Roadside Fruit Empire Produces Sweet Success

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In today's story, a roadside peach stand pays for college tuition, turning into a bigger business along the way. In fact, this story goes from a single peach stand to more than 100, along with an educational side business as well. There is a lot of money here in the world of peaches and fruit in general. I learned a bit from working on this story, so got a lot to share with you here. And by the way, welcome to Sidosville School.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you're here today. Every single day, a news story, case study, tip, listener question, some other feature, all designed to help you make extra money without quitting your job. Today's story, "Roadside Fruit Empire" produces sweet success. Coming right up, all the juicy details after this message from a sponsor.

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Back in 2013, Shannon Howchin is leaving a big family company with six figures of debt in her name. As she looked for a way to get out of that debt quickly, a friend told her how lucrative his roadside peach stands were. Shannon was intrigued. She and her 11-year-old son, Finn, spent the summer in South Carolina and learned how to sell roadside peaches from the peach guy himself. Now Shannon admits that at first, she did everything wrong.

She lost a bunch of peaches to extreme heat. She lost an entire truckload of peaches in an accident. She also didn't have the proper oversight on the people working the stands, and sometimes cash went missing. But she kept at it and eventually improved. In a single summer, she got out of debt, scaled her roadside fruit stand business, Peach Queen, from one to 100 stands and created a replica business model in the process, generating up to $50,000 a week in cash flow.

$50,000 a week, 100 peach stands. Okay, let's just back up a bit here. You know how I sometimes talk about transferring your existing skills? Keep in mind that Shannon has a background in logistics and operations. Still, she believes that anyone can start a roadside fruit stand with an initial investment of around 500, maybe $1,000.

In fact, this seasonal hustle has grown into her main hustle. In addition to running her roadside fruit stands and working as a realtor, Shannon now has a business called Roadside Republic, teaching others, including her son, how to profit from this business model. So let's go to her son. This is where Finn comes in. Last summer, when he was a high school senior, he decided to take on more responsibility and run two of his own stands.

With $500 and some borrowed equipment from his mom, he set up a mobile peach stand at a very busy business in Texas and started selling peaches seven days a week. He's experienced every aspect of the business, from brokering with the orchards to the logistics of receiving shipments and then delivering peaches to locations, working in the peach stands, learning to sell effectively, managing and training workers, and how to wind down a seasonal summer business. And yes, that is a lot to learn. The peach stand business is simple, but there's a lot to it. From just two fruit stands, Finn made enough money to pay for his first year of college without taking out student loans or working a part-time job.

There's gold in them peaches. Since peach season kicks off around Memorial Day and lasts until Labor Day, Shannon says it's the perfect side hustle for students. They have a little time in between the end of the school year and the start of the season to prepare. The other cool thing about roadside stands is that the business model can go anywhere, sell anything and sell at any time, provided you follow any local permitting and licensing requirements. It is basically a retail business, but without the overhead of renting a storefront.

For example, Shannon can buy a case of peaches for $12 to $20 from the orchard and make gross sales of $80 a case. A couple other tips, Shannon stands are co-located with other very popular businesses so they can piggyback off the destination traffic. In fact, her best locations are in convenience store parking lots. She pays rent to the property owner and may or may not have to get a permit depending on the city. People recognize her white tents and red banners and know that she's gonna have some delicious peaches or whatever else she might be selling if it's a different part of the country.

Ultimately, Shannon says she's on a mission to bring back the roadside stand as a staple of American life. She and Finn want to grow their network so that people everywhere have access to delicious produce. [Music]

Well, as I said, the peach business, the peach stand business rather is simple. It's a simple product, simple process. People understand what it is.

They are somewhat accustomed to the pricing and such, but there is a lot to it, especially with the logistics. So it makes sense that Shannon had that background in logistics and was able to use that so effectively in this business. But she really is on a mission to teach other people this as well. So as I said, she's got a website. I believe it's a course of some kind where she is sharing her knowledge in more detail.

We will link that up on the notes page, of course. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Those notes for today, including links to everything mentioned, will be at sidehustleschool.com/2075. Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow.

And by the way, why did the peach get to work late? Because it had to make some pit stops on the way. You're welcome. Have a wonderful day. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the Onward Project.