274: The Middleman Method: A Real-Life Example of Turning Trash into Treasure

The Side Hustle Show

Nick Loper

How To, Entrepreneurship, Business, Education

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2018

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John made $1614 before 11am the day we recorded this episode. His business model? Buying industrial byproducts, the kind of stuff that’s used for shipping like pallets, cardboard boxes, crates, and so on, and selling them on for a profit. John Wilker started out buying or being given pallets free by businesses that had no need for them and selling them to pallet yards. Realizing the pallet yards were selling them on for a profit to businesses that did have a need for them, John saw an opportunity. “Bottom line is I’m a middleman,” John said. John hit the pavement and started knocking on the doors of industrial businesses, large warehouses, distributors, and scrap yards. He asked if they had pallets and other shipping byproducts they didn’t need, what they were currently doing with these items, if they needed any items, and explained how he could help. Wanting to operate without storage space and employees John has found the perfect balance between supply and demand. He spends his mornings picking up items from one business and selling them on to another just a few miles away. “It’s quite simple…but has to be set up in the correct manner for it to work,” John said. It’s certainly one of the more interesting side hustles, and it sets the cogs turning to think of other niches that can fit this model. Tune in to hear how John found his first suppliers and buyers, how he sets his prices, and how he transports this stuff without having to store it. Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: The Middleman Method: A Real-Life Example of Turning Trash into Treasure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Side Hustle Show 274. This is the middleman method, a real life example of turning trash into treasure.
0:09.0	What's up, what's up, Mick Loper here? Welcome to the Side Hustle show because profit isn't a dirty word.
0:15.6	The thing that's exciting to me even after almost five years of doing the show is the endlessly
0:20.0	different in creative ways the Side Hustle Nation community is generating those profits.
0:24.4	And this week's story certainly exemplifies that.
0:27.2	My guest today reached out with a unique side business.
0:30.0	He started 20 years ago and still does part-time in Birmingham, Alabama.
0:34.5	John Wilker simply calls himself a middleman.
0:36.8	And essentially what he's doing is flipping industrial or commercial byproducts,
0:41.4	shipping pallets, cardboard boxes, crates, you know, big wire spools, stuff like that.
0:46.9	And the cool thing is he usually gets this stuff for free because companies just don't want to deal
0:50.8	with disposing of it.
0:51.8	And he doesn't store any inventory.
0:53.4	Instead he picks it up and takes it down the street or across town and sells it to
0:57.9	another company who needs it for part of their business. It's a buy-low, sell-high business model or maybe more accurately a buy for free and sell
1:06.3	low business model, but it's one that doesn't rely on Amazon or eBay or any third-party algorithm.
1:11.5	It's pretty simple. In fact, John's website is the simplest
1:14.5	biz.com if you want to go check him out and he says this business is one that could be replicated
1:19.1	all over the map and I think in other product areas as well.
1:23.0	In this episode he shares how he found his first suppliers
1:25.9	and his first buyers, how he sets his prices,
1:28.3	and how he transports this stuff
	...

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