On a mild winter day in Arizona, 38-year-old Cami’s laundromat can teem with customers loading their clothes into washers and dryers, and employees working on laundry deliveries.

For Cami, running the business as her only job is a welcome change of pace, she says. She worked almost full-time as a nurse at a hospital while simultaneously running the laundromat from October 2020 to April 2023, when she quit nursing. (Cami requested to be identified by her nickname only, due to security concerns over her cash-heavy business. Her identity and the name of her business are known to CNBC Make It.)

“Now, I’m only working maybe five or six hours a week [running the laundromat],” says Cami. “But I also am hesitant in telling people that, because that’s not how it was five years ago, four or three years ago. I was working a lot more hours trying to grow this business.”

In that time, she hired employees — the laundromat employs six people, including one part-time worker — so she can “focus more on growing the business and not working in the business,” she says. Cami also spends about 10 hours per week creating and posting videos on social media about her business and the experience of running it, she notes.

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Cami’s laundromat brought in roughly $475,000 in revenue last year, plus nearly $30,000 in rent from a salon that operates next door, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. That included about $119,000 in profits — some of which went back into the business, and $66,000 of which became Cami’s salary, she says.

She also made about $22,000 from six months of social media posting in 2024, and is on track for a significant bump — “around $200,000” — in 2025, she says. And though she misses the camaraderie of the hospital, she enjoys the work-life balance and freedom she’s experienced with business ownership, she says.

“This is my first time where I’m able to be home for all the holidays, have every weekend off,” says Cami. “I never have to go to a boss or a manager to be able to take off on a random trip home or anything like that. So my freedom of time has been completely changed.”

After 13 years of working as a nurse, primarily in the bone marrow transplant unit of a large hospital, Cami was ready for a change, she says. She just didn’t want to re-enroll in school to do so. “And so I knew, really my only way out of working would be to own a business,” she says.

She looked into a couple ventures, including renting out storage units and buying a mobile home park. Then she saw a listing for the laundromat on bizbuysell.com, a marketplace for buying and selling small business.

A friend referred Cami to his uncle, who owned two laundromat locations himself, she says. “He looked at the numbers with me, and he said something that I will never forget. He said, ‘You know, if I could go back in time … I would never go to college. I would never get my master’s degree,’” says Cami. “He’s like, ‘All I would do is buy laundromats, because laundromats scream money.’”

Cami planned to buy a business for about a year before actually making a purchase, she says, and selling her house to help fund the expense was part of that plan. She sold her house for $310,000 in April 2020 and moved into a rental home, she says.

Because her mortgage wasn’t fully paid off, she received about $150,000 in equity from the transaction to put toward the $300,000 laundromat, she says. She took another $50,000 from her savings to make a $200,000 down payment on the laundromat in October 2020, she says.

“We seller-financed the remaining $100,000 with a 6% interest rate over the next two years,” says Cami, adding that she paid the loan off in about a year and a half. ”[Selling my house] wasn’t very scary. I was more excited about owning a business rather than owning a home.”

The laundromat had already been functioning for over 20 years and was “cash flowing,” says Cami. She put $20,000 toward renovations like new lighting, flooring and fresh paint to make it feel more “homey,” she says. She’s currently paying off two loans for washing machine purchases and two loans for vehicles for her laundromat’s pickup and delivery services, totaling “about $4,900 a month” in payments, she says.

As she ran the laundromat, she gradually decreased her hours per week at the hospital. She bought a new house in April 2023, she says.

At Cami’s laundromat, machine prices range from dryers that cost 25 cents per seven minutes to 80-pound washers that cost $12 per load. Laundry pickup and delivery prices vary depending on the job, too.

Cami didn’t have any prior leadership or business ownership experience, which was “the biggest learning curve,” she says. She says she listens to business podcasts, reads books and tries to attend “at least one or two laundromat conferences a year” to stay up-to-date on industry trends, software and technology.

One of the biggest lessons she’s learned, she says: Make money and use it to follow your passions outside your job, rather than pursuing a career around your passions. In her case, her passions are time with her loved ones and control over her schedule, she says: “My days are a lot smoother [that way].”

The average laundromat can generate cash flow between $15,000 and $300,000 per year, and can range in market value from $50,000 to more than $1 million, according to The Laundry Association. Cami estimates that she could potentially retire in about six or seven years, or maintain ownership and hire someone else to run the business.

