GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Business
ENTREPRENEURIAL ENERGY
A Wellington man has confirmed that his carefully branded “side hustle” has generated $11 in revenue over the past two years.
Ethan Clarke, 29, describes himself as a “digital entrepreneur” despite acknowledging that most of his earnings came from one Trade Me sale in late 2023.
“It’s not about the money yet,” Clarke explained. “I’m taking the time to build up a strong system.”
Clarke said his side hustle involves dropshipping, content strategy and “leveraging attention.”
“I’m playing the long game,” he said. “Eleven dollars might seem small but at this stage it’s proof of concept.”
The local man confirmed he spends most evenings refining logos and updating his bio, saying that “you’ve got to look bigger than you are first, and then you scale.”
Flatmate Josh Turner said the hustle appears largely theoretical. “He talks about passive income a lot,” Turner said. “But what I’ve mostly seen is a lot of time spent on Canva.”
Clarke remains confident the breakthrough is imminent.
“All big businesses start somewhere,” he said. “Rome wasn’t built in a day and I’m pretty sure they didn’t make a profit from day one either.”
At time of writing, Clarke was reportedly considering reinvesting his $11 into a new domain name to “help with SEO”.
More to come.
