May 5, 2025 • 12 mins
In this episode of The Eric Thompson Podcast, Eric reveals a surprisingly simple and overlooked side hustle that’s helping Americans take back control of their income—curb address painting.
With just a few tools, a bit of training, and a couple of afternoons, you can build a steady cash flow business in your own neighborhood. Eric walks through everything you need to get started, including what supplies to buy, how much to charge, and how to market door-to-door effectively.
Using insights from the experts at Stencil Stop, Eric breaks down the curb painting game in plain language. He’ll share the top mistakes to avoid, how to price your services competitively, and how to scale from solo weekend work to a full-time gig.
Whether you’re looking to supplement your income, replace a dead-end job, or teach your teen entrepreneurial skills, this episode has you covered. No licenses. No college degree. No gatekeepers. Just hustle, spray paint, and grit. If you’ve been waiting for a low-risk, high-reward way to jumpstart your own small business in your community, don’t miss this practical, freedom-focused conversation. The American Dream isn’t dead—you just need a stencil.
With just a few tools, a bit of training, and a couple of afternoons, you can build a steady cash flow business in your own neighborhood. Eric walks through everything you need to get started, including what supplies to buy, how much to charge, and how to market door-to-door effectively.
Using insights from the experts at Stencil Stop, Eric breaks down the curb painting game in plain language. He’ll share the top mistakes to avoid, how to price your services competitively, and how to scale from solo weekend work to a full-time gig.
Whether you’re looking to supplement your income, replace a dead-end job, or teach your teen entrepreneurial skills, this episode has you covered. No licenses. No college degree. No gatekeepers. Just hustle, spray paint, and grit. If you’ve been waiting for a low-risk, high-reward way to jumpstart your own small business in your community, don’t miss this practical, freedom-focused conversation. The American Dream isn’t dead—you just need a stencil.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, I ran across this business idea for under one
hundred dollars. You can get started with the ability to
make in some markets over nine thousand dollars a months
from your own home base business. And it's so simple
you're gonna say, why didn't I do that? So it
sounds good, then don't go anywhere. This is Eric Thompson Podcast,
your one stop shop for entrepreneurship and business ideas.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'll be right back. Hey, thank you so much for
staying with me.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
My name is Sara Thompson out here in Oklahoma. On
today's podcast, we're going to be going over a simple
business idea that I remember years ago. I saw people
going around the neighborhoods doing it. Well, guess what, they've
kind of wrapped it up now. My friend out Missouri
told me about some people making over nine thousand dollars
(00:58):
a month in the summer if you could do out
on and stuff to it. So I'm going to go
over what the business is, how to get set up.
I'm not marketing anything today. We're simply going to give
you a business idea. If you need to raise capital,
if you want to teach your kids principles about starting
and operating a small business.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So do be a favorite. Please share this with your
friends and family.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Like our podcast, subscribe and looking forward to this today
on the Eric Thompson Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So we're back.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
All right, this is going to be fun, and I'm
going to go over this list with you and then
we're done. I'm going to actually give you a link
to a website that would actually give you supplies. I
think we're looking at a one hundred dollars or less
to make thirty forty eighty bucks an hour. Depends on
what you what you want to charge, and what kind
(01:56):
of add on. So let me ask you a question.
Have you ever had anyone come to your house or
when you were growing up to your parents' house and
they or there were flyers on the door and it
said we're going to be in the neighborhood on Saturday,
painting house numbers on the curb. I can remember that,
(02:21):
and I remember at the time I thought, oh, I
guess it's a way to make a few bucks. To
think about the thing about it now, the populations are
so big, and even in homes like got Here and
Broken Arrow, we're probably one hundred and thirty thousand people
all of a sudden, we've got new homes, old homes,
we've got weather that wears away the numbers. And it's
(02:45):
actually pretty crucial that every home in business has a number,
the house number, especially on the curb. For a few reasons,
and I'll get to those here in a second. So
when we went over the five things to consider when
starting a business on the last podcast, which you can
(03:07):
download wherever you get your podcasts from. If you forget,
you can always go to et podcast dot com. It
will forward you to the speaker page. But the nice
thing about the curb painting business, it's very inexpensive to
get started. It's the service is known to a lot
(03:29):
of people, and believe it or not, even though there's
really good money to be made in it could be
thirty forty eighty whatever, whatever the neighborhood is, and whatever
you're willing to ask for, not a lot of people
do it.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You may have other businesses you want to start. You
may now, but you could have a business it's it's running.