She could also acquire a second location — buying someone else’s laundromat or starting from scratch — grow it and eventually sell it for a profit, she says.

“I see it as this fun game that I like playing,” says Cami. “I love the hustle of trying to learn more so I can scale it bigger and make it grow.”

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Parenting is full of love and joy, but it also comes with a few hard truths we’d rather not face.

In my 10 years as a pediatrician, I’ve seen the same patterns again and again: Parents who want the best for their kids but sometimes miss what actually helps them thrive.

Some of these truths might sting a little, but they’re not meant to shame. They’re meant to help us reflect and hopefully, raise happier, healthier kids.

1. If you’re not modeling an action, behavior, or value, don’t expect them to do the same.

Kids copy what they see more than what they’re told. How you speak, handle stress, and make things right matters.

If you want them to learn kindness and respect, show it in action. I try to model this in the small, everyday moments — how I speak to employees at the grocery store, how I apologize if I lose my patience, how I talk about people when they’re not around. Kids catch that energy, fast.

2. If you always rescue them from boredom, they’ll never learn to be comfortable being idle.

Boredom is the spark for creativity. When every moment is filled with entertainment, kids lose the chance to explore their own ideas. Give them the space to figure it out. 

3. If you feel like your child is overscheduled, they are. Scale things back. 

When afternoons turn into a relay race between soccer, piano, and playdates, it’s a fast track to burnout … for everyone. Downtime gives their body and brain room to breathe. Protect it.

4. Set the bedtime. Keep the routine. Sleep is a necessity.

Sleep powers growth, learning, and emotional balance. Toddlers usually need about 11 to 14 hours, preschoolers 10 to 13, school-age kids 9 to 12, and teens 8 to 10. But these are just ranges. What matters most is how your child functions: If they wake up rested, don’t nod off at odd times, and aren’t showing signs of poor sleep like irritability or trouble focusing, they’re likely getting enough.

5. Seriously, stop the excessive snacking. That’s why they’re not eating meals.

When kids snack all day, they never build an appetite. If they don’t love their meal, they’ll simply hold out until snack time. Planning snacks so they’re predictable gives kids structure and time to feel hungry again, which encourages them to show up for meals.

6. You don’t need fancy ‘immune-boosting’ supplements.

The real immune boosters? Sleep, nutritious meals, hydration, physical activity, and washing hands. There’s no powder or gummy that can compete.

7. Stop asking for antibiotics just because a cough lingers.

Most coughs after a viral infection last for weeks. Extra antibiotics don’t speed healing. They just increase resistance and side effects.

Often, time and comfort care are key. I usually recommend keeping the air moist with a cool-mist humidifier, offering warm fluids like honey water (if over age 1), using saline and suction for congestion, and letting them rest.

Of course, you should always check in with a pediatrician, especially if things seem to be worsening.

8. Don’t use screens or food to calm every meltdown.

It’s tempting to reach for quick fixes, but distraction isn’t regulation. Kids need opportunities to practice coping skills like naming emotions, breathing, learning that these feelings will pass.

9. If your child goes to an Ivy League college but can’t handle disappointment, you’ve missed the point.

Academic success means little if a child crumbles under stress. Resilience, the skill of falling, learning, and trying again, is what truly prepares them for life. 

Parenting asks us to grow, too. These truths can sting, but awareness builds strong families. And again, it’s always important to keep a close relationship with your pediatrician and consult them before making any major changes to your child’s health routines.

Dr. Mona Amin is a board-certified pediatrician and founder of PedsDocTalk, a resource for modern parenting guidance. Featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine and NPR, she is known for helping parents navigate the joys and challenges of raising kids with confidence and clarity.

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Before your child even steps out the door every day, their emotional baseline for the day is already set — not by color-coded routines, but by how safe and connected they feel in your presence.

As a conscious parenting researcher, I’ve studied more than 200 kids, and I’m a mother myself. I’ve found that the happiest, most resilient kids are raised in homes where connection matters more than control, especially in the morning.

Parents who raise happy kids practice nine morning rituals to create emotional safety and support their children’s developing brain:

Before your child wakes up, take just 60 seconds to check in with yourself: Take a few deep breaths, a moment of stillness with your coffee, or a quick meditation.

