mini hustlestiny but publicTHE LIVE LEDGER
Hi, I run five tiny businesses in public

Watch real businesses grow
(and sometimes die), every Sunday.

Every dollar, every hour, every faceplant, posted weekly. Just the running ledger of five little bets, each under $1,000 and sharing twenty hours a week.

$6,600/mo combined20 hrs/week, total$73/hr blended1 of 5 profitable2 in the graveyard
🎓
Skool Coaching Group
$6,600/mo
8 hrs/wk · $183/hr
the flagship
📰
DFY Local Newsletter
$0/mo
3 hrs/wk · $0/hr
launching next
🧪
Mini Hustles Lab
$0/mo
4 hrs/wk · -$3/hr
in build
💪
Fitness Gaming Community
$0/mo
3 hrs/wk · $0/hr
in development
📚
Business Book Club
$0/mo
2 hrs/wk · $0/hr
the wildcard
EXP-01 · DAY 122 · the only one live · launched first
🎓 Skool Coaching Group
Close ✕

Can a focused paid community create recurring value without turning into a content treadmill?

A private community where local business owners get group coaching calls, playbooks, and peer accountability. High-touch enough to charge real money, group-based enough to stay inside the hour budget.

MONTHLY EXPENSES
$250/mo
EFFECTIVE RATE
$183/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●●○
Right now: Hold $6,600/mo and keep churn lowUp next: Open the next cohort, then raise founding prices
INHERITED ADVANTAGEThe founding members came largely from my Local Business MBA audience, and years of running local businesses shortened the offer. A first-timer would have to earn that trust from scratch. The cost of building that audience is not charged to this experiment.
WHAT THE NUMBER HIDESThe $6,600 is what is collected now, after churn, not the $8,300 peak. Much of the early growth came from an audience I already had.
CURRENT CONSTRAINTRetention, not acquisition. The next round has to prove members keep making progress without an endless stream of new material from me.
“Averaging $6,600/mo in about eight hours a week. Group beats 1:1, again.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-02 · LAUNCHING NEXT · building the first town
📰 DFY Local Newsletter
Close ✕

Can a small publication earn well while staying useful enough to deserve the reader's inbox?

A done-for-you weekly newsletter for small towns: I write it, local businesses sponsor it, and the town gets news that isn't on Facebook.

MONTHLY EXPENSES
$0/mo
EFFECTIVE RATE
$0/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●○○
Right now: Line up the first town's sponsorsUp next: First issue out the door
INHERITED ADVANTAGEI bring writing reps and relationships with local operators from Local Business MBA. Cold-starting the first town's sponsor list without them would be slower.
WHAT THE NUMBER HIDESThere is no revenue to hide yet. The only cost so far is the hours going into the first town.
CURRENT CONSTRAINTGetting the first town's sponsors committed before the first issue, so the numbers start from paid, not from hope.
“The scoring sheet picked this one, not me. Launching next.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-03 · IN BUILD · you are looking at it
🧪 Mini Hustles Lab
Close ✕

Will people pay for a structured month of testing their own idea, then do enough real market work to reach a credible verdict?

The meta one: this dashboard, the weekly notes, and the guides. The other four experiments make the content; this one just publishes the truth.

MONTHLY EXPENSES
$50/mo
EFFECTIVE RATE
-$3/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●●●
Right now: Ship this site and write the origin threadUp next: First Sunday ledger email
INHERITED ADVANTAGEIt rides on the Mini Hustles audience and this site's own distribution, so its reach is not a cold start. Roughly $50/mo covers the Skool hobby plan, domain, hosting, and email.
WHAT THE NUMBER HIDESNo revenue yet. The site is the shop window for the other four, so some of its value shows up on their pages, not here.
CURRENT CONSTRAINTShipping publicly and starting the Sunday cadence, before the meta-experiment can teach anything.
“The meta one. Publishing the $/hr math feels worse than publishing revenue.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-04 · IN DEV · building the XP bot
💪 Fitness Gaming Community
Close ✕

Can a narrow fitness offer find demand without paid attention becoming the business?

