Business

Former Trader Joe’s Employee Grew Her Side Hustle to $20M

This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features siblings Jaime Holm and Matt Hannula. Holm is the founder and VP of design, and Hannula is the CEO at Tinker Tin, which spearheads experiential marketing and advertising projects for companies like Lexus and on Hollywood sets like the infamous trailers of the Manson family in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Holm started Tinker Tin as a side hustle more than a decade ago while working at Trader Joe’s and recalls taking phone calls about the business in between stocking bananas; eventually, she had so many inquiries that she quit the job to focus on the venture full-time. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Tinker Tin. Matt Hannula and Jaime Holm.}

When did you start your side hustle, and how did you get it up and running?
Holm: I started Tinker Tin 13 years ago. I had just gotten married and was reminiscing about the time I spent living in a camper and surfing in Australia before my now-husband and I started dating. I was perusing the internet to see if there were any campers or funky vans to rent in California for a road trip. At that point, the U.S. had things like RV America and maybe one other company that rented modern-day RVs, but that was it. I told my husband we should find an old, funky trailer, fix it up and rent it out like I did when I was in Australia. He liked the idea. (He had worked on hot rods in high school.)

From there, we got our first camper for $800 and became the first vintage trailer rental company in the U.S. We pivoted fairly quickly from camping rentals to renting these vintage trailers out to Hollywood studios for movies and commercials. We started getting calls for branded trailers for cosmetic companies’ road shows, such as LUSH or Pacifica, and we did activations for Facebook, Pepsi, Williams Sonoma, New Belgium and many more. The companies would always ask us to build a retail display to pair with the trailer to showcase their product. Early on, the companies stopped asking for the trailer rentals and started solely asking for us to design and build another retail product display, and then another. It went from one to hundreds to thousands, to not just a single retail display SKU, but then to designing and building entire retail stores. That’s how we went from being inspired by vintage camping to a full-fledged design and manufacturing company.

If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
Holm: I might hire for key positions faster. We are a zero-debt company, so we saw slower growth in the beginning and [had] some burnout from having a skeleton team for longer than we probably should have. Once my brother became an owner in the company and our CEO, and I was able to step back and focus on what I do best without juggling the entire company — that is when our true growth took off. Matt was able to implement lean manufacturing principles, our combined vision and so much more to streamline our growth.

Hannula: When scaling a business, talent is so important. Sometimes, it is hard to get good talent early on, especially paying for it, but if I could have interviewed folks longer, asked more questions, run personality tests, etc., we would have saved so much stress, time and money (actual cost and costs from mistakes and underperformance).

I also wish I had fired faster. When running and scaling the business, it often felt like a death sentence to fire someone because I “thought” I needed them. But really, getting rid of a bad seed or poor talent is the exact thing I should have done early on to help scale better, faster and more efficiently.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Tinker Tin}

When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
Hannula: The devil is in the details, especially in manufacturing. There are so many moving parts that make or break manufacturing. Tying it into building a product specific to a client adds another complexity. We always say here at Tinker Tin, “Do the right things, right.” Focusing on what we should be doing and how to do it correctly. There is no room for big mistakes in manufacturing because it’s not just a lost sale — it’s a lost product. The pain compounds when mistakes happen, and being aware of these mistakes early on is very critical to success. You can burn cash flow very quickly by not getting it right. One missed screw could render a product useless.

Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
Holm: In the beginning, when we were looking to expand our retail client base, we would design beautiful stores, retail displays and more for free. These decks were gorgeous, and the clients were so happy! As young entrepreneurs, we didn’t want to scare them away with design contracts or large manufacturing limits out of the gate. We got word that some of the retail clients were shopping out our designs in China or using the decks for their board of investors to make them look good, but would never circle back with us. This was a big fail on our parts, but it also gave us a lot of confidence in our capabilities. Instead of taking a scarcity approach, we treated this process as R&D and were able to restructure, knowing our worth and value add to our clients was bar none.

Hannula: I could write a book called The Million Things That Went Wrong, VERY WRONG! The one that comes to mind was when we first started producing large quantities of product in Mexico. Logistics matters in Mexico, and having trustworthy logistics partners through the entire supply chain is as critical as it gets. Long story short, we had a bad partner within our supply chain that ended with us losing a semitruck of product worth over $250,000 for about two weeks. The supply chain went silent. We pulled in the sheriff, the Department of Justice and the CIA in local offices to shed light on the entire situation. Luckily, because I own a cybersecurity services company, we were able to run very detailed information searches on the entire supply chain and received valuable information that brought the criminals back online. After this event, we fired our entire supply chain. A supply chain that took over a year to develop, and we got rid of it instantly. It was painful but 100% necessary in order to have the confidence that it will never happen again.

