Twice a week, Elizabeth Morosani gets up before 7 a.m., puts on her sun sleeves and spends the next three hours atop a John Deere lawn mower.

Her side hustle requires it: She’s converted 11 acres of her land, split between three properties around Asheville, North Carolina, into private dog parks. She rents out the spaces to local pet owners on an Airbnb-style platform called Sniffspot.

Many Sniffspot hosts rent out their backyards. Morosani rents out parts of her 108-acre farm, where she lives and makes a majority of her personal income boarding horses. She has four dogs, and initially launched her side hustle just to connect with other nearby pet owners in November 2020, she says.

Then, the side hustle started bringing in money: a monthly average of $7,100 in revenue for the first half of 2024, including $8,400 in May alone. Roughly half of those earnings are profit, Morosani says. Sniffspot takes nearly a quarter in commissions and fees, and the remainder goes toward maintaining her dog parks.

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Morosani, who dedicates six to eight hours per week to the platform, has used her profits to hire an assistant, buy her $6,500 lawn mower and pay for supplies for additional dogs she fosters — up to 14 at a time, she says.

“I didn’t think it’d be this popular, this successful,” Morosani, 50, tells CNBC Make It. “It’s allowed me to bank some money, [and to] be more aggressive with helping my local humane societies … If you have space and the ability to give a private experience to individual dog owners, there’s definitely room for everyone to do this.”

Here’s how she built and maintains her side hustle, and how she wants to grow it next.

Morosani’s professional life largely revolves around her farm, where she boards horses and occasionally sells goats. She’s also a dressage technical delegate — essentially a horse show referee, she says — for the United States Equestrian Federation.

She and her husband, a dentist, bought 40 acres of the farm in 2014, and the remaining 68 in 2019. They didn’t use most of their land, and Morosani wanted to change that. An Asheville native, she knew the city’s growing number of apartment complexes was outpacing its dog parks.

She learned about Sniffspot from a segment on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in 2020, she says. Today, her most popular rental location is a four-acre plot in Fletcher, North Carolina, that her father leased to her in late 2022. It’s an old airstrip that Morosani and her husband built a fence around, and it had its first reservation within 30 minutes of opening, she says.

The plot is near a highway, which makes it accessible to people visiting Asheville from out of town, says Morosani. It’s private, flat and has a small creek running through it.

The asphalt, formerly a landing pad for farming and model planes, is now almost entirely covered with grass. You won’t find any umbrellas or mini pools there, but you’ll probably see a doggy teeter-totter and some weave poles, Morosani says.

Morosani has two rules for anyone looking to rent out their own backyards as private dog parks.

First: Skip the expensive dog toys and amenities. “I put [out] Adirondack chairs from Lowe’s, thinking people could use them to sit in the shade,” she says. Many of them ended up in ditches and a nearby creek, she says.

Second: Don’t greet the guests. “Most clients are grateful their dogs can be dogs without pressure from people or other dogs … This allows them to get out and be in nature,” she says.

Instead, Morosani checks in with her guests by messaging them on Sniffspot. She inspects her dog parks with Ring cameras after every visit, making sure guests don’t leave behind too much debris.

More dog parks mean more revenue, so Morosani is leasing three more acres of land from her father in nearby Hendersonville for a fourth space, she says. It’s funded largely by her past Sniffspot earnings, costing $18,000 and taking nearly three months to level the ground, build a fence hydroseed it, she says.

The costs and extra labor are part of her goal to help local dogs and their owners, she adds.

“When I read [positive] reviews, I almost cry,” says Morosani. “Not long ago, someone told me that [their visit would be on] their dog’s last day on Earth. [Owners] have held birthday parties and invited all their friends. Things like that just make you go, ‘Oh my god, I’m helping. I’m doing it.’”

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When Jay Chaudhry sold his first company for $70 million, he focused less on his own riches, he says — and more on how the deal could turn dozens of his employees into millionaires.

Chaudhry, 65, is known today as the billionaire founder and CEO of Zscaler, a cloud cybersecurity firm valued at roughly $28 billion, as of Wednesday afternoon. Back in 1998, he was a first-time entrepreneur selling the startup he launched with his wife Jyoti, SecureIT, to VeriSign in an all-stock deal for a huge windfall.

Nearly two years after the deal closed, as VeriSign’s stock price soared, more than 70 of SecureIT’s 80 employees “on paper, were millionaires,” Chaudhry tells CNBC Make It.

