mini hustlestiny but publicStart hereNumbersNotesThe LabAboutTHE 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. No highlight reel, no guru talk. Just the honest ledger of five little bets, each under $1,000 and sharing twenty hours a week.

$19,350/mo combined20 hrs/week, total$223/hr blended3 of 5 profitable2 in the graveyard
🎓
Skool Coaching Group
$12,400/mo
6 hrs/wk · $477/hr
the flagship
📰
DFY Local Newsletter
$4,800/mo
5 hrs/wk · $222/hr
compounding
🧪
Mini Hustles Lab
$0/mo
2 hrs/wk · $0/hr
in build
💪
Fitness Gaming Community
-$250/mo
4 hrs/wk · $0/hr
in development
📚
Business Book Club
$2,400/mo
3 hrs/wk · $185/hr
the wildcard
EXP-01 · DAY 122 · launched first · past the old $8,300 peak
🎓 Skool Coaching Group
Close ✕

A private community where local business owners get group coaching calls, playbooks, and peer accountability for $300/mo. High-touch enough to charge real money, group-based enough to stay inside the hour budget.

SPENT
$99 of $1,000
EFFECTIVE RATE
$477/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●●○
Right now: Onboard the new cohort and hold $12,400Up next: The VA-agency track · then raise founding prices
“Past the old peak and still inside six hours a week. Group beats 1:1, again.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-02 · DAY 88 · two towns · eight sponsors
📰 DFY Local Newsletter
Close ✕

A done-for-you weekly newsletter for small towns: I write it, local businesses sponsor it at $600/mo per town, and the town gets news that isn’t on Facebook.

SPENT
$420 of $1,000
EFFECTIVE RATE
$222/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●○○
Right now: Deliver both issues · keep the sponsors renewedUp next: Town #3 discovery calls
“The boring one pays like it's interesting. $600/mo per town, eight times over.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-03 · IN BUILD · you are looking at it
🧪 Mini Hustles Lab
Close ✕

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

SPENT
$0 of $1,000
EFFECTIVE RATE
$0/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●●●
Right now: Ship this site · write the origin threadUp next: First Sunday ledger email
“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 ✕

A Discord where workouts earn XP: log sessions, level up, join weekly raid challenges. $15/mo for the leaderboard, roles, and accountability.

SPENT
$500 of $1,000
EFFECTIVE RATE
$0/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●○○
Right now: Ship the XP bot betaUp next: Closed beta with the first ten members
“Paying dev costs before dollar one. The minus sign stays on the board until it earns its way off.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
EXP-05 · DAY 60 · one book · one sprint · monthly
📚 Business Book Club
Close ✕

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.

SPENT
$120 of $1,000
EFFECTIVE RATE
$185/hr
FUN LEVEL
●●●●●
Right now: Run this month's sprint cohortUp next: Add the accountability tier
“Turns out people will pay to actually finish the book — and do the plan inside it.”
Full story, week-by-week numbers & decision receipts →See the playbook →
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, $5,400 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. Killed it 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.
RoadmapThe quizFree kitGraveyardGuidesContact𝕏▶ YouTubeSkool
mini hustles · season 01 · roadmap · which hustle fits you? · updated JUL 14, 2026termsprivacytiny but public · audited by nobody · 🔑