From Working for Tips to $100,000 Months: How a Broke Waitress Built a Business With Zero Startup Money.

You might not know who “Digital Laura Anderson” is, but you should, and if you are on TikTok you do. Her story is a reminder that you, me, any of us can do it too!

Laura Anderson dropped out of college her first semester.

Then she waited tables. Then she stocked shelves at a store. Then she got fired.

Then she became a millionaire.

But it all started with that decision to drop out.

She had no fallback plan. No big idea. Just a growing conviction that that path was not going to give her the freedom she wanted.

Next!

Laura moved to Los Angeles and got a job waiting tables.

It wasn’t glamorous. Long shifts, inconsistent tips, constant stress, the whole enchilada.

As she says, she was working nonstop just to stay broke. And as the months dragged on, she started to wonder if this was it, if her future was going to be a long line of double shifts and cheap apartments.

The Big Pivot

Then one night, after another exhausting shift at yet another dead-end job, Laura came across a tweet. It said something like: “If you’re broke, learn a digital trade. Sell it. Escape.”

She didn’t know what a “digital trade” meant exactly, but she knew she was done being stuck.

Laura started to binge YouTube videos, teaching herself skills that didn’t require a degree. Things like

• Media buying

• Email marketing

• Copywriting

• Funnels

Once she knew enough to be a tad proficient, she just went for it. (Hint hint!)

From One Client to Tons of Clients

Laura jumped onto Indeed, Upwork, and LinkedIn and began to apply for every gig that was a remote fit.

Her first client ever paid her $2,500 a month, even though she had no real experience.

Laura kept learning: How to pitch a service, close a deal, deliver results. Bit by bit, she figured it out. Within a few months, she had a handful of freelance clients and was making more than she ever did waiting tables.

But Laura wasn’t just trying to make a living. She was building a business, a real business.

And once she had the basics down, once she was making about $30k a month, she did what most people never even consider - she began outsourcing and automating it.

Hello 6-Figure Months!

Laura started to productize her services. She hired freelancers to start to do the actual work as she concentrated on getting clients.

The she took it a step further, she used AI tools to organize the systems, and streamline delivery. She turned what used to take 40 hours into something that ran in 10. And it worked.

She called it the 10-Hour Work Month.

Now Laura runs a profitable digital agency. She teaches others how to do the same. She hosts a podcast, has a big audience, and even landed a book deal with Blackstone Publishing.

But it didn’t start with that. It started with a single decision: To stop waiting for someone to rescue her and start learning something useful instead.

The Takeaway

You do not need a degree, a cofounder, a ton of money, or a flashy startup idea. What you need a skill or product that solves a problem. And you need a buyer. You also need creativity and initiative. All of that is true,

What Laura Anderson proves is that all you really need is just a little chutzpah.

You got this!

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Steal This Strategy!

📖🛠️ Tool – 10-Hour Work Month Starter Kit
Laura’s free walkthrough for turning a skill into income and time freedom.

🎙️ TikTok – Laura on TikTok
Build a business that supports your life, not the other way around.

📚 Book – The 10-Hour Work Month (Blackstone, 2026)
Coming soon — her full blueprint for digital leverage and lifestyle entrepreneurship.

About Steve

Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!