And we're going to go over things to help if
your but you know your business is struggling, and other
podcast on the road, but this one is really good.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
If you have teenagers.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Like I said, if you want to help people, but
if you can nine thousand dollars a month, any business
like that with small startup capital, with very flexible scheduling,
I think is something you should look into. Okay, as
you're getting started, you want to figure out obviously, where
(04:26):
am I going to get the supplies or what kind
of supplies do I need to do this? Well, it's
pretty straightforward. You're going to figure out what variations you'd
like to offer because those are your out on. So
if you maybe you're going to charge twenty dollars to
put the house number up, and if somebody wants a
(04:46):
local school logo, you can spray paint that's in a
different color. So you want to figure out what offer,
what variation is going to offer? Do you want to
have glow in the dark paint to charge an extra
five dollars? You don't want to have too many options
because this is not a very complicated transaction, right, we're
talking about determining the businesses the capital needed.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Is there a market, is there competition?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, if you get in an area where people aren't
doing this and you're with your kids, if you want
to teach them, you know, the market evaluation and all that.
Understand if you leave a flyer on the door, or
if you actually go knock on the door, and so
I'm going to be I'm spray painting. If you want
the OSU or UCLA logo whatever next to your number,
would you like me to give you a number, because
(05:35):
it's actually pretty crucial. See, curb numbers are helped super
helpful for firefighter as an emergency personnel. That's kind of important,
isn't it. Or someone's trying to find you and they're
in a neighborhood and nobody has house numbers and they're driving,
(05:56):
or I mean, all the inconvenience and even the risk
of not having numbers is when you just say, hey,
I notice you don't have house numbers, so I'm in
the neighborhood. I can go put a really nice house
number on the curb so people can find you in
case of emergency, or you put a flyer. I'm going
(06:16):
to be in a neighborhood on Saturday. We're going to
be out for twelve hours. If you'd like to have
me put your number, give me a call however you
want to get the lead. But when you do get
the offer. You're going to need to have spray paint
based off of the colors you want to use. It's
you definitely want to have black and white stencils. You
can get that at I think Joe Anne's or places
(06:38):
like that or wherever they have like crafts and stuff.
Maybe even Walmart. I don't know, but I'm also going
to give you a website at the end that they'll
have them. Also, you want to have rectangular frames. You
can frame everything in recommend dimensions for four digit addresses
fourteen by five point five five point five inches, so
(07:01):
fourteen inches by five for the rectangle, and for a
five digit address seventeen and a half times five point
five inches.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You're going to need a.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Mask obviously, because you don't breathe in the fumes, and
you need a wirebrush to be able to clean off
the cement before you put the number on.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, so get started.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I got my neighborhoods, I know the part of town
I drive around. Well, if you want to make it easier,
I believe, just like we call it seeding the market.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When I sold Yellow page ads, well, let's.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Put the phone company and years ago when they would
go into a small community that did not have a
phone book available, we would give phone book ads away
free the first year, so like you're putting seeds in
the ground, and next year we'd come back and there's
a harvest and people are getting calls, and then we
would charge them. Well, what you could do is you
(07:59):
could go to a few homes and say, hey, I'm
going to be helping your neighbors get numbers put on
the curb so you know, so the emergency services can
find you guys. But I need a few examples. Would
it be okay if I put your house number on
your curb and do a couple of them. That way,
(08:21):
when you go to the house or the other ones,
you say, we just did dismiss and the Williams and
you can see what we did. I think that would
help you as you're getting especially as you're getting started.