“People were going crazy in the company, because they had never thought of so much money,” he says. “A lot of them were buying new houses. They were buying new cars. I know one guy, he took six months off, rented a [mobile home] and went around the country. They could do what they wanted to do.”

Between the time of the acquisition and February 2000, VeriSign’s stock increased by more than 2,300%, closing at a high of $253 per share, helped by two stock splits and a temporary bubble for tech stocks. The bubble burst later that year, and VeriSign’s stock lost roughly 75% off that high point at the end of 2000, sinking to a low of nearly $4 in 2002.

Chaudhry recalls advice from Jim Bidzos, VeriSign’s then-chairman, on what to do with his shares: Sell some of the stock little by little “on a regular basis.” The strategy helped Chaudhry reap some benefits of VeriSign’s soaring stock before the market cratered, he says.

SecureIT employees who held onto their VeriSign stock were likely rewarded by their patience: It closed at $254 per share as recently as January 2021. The price currently sits at roughly $175 per share.

Chaudhry says he doesn’t know if or when his former employees cashed in their own shares. When he left VeriSign at the end of 1999, his former employees threw him a party — but it wasn’t until later that he fully understood the impact the decision to sell SecureIT had on those employees, he says.

“I went home that night and looked at the spreadsheet of all the [stock] options they had, and I multiplied by the stock price of VeriSign. That’s when I realized that the math was about 70 or 80 millionaires, with stock options,” Chaudhry says. “It was impressive.”

Chaudhry himself already had enough money to be happy: He and his wife had a “nice, typical middle-class house at that time, and we didn’t have any fancy cars or fancy payments,” he told Make It last week.

He credits his ability to give employees so much stock to his bootstrapping approach. Chaudhry and his wife funded SecureIT themselves, emptying their life savings of roughly $500,000, instead of taking on outside investors.

That freed up more equity in the company to distribute, which was “good, because those employees make the difference — they [were] working day and night,” he says.

The story is reminiscent of fellow billionaire Mark Cuban, who recently noted that he handed out employee bonuses after selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999. The act turned hundreds of his employees into instant millionaires, Cuban said.

Cuban has paid out bonuses to employees at every company he’s sold, starting with CompuServe’s acquisition of software firm MicroSolutions in 1990, he told Make It last month. That includes sales of his majority stakes in HDNet, now known as AXS TV, in 2019 and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks last year, he wrote on social media platform X.

“And only HDNet had any layoffs right after the sale,” Cuban added.

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Married couple Geena and James don’t always see eye-to-eye when it comes to money. Their main issue: how to navigate a vast income disparity.

Geena, 44, brings home a little over $555,000 a year as a corporate attorney in New York. Her husband, James, 39, is a freelance musician who earns around $60,000 a year. The couple enjoys Geena’s high salary, taking numerous luxury trips throughout the year while still investing around 14% of her gross income.

“I’ve always planned to take care of everything myself if I have to, and I’m happy — I’m so grateful that I can treat us and take care of us. But I hope that one day there will be less of a discrepancy between us,” Geena told self-made millionaire and money expert Ramit Sethi on a recent episode of his “I Will Teach You to be Rich” podcast. The couple’s last names were not used. 

James said he wants to contribute more toward their lifestyle and retirement goals, but he knows he can’t match-up financially.

“Because I’m not able to contribute in the same way or in similar ways, therefore I just feel like I’m not enough,” James said on the podcast. “Doesn’t feel great.”

Sethi listened to the couple talk about their finances, lifestyle and how they both think about money. Here are three ways he said they can address their income disparity to improve their relationships with money and each other.

James is unlikely to get his income up to the same level as Geena’s. But Geena’s frustration isn’t really about the dollar figure.

While Geena gladly contributes more dollar-wise to their household needs and savings, she looks to James for tasks like shopping for home essentials, which he often neglects, they told Sethi.

“Geena is not saying she expects James to make exactly $50,000 a month,” Sethi said. “Geena wants James to be engaged with money. I can understand her paying more for things like luxury hotels, but why is she the one ordering the [laundry] detergent?”

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Steve, 42, and Taylor, 39, faced a similar dilemma when they spoke with Sethi on a different episode. Taylor earns around $144,000 a year, while Steve makes around $36,000.

Steve had been under-employed for about eight years when he and Taylor spoke with Sethi. But from Taylor’s perspective, he wasn’t taking enough proactive steps, like networking and applying to jobs.

“Taylor wants Steve to want more for himself, to become a financial partner in their relationship,” Sethi said.

