Side Hustle King: 3 Easy Businesses Anyone Can Start

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  • Podcast: Big Deal by Codie Sanchez
  • Host: Codie Sanchez
  • Guest: Chris Koerner — serial entrepreneur with 75+ businesses
  • Duration: ~1 hour
  • Listen: Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Chris Koerner has started over 75 businesses. He specializes in what he calls “sleeper businesses” — cash-flowing, non-venture-backed companies that almost anyone can start with minimal capital. Here are his top three.

1. Front Porch Decorating

A woman named Heather built a million-dollar business buying wholesale pumpkins and decorating porches. She charges $600 to $1,300 per installation. Seasonal decorations are highly visual and shareable on social media, creating free marketing. The model works for Christmas, flowers, and other seasons too.

2. Appliance Rental

A guy buys used washers and dryers on Facebook Marketplace (often free from people moving), then rents them to apartment dwellers for $100 to $200 a month. These are people who have hookups but do not want to buy appliances. Minimal startup capital needed. Just a truck and a system.

3. HVAC Coil Cleaning

HVAC companies hate cleaning coils as part of their maintenance contracts. It requires water, chemicals, and awkward setup. One person built a $500,000 to $600,000 a year business just cleaning coils for grocery store HVAC units. He says he never loses a customer.

The Formula

Find a business. Find the things they hate doing. Unbundle that into its own service.

Koerner scraped every tree trimming business in Houston, called them up, and asked: would you outsource stump grinding if you could? One person made $300,000 in his first year doing exactly that.

Businesses to Avoid

  • Third-party logistics — $400K monthly revenue, zero profit
  • House cleaning — too many ways to screw up (hair on the floor, scuffed baseboard)
  • Custom home building — too many stakeholders for the margins

The Mindset

Constraints equal creativity. An insane bias for action matters more than capital. Koerner was rejected 24,000 times during a two-year mission in Hungary. That experience built resilience that made entrepreneurship feel easy.

Crepi il lupo! 🐺