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Many people dream of turning a side hustle into a full-time business. Far fewer actually do it.
Brothers Kirk McKinney, 22, and Jacob McKinney, 21, are among the exceptions. What started with a $4,000 pickup truck and a willingness to haul away unwanted junk has grown into Junk Teens, a junk-removal company that generated about $3 million in revenue in 2025 and is on track to exceed $5 million this year, according to Business Insider.
The idea began when Kirk was still in high school. After discovering discarded speakers and electronics at a local dump, he started collecting and reselling some of the items online. One early sale helped him see a bigger opportunity.
“I sold my first radio on Facebook Marketplace for $50,” Kirk told BI. “That’s when I discovered what entrepreneurship was.”
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One Truck, One Job and a Lot of Reinvesting
The brothers officially launched the business in 2021 after pooling their savings to buy a $4,000 Ford F-150.
Their first job was moving a couch for about $100.
“We got hired to move a couch for, like, 100 bucks,” Kirk told BI. “Took us 15 minutes. That was pretty good.”
At first, most of their customers came through word of mouth, local Facebook groups and Nextdoor. The brothers took on whatever work they could find and learned through trial and error.
One early house cleanout took nine days to complete because they lacked the equipment and experience they have today.
“In the very beginning, we were literally doing whatever we could to make it work,” Kirk said. “We were just a couple kids in a pickup truck.”
By the end of 2022, the business had brought in over $200,000 in sales. By 2023, after adding another dump truck and renting some warehouse space, they were getting close to making a million dollars.
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The Lesson for Side Hustlers
Today, Junk Teens has around 25 employees, operates five dump trucks and serves multiple markets across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The company has also built a social media following of more than 500,000 people, according to BI.
Despite the company’s rapid growth, Kirk’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is surprisingly straightforward.
“It takes one realistic goal at a time being met over and over, slowly and steadily, and it compounds,” he told BI. “That’s how the greatest things are created.”
Jacob said young entrepreneurs should focus on building relationships and learning how to work with people.
“At the end of the day, business is business, but the whole world is made out of people,” he told BI. “If you want to get into business, I feel like you really have to get into that whole people game first.”
Not everyone has the time, energy or desire to start a side hustle of their own. Another approach is investing in the tools and platforms that help other people earn extra income.
See Also: Retiring With A Seven-Figure Portfolio? Learn Why Taxes Deserve A Plan, Too.
That’s the idea behind the old saying that it’s often more profitable to sell shovels than search for gold. While the McKinney brothers built a successful business by doing the work themselves, some investors look for companies that provide the products and services people use to make money.
Mode Mobile is one example. Millions of Americans are looking for ways to supplement their income, and the company is betting that many would welcome an opportunity to earn money from something they already do every day: use their smartphones.
Its EarnPhone allows users to earn rewards while playing games, listening to music and reading content. Instead of building a side hustle from scratch, some consumers are drawn to tools that can help them generate extra income through activities they’re already doing.
Deloitte named Mode Mobile the fastest-growing software company in America, and the company is now offering investors the chance to buy pre-IPO shares for $0.52 each, with a minimum investment of $1,300. If you like the idea of profiting from the side-hustle economy without starting a business yourself, take a closer look.
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Building Wealth Across More Than Just the Market
Building a resilient portfolio means thinking beyond a single asset or market trend. Economic cycles shift, sectors rise and fall, and no one investment performs well in every environment. That’s why many investors look to diversify with platforms that provide access to real estate, fixed-income opportunities, precious metals, and even self-directed retirement accounts. By spreading exposure across multiple asset classes, it becomes easier to manage risk, capture steady returns, and create long-term wealth that isn’t tied to the fortunes of just one company or industry.
Arrived
Backed by Jeff Bezos, Arrived Homes makes real estate investing accessible with a low barrier to entry. Investors can buy fractional shares of single-family rentals and vacation homes starting with as little as $100. This allows everyday investors to diversify into real estate, collect rental income, and build long-term wealth without needing to manage properties directly.
Realberry
Institutional-quality real estate has traditionally been difficult for individual investors to access. Realberry gives accredited investors direct access to private real estate opportunities backed by a team with 35 years of experience, $3.4 billion in assets under management, and $481 million in cumulative distributions paid to investors as of Q4 2025, according to the company. With a portfolio spanning 13 million square feet across seven U.S. states, Realberry focuses on acquiring, developing, and managing real estate with an emphasis on long-term value creation while its principals often invest alongside clients to help align interests.
FarmTogether
Farmland has historically held its value through market volatility and delivered returns uncorrelated to stocks and bonds. For accredited investors, FarmTogether offers direct access to high-quality U.S. farmland starting at $15,000 — fully managed, with no landlord headaches.
Immersed
Immersed is building technology for the future of work through spatial computing. Known for its AR/VR productivity platform that enables users to work across multiple virtual screens, the company has grown to more than 1.5 million users worldwide. Immersed is also developing Visor, a lightweight headset designed specifically for professional productivity, positioning the company at the intersection of remote work, extended reality (XR), and next-generation computing.
Fundrise
Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio. Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth.
Mode Mobile
Mode Mobile is changing the way people interact with their phones by letting users earn money from the same apps and activities they already use every day. Instead of platforms keeping all the advertising revenue, Mode Mobile shares a portion back with users who engage with content, play games, and scroll on their devices. Named one of Deloitte’s fastest-growing software companies in North America, the company has built a large beta user base and is scaling a model that turns everyday smartphone usage into a potential income stream.
EquityMultiple
For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and bonds, EquityMultiple provides access to vetted commercial real estate deals starting at $5,000, with only ~5% of opportunities passing their due diligence process.
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This article Two Brothers Turned a Teen Side Hustle Into a Business Expected to Do $5M in 2026. Here's Their Straightforward Advice for Side Hustlers originally appeared on Benzinga.com.
