Successful Businesses That Started Small And Now Have Reached The Pinnacle of Success

Did you know that some of the most profitable businesses began as just side hustles at first?  Side hustles are not just there to give you the gumption to carry on with your main hustle, but very often it becomes the main hustle.  It may seem improbable but small personal enterprises have become one of the biggest businesses many a time. With hard work and luck, you may actually be able to script one of the biggest success stories ever. Take a look at these global businesses which actually began as side hustles and went on to become major successes.

Apple

Apple’s tech startup story is one of the best tech stories that you could ever hear of. There are two guys who have high school diplomas, with plenty of motivation, and gumption to change the world. Shaggy, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak met at Jobs’s parents’ garage sometime in the early 1970s, who began building personal computers. They first completed the Apple 1 within a spate of five years of their business they have become the hottest tech company in the world. Although, they went through the usual phases of highs and lows, with Jobs being ousted once. He was brought back to hold on to the largest market share and established themselves as a technical juggernaut. The company is now attempting to intersect technology with humanities and its valuation stands at $750 billion.

Under Armour

Under Armor was made out of necessity, yes it is as simple as that. In the mid-1990 Kevin Plank who was a football player belonging to Maryland became really weary of wearing uncomfortable shirts under his jersey during his practice days. This prompted him to create an athletic undershirt that would help him keep dry and comfortable during tough practice sessions. It became a great success so much so that he thought of manufacturing it to sell it to the other athletes. He started selling shirts from his car and soon Under Armour found its own warehouse and established headquarters. Since then it has become one of the best brands whose annual revenue comes to around $4 billion.

Houzz

Houzz is a popular home improvement hub that combines great interior and exterior decorating ideas. Not only that it brings to the fore home improvement professionals, a shopping portal,  a user forum, and to think that all of this started with simple beginnings. It was the husband-wife duo of Alon Cohen and Adi Tatarko who began the Houzz journey with their home improvement project. They started with a small website including input as they brought on contractors on board. Soon enough their side hustle became a full-fledged company and introduced an iPad app. Houzz was soon worth a whopping $4 billion.

Etsy

If you’re all for unique, crafty, creative, or handmade things you may try the same at Etsy. The company began in 2005 as it wanted to find a platform for individual artisans to sell their wares. It was a niche website but soon it became popular as people started buying and selling handmade items. Within a spate of a few years, the company’s annual revenues were running in millions of annual sales, and in April 2016 it reached the landmark of a $100 million IPO.

In recent years, the company has had its usual share of ups and downs, but no one can take away the fact that it is a highly valued brand with buyers and sellers running in millions.

HubSpot

HubSpot is known for using its SaaS inbound marketing tools, yes their marketing and sales blogs have been much talked about. The tour de force in the digital marketing space that it began small with two brainstorming MIT grad students who made the most of their marketing knowledge. Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah started working as independent contractors using marketing methods to help companies. Halligan and Shah came together to find HubSpot in 2006 and began their journey with small companies. Soon enough they graduated to medium and large companies, and now if you want a name for holding the most important digital marketing services, then HubSpot clearly makes the cut. In 2016 it made close to $270 million in revenue and its journey has only been upward and onwards.

Did you know about any of these companies and their humble beginnings? Share with us in the comments section below.