Side Hustle Grows Steadily: $500 yard games fund Little Party Co.; she keeps corporate job

Starting a business does not always require a large investment or a decision to leave a stable job. For Vanessa Romano, a 39-year-old mother of two, a modest $500 investment in four outdoor party games became the foundation of a growing event-rental business. According to PEOPLE, which profiled Romano on October 12, 2026, her venture, Little Party Co., secured 65 bookings and generated more than $9,000 in booked revenue within its first few months. Romano, who works full-time in corporate communications, launched the business after noticing how party-rental ventures were gaining traction on social media. The idea appealed to her because she could start small, test whether customers were interested and retain the games for her family’s own celebrations if the business did not work out. Rather than investing heavily in equipment or renting commercial premises, she began with four yard games. The relatively low initial cost allowed her to experiment with the business while keeping her regular income intact.From a small experiment to a growing businessThe response was encouraging from the outset. Little Party Co. received five bookings in its first month, generating more than $800 in r...