Though both women approached their conversations with Sethi by saying they wanted their husbands to earn more money, further reflection revealed that for both women, it’s not really about the numbers. They both want their partners to step up, whether that’s in their own careers or with household tasks.

Part of the reason James isn’t earning more money is because he’s hesitant to raise his rates as a freelancer. This frustrates Geena, who is a go-getter who truly believes in James’s talents and abilities.

Sethi identified these mismatched views on money as another disparity causing tension in their relationship. Geena doesn’t understand why James doesn’t simply charge his customers more. James fears hiking his prices will scare off business.

“The solution is to fix your worldview of money and master your own money psychology,” Sethi said.

Geena said she was raised with a scarcity mindset that inspired her to push her career and salary as far as they could go so she would never worry about bills or buying things she wanted.

James, on the other hand, grew up as the “peacemaker” in his home. As a result, he falls into a similar mindset with his business, trying to “keep the peace” with his clients by keeping his prices low — even if that means his personal finances suffer.

Sethi said James is “playing small” by thinking he’s stuck in this financial position. Identifying the reasons behind his money mindset, then taking steps like enrolling in a course or reading a book to understand how to overcome it may help him tackle the problem.

Beyond being the breadwinners in their relationships, Geena and Taylor both also admitted to taking on mother-like roles with their husbands. They consistently remind their spouses to do tasks like shop for the home, apply to jobs or look for ways to increase their incomes, and do it themselves when when their husbands drop the ball.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m Mom. I’m planning things. I’m taking care of all the things,” Geena said. ”[James] is not in his 20s, and I want us to be more equals in this way.”

Taylor agreed. “I felt like a mom disciplining her child,” she said of trying to motivate Steve to work harder.

In both scenarios, Sethi called out the women for allowing that dynamic to continue.

Both their husbands are capable and said they’re willing to do what’s asked of them. But by letting them off the hook when they make mistakes, their wives have fostered the sense that it’s OK for things to continue in this manner, Sethi said.

Sethi recommended both Geena and Taylor set boundaries and introduce actual consequences to give their husbands a chance to prove they can and are willing to make these changes.

For example, he suggests James and Geena set a dollar amount that James should reasonably be able to contribute to their joint account each month. And if he doesn’t hit that number, he may have to skip a vacation in order to stay home and work.

Sure, Geena could afford to bail him out if he’s had a bad month and still pay for both of them to go on vacation. But neither spouse would feel good about that.

“You sticking to your guns and following through on your commitment would engender more respect than anything else,” Sethi told them.

Check out Steve and Taylor’s episode here and Geena and James’s episode here.

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When Kema Ward-Hopper uprooted her family — and career — to relocate from the U.S. to Costa Rica six years ago, she wasn’t sure what to expect.

She and her husband Nicholas quit their corporate jobs as a research analyst and mortgage broker, respectively, in Houston, Texas, to pursue new careers as entrepreneurs abroad. 

The couple signed a one-year lease on a house in the middle of the jungle on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula with their daughter Aaralyn not knowing “a single person who lived there” and “how long we’d be able to find work for,” Ward-Hopper, 42, recalls. 

But, she adds, the risk has paid off: Even though she had to leave a career she loved in the U.S., and is earning less than she did while working there, Ward-Hopper says she is “a lot happier” living and working in Costa Rica than she was in the U.S. 

Ward-Hopper now balances four part-time jobs: She’s a health and fitness coach, a Spanish teacher, a host for wellness retreats and, most recently, an author. She self-published her first book, “For my Beloveds: An End-of-life Journal for Guidance & Wisdom,” in September 2023.

“I work 25 hours a week now,” she says. “A heavy week is about 30 hours a week, but that is rare and happens about once a month.”

Last year, Ward-Hopper’s different income streams earned her about $10,500, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. 

Meanwhile, her husband Nicholas, 43, runs his own remote logistics business, earning him about $19,500 in 2023.

“Living here has allowed me to explore my passions so that my methods of earning income don’t feel like a job, it just feels like I’m getting to do the things that I love to do, which is to be of service to others,” Ward-Hopper says. “We make less money, but we’re still living pretty comfortably … our money definitely goes further here than in the U.S.” 

Last year, the Ward-Hoppers moved to a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house in Nicoya. Their biggest expense is rent and utilities, which totals about $628 per month.

In addition to the lower cost of living, Ward-Hopper says she’s found a “more fulfilling, less stressful” career in Costa Rica than in the U.S. because of the country’s relaxed, “family-first” work culture. 

