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Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Business
- Buzz Feed
Profitable Side Hustles That Actually Work In 2025
There's no denying that the 2025 economy is Not Great™. Even if you have a steady full-time job, it can still feel like a struggggggle to make ends meet. But there are ways! Recently, Reddit user Lucky-Disaster6244 asked the r/povertyfinance subreddit, "What's something you do on the side that makes real extra money — not just $20 here and there?" Here are some of the best responses that are actually doable: "I host bar trivia. It's usually three hours a night, and it makes me about $150 a night (plus tips). I'm actually trying to make this my full-time job; I enjoy it so much. It's not hard to buy trivia games or hook up with an existing company. I am independent and write my own games that I try to sell on the side." "I have a kettle corn pop-up. I do fairs, festivals, pumpkin patches, and can turn $300 of product and space rent into $6k+ sales in a day." "Election work. Literally in 14 days this year, I'll gross $6,900. Long days, easy peasy work." "I make cosplay props for people." "I put up and take down Christmas lights on weekends and evenings from October to January. $24k a season is very doable, but you gotta be able to haul and carry ladders, confidently and safely climb up and down ladders, and be OK with working in the wind and rain in the coldest part of the year. It isn't glamorous, but it can be a nice chunk of extra money." -u/LeftCoastBrain "I sell rare house plants on the side. If I want some money for a spa or date night, I'll just chop and propagate some plants for an easy $300-$500. Rare alocasias, monsteras, and anthuriums. There are a ton of people who collect, trade, etc. It's my hobby, which has made it so easy to turn into a side hustle. Best part is it's all cash." "I bartend on Saturday mornings. I make around $500-$600 extra a month from it. It's not much, but it covers my divorce fees." "I did Rover for three years, boarding dogs in my home. I made $11k a year consistently. Month to month could vary widely, $0-$2k, but I always finished the year the same. "I started a YouTube channel a few years ago, and now it's actually pulling in between $1,500 and $3,000 a month! It's nuts!!! It was just a hobby." "I used to flip furniture on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I did have to invest in a small trailer and a good cleaner. But I would get free or cheap furniture. Clean it and spruce it up. Sell it for a couple hundred bucks. Mostly couches." "I freelance write on the internet, but it's hard to get started these days. To do it entirely on your own, you need to build an audience first, which is getting harder every year as social media companies monetize their users (by making creators and brands pay to access them). You can get hired as a writer and build an audience through an existing website/brand. When all of my clients are buying, I can make $2k a month, but most of them are ad-supported, so the work dries up when the economy is bad, and then I can make $1k a month, tops." "I used to do clinical trials." "Deliver pizza for a local place under the table. You can do pretty good Friday night through Sunday." "Landscaping. Cash under the table, you dictate how many jobs you want to take on, and you can focus on one specific neighborhood to limit gas mileage. A mower, trimmer, blower, and small trailer will all pay themselves off in three weeks. It'll beat you up a little, but it's rewarding work. It's also extremely straightforward. As long as you do what you're supposed to do, the customer will be happy." "I work as an ad model. All kinds of ads. Internet, TV, print. Work is sporadic and irregular, which means you'd better have solid income from a main source. But a little $500-$800 check from time to time sure comes in handy." "My very first month of donating plasma, I made $900. Paid for my three-and-a-half week road trip last summer to Canada. I only do it once a week now because the center closest to me changed their hours, so I get $40 a week instead of my usual $100, but that's still an extra $160 a month I put back into savings that doesn't have to come out of my normal paychecks, it's just extra. So that's nice. I do miss the $400 months, though." "If you're even a little handy, you can make good money as a handyman in elderly neighborhoods. My dad started out just helping neighbors with hanging curtains, painting bathrooms, etc. After about a year, he was busy enough to quit his full-time job and just work for himself. You don't need a lot of tools or an expensive truck, but if you can operate a drill, swing a brush, and are good with old people, there's good-paying work out there for you." "None of these enterprises have made me two thousand a month individually, but all of them combined have equaled that over many months of production. Edible mushrooms. Microgreens. Composting worms. Compost. Vegetable plant starts. Cloned fruit trees. I've been doing these for years, and I sell directly to consumers, no restaurants or middlemen." "I