Children learn how to be calm directly through our nervous systems. When you begin in a regulated state, you provide a sturdy emotional foundation for your child’s day.

Before asking about teeth-brushing or backpacks, create a moment of genuine connection, like eye contact, a warm smile, or physical touch. Your message should be: “You matter more than the morning rush.”

This brief emotional attunement regulates your child’s nervous system and sets the stage for cooperation and calm.

Integrate small rituals that slow the pace, like playing soft music during breakfast, sitting together without screens, or implementing a 30-second family huddle before heading out.

These micro-moments teach kids that calm is available even on busy mornings.

Even in the midst of spilled milk and mismatched socks, find opportunities for playfulness, like a silly voice, a 10-second dance party, or a shared inside joke.

Laughter reduces stress and reinforces that mistakes or morning mishaps don’t overpower emotional safety.

Before diving into the day’s logistics, pause to check in with how your child is feeling: “How’s your heart this morning?” or “What’s one thing you’re looking forward to today?”

These brief emotional check-ins build emotional literacy, which is one of the strongest predictors of lifelong resilience and happiness.

A morning hug, a forehead kiss, or a moment of snuggling releases oxytocin and increases emotional security.

Choose three specific moments in your morning routine where you’ll pause for intentional physical connection and affection, regardless of how rushed you feel. It’s one of the fastest, most effective ways to regulate a child’s nervous system.

Make mornings a device-free zone for both parents and children for at least the first 20 minutes of waking. No phones, tablets, or television.

This digital boundary creates space for natural conversation or even comfortable silence together.

Children live at a different pace than adults. That’s just their biology. I recommend adding five extra minutes to one morning transition and match your child’s pace.

When we slow our movements and expectations, we help regulate their nervous systems. What looks like “dawdling” is often a child’s natural rhythm: their brain processing the world at a developmentally appropriate speed.

Instead of rushing out with a quick “Let’s go,” pause for a real goodbye: eye contact, a hug, reassurance.

Then add a “connection bridge,” or something to look forward to later: “I can’t wait to hear about your science project tonight,” or “Let’s make pancakes tomorrow morning.”

Let go of the idea that every morning needs to be rushed, or that the day is in shambles because they didn’t finish their homework the night before. Focus on creating emotional safety. Even adopting one of these habits can help shift your child’s entire day and support healthier brain development.

Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting and the creator of the BOUND and FOUNDATIONS journals, now offered together as her Holiday Emotional Safety Bundle. She is widely recognized for her expertise in children’s emotional well-being and for redefining what it means to raise emotionally healthy kids. Connect with her on Instagram.

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This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Six-Figure Side Hustle series, where people with lucrative side hustles break down the routines and habits they’ve used to make money on top of their full-time jobs. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at AskMakeIt@cnbc.com.

When Tayo Lanlehin was planning her son’s first birthday party in April 2022, she bought yellow and blue signs, balloons and a cake with 3D planets. Every detail fit the “First Trip Around The Sun” theme, except the chairs.

She only found one rental seating option near her home in Oakland, California, she says: adult-sized white plastic chairs. She borrowed a picnic table with benches instead, and ruminated on the gap in the market for weeks. In May 2022, she sourced and spent roughly $2,000 on 48 kids’ chairs from a manufacturer overseas, and stored them in her basement, says Tayo.

Those chairs became Bay Area Kids Rentals, a side hustle that she runs with her husband Dolu Lanlehin. Now a full-fledged party rental business, the company has brought in over $295,000 in 2025 revenue as of Nov. 25, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

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Bay Area Kids Rentals has been profitable since the beginning, but the couple doesn’t take an income from the side hustle, and is instead reinvesting those funds back into the business to expand its rental line, Dolu says. It now offers ball pits, mini bumper cars and multiple colors and styles of furniture.

Tayo and Dolu’s first party was for an event planner, who found the company on Instagram and requested pink chairs for a Barbie-themed party for her daughter in August 2022. She posted photos afterward on Instagram and the review led moms in Hillsborough, an affluent nearby town, to the business’s social media accounts, Tayo says.

Word-of-mouth “spread like fire,” and by October, Bay Area Kids Rentals was supplying decor for parties celebrating professional athletes’ and Silicon Valley executives’ children and grandchildren, she adds.