“It’s common to see children in businesses where their parents work, if they’re off from school and don’t have another child care provider, and bosses aren’t so rigid that if you need to take time off from work or step away for a minute if your child is sick or needs something, you’re going to get in trouble,” she says. “As a working parent with young children, that cuts out a lot of stress.”

Ward-Hopper’s son, Nico, was born in Costa Rica in 2020. 

Costa Ricans also value a healthy work-life balance, she adds. The country has a shorter workweek than many other nations, allowing ample time for hobbies, rest and spending quality time with loved ones. 

Many businesses in her neighborhood don’t open until 9 a.m. or later. “You can’t visit a coffee shop and get your morning latte at 7 a.m. like you’re able to do in the U.S.,” she says. “A lot of places are closed on Sundays, too, and holidays, which I’d think helps their employees not burn out.”

Costa Rica is one of the happiest countries in the world, ranking 12th on the World Happiness Report’s 2024 list. 

The Nicoya Peninsula, where the Ward-Hoppers live, is one of the five original Blue Zones. Blue Zones are regions in the world with some of the longest-living people and highest life expectancies, according to longevity researcher Dan Buettner.

Some of the factors that make Nicoya a Blue Zone, Buettner discovered, are the Nicoyans’ diet, which includes fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains as well as their focus on family and community.

Ward-Hopper would add the Costa Ricans’ attitude toward work to that list. “Work is a lesser part of conversations and how people identify themselves here than in the U.S.,” she says. “That mindset makes it easier to have a fuller, more joyful life outside of what happens at our jobs, which is so often out of our control.”

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The summer is a good time to take stock of how your kids are faring. Are they doing something that excites them? Do they wake up every morning eager to get going? Are they happy? 

I did not ask about their grades, because if you answered “yes” to those questions, their GPA truly doesn’t matter. It matters if they are thriving. 

For my book “Raising an Entrepreneur,” I interviewed 70 parents who raised highly successful adults about how they helped their kids achieve their dreams. It was a diverse group, and the cohort included people of different races, religions, incomes, family structures and educational backgrounds.

While many of these young people were not great students, all of them excelled because they found interests and communities that lit a fire in them.

Here are the four things that the parents of the most successful people always did when their kids were young: 

Every successful adult I spoke to had a passion growing up. With the exception of the artists, who maintained their practice into adulthood, many of these leaders pursued careers that have nothing to do with what they loved as kids. 

So why was it so important that the parents encouraged whatever passion their children had?

Since the activity was something they chose for themselves, they were excited to work hard at it. They learned grit and perseverance and became quite skilled. These experiences taught them to believe in their ability to succeed when they put their all into something.

Although many of the parents didn’t understand their kid’s passion, they supported them, because they saw the joy their child got from it. The most successful adults grew up knowing that their parents would always be there for them, no matter what they tackled.

The most successful entrepreneurs I profiled in my book are risk takers. 

In my research, I found that the people who are most willing to take risks are the people who weren’t punished for, or taught to fear, failure when they were young. This approach reminds me of a Billie Jean King quote I love: “We don’t call it failure, we call it feedback.”

Their parents always taught them that while it’s good to compete, to fight to succeed, and to win, it’s also good to lose. Setbacks are a chance to learn, grow and develop a sense of resilience.

The parents I interviewed always cheered on their children’s efforts, rather than only focusing on their achievements. 

Children who are invited to be curious learn that if they keep exploring, they will figure out a way to improve, or expand, or reinvent something they love and know a lot about. 

The future entrepreneurs in my book were taught by their parents to ask, “Does it have to be this way? How can I make it better?” These questions are often how the most successful companies get started. 

Many parents told me that they didn’t want their kids to be satisfied with something “because that is the way it is.” 

As their children grew more capable, the parents also resisted the temptation to do or fix things for them. Instead, they give their kids the tools to solve problems themselves.

Most of the entrepreneurs in my book were taught early on to empathize with others, and they grew up wanting to solve the concerns and problems of the people around them and in their communities. 

They were raised with a genuine desire to improve people’s lives. Their parents never told them that the goal was to make the most money, although that was often the result. 

This sense of compassion is what led them to want to create that piece of art, or product, or service that could bring people a sense of ease and joy. In turn, that foundation helped them build successful careers and lives. 

Margot Machol Bisnow is a writer, wife, and mom from Washington, DC. She spent 20 years in government, including as an FTC Commissioner and Chief of Staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and is the author of “Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dream.” Follow her on Instagram @margotbisnow.

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