Dream of getting cash out of your ardour? Read these 4 tales and also you would possibly simply take the leap: Jo received a vacation poker event out of the blue… Here’s how she turned her hidden expertise right into a £130,000 enterprise

It was 4am in a smoky Moroccan casino when Jo Living laid her final hand of cards on the table.

She had joined a poker tournament on a whim while on holiday in 2016 and, after eight hours of play, had beaten 200 competitors to win the contest and claim the prize money of a few thousand pounds. 

Her boyfriend had taught her how to play shortly before her trip, but she’d never tried a tournament before.

She had no idea that ten years later she would have turned her poker skills into a corporate training business, with a turnover of £130,000 in the first year.

Jo, 44, who lives in Islington, north London, says: ‘The first few hours of the tournament were a blur of shaky calls and lucky turns. I was the only woman and I was pregnant, so my opponents were trying to bully me by betting hard. But I realised it was a masterclass in using your opponents’ force against them. If I could just stay calm and pick my moments, I could do this.’

Back home after her trip, Jo started hosting poker evenings, but soon realised it was hard to get women to come along. The stereotypes of bravado and bluff make women think the game is not for them. 

So she set up women-only nights to teach poker skills.

She says: ‘Soon people were telling me, I’ve used those skills to negotiate a deal at work, or to get a promotion. Something had happened to these women and it got me thinking about how poker skills can be used in business.’

How you too can do the hustle

The idea of turning a passion into a full-time job is, for many people, a dream. And the advent of easy to build apps and social media has made it easier than ever to make that dream a reality.

A ‘side hustle’ – as it has become known – is a way of earning extra money away from a full-time job. 

Self-employed association IPSE estimates that 460,000 people in the UK have one. A separate survey of 2,000 adults by Sage Group found that 47 per cent earn money on the side, rising to 64 per cent of under-35s.

The average amount earned from a side hustle is £546 a month, Sage found, and the most popular ways to earn include selling second-hand clothes, web design and app development, and fitness and nutrition consulting.

Charlotte Kennedy, chartered financial planner at Rathbones, says: ‘Turning a side hustle into a full-time business can be hugely rewarding, but it’s important to go into it with your eyes wide open. 

‘The right venture is one that plays to your skills, fits your lifestyle and operates in a market where demand is both clear and sustainable.’

Under the Trading Allowance, individuals can earn up to £1,000 a year from a secondary income stream before having to declare it. 

It is a valuable tax break for anyone exploring whether their passion project could grow into something bigger. So, what happens when you think your side hustle could turn into a full-time gig?

I realised i just had to go full-time with it

Jo Living had launched a tech company in 2019, offering support to women accessing fertility treatment, which she sold to a large pharmaceutical firm, so felt confident starting another business.

Start-up costs were low – she just hired a professional poker dealer for each event, who provided the cards and table. She started small while she perfected the concept.

This is not unusual. A survey of 1,000 people running a side business, by financial technology firm Remitly, found that 49 per cent didn’t need any upfront investment to get started. Some 22 per cent invested between £500 and £2,000, and 7 per cent more than £2,000.

Jo dropped from five to three days a week in her job at Anglia Ruskin University to build the business while still getting a regular wage. After booking a 40-person event with an investment management firm in 2024, she realised it was time to make the leap.

She left her job in 2025 and now runs her business full-time, hosting several events a month. These events are tailored to each company and typically involve no-money gambling, with Jo teaching skills such as body language during the session. Prices start at £3,000.

Jo also hosts corporate workshops and away days using the principles of poker to teach negotiation and communication skills.

She has worked with Amazon, P&O and the Premier League, has received endorsements from Richard Branson and Simon Squibb, and won a UK Startup Award. She says: ‘You need to build your business. Don’t quit everything and go all in.

‘But also, perfection is the enemy of completion. You have to say yes to things you don’t feel ready for. Just do it.’

We knew we had the skills to make it work

Best friends Rachel Allen and Sam Poole came up with the idea for Solo Connects over brunch, and just three weeks later had hosted their first singles event in Milton Keynes.