So then before you go to the door, though you
do need to figure out after you've done the free ones.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
But I also have your add ons available in case
they say.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You can do it for free, say, well, can you
put the local high school logo on there? Well, yeah,
it's only five dollars extra, so I can do it
for free. If you want me to put that on
for five bucks, it's up to you. But make sure
you know and nowadays that you have change for cash,
and if possible, it's it's easy to do. Get a
square card reader in case they pull out their debit
(09:01):
card and they want to pay you twenty dollars plus
a tip and you're like, I don't have I don't
take credit cards.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
That would be a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So figure out what supplies you need, figure out your
pricing point, figure out why you should do why.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Should someone do this?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And we call this create and practice your It's an
elevator pitch or a sales pitch, So don't go to
the door and stumble all over, be friendly and just
keep it simple. Around thirty seconds. People don't have a
lot of time. Most people will say no even if
it makes sense. But it's a numbers game. So when
(09:45):
someone comes to the door, don't go hi home to
say how you doing. I'm in the neighborhood. I'm helping
people get numbers on the curb in case the emergency
services need to find them.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Are friends and family?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Would you be interested in having me put a nice
bold number on the curb for you?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Sure, how much is it? No, you're pricing what do
you want to charge?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Some people are gonna think ten bucks is too much,
some are gonna think twenty bucks is a bargain, or
thirty bucks, whatever you want to charge. But whatever price
you agree on, do not negotiate because if you start
doing different prices for different homes in the same area,
it will come back to bite you because you're going
to be asking for referrals.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Hey, you like that great.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
If your friends and found me in this area would
like to do the same thing, please text me or
give me a call. Well, if you're charging twenty here,
five or ten there, you're not going to get the
right kinds of text and calls. Trust me on that,
all right, So make sure you have your thirty second
elevator pitch we call it, or sells pitch down.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It's not very complicated.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Do the few homes for free so you can say
look at them or name drop the people that you
did it for free for and carry change and get
a credit card reader to accept credit card payments. If
you do this, you're actually in the painting. You're in
the curb any business with the potential to make thousands
of dollars a month or one hundred bucks a month,
(11:06):
whatever you want side gig, full time gig in the
summer only.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Maybe it's seasonal.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
But I think it was a great idea and I
wanted to offer to you since entrepreneurs and business owners
are listening to this podcast. So if you want to
get there, if you want to get the business set
up from a company, Like I said, I have no
affiliation with these guys. This was just an idea a
friend of mine gave me, and I'm not gonna do
it because I am maxed out already. But if you
(11:33):
are looking to either need to raise capital, need to
train your kids on how to start a business, you
want to make extra money, or you're just tired of
your job and you've been listening to this podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You're like, I don't have capital.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I can't get access to capital, but I could probably
come up with enough to get the stencils and paint.
Go to this website stencil stop dot com. Stencil stop
dot com looks like they have everything that you need
over there, and again, please share this with your friends
and family and the next podcast, so we're going to
get back into the nuts and bolts. So Okay, you
(12:07):
figuring out the business, You've got the capitol, you're ready
to get started. How do you go to market? So
be on the lookout for that. My name is Eric Thompson.
This has been the Eric Thompson Podcast. Thank you so
much for listening, and be on the lookout from the
next podcast. If you subscribe to my podcast on Spotify
and Apple, you're gonna be notified that it'll be coming
out of here.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We're going to try to do ten of them this week,
so be on the lookout. I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
Hey, I ran across this business idea for under one
hundred dollars. You can get started with the ability to
make in some markets over nine thousand dollars a months
from your own home base business. And it's so simple
you're gonna say, why didn't I do that? So it
sounds good, then don't go anywhere. This is Eric Thompson Podcast,
your one stop shop for entrepreneurship and business ideas.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'll be right back. Hey, thank you so much for
staying with me.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
My name is Sara Thompson out here in Oklahoma. On
today's podcast, we're going to be going over a simple
business idea that I remember years ago. I saw people
going around the neighborhoods doing it. Well, guess what, they've
kind of wrapped it up now. My friend out Missouri
told me about some people making over nine thousand dollars
(00:58):
a month in the summer if you could do out
on and stuff to it. So I'm going to go
over what the business is, how to get set up.
I'm not marketing anything today. We're simply going to give
you a business idea. If you need to raise capital,
if you want to teach your kids principles about starting
and operating a small business.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So do be a favorite. Please share this with your
friends and family.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Like our podcast, subscribe and looking forward to this today
on the Eric Thompson Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So we're back.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
All right, this is going to be fun, and I'm
going to go over this list with you and then
we're done. I'm going to actually give you a link
to a website that would actually give you supplies. I
think we're looking at a one hundred dollars or less
to make thirty forty eighty bucks an hour. Depends on
what you what you want to charge, and what kind
(01:56):
of add on. So let me ask you a question.
