The Business Model That Outlasted Empires

Hey there,

I came across an email from Nick Loper of Side Hustle Nation that got me excited. It perfectly describes a business model I've been using for a short while now, but don’t talk about nearly enough.

Nick calls it "drop servicing" - a clever play on drop shipping.

(If you've been subscribed to me for a while, you'll recognise this as what I call "service arbitrage" - but keep reading, because there's much more to this story than you might think...)

It might be the easiest way to start making money online with almost zero startup costs.

What Is Drop Servicing? 

It's literally doing what humans have done for millennia - finding a service need and outsourcing it to someone for less money, pocketing a tidy margin in the process.

Here's how it works:

1. You sell a service (cleaning, writing, design, etc.)

2. The customer pays you

3. Your "supplier" does the actual work

4. You pay them a portion and keep the difference

The customer gets what they want. The supplier gets paid. And you make a profit for facilitating the transaction.

Real-World Example from Nick's Newsletter 

In Nick's latest email, he shares how Anthony and Jhanilka Hartzog used this model to build Maids2Match to $20-25k in monthly sales—all while keeping their day jobs!

They found cleaners happy to work for $25-35/hour, then marketed those services at a premium (usually $200-300 per clean). The business eventually grew to $45-60k per month.

But wait... there's more to this story.

As I read Nick's email, I realised I've been doing something very similar with my freelance writing business. And I've figured out how to almost completely automate the process.

How I Drop Service Writing (With Minimal Effort) 

Many of you know that freelance writing was my escape from the 9-to-5. While I now work with one of the world's biggest social media agencies, I still maintain a few SEO writing clients—but I don't write the content myself anymore.

I have a talented writer in Nigeria who handles the actual work. Here's how it breaks down:

• I charge clients 10 cents per word

• I pay my writer 4 cents per word

• He gets paid more than local rates in Nigeria

• I pocket a nice margin

• The client gets high-quality work with quick turnaround

Everyone wins.

But here's where it gets interesting...

I've set up a system that requires almost no active work on my part. Keep reading to see exactly how I find clients, automate outreach, and manage the entire process with minimal time investment.

Step 1: Finding Opportunities Automatically 

I use a tool called Alerts by Reddit. I've set it up to monitor threads like r/hiring with keywords such as "looking for a writer" or "need a writer."

(I share all my favorite Reddit threads in my freelance writing course below, but r/hiring is one where all sorts of opportunities can be found.)

I also set keywords to avoid: "hire me," "need work," "my portfolio," etc., so I'm not seeing posts from other freelancers.

Step 2: Automated Outreach 

When an opportunity appears, I use an AI automation setup in Claude. I simply paste the job details, and it creates a tailored outreach message using my existing portfolio and experience.

This part is just copy-and-paste work for me. It takes seconds.

Step 3: Going Full Automation 

For those who want to take this even further, you could in theory connect everything with Zapier.

Imagine this:

• Reddit alert comes in

• Zapier automatically sends the job details to Claude

• Claude generates the outreach message

• The message gets sent automatically

• Client responses go straight to your VA

It's entirely possible to automate this whole process end-to-end.

From finding leads to closing deals to managing deliverables—all with less than 30 minutes of work per week.

The Beauty of This Model 

What's exciting about drop servicing is that it can be applied to virtually any service:

• Writing

• Graphic design

• Web development

• Video editing

• Social media management

• Virtual assistance

• House cleaning (as in Nick's example)

Getting Started 

If you want to try this approach:

1. Identify a service you understand well

2. Find reliable people who can deliver quality work

3. Set up systems to find clients (like my Reddit alerts)

4. Create templates for outreach

5. Start small and scale as you build confidence

I'd love to hear if you are trying this approach or already doing something similar!

Talk soon,

Lewis