make about $120/hr coaching baseball lessons. I'll spend a weekend with 10 lessons coaching middle school to college athletes. I also charge $75/month to program throwing/pitching training. This can be 10-30 pitchers a session, ranging from high school to professional. It's about 5-15 extra hours a week." "I used to sell my artwork online, it was a good $15,000 to $20,000 a year. My ex said it was taking up all my time to cook and clean, so I stopped selling my artwork for him. I plan to sell again now that I left him." "I work freelance in the arts. I've done a decent job advertising my own business and have developed a side hustle doing social media marketing for other small businesses. Writing posts, finding imagery, and scheduling the posts in advance. The amount of actual work varies from month to month, but the retainer fee does not, and it's made my life much easier and more predictable." "I started a cleaning business. It was very easy, and I did it on Saturday afternoons. I just posted my contact info, services, and prices to local online communities. I worked for a young, wealthy couple cleaning a condo two to three times a month. I got around $600 extra per month for just a general cleaning. I also now include move-out cleans, which can get me $400-$600 per job. It's not huge cash, but it helped me kick a car note down from $24k to $16k. And that was with one client." "I got a box truck and run deliveries on the weekend for a retail store. It's mostly like furniture and wood. Sucks some days, but in the thick of the summer, my monthly income is about two and a half times higher." "During the winter, I sell 3D-printed ornaments and make between $100 and $300 a week for the first two to three weeks of December. "Real estate Photography. It's usually $150 per house, $300 if it's a large property, and I need to use a drone." Do you have any side hustles that are bringing in a little extra cash each month? Dont' gate gatekeep! Tell me about them in the comments.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs threatened to send humiliating sex videos of Cassie to her parents' employers, celebrity stylist testifies
NEW YORK — A celebrity stylist who dressed Sean 'Diddy' Combs for a decade on Wednesday said he saw the hip-hop mogul ferociously beat Casandra Ventura and threaten to spam her parents' employers with videos of her having sex with strangers. Deonte' Nash, hired as an intern by Combs in 2008 after responding to a Craigslist ad, corroborated testimony by Ventura, known as Cassie, shedding more light on Combs' violent wrath and blackmail threats. The soft-spoken Nash said he was victim of Combs' frequent and unpredictable outbursts and that when they were targeted toward Ventura, the Bad Boy Records co-founder would say things like 'he would beat her a–, that he wouldn't put her music out, that he would get her parents fired from their jobs and he would send her sex tapes to their jobs — he would start there.' Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey in Manhattan Federal Court, the stylist, who also dressed Ventura, said the controlling Combs kept his much younger girlfriend on an impossibly tight rein — having the final say on how she appeared in public — and frequently disparaged her in front of his associates as a 'b—h,' 'an outright ho' and other misogynistic slurs. Nash brought into sharper focus the power imbalance between Combs and Ventura, as alleged by prosecutors, and how he coerced her into degrading sexual performances with male performers found on the internet, encounters he dubbed 'freakoffs' and which his lawyers have sought to frame as consensual. The stylist described seeing Ventura with black eyes, bruising on her arms and legs, and several violent attacks that stood out in his mind, including one in which Combs continued beating Ventura as she bled from hitting her head off a bed frame. He said a 'panicked' Combs ended up having one of his bodyguards take Ventura to a plastic surgeon to address the head wound. On one occasion, he said Combs had instilled so much fear in the 'Me & U' singer that she almost sought to evade him by climbing down from a hotel balcony. Nash said Combs sought to isolate Ventura from her family, saying he was her only protector and calling her brother a 'b—h.' He said that when they went out to events, he'd become possessive if she talked to other people. In one account Nash recounted in court, he said Combs followed him and Ventura and made them pull over on the side of the road when he issued the threat about sending videos of her in humiliating sex acts with strangers to her parents' places of work and on the internet. 