How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
Holm: Luckily for us, it was fairly quick out of the gate within the first year. Our industry didn’t exist, so it was a big fish, small pond scenario that worked in our favor. In year one, we made a couple hundred thousand. Our side hustle turned into a real business that supported our family in the first year, which was not what we had anticipated or planned on.

What does growth and revenue look like now?
Holm: We started with one employee on payroll and an entire family of volunteers. We grew year over year, and 13 years later, we are a $20 million company with no debt, and three of us in the family are full-time now — no more volunteers.

Hannula: When I came onto Tinker Tin in 2018, we had done $650,000 the year prior. Now we’re at $20 million — and just scratching the surface. Manufacturing is not a space that everyone is jumping into. We are fresh and focused on building a manufacturer of tomorrow. We near-shored a while back because we saw the issues and tensions with China bubbling up over a decade ago. We plan to continue to bolster our domestic manufacturing presence in the U.S. and Mexico.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Tinker Tin}

What do you enjoy most about running this business?
Holm: We hang our hat on “beauty at scale,” and this is something I absolutely love — to be able to design a retail display that is not just a pretty rendering, but translates into a physical product that looks better than the digital. These days, everything looks prettier online versus in person, but I believe in the tiny details, the tiny “whys” throughout each project. It keeps me excited.

Hannula: Every day, there’s a new problem to solve. For some, this is stressful, exhausting and just plain terrible, and although I feel those emotions, I enjoy all of the challenges. An entrepreneur buddy of mine once said, “Pressure is a privilege,” and I couldn’t agree more. The pressure of running a successful business is one of the greatest privileges one can experience. Creating something for yourself that you can control and choosing to do all the things that suck and getting the reward for all the things that go well is just an incredible feeling. As Jaime always says, it’s all about the journey, not the finish line.

What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
Holm: Don’t let your hobbies take a back seat, and if you don’t have any hobbies, do not let your business become your hobby. Hobbies are your inner fire-starter that help the hard work days feel less hard. They help regulate your nervous system, can motivate or inspire new ideas and can help you mentally check out and re-check in with yourself and your truth. Losing your sense of self in your business helps no one, especially the business. Having a hobby allows you to separate yourself from your work in a way that invites you to step into your creative side more fully.

Hannula: It is maybe cliche, but I have not experienced any better advice than working your ass off. If you can force yourself to work your ass off day in and day out, you will crush it. Every success takes time and hard work. No one ever hit a home run without swinging the bat. The more you swing the bat, the more effort you put into it daily, weekly, monthly, yearly (it’s not overnight), [the more] you will succeed. Also, you have to commit! 100%. If you have an idea and try it for a couple of months or a year, that’s probably not enough time. If you have an idea and you hit hard and commit and don’t do anything else, you might be successful quickly, but you will be successful in the long run.

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Business

Descending The Corporate Ladder: A Solution To A Better Life

Feeling burned out and underappreciated? Tired of managing people and just want to focus on your craft? Thinking about going back to school to do something more meaningful? If any of this resonates, don’t quit your job. Instead, it might be time to consider a strategic descent down the corporate ladder to take back control of your life.

Don’t see it as a failure, but as a way to improve your longevity, well-being, and overall happiness. Drastic changes aren’t always necessary.

In this post, I want to explore whether descending the corporate ladder might actually be a great solution for achieving a better work-life balance. It’s a similar concept of feeling relief once you overcome the downer of no longer making maximum money. If you can swallow your pride, good things tend to happen.

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My Desire to Get Ahead As A Young Man

One of the reasons I left my career was my ambition to climb the corporate ladder, an ambition that ultimately hit a ceiling. After being promoted to VP at 28 and Director at 31, I failed to make Managing Director by 34. Yes, I only tried for a year before negotiating a severance package, but it still stung to fall short. That unmet goal was a key catalyst in my decision to retire from finance.

Looking back 13 years later, I sometimes wonder if I could’ve been content staying a Director. If I had been satisfied with my role, I could have continued earning a handsome salary for years.

As a Director, I had one and a half direct reports and ran a business covering the West Coast. Had I been promoted to MD, I likely would’ve had to relocate to New York City or Hong Kong and manage a much larger team—something every experienced manager knows comes with significantly more stress.

Ultimately, I didn’t want to descend the corporate ladder, because progress meant happiness to me at the time. Asking for a demotion was unheard of in the cuthroat world of banking. Meanwhile, staying in place would’ve also meant slowly falling behind as my colleagues got promoted. I had too much pride to just run in place.