A Discord where workouts earn XP: log sessions, level up, join weekly raid challenges, with a leaderboard, roles, and accountability.

MONTHLY EXPENSES
$0/mo
EFFECTIVE RATE
$0/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●○○
Right now: Ship the XP bot betaUp next: Closed beta with the first ten members
INHERITED ADVANTAGEThe thinnest advantage of the five. I bring community-building experience but no existing fitness audience, so this is the one closest to starting from zero.
WHAT THE NUMBER HIDESNo revenue yet. The build cost is real work that will not show up as a line until the offer is live.
CURRENT CONSTRAINTGetting non-gamers through the door. Retention looks strong in tests; acquisition is the open question.
“Building the XP bot. No dollar in yet, and that's the honest state.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-05 · QUEUED · one book · one sprint · monthly
📚 Business Book Club
Close ✕

Can a small recurring reading room create enough value and retention to justify the work around it?

A paid monthly club that reads one business book a month and turns it into an action plan you actually run: accountability, not just discussion.

MONTHLY EXPENSES
$0/mo
EFFECTIVE RATE
$0/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●●●
Right now: Design the first cohortUp next: Open the first sprint
INHERITED ADVANTAGEIt draws on my audience and the Local Business MBA network for its first members, so the first cohort is easier to fill than it would be cold.
WHAT THE NUMBER HIDESNo revenue yet. The real cost is the facilitation time, which only shows up once a cohort is running.
CURRENT CONSTRAINTDesigning a first cohort small enough to run well and prove people finish the book and act on it.
“The wildcard: one book a month, turned into a plan you actually run.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
What each number means
Kept deliberately small: MRR, owner hours, and monthly expenses. These are operating figures, not audited accounts. Tax and my own labour sit outside them.
MRRThe current monthly value of active recurring subscriptions. Zero until an experiment is live and collecting, and not the same as contracts signed.
Owner hoursMy time each week on delivery, selling, and admin. Every hour one experiment takes is an hour another goes without, which is the whole constraint.
Monthly expensesWhat the experiment costs to run each month: software, contractors, fees, advertising. Shared tools are counted where they land, not hidden.
Effective hourly return(MRR minus monthly expenses) divided by monthly owner hours. It is not a wage, excludes tax, and can be flattered by prepayments or delayed delivery.
Which one dies next?
Pick one; the odds show after you vote (no peeking!)
🎓 Skool Coaching Group
?
📰 DFY Local Newsletter
?
🧪 Mini Hustles Lab
?
💪 Fitness Gaming Community
?
📚 Business Book Club
?
One pick per visitor · tap to vote, tap again to unpick · settles at the next day-30 review
Share your bet slip →
Notes from the week
JUL 06Skool churn week: one member left, one paused (his business, not mine), one is upgrading to 1-on-1. $8,300 at the peak, averaging $6,600 now. Growth was the easy part.
JUN 29Decided the DFY local newsletter launches next. The scoring sheet picked it, not me.
JUN 22Built the public dashboard. Publishing the $/hr math felt worse than publishing revenue. Doing it anyway.
All the confessions →
The graveyard
Tiimis
A software business I bought and worked on with the co-founder for two years. It only ever ran internally on our own startups; it never shipped publicly. · “Two years of building for a customer we never went and found.”
Hireri
A done-for-you hiring service for cleaning companies. Three months in, the economics didn't clear the bar, so we shut it down. · “Right niche, wrong offer. Shut it down before it killed the calendar.”
Read the verdicts →
One honest email, every Sunday.
Numbers first, feelings second. Joining gets you the free Experiment Kit. Unsubscribe when I get boring.
𝕏▶ YouTubeSkool
mini hustles · season 01 · roadmap · which hustle fits you? · updated JUL 20, 2026termsprivacytiny but public · audited by nobody · 🔑
A Schwab Consulting company · Mini Hustles is the laboratory of Business as Practice.