Ended up shutting the site down in January of this year. Still have the zip file and all the data though.
Figured I should try my hand at garage cleaning and web design again.
Made a Nextdoor page and posted some Craigslist ads yesterday for garage cleaning. I wanted to do a direct mail drop but the postal route I want to do it for is gonna cost almost $600.
Figured I should I try to get at least a customer or two before I invest $600. Then again I've made money with this idea before when I was a kid. But that was over 11 years ago and in a market 400 miles away. Still, I'm 80% certain it'd be a profitable move, that's just a lot of money for me right now.
After what happened with my website ($10k invested with $0 return), I'm hesitant to spend $600 on a garage cleaning business that I haven't done in over a decade.
No website, no Google or FB ads. Market research determined the neighborhoods where most retirees are. Figured I should target them first. Put some real effort into my Craigslist and Nextdoor copywriting. Made a quick logo on Canva. I'm waiting for Nextdoor to review an ad I made because you set a monthly budget instead of PPC. If that ad goes through my total investment so far is $100 into advertising.
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While I wait to see if Craigslist or Nextdoor will get my phone to ring, I decided to start marketing my web design services. Went to Craigslist and apparently everybody is a web designer now. Went to Apify (shoutout
@Johnny boy )and scraped for an industry I'm familiar with. Gonna send ringless VMs to like 500-700 companies offering to redesign their site.
I also have an email list of a few thousand retail shops in another industry I'm familiar with. Gonna send an email blast to them as well today.
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But here's a funny thing: somebody called me needing help to find a place to live. Now this happens every once in a while because of the website I made (and shut down as stated in the beginning of this post). I gave her some numbers to call, but she hasn't found anything yet. She's called me 4 times needing help.
Then I go on Nextdoor and the majority of posts I see are either a) lost animals b) suspicious characters or c) housing needed or being offered.
And the homeless situation here in LA is a major problem.
I know from personal experience, looking for an affordable place to live in LA is super tough. Internet solutions are everywhere but realistically, they're a time-consuming pain.
We as entrepreneurs are supposed to love, serve, and be loyal to our customers; which are the people paying us. Experience has taught me that most housing solutions are paid by the housing, not the person looking for housing; which I feel would be a game-changer.
Only problem with that, is I'd feel super weird about being like, "Look Christine, I know you're looking for a room for rent that's only $1,000 a month in this area. I understand you're busy with work and looking for a place is time-consuming. I understand the internet at your boarding house is metered so it doesn't allow you more than a few minutes to search the web. Let's do this: I'll do all of the legwork for you so you don't have to. And once you put down your deposit on your new place, you pay me $200."
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I'll let you guys know how it goes.