Ultimately, I decided to kickstart the modern-day FIRE movement in 2009 and chronicle my journey out of a lucrative career just three years later.

The Health Benefits of Descending the Corporate Ladder

Whether you choose to get demoted or simply stay in place, stepping back can have big health benefits as your responsibilities lighten. With fewer demands, you’ll have more flexibility to work from home, play pickleball midday, and even enjoy a nap after lunch.

Your day should also have fewer meetings—a relief for many. And even if you do attend a meeting, you’re less likely to be called on to lead or contribute as often, making it easier to keep a low profile.

If you have young children, you’ll have more time to spend with them during standard work hours, e.g. attending their soccer practice at 3:30 pm. With a lower paycheck, the guilt of blending family and work time fades, as long as you get your responsibilities done in a timely manner.

More time with family and friends, more exercise, and greater freedom can all do wonders for your mental health. Chronic pain—like lower back pain, sciatica, or golfer’s elbow—may lessen or even disappear. Your hair might even stop graying and falling out at such a rapid pace.

Ultimately, descending the corporate ladder can lead to a healthier, longer life. Isn’t that worth more than a pay raise or added status thanks to a promotion? I think so!

In a survey by Randstad, a global HR consultancy, nearly half (47%) of respondents reported no interest in career progression. Instead, talented workers prioritize work-life balance (93%), flexible hours (81%), and mental health support (83%) over career ambition (70%).

Unless you’re doing something amazing like caring for baby pandas or protecting innocent children from abuse, it may be hard to feel truly passionate about work. Many people I’ve spoken to feel disgruntled in their jobs because they don’t see their work making a meaningful difference in society.

Gone are the days when everyone aspired to be the “big boss” with a corner office furnished with a huge desk, a leather chair, and a sofa for power meetings. I remember being awed by the large, glass-walled offices at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs in New York City. The ambition to one day reach that level was exciting.

But as I climbed higher, I realized the toll it could take. When I didn’t reach Managing Director in 2011, I let go of the dream, and maybe, just maybe, I dodged a bullet. If I’d made MD, my chronic pain might have worsened, and quitting would have been harder.

Promotions can trap you with the allure of higher pay and prestige. Sometimes, not getting promoted might be the best thing for your life.

Descending the corporate latter and happy to stay in a role they like even if there's no room for career progression

Descend To Remove A Target On Your Back

Back in finance, I noticed that Managing Directors—the highest earners—were often the first to be let go. The man who recruited me from Goldman to Credit Suisse, Myles, was laid off just a year later, which was disappointing because he was a fantastic leader. My biggest supporter was gone, and I had to find a way to ingratiate myself with a new boss.

Over my 11 years at Credit Suisse, I went through four heads of desks and even more heads of products. If your MD salary didn’t align with your productivity, you were gone. And if you didn’t get along with a few fellow MDs, consensus could turn against you. Once you reach the highest levels, navigating those dynamics can be just as critical as performance.

By descending the corporate ladder, you may improve your chances of staying employed. As the old Japanese saying goes, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” In addition to practicing stealth wealth during economic downturns to avoid getting hated on, adopt a stealth career for increased longevity.

Maybe Younger Generations Are Less Ambitious

In the same Randstad’s survey, Gen Z respondents were more likely than Millennials or Gen Xers to say, “I don’t want career progression.” How interesting, given Gen Z tend to be the most junior employees in most organizations. This generation doesn’t want senior leadership roles due to concerns for long hours and too much pressure.

But the funny thing is, almost another generation ago, I posted my now classic post, Are There Really People Who Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less And Complain Why They Can’t Get Ahead? Ah, it seems like Gen Z is simply mirroring the feelings about work that Millennials felt at their age.

Older generations will attribute the lack of desire for career progression to laziness or lack of ambition. But in today’s world, where layoffs are common and lifetime pensions are largely a thing of the past, why be overly ambitious? With globalization and tech-driven competition, job security feels more elusive, making the pursuit of senior roles less attractive.

Top barriers to work-life balance result to people descending the corporate ladder

Might Be Harder To Get Motivated As A Young Adult

It must feel strange to be a young person fresh out of high school or college today, knowing that AI has a decent chance of making your skills obsolete. You can either throw in the towel and YOLO your way through life, or you can embrace the challenge and leverage AI to supercharge your productivity and creativity. The choice is yours—disruption or evolution.

For my children’s sake, I’m investing aggressively in artificial intelligence as a hedge. If AI ends up displacing millions of jobs, I want to get rich from my AI investments. Then I’ll use the proceeds to support them, just in case they struggle to find meaningful work in the future.