'I told her, I said, 'Well, girl, if he wants to release the sex tapes then let him … he's on them, too,' the stylist said. Nash said Ventura then told him that Combs wasn't on the videos — that he had been taping her with other men. Asked by Comey what Ventura expressed about participating in the sessions, Nash said 'that she didn't want to.' He later described Ventura expressing that she didn't want to go to a freak-off, as Combs demanded, on her 29th birthday. Nash said he was a close friend to Ventura and remains so, having texted her Tuesday to congratulate her on the birth of her third child. He said he had feared Combs and the repercussions of reporting his behavior to cops, with his paranoia so extreme that he usually kept $1,000 in cash on him to hide from Combs in hotels under an alias. On cross-examination, Combs' attorney, Xavier Donaldson, elicited answers from Nash about recording labels having an interest in how their artists looked. The stylist also acknowledged Combs launched his professional career and said he harbored no ill will toward him, having stopped working for Combs in 2018, the same year he split with Ventura. Jurors heard extensive testimony from Ventura about being violently abused and sexually exploited throughout their tumultuous 11-year relationship and being under 24-hour surveillance by Combs and his crew. They are yet to hear from alleged victims Jane and Mia, which are pseudonyms, who are respectively expected to testify about being forced into freak-offs and sexually assaulted. Combs is accused of operating a criminal enterprise to help facilitate his crime-ridden lifestyle and sordid sexual desires from 2004 to 2024. Prosecutors allege his employees engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, bribery, obstruction of justice, kidnapping and arson. The 55-year-old has pleaded not guilty to counts including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transporting individuals for prostitution and could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. Outside of his criminal case, Combs has faced around 70 lawsuits — brought by women and men — accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct. Allegations against him exploded into public view when Ventura brought suit in late 2023. Jurors have heard Combs settled that case for $20 million in just 24 hours. The feds then began investigating him. _____
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs threatened to send videos of Cassie Ventura in sex ‘freak-offs' to her parents, celebrity stylist testifies
NEW YORK — Celebrity stylist Deonte Nash took the stand at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial Wednesday, telling a Manhattan jury about hearing the rap mogul threaten to send videos of Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura engaging in humiliating sexual acts with strangers to her parents' workplaces. Nash said he began styling Combs and his ex-girlfriend Ventura as an intern in 2008 after moving to New York City and responding to a Craigslist ad. He stopped working for Combs in 2018. The stylist, who said 'absolutely not' when asked if he wanted to testify, said Combs had the final say on Ventura's appearance and that he regularly overheard the mogul berating her. An irate Combs, Nash said, frequently threatened 'that he would beat her a--, that he wouldn't put her music out, that he would get her parents fired from their jobs and he would send her sex tapes to their jobs — he would start there.' On Tuesday, the Manhattan Federal Court jury heard from law enforcement witnesses about incidents detailed last week by the rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi. Mescudi testified that his Hollywood Hills home was broken into, and his car was torched in his driveway weeks later after Combs learned he was dating Ventura. An LAPD officer said a Cadillac that left Mescudi's place the morning of the break-in was registered to Bad Boy Records. Arson investigator Lance Jimenez later testified about the investigation into Kid Cudi's burned car, which occurred in January 2012, and said the damage was limited as gasoline didn't disperse properly after a Molotov cocktail was dropped through a hole torn in the roof of the car. On cross-examination with Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo, Jimenez was pressed about a glove he found in the back of the car that he didn't record as evidence, as Mescudi said it belonged to him. He said he tried to reach Ventura after speaking with her father, a firefighter, but never got a call back. Judge Arun Subramanian denied a request for a mistrial after Combs' lawyers argued that a line of questioning by the prosecution suggested he had something to do with authorities' destruction of DNA belonging to a woman that was recovered from the car. Subramanian later told the jury not to draw any inferences about the questions. Combs is accused of employing a network of staff to help facilitate his crime-ridden lifestyle and sordid sexual desires from 2004 to 2024. Prosecutors allege the employees engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, bribery, obstruction of justice, kidnapping, and arson in the matter involving Mescudi's car. Jurors have so far heard from Ventura, who described being violently abused and sexually exploited by Combs throughout their tumultuous 11-year relationship. Ventura said Combs used videos of her in humiliating sexual performances with strangers that he directed as blackmail and said he and his staff had her under 24-hour surveillance. They are yet to hear from alleged victims Jane