I Found 5 Online Side Hustles While Building My Backyard Batting Cage

It is 6:30 in the morning on a Friday. I am hauling 3/4-inch limestone in a bucket, wearing a hoodie in 70-degree weather because the past week of rain brought out roughly 20 million mosquitoes and I already have 30 bites on my back alone. My wife and I built a batting cage in our backyard for our three kids, and now I am fixing the mud pit that constant use created inside it. While doing all of this physical work myself, I spotted five side hustles that real people are already running off jobs like mine.

None of these are passive income schemes. None of them involve apps or crypto. Every single one came directly from the work being done on my 10-by-50-foot batting cage area. The person who delivered my limestone, the place that rented me the side cutter, the guy who sourced and sold me the artificial turf. They are all running real, repeatable businesses that you can replicate. Here is exactly how each one works, what it costs the customer, and what the honest drawbacks are.

What You’ll Walk Out With

All five side hustles Alston discovered while building his backyard batting cage, explained from the customer’s actual transaction
Real dollar amounts from each deal: what Alston paid, what the hustle owner earned
Which of the five requires the least physical labor and has the most room to grow
How local lead generation arbitrage works using Google and Facebook
Honest drawbacks for each hustle, including equipment damage risk and scheduling constraints
A practical framework for picking the right one based on what you already own
A free two-minute tool that matches your current situation to the right starting point at finder.platformproof.com

Side Hustle 1: Bulk Material Delivery

I drive a Chevy Traverse. It is not built for hauling bulk materials. So when I needed 4 cubic yards of limestone to fill and level the batting cage area, I could not pick it up myself. I paid somewhere between $260 and $270 to have it delivered from the quarry to my backyard. That delivery was somebody’s side hustle.

The model is pure arbitrage. You source bulk materials from quarries, landscape supply operations, or similar suppliers, and you deliver them to homeowners who are working on weekend projects. Dirt, gravel, limestone, mulch, fill material. The demand is constant in any suburban area where people own yards and do their own projects. The supply is available to anyone willing to load and haul it.

You do not need a dump truck to start. A used pickup truck handles smaller loads well. A trailer attached to a truck or large SUV extends your capacity. You can even rent a U-Haul truck for a day and run multiple deliveries back to back, as long as you line up the jobs in advance to cover the rental cost and still clear profit.

The natural market here is weekend DIYers. Spring through fall is the busy season. People are putting in patios, raised beds, gravel paths, batting cages, drainage solutions, and fire pit areas. They need material delivered. Many of them do not have the right vehicle, the right relationship with a supplier, or the time to deal with the logistics. That is the gap you fill.

Side Hustle 2: Small Power Equipment Rental

To prep the ground under my batting cage turf, I needed a side cutter. A side cutter slices a thin layer of sod off the surface and creates a flat, clean base for whatever you are installing on top. I drove to a rental place, loaded the machine myself, used it for two hours, reloaded it, drove it back, and returned it. I paid $120 for two hours of access to that machine.

The rental company did not drive anywhere. They did not load or unload anything. They owned the equipment and collected $120. I did all of the work involved in using it.

If you own power equipment that sits unused most of the year, you can run the same model. Tillers, aerators, plate compactors, pressure washers, concrete mixers, heavy-duty augers, log splitters. Weekend DIYers need these tools occasionally but would not buy them outright for a single project. Renting them for a day or two at a rate well below the retail purchase price is genuinely attractive to homeowners.

The math works out well for the equipment owner. A side cutter that costs a few thousand dollars to purchase returns $120 per rental. A pressure washer someone already owns for personal use can earn $50 to $75 per rental day without additional purchase cost. Over a season, that idle equipment pays for itself repeatedly.

The drawback here is serious enough to address before you start. Equipment gets damaged. Renters sometimes do not return things on time or at all. You need a simple written rental agreement and a deposit requirement before the first rental leaves your property, not after something goes wrong. Going after someone legally for a damaged or unreturned piece of equipment is expensive and time-consuming. The paperwork upfront costs you nothing by comparison.

