The Data
Nine years of daily episodes. 450 structured case studies. Here is every number we cite across the site, where it comes from, and how it was computed.
What This Dataset Is
Side Hustle School has published a new episode every single day since January 1, 2017. Each episode tells the real story of someone who started a side hustle while keeping their day job. As of June 2026, that is 3,443 episodes covering every business model, industry, and income level you can imagine.
A subset of those stories were collected in structured form as the Side Hustle Finder dataset: 450 case studies, each tagged with a business model, difficulty rating, profit-potential rating, online/offline classification, and a revenue figure. This structured dataset spans 2017 to 2022 and is the source for all revenue-based statistics on this site.
A note on revenue figures: All revenue data is self-reported by the listeners featured on the show. These are real stories, not projections or averages from external surveys. Results vary widely; the statistics below reflect what people actually shared, which skews toward success stories. The Failure Friday archive (208 episodes) documents what did not work.
All Computed Statistics
Each stat below is computed programmatically from the datasets described above and regenerated whenever the data is updated. The methodology column explains exactly what was counted or calculated.
How computed: Count of all entries in finder-entries.json, each representing a listener story featured on Side Hustle School with structured revenue, difficulty, and model fields.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries whose one-off or annual revenue figure (excluding monthly and hourly) is >= $100,000 after parsing; the 2 unparseable 'Six-Figure' strings are excluded from this count.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries whose revenue is >= $100,000 (one-off or annual), >= $8,334/month (a $100,000/year rate), or explicitly labeled 'Six-Figure' by the show.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries whose one-off or annual revenue figure is >= $50,000 after parsing; uses the same methodology as the $100k threshold stat.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Median of the 183 entries whose revenue string contains '/month' (case-insensitive), parsed by stripping currency symbols and commas; monthly figures are kept separate from one-off totals to avoid comparing unlike quantities.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of unique values in the 'model' field across all 450 finder entries: Arts & Crafts, Affiliate, Blog, Coaching, Manufacturing, Product, Reselling, Service, Social Media.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries where the 'online' field equals 'Online' (201 entries) divided by all entries with an online field (450), expressed as a percentage rounded to the nearest whole number.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries where the 'profit' field equals 'High' (291 of 450), divided by total entries, rounded to the nearest whole percent.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries where the 'difficulty' field equals 'Moderate' (271 of 450), divided by total entries, rounded to the nearest whole percent.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of all entries in content/episodes/index.json. Date range: 2017-01-01 to 2026-06-07.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of episodes in index.json tagged 'failure-friday' — a recurring series where Chris explores hustles that did not work out as planned.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of episodes in index.json tagged 'first-1000' — a series dedicated to early-stage earners describing how they crossed the $1,000 threshold.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of episodes tagged 'food-drink' in index.json.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of episodes tagged 'service-business' in index.json.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of episodes tagged 'education-tutoring' in index.json.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of episodes tagged 'reselling-flipping' in index.json.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Same computation as the '$100,000 or more' stat: count of entries whose one-off or annual revenue is >= $100,000 after parsing; self-reported by featured listeners.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Min and max of the non-zero 'year' field across all finder entries.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries where the 'model' field equals 'Service'.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries where the 'model' field equals 'Product'.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Count of entries where the 'model' field equals 'Affiliate'.
Data as of 2026-06-10
How computed: Median monthly revenue computed for each model with at least 3 monthly-reporting entries; the model with the highest median is ranked first.
Data as of 2026-06-10
Explore the Data
The numbers on this page come to life in three places across the site:
All 3,443 episodes organized by business model, industry, and episode type.
Guides In-Depth Guides55 guides covering specific hustle types, each citing stats from this dataset.
Tool The Side Hustle FinderSearch and filter the full 450 case-study dataset by revenue, model, and difficulty.
Methodology Notes
- Revenue parsing: Revenue strings in the case study dataset are heterogeneous (one-off totals, monthly figures, annual figures, and hourly rates). Each type is parsed separately. Monthly, annual, and one-off figures are never mixed in the same median or threshold calculation. Two entries labeled "Six-Figure" or "Six-Figures" could not be parsed to a specific number and are excluded from all quantitative comparisons.
- Episode counts: Counts reflect the episode index at build time. The show publishes daily, so episode counts increase continuously; numbers regenerate on each site rebuild.
- Case study collection window: The 450 structured case studies were collected between 2017 and 2022. They do not cover every episode in that period, nor do they cover episodes published after 2022. They represent a curated sample selected for the Side Hustle Finder.
- Self-reported data caveat: Revenue figures are provided by listeners themselves and have not been independently verified. They represent what people earned at a specific point in time, not ongoing income.
- Attribution: You may quote these statistics with attribution to Side Hustle School (sidehustleschool.com/data/). No license is required for editorial quotation with a link.