and Mia, which are pseudonyms, who are respectively expected to testify about being forced into the marathon sexual performances dubbed 'freak-offs' and sexually assaulted. Combs has pleaded not guilty to counts including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for prostitution and could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. Prosecutors allege that for years, Combs orchestrated weekly freak-offs that saw vulnerable women in his orbit coerced into humiliating sexual encounters with strangers. Outside of his criminal case, Combs has faced around 70 lawsuits — brought by women and men — accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct. Allegations against him exploded into public view when Ventura brought suit in late 2023. Jurors have heard Combs settled that case for $20 million in just 24 hours. The feds then began investigating him. _____
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs threatened to send videos of Cassie Ventura in sex ‘freak-offs' to her parents, celebrity stylist testifies
NEW YORK — Celebrity stylist Deonte Nash took the stand at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial Wednesday, telling a Manhattan jury about hearing the rap mogul threaten to send videos of Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura engaging in humiliating sexual acts with strangers to her parents' workplaces. Nash said he began styling Combs and his ex-girlfriend Ventura as an intern in 2008 after moving to New York City and responding to a Craigslist ad. He stopped working for Combs in 2018. The stylist, who said 'absolutely not' when asked if he wanted to testify, said Combs had the final say on Ventura's appearance and that he regularly overheard the mogul berating her. An irate Combs, Nash said, frequently threatened 'that he would beat her a--, that he wouldn't put her music out, that he would get her parents fired from their jobs and he would send her sex tapes to their jobs — he would start there.' On Tuesday, the Manhattan Federal Court jury heard from law enforcement witnesses about incidents detailed last week by the rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi. Mescudi testified that his Hollywood Hills home was broken into, and his car was torched in his driveway weeks later after Combs learned he was dating Ventura. An LAPD officer said a Cadillac that left Mescudi's place the morning of the break-in was registered to Bad Boy Records. Arson investigator Lance Jimenez later testified about the investigation into Kid Cudi's burned car, which occurred in January 2012, and said the damage was limited as gasoline didn't disperse properly after a Molotov cocktail was dropped through a hole torn in the roof of the car. On cross-examination with Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo, Jimenez was pressed about a glove he found in the back of the car that he didn't record as evidence, as Mescudi said it belonged to him. He said he tried to reach Ventura after speaking with her father, a firefighter, but never got a call back. Judge Arun Subramanian denied a request for a mistrial after Combs' lawyers argued that a line of questioning by the prosecution suggested he had something to do with authorities' destruction of DNA belonging to a woman that was recovered from the car. Subramanian later told the jury not to draw any inferences about the questions. Combs is accused of employing a network of staff to help facilitate his crime-ridden lifestyle and sordid sexual desires from 2004 to 2024. Prosecutors allege the employees engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, bribery, obstruction of justice, kidnapping, and arson in the matter involving Mescudi's car. Jurors have so far heard from Ventura, who described being violently abused and sexually exploited by Combs throughout their tumultuous 11-year relationship. Ventura said Combs used videos of her in humiliating sexual performances with strangers that he directed as blackmail and said he and his staff had her under 24-hour surveillance. They are yet to hear from alleged victims Jane and Mia, which are pseudonyms, who are respectively expected to testify about being forced into the marathon sexual performances dubbed 'freak-offs' and sexually assaulted. Combs has pleaded not guilty to counts including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for prostitution and could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. Prosecutors allege that for years, Combs orchestrated weekly freak-offs that saw vulnerable women in his orbit coerced into humiliating sexual encounters with strangers. Outside of his criminal case, Combs has faced around 70 lawsuits — brought by women and men — accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct. Allegations against him exploded into public view when Ventura brought suit in late 2023. Jurors have heard Combs settled that case for $20 million in just 24 hours. The feds then began investigating him. _____
Technical.ly
28-05-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Product-market fit starts long before launch. Here's how to sell your idea early.