Side Hustle 3: Artificial Turf Sourcing and Resale

I bought my artificial turf through Facebook Marketplace for $500, which covered approximately four rolls. What I did not immediately understand was that the person I originally messaged was not the person who actually sourced the turf or held the inventory.

The delivery came from a guy based in Westbend, about an hour from me. He was buying used artificial turf from high schools and colleges that were replacing their existing fields, and he was reselling it on Facebook Marketplace to homeowners, backyard project builders, and small installation buyers. The person I first connected with on Facebook was based in California. The actual deliverer was someone called Danny Turf. Multiple listings across different accounts were all pointing to the same sourced supply.

The business model here is sourcing arbitrage. Sports facilities and school athletic programs replace their turf fields on a regular cycle. When they do, that used material has to go somewhere. If you can build relationships with facilities that are rotating out old turf, you can buy it in bulk at a significant discount and list individual rolls on Facebook Marketplace to homeowners who want turf without paying full retail for new material.

The constraints are real. You need a vehicle that can haul heavy rolls of turf. You need somewhere to store inventory between purchase and sale. And building the supplier relationships with schools, colleges, or sports facilities takes some upfront work. But once the supply pipeline is in place, the resale channel through Facebook Marketplace is already established and has buyers actively searching.

Side Hustle 4: Small Turf Installation

I installed my own batting cage turf. My wife would be the first to tell you that I consistently overestimate my skills and my tolerance for physical labor. But 10 by 50 feet is not a massive job, and the process is genuinely straightforward when you watch enough YouTube videos on it before starting.

What I did not do was hire a professional company to handle it. If I had, they would have charged somewhere around $6,000 to $7,000 for a job that size. That price reflects a large company’s overhead: crews, equipment, scheduling, insurance, and the fact that small residential jobs are often not their preferred work.

That price gap is the opportunity. If you learn the installation process well enough to do it cleanly on small jobs, you can offer the same result at $3,000 to $4,000 and still clear good money after your time and costs. Batting cages, dog runs, backyard play areas, small patios, balcony conversions. There is consistent demand from homeowners who want turf but cannot afford or cannot wait for the large companies.

You will likely need one or two people helping you on the days when you are physically installing. But a smaller team means lower overhead and more flexibility on pricing. The key is staying in the range of jobs you can actually complete well, because one bad installation in a neighborhood creates word-of-mouth that works against you in a local market.

Side Hustle 5: Junk, Dirt, and Debris Haul-Away

When you grade and cut sod on a 500-square-foot area, you generate a significant volume of material that has to go somewhere. That displaced dirt, cut sod, and leftover debris does not disappear. You have to load it, transport it, find a place to legally drop it off, and deal with disposal costs at the receiving facility if you are not careful about where it goes.

For Alston, this was the most frustrating part of the entire batting cage project. And that frustration is the signal. Every time a homeowner does a project that involves excavating, demolishing, or clearing material, they hit the same wall. Where does this stuff go? How much will the dump charge? What vehicle do I need? How do I load something this heavy?

If you have a truck or a trailer, you can answer all of those questions for them, for a fee. Show up, load the material, haul it to the right facility, and handle the disposal paperwork. You are trading your time and physical effort for the homeowner’s time and frustration. Most homeowners, facing a pile of cut sod or old concrete, are very willing to pay someone to make that problem disappear.

The physical demand is the main limitation here. This is hard work. The margins are real, but you earn them. Disposal facility fees can also cut into your take if you have not scouted affordable and legal drop-off locations in advance. Know your disposal costs before you quote a job.

Not sure which of these five fits your current situation?

The Platform Proof Finder tool is free and takes about two minutes. It matches your existing assets, schedule, and skill set to the right starting point. Try it at finder.platformproof.com.

