Welcome to Ghost Business 👻 Your Tuesday & Friday email, where we turn $1 into thousands building these weird but simple side hustles

Referee Hustle

C’mon ref… A side hustle so simple it would’ve bitten me in my wallet. One of the most asked questions is “how can I start making some side money today with little to no money up front?”

This was an easy call

The referee has entered the chat ☎️

Turns out adult recreational and competitive leagues are always on the look out for refs. I like this because:

• You typically only ref after work ✅ 

• You stay active while you make money ✅ 

• There are opportunities to make more money (if you’re good) ✅ 

Turns out there are A LOT of refs needed.

• Soccer

• Football

• Basketball

• Tennis

• Hockey

• Pickleball

• Wrestling

• Volleyball

• Some marriages 😂 

Just to name a few. These are also divided into men, women, co-ed, and youth leagues. Which are ALSO divided into recreational and competitive leagues.

Okay but how would you get started in this hustle?

Typically folks referee sports they’ve played before or are significantly interested in. Makes the onboarding process much easier when you already know the rules and technicalities.

So once you figure that out, I would:

1. Google “Recreational INSERT SPORT League in INSERT CITY“

2. Find a league and look for either “Officials"/Refs needed” or Employment opportunities on their web page

3. Apply or reach out to said opportunities

4. Referee

I actually tried it myself to see how easy it would be:

The MVP (Getting your first customer)

Easy call… Getting your first customer (or league) is pretty straight forward. Slide into the DMs (or apply online). There are many experience levels that will get you started. Obviously more experience = more pay 💰

So how much can you make blowing games and getting yelled at by parents? I took to Reddit to find out for you.

• Turns out you can make $1,000/mo working 20-25 hrs/mo

• This comes out to $40-$50/hr 🔥

Getting Your Next 100 Customers

Blowin the game… Side hustle turned main squeeze? In this hustle, you can go up or sideways.

The up

• Increase your experience to get paid more

• Go from recreational league to competitive to community college to college to pro

(The top officials in the bigger conferences like the SEC, ACC and Big Ten can be paid as much as $2,000 per game) Source

The sideways

• Learn to referee other sports

Viability:

1 [building spaceships] 🚀 to 5 [easy peasy] 😊 

Big Ref Energy, this hustle is a little different. You aren’t necessarily starting from scratch, building a customer base or launching a product/service.

Not all hustles have to. This is one you can start almost anytime, requires little money down, and can easily make $1k/mo working ~5 hours a week. 

(As usual each business will have it’s own setbacks, and it’s all about the execution and consistency rather than just having the idea 😉)

It’s a great day to be great!

Love, Mike 👋