Strategy #4 - Boarding Houses & Bunny Merch: The Art of the Historic Side Hustle
And how modern side-gig culture can steal this strategic blueprint.
I am working on Book #2: a non-fiction book about the twelve marketing strategies I discovered while researching my biographical novel, Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh. As I go, I’m sharing the strategies one by one. Catch up here: Strategy #1 , Strategy #2 and Strategy #3.
I see you: Creative Minds, Side Hustlers, Independent Contractors, Freelancers, Side Giggers, Moonlighters, Passion Project Pursuers, Weekend Warriors, Self-starters, Bootstrappers.
I feel your driving desire, innovative itch, glaring gap, urgent impulse, creative craving, needling need, fervent focus.
Because I feel it too.
And so does Anne Carson*, who wrote: “Desire is no light thing.”
“Light”? No - every creator and entrepreneur knows the persistent insistence of an idea and the propulsive power of saying yes to it. Because with that “yes” comes the next spark to make it happen—like Strategy 4 from Jo van Gogh-Bonger’s marketing playbook:
Become a hybrid entrepreneur.
Blindsided in 1891
Quick catch-up: Followers of this newsletter know that in 1891, when Jo’s husband Theo died, Jo van Gogh was blindsided. Married less than two years with a one-year-old baby, no income, and no business experience, in the midst of grief, her trajectory seemed predetermined: Bundle up the baby. Move back to her parents’ home in Amsterdam.
Leave the four hundred “worthless” Van Gogh paintings behind.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she moved to a small town south of Amsterdam and opened a boarding house. Rather than leaving the art in Paris, she instructed the movers to send the art packed up in crates to her guest house—Villa Helma, or “home of the determined protector”—to be stored in the attic.
Overnight, Jo became a “hybrid entrepreneur.” By running a primary business to cover basic expenses, she created the space to develop a second venture on the side: selling Van Gogh’s art. As a single mother, she was in a pressure cooker. She needed to justify her decision to her father, but even more pressing, she had to build real wealth from this inheritance. Without it, her one-year-old son’s future academic and professional prospects were severely limited.
Operating Villa Helma proved to be the linchpin.
Modern strategists might call that baseline revenue a “safety net,” a “diversified income stream,” or “runway.” For Jo, it was pure strategic leverage. Her meticulous cash book confirms the boarding house covered their basic living expenses. Because her essential bills were paid, she never had to sell a canvas out of financial desperation. Villa Helma’s cash flow bought her time to build market demand for Van Gogh’s work—giving her the runway to reject lowball offers, hold out for premium prices, and strictly control supply.
That baseline cash flow didn’t just keep the lights on; it gave her ultimate negotiating power.
What fueled Jo is the same spark that ignited another legendary hybrid creator: Beatrix Potter, the author and illustrator behind the classic children’s stories, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Case Study: Parallel Blueprint of Beatrix Potter
Peter Rabbit and his furry friends tucked themselves into my childhood memory a gajillion years ago. Imagine my delight to find out Beatrix Potter was a savvy businesswoman too.
A contemporary of Jo, Beatrix (1866–1943) lived in Victorian England. To be fair, she didn’t need to work for survival since she lived with wealthy parents. But her journey is a prime example of how a secondary venture can finance a lifelong calling.
Here’s how her legacy unfolded:
The Early Spark: Using pen, ink, and watercolor, Beatrix built initial independent income by illustrating greeting cards and drafting private “picture letters” for children.
The Indie Workaround (1901): Beatrix wanted a broader audience, but after publishers repeatedly rejected her artwork, she took control and self-published a private run of 250 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
The Bestseller Pivot (1902): Children loved it! The private edition’s success caught the eye of publisher Frederick Warne & Co., leading to a full-color trade release. It became an immediate bestseller.
Pioneering Licensing (1903): Beatrix patented a Peter Rabbit plush doll—becoming one of the first authors in history to systematically license fictional characters across toys, wallpaper, and home goods.
Funding the Legacy (1905+): Merchandising revenues and book royalties directly financed her ultimate goal: purchasing Hill Top Farm, acquiring over 4,000 acres in the Lake District to protect tenant farmers, and eventually bequeathing her vast holdings to the National Trust.
What started out as creative drive extended far beyond scientific sketches. It evolved into financial fuel that enabled not only her land purchases, but the terms of their conservation. As owner, she mandated that her tenant farms remain in the hands of local families practicing traditional methods, and her massive gifts to the National Trust permanently shielded the Lake District from commercial development and suburban sprawl.
Beatrix’s vision is the reason the Lake District is preserved today as a lush natural habitat.
Though history (and childhood memory) remembers her primarily as a storybook creator, Beatrix Potter was a shrewd business strategist. She used her secondary revenue stream to finance her lifelong calling. While she came from family wealth and was not driven by pure financial desperation, her path mirrors the core hybrid entrepreneur blueprint: using one savvy venture as the launchpad capital to realize a grander purpose.
Potter leveraged soft toys to buy land; Jo ran a boarding house to protect paintings. Different eras, different mediums, same strategic playbook.
Which brings us to this issue’s spotlight:
Strategy 4:
Cover the overhead; command the value.
Jo kept her boarding house running until 1901, nine full years after her first major art sales in 1892. That primary income stream gave her nearly a decade of patience to elevate Vincent’s work on her own terms and hold out for full market value. Like Beatrix, she wasn’t playing for quick wins; she was playing for legacy.
Hey Moonlighter, Weekend Warrior, Bootstrapper—so are you!
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