The Side Hustle Twist: When All Else Fails, Pivot to Profits

What happens when you no longer have your best-selling product? On September 18, 1885, Charles and Frank Menches were confronted with this same question. Hiram Hopkins and the rest of the Erie County Agricultural Society Board of Directors had agreed to allow the Ohio Brethren to operate a food concession stand at its annual Erie County Fair (aka the "Hamburg fair") precisely because they offered something that no other food vendor offered: pork sausage patty sandwiches.

Faced with a terrible reality and in classic fashion, the Menches brothers instantly changed because they had no choice. In doing so, they changed history forever and created a trillion dollar industry. Their achievement of the final “P” completed their MVP Side Hustle. You can see the "P" in all of these entrepreneurs' ventures, from opening and closing circuses and similar shows to selling their successful novelty food business and then investing those profits in a movie theater just when this industry was about to explode. What can you learn from their story to earn your "P" and become a Side Hustle MVP?

Thus, this Friday morning, the last day of the event, which broke attendance records the day before, the Menches brothers discovered that they had no more pork. When Frank cycled to the nearby village butcher, Andrew Stein refused to sell the ten pounds of pork just 20 years old. “Too hot,” said the butcher. "I'm not going to slaughter a whole pig just for you."1

Frank faced a dilemma.

The Fair didn't want wood-fired grills spitting hot ashes onto its new wooden grandstand. The Menches brothers and their innovative gas grill have thus won a privileged location right next to this grandstand. With the big parade, the final race, and all those people hours away, the boys needed something more than candy to sell. Frank had to make a decision. Would his older brother Charles agree? With no pork available, Stein convinced Frank to take five pounds of ground beef.

As you might expect, carnies are a tough breed. A cross between pioneering adventurers and self-reliant pioneers, they're the kind of people who have a knack for finding practical solutions with nothing more than chicken wire and duct tape. The Menches brothers, who had been in the carnival catering business for over a year, knew exactly what to do.

Using their pork sausage patty as a model, they duplicated their effort with the ground beef Frank came back with. The first attempt failed. It was raw in the middle. They cooked it further and produced what could be described as a hockey puck. Eventually, with the help of coffee, brown sugar, and a few other ingredients, the juicy patty sold out quickly.

When a satisfied customer asked the name of this delicious treat, Frank didn't know what to call it. With the sweat of the damp day and the hot stove dripping down his cheek, he looked up at the banner proclaiming the event. It was written "Hamburg Fair". Frank turned to the customer and said, "It's a hamburger sandwich."

From that day, September 18, 1885, "Burger Day" until today (with apologies to Ronald), "billions upon billions" of hamburgers have been sold.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Some of the greatest breakthroughs happen by accident. From Christopher Columbus discovering America to Alexander Fleming's inadvertent discovery of penicillin, you've seen how these chance events can change the world.

Most often these events are initially described as "failures". For example, in 1943, to the delight of children everywhere, James Wright failed in his attempt to create a less expensive synthetic rubber for tank treads, boots, and just about anything essential to the war effort. Within a few years, kids were bouncing this Silly Putty off the walls.

The essence of all these stories is this: you start in one direction, hit an obstacle, then swing in another direction which ends in a pot of gold. The Menches brothers certainly took advantage of their pivot. It wasn't until they were nearly out of the fair concession business in the 1920s that the first white castle emerged and the real fast food profits began. The boys certainly left some money on the table for many more to gather, but they did just fine.

But this is not a story about the success of the hamburger industry. On the contrary, it is a model based on what could be called the "Business Hamburger Success" model.

What triggers the pivot?

All good plans turn bad in the heat of the moment. It can happen at any time in the life of your business or side business. It's sudden and dramatic...