's when Brett decided to start a blog and a podcast on this niche without quitting his job.
How much money it makes: $64.8K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
How Brett Lindenberg built a profitable food entrepreneurship blog, FoodTruckEmpire.com, from his apartment in Minnesota that now gets over 300,000 monthly page views and has an email subscriber list of over 35,000, grossing $5,400 monthly in 2018, by conducting over 100 interviews with food entrepreneurs and offering an online Food Truck Academy class to prepare aspiring entrepreneurs for the real challenges of starting a successful food business.
107. The Foodnited States ($60K/year)
Chris's eight year old suggested him the idea of "food named states". A photo series based on this idea went viral on Instagram, and a couple years later, Chris started developing a Shopify store for t-shirts based on the same concept.
How much money it makes: $60K/year
How many people on the team: 0
The Foodnited States, an online shop selling illustrated state-themed merchandise, started generating an extra $3-5k monthly with only 11 states available, having relied heavily on organic social media and an email list to attract customers, with user-generated content and collaborations with photographers and brands being its most effective marketing tools.
108. Amanda Louise Swimwear ($60K/year)
The idea for such a brand came when Ally had ordered a suit online for her bikini competition, but wasn't quite happy with it. This gave her the push to start Amanda Louise for herself and other athleyes.
How much money it makes: $60K/year
How many people on the team: 0
AmandaLouise started in 2014 as a fitness competition swimwear brand and has since broken into mainstream luxury swimwear, with the brand being featured in the 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimwear Issue and launching a couture made-to-order collection in collaboration with Gretchen Rossi of Bravo TV’s The Real Housewives of Orange County.
109. Innerglow Art ($51.6K/year)
Painting had helped Sarah channel her emotions of getting rejected from grad schools in a positive way, as she had been the "artsy" girl in college as well. It started as a hobby but within a few months, her friends and family encouraged her to sell her art. Seeing the demand on her store, she started Innerglow Art.
How much money it makes: $51.6K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Innerglow Art is a successful custom abstract painting business that incorporates scripture and personable connection with buyers to produce beautiful and unique artwork.
110. Ramen Club ($48K/year)
Charlie stumbled upon Product Hunt and attended indie hacker meetups. Eventually, he saw how encouraging meet ups are, leading him to start with the idea validation process.
How much money it makes: $48K/year
How much did it cost to start: $250
How many people on the team: 0
Ramen Club is a founder community that aims to help solopreneurs succeed, enjoy their journey, and feel less lonely; it currently has over 100 members and $3,800 MRR with 35% MoM revenue growth between April and May 2022.
111. Golden Root ($48K/year)
A Phlebotomist by profession, Andrea quit her job to work in many food startups, and her experience in the farm lit a fire in her to provide healthy food to people.
How much money it makes: $48K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Denver-based founder Andrea Slinde built her own organic food start-up, Golden Root, which sells trendy Turmeric Latte Mix online and now in 50 coffee shops nationwide, with an average monthly revenue of $4K, a long term objective of expanding into traditional grocery sales, and uses Shopify, Recharge, Mailchimp, Shipstation, and QuickBooks to manage e-commerce and finances.
112. Kindfulness Coaching ($36K/year)
The founder's journey into the coaching business began during the COVID-19 pandemic, spurred by personal challenges, a transformative moment during her husband's health crisis, and a newfound commitment to self-care and well-being.
How much money it makes: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
This case study article follows the journey of Jen Schwytzer, founder of KINDfulness Coaching, as she transitions from social work to coaching, develops a personalized coaching program, and launches her business on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to attract and retain clients.
113. Top Dollar ($36K/year)
Josh had been a finance nerd. He makes intelligent investments and spend most of his time reading, talking, thinking, and researching investment ideas. Naturally, when the idea to share content on this came up, his friends thought there couldn't be a better fit.
How much money it makes: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $25K
How many people on the team: 1
Top Dollar Investor founder Josh Dudick shares how he turned his passion for investing and wealth management into a successful media content business generating $1,000 - $3,000 a month through organic search, social media outreach, and affiliate marketing.
114. SinOficina ($36K/year)
Chris's eight year old suggested him the idea of "food named states". A photo series based on this idea went viral on Instagram, and a couple years later, Chris started developing a Shopify store for t-shirts based on the same concept.
How much money it makes: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
SinOficina is an online coworking space for Spanish-speaking freelancers and entrepreneurs that generates $3,000 per month in revenue, which founder Bosco Soler built by sharing his journey with his audience, delegating tasks, collaborating with formidable people and using WordPress, Slack, Mailchimp, Airtable, Crowdcast, Zapier and Notion.