Startups don't die from lack of money. They die from lack of market. That was the message at the 2025 Builders Conference panel on 'Early Stage Sales & Marketing: Finding Product-Market Fit,' where Parity founder Bree Jones and product strategist Lindsay Tabas broke down why even the most visionary product ideas fail without early validation. 'The number-one reason startups fail is they launch to no market need,' Tabas said. 'They were high off their own idea and built their own product based on what they wanted, didn't really talk to customers and there was no one waiting for it when they launched.' Tabas, founder of and a seasoned startup advisor, has helped founders and investors avoid these pitfalls through process-driven customer discovery. Jones, whose real estate company Parity transforms hyper-vacant blocks in Baltimore into communities of affordable homeownership, has lived that lesson firsthand. The nut of their argument: If you can't find people excited about your idea before it exists, you won't find them after it's built. Product-market fit isn't an end goal; it's a process that starts from day one. Jones illustrated this with her own story. Before she raised a total of $8 million for Parity, she validated her concept with a single $100 rendering she bought off Craigslist. 'I talked to every single person who would listen, and I showed them that $100 rendering. I said, 'Hey, if we could buy all these properties and fix them up, would you want to live here?'' Jones recounted. 'More and more people continued to say yes.' This scrappy approach helped her build a community of would-be homeowners long before renovations began. That early validation led to coverage by a major catalyst that Jones says created the social proof she needed to attract funding. 'Investors like to be the first to be second, meaning that they never want to be first in money,' she said, 'but as soon as someone else like JPMorgan Chase throws their hat in the ring, everyone else is like, 'Oh my gosh, here you go, take my money.'' Tabas emphasized that traction can start even earlier. She recommended beginning with interviews — not surveys — to get deep insights from target users. Her top three questions: Why did you decide to take this call with me today? What do you stand to gain if we solve this problem, or what do you stand to lose if we don't? What's the timeline to solving it? This kind of pointed inquiry, she said, helps separate mild interest from real urgency — and helps startups spend their time on the people most likely to convert. From idea to product As for how to find those people, both panelists stressed leveraging existing networks. Go back to your LinkedIn connections, Facebook groups and email lists. Build community from the ground up, not through expensive ad campaigns. 'We all already have a community; we just don't know how to use it and leverage it,' Tabas said. 'That's where I tell people to always start — looking at the community you already have and the relationships you already have.' Jones, who founded Parity after leaving a corporate job in DC, challenged assumptions about who wants to live in distressed neighborhoods. Her goal: create equitable homeownership without displacement. But when early investors told her no one would choose to live in Baltimore, she didn't argue. She went and found people who disagreed. By capturing their responses, Jones created a flywheel effect, or once a concept starts moving, it becomes self-perpetuating. As interest grew, she was able to show demand. That, in turn, helped unlock more investment. Parity now owns over 50 properties in Baltimore. Each transformation costs about $350,000, but the commitment from future residents keeps things moving. Selling the vision, not the product One underutilized tactic is creating a customer advisory board, a group of early supporters willing to offer ongoing feedback, according to Tabas. Jones said that those advisors often become the company's biggest evangelists, promoting the product even when the founder isn't in the room. It's a tactic grounded in psychology: People want to be part of something. When they see their input reflected in the product, they become emotionally invested. They bring others along. Both panelists noted that storytelling plays a critical role in the early stages. Jones closed her presentation with a short video of one of Parity's homebuyers and her daughter walking through a gutted house, watching it transform into a family home. For early-stage founders, the message was clear: Product-market fit isn't a milestone, it's a mindset. The earlier you embrace the reality that people buy solutions to their own problems, not your idea, the more likely your business will survive. 'Always remember that when it comes to raising capital,' Jones said, 'you also hold power.'
