I turned my side hustle into a cleaning business | Hacker News Reader

I turned my side hustle into a cleaning business

dollarsanity.com

27 pointssimplypeter15 comments

One of my close friends from middle and high school came from a family whose patriarch did this same kind of job.

He had a slightly bigger operation than this guy, because he had to buy snow removal equipment to clear snow from parking lots, but it’s totally a thing you can do.

The thing is,the most profitable businesses are often the boring ones. Unlike online businesses, the competition they face is decreasing daily as everyone chases after some glamorous business where they can work from the beach.

I'm not sure thats the exact reason. This guy is subbing out work to other companies; he's not making 53k/month by picking up litter. He's running a business with nominally 1 employee but contracts out the excess work to other companies who I doubt are all making 53k/month.

That said, having seen snow plow ads it does sound like good money. Not as good as fang.

But also 53k/month is revenue. Who knows what the profit margin is there?

If he's subbing out all that work it could be very little.

It feels a bit misleading to mention that as revenue and in other cases mention a six-figure operation.

Six-figure could mean anything from $100k to $999k. So which is it, there's quite a huge difference.

Usually when people say six figures they would mean somewhere around $100k. Is what he's paying himself after all of that around $100k per year then?

Overall the article of course seems like ad piece that directs you to his homepage where he's selling a course on how to do the same...

I always roll my eyes when I see people only highlighting revenue with no other context. I always assume the margins are small.

In the article when it talks about a "six figure operation", I think they are referring to the $650k in revenue, which would be a six figure operation. I don't see any clues into what he's taking home.

Yeah... I went to also read the website where he's selling a guide, and there he is saying

"All it takes is a few minutes each day, at each property to keep the sites litter-free. If you’re looking for a simple, low-risk business with the potential to earn you a 6 figure income, order the manual right now."

So I had this in mind, because here he mentioned income, but I used the wording from the article.

It always irks me as well when people say "figures" like that because it's a range of 1 to 10x, and it seems he really enjoys doing that.

Another quote from him "I’ve been cleaning up litter in and around commercial properties for over 30 years and I’ve been earning a 6 figure income from it."

Basically it's just an ad to sell a get rich quick scheme, and the only one to get rich is the one selling the scheme

So this is one of those "his book is the real earner" things right? No way this dude is going around picking up trash for $52k a month.

> I decided the most simple way to accommodate this was by subbing the work out to other small cleaning companies.

So the best way to make money is to hire someone to do the job and pay him less than what you're billing your client?

> Each subcontractor must sign a contract that I had created before they commence work for me. It spells out their legal and service obligations.

And create a legal binding between you and the subcontractors that are finally like employees without any employee protection?

Let me guess, somewhere in the contract there's some non compete clause that they must follow because they're not employees?

Is this an ad for a $100+ book?

so whats this super secret tool he uses, unfortunately i cant bring myself to visit his site, has anyone checked?

The website shows something like a net but with a trash bag instead of netting[0][1].

It appears the thing he's holding in the picture in the article[2] is not a prop but is the same tool.

[0]: https://cleanlots.com/images/general/then.jpg

[1]: https://cleanlots.com/images/general/now.jpg

[2]: https://dollarsanity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cleanlot...

Looks like a wire frame and handle with a metal plate that sits flat at ground level. The wire frame (bit like a coathanger) holds the mouth of the bag open. A plastic bag gets sandwiched in so it's easy to sweep material into the bag, and then remove the bag from the mouth/handle contraption to tie up and dispose of.

Is this an ad?

It's promotional: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=simplypeter

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