Start a local loyalty business alongside your day job
A side business you can start with a phone and some shoe leather: selling loyalty cards to independent cafés near you.
Why this works as a side business
Most side hustles ask you to build an audience or stock a warehouse. This one asks you to walk into local businesses and offer something they already understand. Every café owner knows what a stamp card is.
You don’t need to code or design anything, and there’s no app for anyone to download. You need a licence, a small box of plates and cards, and the confidence to start a conversation. Cafés are often quiet mid-afternoon, so you may well fit visits around other work.
What you’re actually selling
You’re selling more repeat visits, in a form the owner doesn’t have to think about. A customer taps the plate on their table, or scans it, and a stamp lands on a card in their phone’s wallet. Paper cards get lost and forgotten. A card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet stays on the phone, with no app and no sign-up.
Then each month you show the owner a simple page: how many regulars they have, how many stamps were collected, how many rewards were earned, and when people come in. That’s what they’re paying you for, and it gives you a reason to stay in touch.
How to start
- Pick your patch. Choose a niche and an area you know. Independent cafés within easy reach are a good place to begin.
- Set up your brand. Add a name, a logo or a colour. Your clients see your business, not Loylo.
- Order a kit. A kit starts at 5 plates and 50 staff cards, and you can change the numbers. A café typically starts with 1 or 2 plates and 10 cards, so one kit can stretch across several clients.
- Get a lead pack. Pick your niche and draw your area, and you get a list of businesses from Google Maps to approach. Credits come with your plan, and you can buy more.
- Visit in person. Take a plate with you and let the owner tap it. Seeing a stamp land on a phone does more than any pitch.
- Set them up on the spot. From your phone, pick the client, set the reward and scan the tags. You can be live before you leave.
What to charge
The licence is a one-off payment, and what you charge your clients is up to you. You could charge a monthly fee, with a set-up fee to cover the tags. Think about what a free coffee a week is worth to an owner, and what it takes you to support them.
Here’s the sum to run for yourself. If you charged £49 a month and signed 10 cafés, that would be £490 a month before costs. That’s an example of how the numbers work, not a forecast: what you earn depends on your prices, your area and the work you put in.
What it takes
The tools are the easy part. The work is yours, and it’s the same in any small business:
- Approaching businesses, and being comfortable hearing no
- Following up with the ones who said “maybe”
- Setting up tags and showing staff how to redeem a reward
- Sending results and staying in touch
Check the rules where you live on tax and registering as self-employed, and on sending unsolicited emails to businesses. Walking in sidesteps the email question.
Start small
You don’t need a big launch. Sign one café you already go to, get it working, and use its results page to sign the next one. Once you’ve done it once, you have a real example to show.