Have you ever had anyone come to your house or
when you were growing up to your parents' house and
they or there were flyers on the door and it
said we're going to be in the neighborhood on Saturday,
painting house numbers on the curb. I can remember that,
(02:21):
and I remember at the time I thought, oh, I
guess it's a way to make a few bucks. To
think about the thing about it now, the populations are
so big, and even in homes like got Here and
Broken Arrow, we're probably one hundred and thirty thousand people
all of a sudden, we've got new homes, old homes,
we've got weather that wears away the numbers. And it's
(02:45):
actually pretty crucial that every home in business has a number,
the house number, especially on the curb. For a few reasons,
and I'll get to those here in a second. So
when we went over the five things to consider when
starting a business on the last podcast, which you can
(03:07):
download wherever you get your podcasts from. If you forget,
you can always go to et podcast dot com. It
will forward you to the speaker page. But the nice
thing about the curb painting business, it's very inexpensive to
get started. It's the service is known to a lot
(03:29):
of people, and believe it or not, even though there's
really good money to be made in it could be
thirty forty eighty whatever, whatever the neighborhood is, and whatever
you're willing to ask for, not a lot of people
do it.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You may have other businesses you want to start. You
may now, but you could have a business it's it's running.
And we're going to go over things to help if
your but you know your business is struggling, and other
podcast on the road, but this one is really good.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
If you have teenagers.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Like I said, if you want to help people, but
if you can nine thousand dollars a month, any business
like that with small startup capital, with very flexible scheduling,
I think is something you should look into. Okay, as
you're getting started, you want to figure out obviously, where
(04:26):
am I going to get the supplies or what kind
of supplies do I need to do this? Well, it's
pretty straightforward. You're going to figure out what variations you'd
like to offer because those are your out on. So
if you maybe you're going to charge twenty dollars to
put the house number up, and if somebody wants a
(04:46):
local school logo, you can spray paint that's in a
different color. So you want to figure out what offer,
what variation is going to offer? Do you want to
have glow in the dark paint to charge an extra
five dollars? You don't want to have too many options
because this is not a very complicated transaction, right, we're
talking about determining the businesses the capital needed.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Is there a market, is there competition?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, if you get in an area where people aren't
doing this and you're with your kids, if you want
to teach them, you know, the market evaluation and all that.
Understand if you leave a flyer on the door, or
if you actually go knock on the door, and so
I'm going to be I'm spray painting. If you want
the OSU or UCLA logo whatever next to your number,
would you like me to give you a number, because
(05:35):
it's actually pretty crucial. See, curb numbers are helped super
helpful for firefighter as an emergency personnel. That's kind of important,
isn't it. Or someone's trying to find you and they're
in a neighborhood and nobody has house numbers and they're driving,
(05:56):
or I mean, all the inconvenience and even the risk
of not having numbers is when you just say, hey,
I notice you don't have house numbers, so I'm in
the neighborhood. I can go put a really nice house
number on the curb so people can find you in
case of emergency, or you put a flyer. I'm going
(06:16):
to be in a neighborhood on Saturday. We're going to
be out for twelve hours. If you'd like to have
me put your number, give me a call however you
want to get the lead. But when you do get
the offer. You're going to need to have spray paint
based off of the colors you want to use. It's
you definitely want to have black and white stencils. You
can get that at I think Joe Anne's or places
(06:38):
like that or wherever they have like crafts and stuff.
