A fail I'm looking to turn around

[hasagim]

For those of you guys trying to hustle up some cash in local services, NextDoor is a great venue (at least here in the USA).

I found this post there, screenshotted below. Check out the demand.

Basically, this guy rented an aerating machine from HomeDepot, lined up projects all day, and will end up with a hefty profit.

The machine rents for $109.

I'm sure this guy 10X his profit from one day of work, likely $80+/hour, depending on charges for larger lot sizes.


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First a shoutout to MJ for the inspiring post above on opportunity. This summer I came back from college and was determined to execute a hustle according to this amazing post provided by RHL (GOLD! - Getting started is this simple...).

I saw MJ's post and saw it as a sign to stop action-faking and start actually doing. Though I toyed with the idea of carpet cleaning, I decided to stick with aerating as there were people on NextDoor who seemed to need aeration done for the lawn anyways. I have already used NextDoor in the past for my pressure washing hustle and had established myself within the community so finding new clients for aerating was not that hard.

I set up contacted the customers, set up the times, and even reserved the machine at home depot all for my "aeration day" as my clients called it. The day it came to perform, I reconfirmed with all my clients successfully and went to the home depot rental early in the morning and got the machine. There was just one thing stopping me.

The aeration machine was too big for my car.

I found a machine that allegedly could fold up and had removable weights so I figured that if I could fit a pressure washer in my car, I could fit this machine in it, but no matter which way I put it in, the machine could not be put in my car. Let alone the fact that even with the removable weights removed, the machine was extremely heavy. After about an hour of me trying to get the machine in my car, I looked for other options like getting one of those pulleys that follow behind your car or even renting out a bigger car, but to no avail. I decided that I had made a mistake in my judgment and cut my losses. I apologized profusely to my clients saying I couldn't make it out today and gave the machine back to the rental shop without ever leaving the parking lot with it.

Felt really defeated today and decided to post about my failure today as a form of self-reflection.

Since then, I've gone back on NextDoor and have done some odd jobs like some basic landscaping and moving but I want to work towards a specialized service that I can build my name around. I'm looking into mobile detailing as a potential hustle to save up enough money to invest in my eCommerce business idea.

I'd like to thank the Fastlane community here for continuing to inspire me to provide value to the people around me.

 

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[Parks]

Time to rent a uhaul truck for $24 a day plus all their crappy fees.

Good for you for setting it up though man. Why not stick with pressure washing? Focus on one thing

 

[hasagim]

Time to rent a uhaul truck for $24 a day plus all their crappy fees.

Good for you for setting it up though man. Why not stick with pressure washing? Focus on one thing

Thanks for the reply man. There was good money in pressure washing, but it seems to be all the rage nowadays with almost everyone in my area offering pressure washing services making it harder to stand out. The biggest reason, to be honest, was just that I came to hate the work and when my machine broke down on me, I decided to branch out into a different niche.

 

[Ian Thompson]

Thanks for the reply man. There was good money in pressure washing, but it seems to be all the rage nowadays with almost everyone in my area offering pressure washing services making it harder to stand out. The biggest reason, to be honest, was just that I came to hate the work and when my machine broke down on me, I decided to branch out into a different niche.

Sent you a PM with a hustle that is unique, and too much demand for just me.

 

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