The weirdest side hustle you’ve never heard of ($10K+ per month)
Business people are always saying “niche down” or “own your niche” or “find your niche”...
It's the buzz word of the wanna-be entrepreneurs (wait, did I just out myself?).
I found a dude who accidentally did that perfectly, and he will make $10k next month because of it.
Let me tell you about my cousin's boyfriend, Keith. (Hi Kayla!)
Keith is awesome, he’s been around for years, we all love him and he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. And just like the rest of my family he is Baseball obsessed.
So let me set the stage for you, because this is truly quite the phenomenon:
Keith goes to Cortland and plays baseball, wins a national championship (he also participated in a few College World Series’).
After school he comes back home to Long Island and works for the Mets as a groundskeeper.
In 2019 he leaves the Mets and goes to work at MLB doing replay reviews with the umpires.
Now he works at TOPPS full time (yes, the baseball cards).
Oh, and! He builds pitcher mounds on the weekends - which grosses him about $10K per month…
Here’s how he got into it:
In 2019 Keith’s buddy moved to Florida, taking a position as a High School baseball coach. The first time coach noticed the field and mound were “pretty sh*t” (direct quote) and asked Keith for some help.
3 days of free labor.
And one photo on Instagram.
That's what made Keith's profound ability go viral. And I mean viral.
You see, it turns out there are very few people with the knowledge of building mounds that are also willing to do it for highschools.
Keith told me that he has not once reached out to do a sales pitch. His growth is as organic as it comes.
Since then, Keith has done 30+ mounds.
Let me do some math for you:
It takes him a maximum of 8 hours to do a complete mound (at first it took him a full 3 days), and he charges ~$1k per mound.
Some schools ask him for maintenance. Which consists of him arriving at their fields by 5:30 am on a weekday morning once a week. He drives there from Long Island before working in Manhattan… even if it's in Westchester. This nets him about $2K a month for one field ($500 per visit).
His instagram (@moundguy) noted on February 1st that with high school baseball season around the corner, he already booked 9 mounds to be completed in March alone.
Just the 9 mounds in March will be $9k. Add in the maintenance, and the baseball lessons he gives locally to young players after work from 6pm-10pm…
I think we’ve cleared the $10k threshold with a decent amount of room for error.
Let me take this opportunity to say: Keith hit this niche side hustle out of the ballpark.
So, if you need your baseball field and pitcher's mound redone, I know a guy…
P.S. As I said, Keith is the nicest guy ever and recalled after our conversation that he does not create mounds for the money. It started as a way to help the upcoming baseball players.
“When people call asking me to do their mounds, I’m genuinely just happy that they care about their players and want their players to be proud of their field.
I feel like I’m more so on a mission to make playing baseball better than it was when I was a kid.”
The most prosperous side hustles are usually ones built out of passion. If you have a cool story like Keith’s, please share with me!
Above, Keith’s first mound at Bishop Verot Catholic High School In Fort Meyers, Florida. December, 2019.
Above: Keith’s time at the NY Mets, working closely with other groundskeepers. Notably Keith recounts instances of ‘Thanks’ from his favorite players, including: Todd Frazier, Diaz, McNeil and David Wright.
Above: @Moundguy details how this building works. Check out his instagram!