30-year-old turned side hustle into a business that brings in $10,000 a month without a college degree: ‘I decided to go all in'When Anna-Marie Ortiz started her cleaning business, she didn't waste time searching for the"perfect" strategy or waiting for the ideal moment., her Portland, Oregon-based cleaning business, from a side hustle into a full-time operation generating an average of $10,000 a month as of September 2024.
In 2020, inspired by watching businesses grow from the ground up, Ortiz partnered with a high school friend to open a plant shop. The pandemic forced the business to pivot to online sales, and it ultimately closed in early 2021.Though the plant store failed, Ortiz didn't lose her desire to run her own business. By 2022, after relocating to Portland and working remotely for a startup, she began exploring new ideas.
For example, Ortiz hired several employees early on but soon realized her pricing didn't align with labor costs, prompting her to scale back and work solo. After refining her pay structure, she now has a part-time employee and assists with cleaning jobs herself as needed.