At the same time, I hope they never need the help and instead figure out their own path to financial independence.

Managing People May Not Be As Fun as Producing

Many companies promote their top producers into managerial roles, but excelling in production doesn’t automatically make someone a great manager. Sometimes, climbing the ladder means giving up what you’re good at to manage others. It’s a tradeoff that may appeal only to those who genuinely enjoy wielding more authority.

When I joined a startup part-time in November 2023, I learned a term I hadn’t encountered before: IC, or “individual contributor.” At first, I was baffled—aren’t we all supposed to contribute? If not, then what, just tell people what to do? My colleagues laughed and said, “Yes, that sounds about right.”

In startups, everyone is expected to contribute meaningfully because survival depends on it. But in larger companies, where individual contributions are harder to tie directly to profitability, it’s easier to coast.

Personally, I’d far rather earn a handsome $500,000 working a mere 30 hours a week at a big tech company like Google, with three days a week at home, than work 60+ hours a week in the office at a startup with the slim chance of a huge IPO windfall. Goodness knows you don’t need to earn a top 0.1% income to be happy.

Maybe the FIRE Movement Is Making a Difference, Too

It’s strange there is a rising popularity in descending the corporate ladder. However, perhaps the rise of FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, and books may also be influencing people to downshift their career ambitions. At first, early retirement with a smaller nest egg may seem risky. But as more people successfully navigate this path, it fosters a sense of possibility.

Even if not everyone takes the extreme step of retiring in their 50s, 40s, or even 30s, the FIRE movement may encourage people to ease up on the grind. Coast FIRE, a subset of this movement, is a popular approach that allows people to grow wealth passively after an initial savings phase, rather than through relentless effort and career climbing.

That said, Coast FIRE is also the most dangerous early retirement movement to follow as it might lead to complacency. Thanks to life circumstances that can change unexpectedly, I encourage people not to remain in Coast FIRE land for too long.

Thirteen years after leaving the traditional workforce, I’ve shared as many of the ups and downs as possible. Given that I’m not lying on the street every night as DUPs, I’d like to think I’ve helped others to find more courage to enjoy life a little more.

When you see what’s possible, it makes the possibility a greater reality.

Descending the corporate ladder is a good way to achieve better work-life balance — Source: Source: Randstad Workmonitor 2023

The Hardest Part of Descending the Corporate Ladder

If you’re convinced that descending the corporate ladder could be great for your life, the hard part is actually doing it. Staying in place or opting for a demotion requires swallowing your pride and watching as your peers keep climbing. Unfortunately, comparison truly is the thief of joy.

You’ll need to be okay with not driving the luxury car your ascending peers have. You’ll have to accept your current home as your long-term dwelling while others climb the property ladder. And, hardest of all, if you have children, you might not be able to provide everything you want for your children.

Is it any wonder, then, that many keep pushing for more money and titles?

Quitting the money chase is one of the hardest things to do. For me, it took a failed promotion to walk away. I then figured out how to get a severance package so I could leave with financial security.

Afterward, I consulted for fintech companies and earned online through Financial Samurai. I did so partly out of a lingering fear of descending too far. Now, I’m focused on building back our passive income so it can fully cover our desired living expenses by December 31, 2027.

So yes, descending the corporate ladder is tough. But it just might be the best thing you’ll ever do for your mental health, finances, and overall quality of life.

Readers, what do you think about descending the corporate ladder for greater happiness? When does the drive for raises and promotions finally lose its grip? Is it possible to coast in your career, if you can shake off the guilt of not always pushing for more?

Alternatively, Leave Your Job For Something Better

Sometimes a clean break is the better path. After 13 years in finance, I negotiated a severance and left. Burned out from the pressure, long hours, and travel-induced pain, all I really wanted was to write and explore—and that’s exactly what I did until my son was born in 2017.

If you’re looking to break free from a job you no longer enjoy, check out my bestseller, How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye. Now in its 6th edition, it shares all the strategies I used to successfully negotiate a severance.

How to engineer your layoff - learn how to negotiate a severance package and be free

You can either descend the corporate ladder or take a leap toward a better life. I chose the latter—and years later, I know it was the right decision for my health, happiness, and soul. Use the code “saveten” at checkout to save $10.

Listen and subscribe to The Financial Samurai podcast on Apple or Spotify. I interview experts in their respective fields and discuss some of the most interesting topics on this site. Your shares, ratings, and reviews are appreciated.