The One That Scales: Lead Generation Arbitrage

After walking through all five, Alston says the one he would actually start today if he were beginning from scratch is lead generation arbitrage for local service businesses. The reason: it removes the physical labor, the equipment liability, the weather dependency, and the scheduling constraints that make the other four hard to scale.

Here is the core idea. You do not do the physical work. You find the customers for people who do the physical work, and you collect payment for every lead or customer you send them.

Think about your own search behavior. How many times have you searched for something like “mulch delivery near me” or “landscapers near me” or “turf installation near me”? Those search results go to whoever shows up at the top of the page. Most local service businesses are not investing in Google SEO or Google Ads. They rely on word of mouth and referrals. That gap is your entry point.

In practice it works like this. Pick a service category in your area, something like bulk material delivery, equipment rental, or small installation work. Build a simple website or run Google Ads targeting “[service] near me” searches for your city or region. When someone clicks and submits their contact information, you forward that lead to a local business that has agreed to pay you for it.

You can structure the payment two ways. Option one: work with several businesses in the same category and sell each lead to whoever pays you per lead. Option two: work with one or two specific businesses on a monthly retainer where they pay you a flat fee each month in exchange for all the leads you send them. The retainer model is more predictable for both sides.

This model has real upfront costs. Google Ads require budget before you see returns. Building an SEO site takes time before it ranks. You are making a real investment of time and money before the first dollar comes back. But once it is working, you are building a digital asset that keeps sending leads regardless of whether you are physically working that day. That is the meaningful difference from the other five.

Honest Drawbacks of Each Hustle

Every one of these has real friction. Here is the straight version before you commit to any of them.

Bulk material delivery: You need the right vehicle or a trailer. Renting a U-Haul adds cost and complexity. Quarries often have minimum order requirements. You are fully dependent on weather and weekend availability.
Power equipment rental: Equipment gets damaged. Renters sometimes disappear with it. You need deposit systems and rental agreements in place before your first transaction, not after a loss.
Artificial turf sourcing: Storage is a real constraint. You need somewhere to hold inventory between acquisition and sale. Building consistent supply relationships with schools and facilities requires legwork and time upfront.
Small turf installation: The physical work is demanding. You will need reliable helpers for installation days. One poor-quality job in a neighborhood can damage your local reputation in ways that take a long time to repair.
Junk and debris haul-away: This is exhausting physical work with tight margins once disposal facility fees are factored in. You need to scout legal and affordable drop-off locations before you start quoting jobs.
Lead generation arbitrage: It takes real upfront investment in either ad spend or time building SEO content before you see returns. Learning Google Ads well enough to run profitable campaigns is a genuine skill that takes time to build.

Which One Fits Your Situation?

Here is a simple framework based on what you already have today, not what you plan to acquire later.

You have a truck or trailer and free weekends: Start with bulk material delivery or debris haul-away. These have the lowest barrier to your first dollar and use what you already own.
You own power equipment that sits idle most of the year: Equipment rental. You are already paying for the asset through purchase cost and storage. Make it earn income between your own uses.
You have storage space and enjoy finding and sourcing deals: Turf resale or similar material arbitrage through Facebook Marketplace. The sourcing is the skill; the selling channel already exists.
You are physically capable and can learn a new skill quickly: Small installation work. Start with turf. The YouTube tutorials exist. The price gap from large companies creates room for a solo operator or small team to compete on price.
You want something that does not require you to be physically present to earn: Lead generation arbitrage. It requires the most upfront investment of time and money, but it is the only one of the six that does not require you to show up somewhere physically to generate income.

Find Your X

Every one of these businesses started with a real problem a homeowner needed solved and someone with the right asset or skill to solve it. The batting cage mud pit needed limestone. Someone had a truck. The sod needed cutting. Someone owned a side cutter. The turf needed sourcing. Someone had built the supplier relationships. The match between what you already have and what your local market is already paying for is where the income starts.