Rachel, 45, says: ‘We were moaning about dating apps and said, wouldn’t it be great if you could just get 20 people down the pub like the old days. I’m a marketing consultant and Sam is in advertising, so we thought maybe we had the skills to pull it off.’

The two single mums started simple, setting up a Facebook group and creating an Eventbrite link for tickets to a local pub at £15 each. It was an instant hit.

A year later, the pair have sold more than 5,000 tickets across 100 events, from speed dating, coffee and cake nights, salsa, board game evenings, pickleball and a Valentine’s Day party. All the events are centred around people meeting in person rather than online.

They generated sales of £70,000 in their first year and have now hired an assistant and are looking to expand. In time they hope to make their side hustle their full-time job.

Rachel says: ‘It’s a lot of late nights and weekends and juggling our child-free time, but it is something we passionately believe in – we want to make dating fun again.’

Rathbones’ Charlotte Kennedy says: ‘Getting started often requires more time, energy and upfront cost than expected, while the early years can involve real personal sacrifice.’

My dad inspired my whisky business

When Daniel Humphrey’s mum was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, he moved home to care for her and his father, a paraplegic.

Daniel, 41, from Sussex, says: ‘I was in hospital with Mum 12 hours a day, staring at a wall, so I started thinking about this idea I’d had.’

He’d noticed a gap in the market when trying to find a Christmas gift for his whisky-loving dad.

Daniel lost his job as head of sales at a food and drink company because he was spending so much time at the hospital, so in 2018 he created Summerton Whisky Club, a subscription service that delivers high-quality whisky to members’ doors every two months.

Daniel says: ‘It felt obvious that the industry needed something like this, a way to get small, passionate producers to new people.’

To get the business up and running, Daniel set about meeting distilleries to get them interested in the concept and to build enough of a following to be able to secure good prices from suppliers.

During the Covid lockdown, he ran an online whisky festival, which had 1,000 attendees. Today the club has about 2,000 subscribers and an online shop, hosts events including a whisky festival and achieves a turnover of about £500,000 a year. He has one full-time employee and is able to draw enough income to live on.

Irregular income is a common obstacle when launching a new business. Some 6 per cent of those surveyed by Remitly said their side hustle income varied too much to determine how much they could actually make from it.

Charlotte Kennedy says: ‘A business can realistically replace your salary once it covers more than just your monthly bills. That means delivering a reliable after-tax income that supports day-to-day living, allows you to keep building a pension and to maintain a fund for quieter months.’

Daniel adds: ‘Dad is still member number one, and I try my best to treat customers the same way I would treat him.’

My husband told me: I can’t live like this!

Ella Rauen-Prestes always enjoyed baking, but with a successful corporate career at a telecoms giant she never thought about making it a business.

Ella, 51, from Cheltenham, says: ‘Technology changes a lot and you constantly have to adapt and upskill. At some point I started thinking: what if I got out of it?’

In 2018 she set up a website and Instagram account for her low-sugar, high-protein cakes. ‘The orders started to come in. I couldn’t believe people were willing to pay for something I’d made.’

Ella baked during her evenings and weekends and spent lunch breaks sending off her orders. In 2019 she got a deal to be stocked in department store Selfridges after sending an email presenting her company.

After that things snowballed. Online influencers discovered her brand and sales soared. She employed six people to help her bake. ‘But it was still in the kitchen at home. My husband, Lucien, was like, I can’t live like this!’

Later that year, when investors offered £150,000 backing, there was one condition: Ella needed to be at the business full-time. ‘It was terrifying, but at some point you have to take the leap,’ she says.

Sales surged further during Covid, when more people were buying online. However, the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine was difficult. ‘I remember using an app to track the ship my ingredients were on, and suddenly it disappeared. It turned out it had been bombed,’ she says.

Today her Fitbakes are stocked by Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado and Holland & Barrett in more than 2,000 stores across the country. She employs eight people –

no longer working in her own kitchen – and has annual sales of about £3 million.

Ella says: ‘My advice would be to start small and go for it. You will make mistakes along the way and will need to adjust a lot, but the important thing is to start.’