Ticketmaster Layoff Left Her Jobless Overnight — Her Side Hustle Now Makes Over $500K a Year

Half of all American side hustlers earn less than $200 (£157) a month, according to a 2025 Bankrate survey. But Rachel Minion's marketing agency challenged the norm, pulling in $560,000 (£441,000) last year. The gap between those two figures says a lot about what happens when a side project stops being optional.

Minion was on a company-wide Zoom call when Ticketmaster cut 80 per cent of its staff during the pandemic. No warning. No transition period. She had spent six years as director of marketing for one of the company's divisions. Her husband had been laid off the week before. Their house was already under contract to be sold.

Two incomes gone in the space of days. No formal employment between them. Nowhere to move.

Minion told the Side Hustle Hero podcast she called every one of her six side hustle clients that same day. 'Hey, we're full-time. Here we go,' she said, before laying out her new schedule and telling them she was taking on every delayed project. 'Let's take all these projects I've been putting off. Going to fix your website. Going to do this. Going to make these updates, email campaigns, all this. Let's do it.'

Every single client stayed. Her agency, Rockstarr & Moon, billed $30,000 (£23,600) between April and December of that first year. Not a full 12 months. No ramp-up. No business plan.

A Family Business Lost to Recession, Then a Career Lost to COVID

Financial collapse was not new to Minion. Her parents ran a printing business she helped operate for a decade, processing roughly 400 estimates and turning around 100 jobs a day. The 2010 recession forced the business to close.

'Being a woman in printing who worked for her parents, no one believed I had a skill set,' she said.

She started the marketing side hustle to prove otherwise, teaching herself website design, campaign management and digital strategy while working corporate jobs at a testing company, a software firm and eventually Ticketmaster. While employed, she deliberately capped side hustle earnings at $5,000 (£3,940) to $10,000 (£7,870) a year to limit the additional tax liability on their combined household income. Six clients. Lunch-break strategy calls. Weekend execution.

Minion said the fear of leaving corporate work had held her back for years. 'I had that blocker like you need to have a job so you can have insurance and a 401k and the stability and security. Don't forget the security. That's what we were raised with,' she said.

Once the furlough removed the choice, she said she put her head down and realised she had never let herself down.

Retainers, Margins and a 90 Per Cent Automation Overhaul

Rockstarr & Moon now operates on monthly retainers ranging from $2,500 (£1,970) to $10,000 (£7,870), with a target profit margin of 35 per cent. Minion focuses on B2B clients, particularly consultants. 'For consultants in the first year they work with me, they typically double their revenue and they don't have to add an additional person,' she said.

The entire operation runs on contractors. When a key team member of three years quit, Minion's husband Jon challenged her to automate half of the departing worker's responsibilities. Working from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., seven days a week for three weeks, she ended up automating 85 to 90 per cent of the role. Every service became a standardised product. Daily check-ins shrank to 10-minute standups.

She also founded a nonprofit called Beyond Basic Needs during the pandemic, providing chemo care kits to cancer patients at no cost. Minion was diagnosed with cancer 11 years ago. A share of agency profits funds the charity.

53 Per Cent of Side Hustlers Can't Cover Bills Without Extra Income

Minion's $560,000 revenue year places her far outside the norm. The Bankrate survey found the average American side hustler earns $885 (£697) a month. Twenty-eight per cent bring in between $1 and $50. A 2026 survey by The Penny Hoarder found 53 per cent of Americans with side hustles said they would struggle to cover essential expenses without that income. Three in four said rising costs had pushed them to depend more heavily on earnings outside their primary job.

'Start before you're ready,' Minion said. 'You will never be ready to do this ... And if you wait until you're fully ready, the time is already passed. The boat has sailed.'

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