The Platform Proof Finder tool is built for exactly this kind of matching. It is free, takes about two minutes, and helps you identify the right starting point based on your actual situation right now. Find it at finder.platformproof.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a dump truck to start the bulk material delivery side hustle?

No. Alston paid around $260 to $270 for a delivery of 4 cubic yards of limestone that arrived in a standard delivery truck. A used pickup truck handles smaller loads well. A trailer attached to an existing vehicle extends your capacity. You can also rent a U-Haul for a day and run several deliveries back to back, as long as you line up enough jobs in advance to cover the rental cost and still clear profit.

What exactly did Alston pay for the side cutter rental, and what did he have to do himself?

He paid $120 for two hours of access to the side cutter. He drove to the rental location, loaded the machine into his vehicle himself, used it, reloaded it, and returned it. The rental place simply owned the equipment. All of the driving, loading, unloading, and operating was on Alston. The $120 went entirely to the equipment owner for providing access to the machine.

Where did the Facebook Marketplace turf seller get his supply?

The supplier in the video was sourcing used artificial turf from high schools and colleges that were replacing their existing fields. He was then listing it on Facebook Marketplace and selling it to homeowners and small project buyers at a markup. He was operating from Westbend, about an hour from Alston, and had multiple listings across different Facebook accounts all pointing to the same sourced inventory.

How much does professional turf installation cost, and where is the price gap?

For a 10-by-50-foot area, a professional company would have charged Alston approximately $6,000 to $7,000. Large companies carry overhead that makes small residential jobs expensive for the customer and not particularly attractive for the company. A solo operator or small team doing the same quality of work can undercut that price significantly while still earning well per job, because your overhead is a fraction of theirs.

How does lead generation arbitrage work for local services?

You generate customer inquiries for a local service business and get paid per lead or on a monthly retainer. You build a website or run Google Ads targeting “[service] near me” searches for your area. When someone clicks and submits their contact information, that lead goes directly to the local business you have a deal with. You never perform the physical service. The business pays you for the customers you send them, and you keep earning as long as the leads keep flowing.

What are the biggest risks with renting out power equipment?

Two main risks: equipment gets damaged during use, and some renters do not return equipment when promised or at all. You need a written rental agreement and a cash or card deposit requirement in place before any equipment leaves your possession. If you lend out a $2,000 piece of equipment on an informal handshake and it comes back damaged or does not come back, recovering that loss through legal action is expensive and slow. Set up the paperwork before your first rental, not after a problem forces the issue.

Can I run these side hustles while keeping my full-time job?

The physical ones, delivery, equipment rental, installation, and haul-away, are naturally weekend-heavy because that is when homeowners are working on projects. If you have a weekday job, that timing is actually a reasonable match. Lead generation arbitrage is the most schedule-flexible option because you are managing a digital system rather than showing up physically on a client’s timeline. You can build and adjust it in the early morning or evening without needing a full free day.

Do these side hustles work in cities, or are they suburban-only?

The physical services, bulk delivery, equipment rental, turf installation, and haul-away, work best in suburban and semi-rural areas where people own homes with yards and are actively doing outdoor projects. Dense urban markets typically have less demand for these specific services. Lead generation arbitrage is location-flexible. You can generate leads for service businesses in any market where you can run effective Google Ads or rank for local search terms, and that does not have to be the city where you physically live.

Sources

Alston Godbolt YouTube channel: “I Found 5 Online Side Hustles While Building My Backyard Batting Cage” (https://youtu.be/11YTo0fo4uU)
Facebook Marketplace: used by Alston to source and purchase artificial turf as described in the video
Direct transaction records cited in the video: limestone delivery $260 to $270 for 4 cubic yards, side cutter rental $120 for 2 hours, artificial turf purchase $500 for approximately 4 rolls, professional installation estimate $6,000 to $7,000 for 10×50 ft area