115. Moco Choco ($30K/year)
A Yemeni by birth, Gaza was looking for a business to start when she shifted to New York, and had attented an expo called The Chocolate Expo in Long Island. Gaza's sweet tooth got the best of her and seeing how people were making a living out of it, she was the first one to start such a business in her neighbourhood in Brooklyn.
How much money it makes: $30K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 0
Moco Choco is a profitable Brooklyn-based private bakery that specializes in custom cakes, cookies, and chocolates, grossing around 60-80% on products that range from $70 to $650 and whose founder started the business amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
116. Fuelblock leads ($30K/year)
Jean had had two "soft attempts" at his side hustles while working in his product development job, yet he believed he could build this product, learn to be flexible and risk-averse, and enjoy more time with his family and loved ones.
How much money it makes: $30K/year
How much did it cost to start: $600
How many people on the team: 1
Fuelblock is a subscription-based service that provides B2B companies with early-stage SaaS startup leads, generating $2.5K MRR for the founder in a side hustle and aiming to reach a $10,000 MRR goal.
117. Two Little Monkeys Photography ($24K/year)
Getting pregnant with twin babies, Samantha wanted to document as much as she could about her kids. She wasn't set on a particular career path until then, and immediately saw photography as the viable option to pursue.
How much money it makes: $24K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 1
How a single mother went from starting a newborn and family photography studio with just a Canon 40D - risking everything after a turbulent time as a teenage mother - to achieving steady growth of 5-10% YoY.
118. Random Trivia Generator ($14.4K/year)
Back in 2010, Slavi noticed there were no fun trivia games compatible on mobile (iPhone and Blackberry then) or not flooded with ads. He created a simple 1-page site and tried it with friends and family. Back at work, Slavi saw that after some time the site was getting more than 1000 views/day, which is when he decided to work more on it.
How much money it makes: $14.4K/year
How much did it cost to start: $25
How many people on the team: 1
Founder struggles to continue site while balancing career, family and health, but addictive trivia site still draws more than 200k visitors per month, operating as a profitable business since its inception, and yet to see any signs of slowing down.
119. Baxter Inc. ($12K/year)
The founder was having a tough time managing his Gmail inbox when he came up with the idea of a dashboard. He then interviewed dozens of regular American adults to see if the idea was appealing. Soon, he found out that the majority of people preferred a simple tool rather than a dashboard. This motivated him to build Baxter.
How much money it makes: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50K
How many people on the team: 1
A case study on the founder of Baxter, a browser extension that helps Gmail users organize their inboxes by unsubscribing from newsletters, deleting unneeded emails, and automatically labeling and organizing emails, which generated over $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue in just nine months and successfully acquired an existing Gmail Unsubscribe extension to drive organic user growth.
120. KTool ($12K/year)
Inspired by a visually impaired engineer's Hacker News post, and suffering himself from blindness on his right eye, he decided to create a tool that sends reading materials from around the web to Kindle devices.
How much money it makes: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 1
"Read about the journey of KTool, a productivity tool for Kindle owners, as its founder Daniel Nguyen shares how he built the business, reached $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue, and utilized various strategies such as building in public, ASO, and engineering as marketing to attract and retain customers."
121. FreeMcServer ($12K/year)
Back in 2018, Nuno had just finished school, and seeing the success of large minecraft servers online, whose founders are able to pay bills with it, he decided to build one platform himself. He was an avid minecraft player and needed a way to host the game 24/7 without the electricity bill going through the roof. That is when he started this personal project, both as a way to earn passive income, and to add to his CV.
How much money it makes: $12K/year
How many people on the team: 1
FreeMcServer.net, a free high-performance Minecraft server hosting service launched in 2018, has more than 970,000 registered users and generates monthly profits of around $1,000 USD, with over 95% of revenue coming from advertisements on the website and a primary user base from lower-income countries.
122. Logobly ($12K/year)
Craig has been a designer all his career, and with his dream of starting his own business + researching on a lack of online logo makers on the internet, he started in 2020 with just his design skills that he could productize and a credit card, and got to work!
How much money it makes: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 1
Meet Craig Barber, founder of Logobly, an impressive new logo maker for internet startups that allows for designing and downloading a logo in just 60 seconds, which has helped 100s of entrepreneurs brand their startups and side projects, does around $1,000 a month in sales, and is productized based on his expertise as a logo designer.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