To expedite your journey to financial freedom, join over 60,000 others and subscribe to the free Financial Samurai newsletter. Financial Samurai is among the largest independently-owned personal finance websites, established in 2009. Everything is written based on firsthand experience and expertise.

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Business

Micro-Retirement? Quit Your Job Before You’re a Millionaire

The average age of retirement in the U.S. is 63 for women and 65 for men, according to recent research from financial services company Empower — a milestone several decades off for Gen Z and young millennial professionals.

What’s more, for many people, saving enough money for a comfortable lifestyle in their golden years remains an elusive feat. More than 57% of working Americans think they’re behind where they should be on their retirement savings, including 35% who feel significantly behind, per a 2024 Bankrate survey.

That’s perhaps not surprising given the lofty figure Americans consider the bare minimum for retirement: $1.46 million, according to a Northwestern Mutual study.

An alternative to reaching such a far-off, financially cumbersome goal? The increasingly popular “micro-retirement.”

What is a micro-retirement?

A “micro-retirement,” also known as a “mini-retirement,” refers to career breaks during which people can pursue personal interests and goals, and potentially reconsider their professional aspirations.

“Micro-retirement is a great way for workers to balance their careers with their personal lives,” Peter Duris, CEO and co-founder of AI career app Kickresume, says. “While some have ambitious career goals that see them climbing the ladder quickly, others have different priorities. Micro-retirement offers the freedom to explore those personal aspirations sooner rather than later.”

Duris also points out that micro-retirement doesn’t necessarily mean leaving the workforce forever — most micro-retirees will return to their careers “feeling refreshed” and “ready to jump right into a new role.”

Where did the term “micro-retirement” come from?

The “micro-” or “mini-” retirement strategy is sweeping social media and gaining ground with Gen Z and young millennial professionals, but the concept of strategically-timed career breaks isn’t a new one.

In The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, first published in 2007, American entrepreneur and investor Timothy Ferriss poses a question on the minds of many young workers today: “What if you could use a mini-retirement to sample your deferred-life plan reward before working 40 years for it?”

Ferriss’s mini-retirement strategy involves regular travel. “I currently take three or four mini-retirements per year and know dozens who do the same,” he writes. “Sometimes these sojourns take me around the world; oftentimes they take me around the corner —Yosemite, Tahoe, Carmel — but to a different world psychologically, where meetings, e-mail and phone calls don’t exist for a set period of time.”

In a recent survey from global outplacement and career development firm Careerminds, 26% of micro-retirees said their top goal would be travel and exploration, while 23% were motivated by health and wellness.

How can you pull off your own micro-retirement?

The best time to micro-retire is when you’re ready to leave your current job and tackle a new experience, according to Duris — but adequate planning and preparation will go a long way.

Employees embarking on micro-retirement should make sure they save enough money for their time away and post-hiatus job search, have a clear sense of what they’d like to do during micro-retirement and upon their return, and refresh their resumes with any skills gleaned from the break, Duris suggests.

“Although this way of working and living might sound stressful, it offers the chance to experience the best of both worlds,” Duris says. “Putting your career on hold doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It can give young people the chance to do things that grow their confidence and help them learn more about themselves.”

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Business

Here Are the 10 Highest-Paying New-Collar Jobs, No Degree

1749154503 Marketing Manager GettyImages 1327494174

IBM first used the phrase “new-collar jobs” in 2018 to describe roles where degrees are optional, and instead emphasize skills, certifications, or on-the-job training. These careers, such as a sales engineer or marketing manager, often put practical skills above formal education. And according to new data, the jobs can pay quite well.

Resume Genius recently released a report highlighting the highest-paying new-collar jobs, based on an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, automation risk scores from the third-party tool “Will Robots Take My Job?“, and job listings on Indeed to determine if the roles offered remote or hybrid work. The jobs were selected for their high pay (median salary of at least $100,000), absence of a four-year degree requirement, availability of remote or hybrid work, and having less than a 50% chance of being automated by AI.

“New-collar roles challenge the idea that a degree is the only path to success,” stated Eva Chan, career expert at Resume Genius, in an email. “By showcasing practical skills, a portfolio of work, or even strong referrals, people can build meaningful, well-paying careers without racking up more student debt or spending years in school.”

While landing a new collar job can be different than a traditional white-collar job, which usually requires a four-year degree, or a blue-collar job, which can involve physical labor with specific skill sets, candidates set themselves up for success when applying to new-collar jobs by earning certifications that match the job, freelancing to gain a strong portfolio of work and exposure, and networking.

Here are the top 10 best-paying, new-collar jobs for 2025, according to Resume Genius.

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