Maybe even Walmart. I don't know, but I'm also going
to give you a website at the end that they'll
have them. Also, you want to have rectangular frames. You
can frame everything in recommend dimensions for four digit addresses
fourteen by five point five five point five inches, so
(07:01):
fourteen inches by five for the rectangle, and for a
five digit address seventeen and a half times five point
five inches.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You're going to need a.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Mask obviously, because you don't breathe in the fumes, and
you need a wirebrush to be able to clean off
the cement before you put the number on.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, so get started.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I got my neighborhoods, I know the part of town
I drive around. Well, if you want to make it easier,
I believe, just like we call it seeding the market.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When I sold Yellow page ads, well, let's.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Put the phone company and years ago when they would
go into a small community that did not have a
phone book available, we would give phone book ads away
free the first year, so like you're putting seeds in
the ground, and next year we'd come back and there's
a harvest and people are getting calls, and then we
would charge them. Well, what you could do is you
(07:59):
could go to a few homes and say, hey, I'm
going to be helping your neighbors get numbers put on
the curb so you know, so the emergency services can
find you guys. But I need a few examples. Would
it be okay if I put your house number on
your curb and do a couple of them. That way,
(08:21):
when you go to the house or the other ones,
you say, we just did dismiss and the Williams and
you can see what we did. I think that would
help you as you're getting especially as you're getting started.
So then before you go to the door, though you
do need to figure out after you've done the free ones.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
But I also have your add ons available in case
they say.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You can do it for free, say, well, can you
put the local high school logo on there? Well, yeah,
it's only five dollars extra, so I can do it
for free. If you want me to put that on
for five bucks, it's up to you. But make sure
you know and nowadays that you have change for cash,
and if possible, it's it's easy to do. Get a
square card reader in case they pull out their debit
(09:01):
card and they want to pay you twenty dollars plus
a tip and you're like, I don't have I don't
take credit cards.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
That would be a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So figure out what supplies you need, figure out your
pricing point, figure out why you should do why.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Should someone do this?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And we call this create and practice your It's an
elevator pitch or a sales pitch, So don't go to
the door and stumble all over, be friendly and just
keep it simple. Around thirty seconds. People don't have a
lot of time. Most people will say no even if
it makes sense. But it's a numbers game. So when
(09:45):
someone comes to the door, don't go hi home to
say how you doing. I'm in the neighborhood. I'm helping
people get numbers on the curb in case the emergency
services need to find them.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Are friends and family?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Would you be interested in having me put a nice
bold number on the curb for you?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Sure, how much is it? No, you're pricing what do
you want to charge?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Some people are gonna think ten bucks is too much,
some are gonna think twenty bucks is a bargain, or
thirty bucks, whatever you want to charge. But whatever price
you agree on, do not negotiate because if you start
doing different prices for different homes in the same area,
it will come back to bite you because you're going
to be asking for referrals.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Hey, you like that great.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
If your friends and found me in this area would
like to do the same thing, please text me or
give me a call. Well, if you're charging twenty here,
five or ten there, you're not going to get the
right kinds of text and calls. Trust me on that,
all right, So make sure you have your thirty second
elevator pitch we call it, or sells pitch down.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It's not very complicated.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Do the few homes for free so you can say
look at them or name drop the people that you
did it for free for and carry change and get
a credit card reader to accept credit card payments. If
you do this, you're actually in the painting. You're in
the curb any business with the potential to make thousands
of dollars a month or one hundred bucks a month,
(11:06):
whatever you want side gig, full time gig in the
summer only.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Maybe it's seasonal.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
But I think it was a great idea and I
wanted to offer to you since entrepreneurs and business owners
are listening to this podcast. So if you want to
get there, if you want to get the business set
up from a company, Like I said, I have no
affiliation with these guys. This was just an idea a
friend of mine gave me, and I'm not gonna do
it because I am maxed out already. But if you
(11:33):
are looking to either need to raise capital, need to
train your kids on how to start a business, you
want to make extra money, or you're just tired of
your job and you've been listening to this podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You're like, I don't have capital.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I can't get access to capital, but I could probably
come up with enough to get the stencils and paint.
Go to this website stencil stop dot com. Stencil stop
dot com looks like they have everything that you need
over there, and again, please share this with your friends
and family and the next podcast, so we're going to
get back into the nuts and bolts. So Okay, you
(12:07):
figuring out the business, You've got the capitol, you're ready
to get started. How do you go to market? So
be on the lookout for that. My name is Eric Thompson.
This has been the Eric Thompson Podcast. Thank you so
much for listening, and be on the lookout from the
next podcast. If you subscribe to my podcast on Spotify
and Apple, you're gonna be notified that it'll be coming
out of here.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We're going to try to do ten of them this week,
so be on the lookout. I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
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