The rapid success of the side hustle was initially “a little jarring, because of the level of celebrity,” Tayo says. “My day job would end, then I’d go and work on parties for Silicon Valley CEOs’ children.”

The couple works a combined eight hours per week running Bay Area Kids Rentals. Tayo, a strategic partnership principal at health-care company Blue Shield of California, oversees the side hustle’s marketing and customer communication, and a portion of its work with manufacturers. Dolu — the head of product for Chegg Skills, part of education tech company Chegg — manages the company’s accounting and finances.

They outsource tasks like delivery, running painting and jewelry-making stations, and equipment maintenance to six contract employees, they say.

Here’s how Tayo and Dolu started their luxury party rental business, how they attracted high-profile clients and how their individual skillsets make them strong partners:

CNBC Make It: Do you think the success of your side hustle is replicable?

Dolu: 100%, but there would be some prerequisites. If someone is creative, detail-oriented and in a market somewhere in the world that supports this, I don’t see anything stopping them. But Tayo does a nice job of seeing around the corner a little bit, staying connected to market trends and seeing where there are gaps.

What kind of skillsets does someone need to run a luxury rental business?

Tayo: [My inspiration] comes from a place of empathy. I’m a parent, so I’m always thinking operationally about [their experience], the services we can provide, having a website that is easy to book from, what we can do differently and more seamlessly than other companies.

Kids are so visual, too. I’m always thinking like, “Wouldn’t it make sense if a princess’s birthday had cute pink chairs and a cute pink bounce house?”  

Dolu: Tayo is entrepreneurial, and I tend to be analytical because I come from consulting. I wanted to do market research, so we sent out a survey, just to get a signal. Other than a mortgage, kids are the biggest spending line item for parents. People are willing to be irritational for their kids and spend money they maybe don’t even have … because your kids tend to be the embodiment of your dreams, your visions that maybe you didn’t get when you were younger.

How did you attract ultra-wealthy, high-profile clients to Bay Area Kid Rentals?

Tayo: We’ve had to do some marketing [and search engine optimization], but we really haven’t been pressed because very early on starting this business, we hit our ideal client — with high net worth families and their event planners — like right away.

I followed [NBA player] Andrew Wiggins’ partner Mychal Johnson, and she had posted about one of her daughter’s parties on Instagram. I did research and noticed that her next daughter’s birthday was coming up in October [2022]. I direct messaged her with a link to our website saying, “We have luxury kid party rentals, and we would love to be a part of your kid’s birthday, if you’re doing a party.” She responded in 25 minutes and put us in touch with her event planner.

We did four events for their family until they moved to Miami [in 2024].

What makes ultra-wealthy clients different? What do they like about your services?

Tayo: Flexibility and having limited touch points are very important in the luxury space. We don’t send our rentals out for just four hours. We schedule our services around when the client wants to set up and tear down, when they want you to come and leave.

They’re not looking to go back and forth, either. A lot of our competitors will take deposits to make sure people don’t damage their rentals. I don’t do that — I just incorporate these costs into our pricing. That way, we don’t have to have another conversation to process the payments and the refund.

What’s it like running this business together, in addition to your full-time job?

Tayo: Running this business has given me some confidence that I’m building something of my own. I’m building something that could last and the potential of generational wealth.

It’s also just really nice to work with Dolu. This is like our third baby. Partnerships in business don’t really work out a lot of the times, and the fact that we’re married and raising kids on top of having a business, and we know how to resolve all kinds of issues, gives me the confidence that [our relationship] is going to be fine.

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Jocelyn Elizabeth was a new mom working part-time as a marketing administrator when her dad brought home a $5 lamp from a church yard sale in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.

It was 2011, Elizabeth says. Though the lamp wasn’t fancy or new, her dad was sure he’d made a good investment, and found a cleaned-up version of the same lamp listed at $70 on eBay. Elizabeth says she promptly went thrifting the next weekend, intending to flip her finds for a profit online, her baby son tagging along in a stroller.

Elizabeth, who uses her middle name professionally and asked not to share her last name, now makes her full-time living from her thrifting-centric YouTube channel Crazy Lamp Lady and her online thrifting marketplace NikNax, she says. NikNax hosts more than 5,000 other sellers listing resale items ranging from mugs and glassware to jewelry, books, trading cards and local snacks.

NikNax has brought in more than $5.2 million in 2025 revenue, as of Oct. 31, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Elizabeth, 37, keeps a 5% cut of each sale, meaning she’s personally received at least $260,000 from the marketplace so far this year. District, the online platform that hosts NikNax, also takes a 5% cut of each sale.

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Elizabeth also sells her own thrift finds on NikNax, and her store is responsible for about 5% of NikNax’s total sales, she says. Her YouTube channel has also brought in roughly $298,000 in 2025 advertising revenue as of Oct. 15, documents show.

Both NikNax and the YouTube channel are profitable, says Elizabeth. She employs two other people who help with listing and shipping her thrift finds, she adds. She works about three days per week on NikNax, and two or three days on her YouTube channel — and her working hours vary significantly, she says.

“These days, I spend anywhere from 50 to 100 hours a week working. It really depends on what’s going on. Some weeks I’m doing more thrifting trips, and other weeks I’m focused on selling,” says Elizabeth, a mom of three. “NikNax has become such a big part of my daily life that even when I’m not actively selling, I’m usually watching other shows, chatting, or listing items. It’s technically work, but a lot of it just feels like part of my everyday routine.”

Here’s how she built her YouTube channel side hustle and turned thrifting into her full-time job.

When Elizabeth first discovered thrift flipping in 2011, she was making $14 per hour at a part-time corporate marketing job, she says. Soon, she started traveling to antique shows and stores across the U.S., studying the vintage and collectible secondary market and developing an eye for items with a higher resale value.

By April 2016, she felt unfulfilled sending marketing emails to clients every day, she says — so she decided to launch a YouTube channel dedicated to her thrifting. Her first inkling that this could become a real money-making business was the first time she made $600 in advertising revenue in one day, she says.

“I remember having to pull over my car and just be like, ‘What in the world is happening?’” says Elizabeth.

By the end of 2018, Elizabeth was “consistently earning more from YouTube than from my part-time job,” she says — so she quit her marketing gig that December. “I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t want to be here anymore’ … It was definitely risky, and it was scary.”

Roughly six months later, Elizabeth had a house full of antiques and five employees, two who listed items on eBay and three who packed and shipped them. Elizabeth says she brought on three more employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, as declining ad revenue pushed her to try selling more on eBay. She also grew dissatisfied with seller fees on the platform, she says.

In October 2023, she launched a marketplace on District — an internet platform founded in 2022 — after being invited by a company representative who’d seen her YouTube channel. District currently hosts 98 marketplaces, according to its website, including NikNax.

Elizabeth also rents a commercial space to store her own thrift finds, and a separate operating space for day-to-day responsibilities like listing and shipping orders. Combined, those spaces roughly cost $2,000 to $3,000 per month including utilities, she says.

Owning a marketplace — rather than just being a seller — presents a new set of challenges, Elizabeth says. Online trends shift quickly, and staying on top of them can be difficult. Livestream sales, where you sell items in real time to buyers actively watching your live video feed, are a major sales driver for NikNax, but Elizabeth wasn’t initially comfortable in front of a live camera, she says.

She’s also responsible for enforcing platform rules, like removing people who make rude comments or determining whether a buyer is falsely claiming that an item wasn’t shipped to get an illicit refund.

Building a community of buyers and sellers, on the other hand, was fairly easy, she says: She brought some of her YouTube audience with her, and now casts many of her NikNax livestreams on YouTube and other social channels to market the platform.

Elizabeth has used some of her earnings to invest in real estate, purchasing an Airbnb rental property and a separate rental home in Pennsylvania. Each three-bedroom house cost around $300,000, she says. The Airbnb runs guests roughly $300 per night, including fees, according to the rental platform.

Anyone can replicate her experience — from thrift flipping to YouTube and NikNax — to a certain degree, as long as you have the “drive” and dedication, she says. She travels the country at least once a month looking for thrift items to flip, while filming and editing online content and livestreaming multiple times per week, she says.

Still, even if you only have a few dollars in your pocket, you could turn that into a profit if you know what to look for, she notes.

“I think anyone can do it if they put the work in,” says Elizabeth. “Anyone could go to Goodwill and pick something up and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, how much is this worth?’ And find out it’s worth $50 … If you’re willing to put in the work, if you’re willing to learn, I think anyone can really accomplish this.”

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