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First real business success -- pressure washing!

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

fridge

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
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166%
Jun 4, 2020
133
221
USA
Hey all,
April 3rd 2021 (about one month ago) after being told I was going to be kicked out of my place of living within a few months, I opened up my first real business focusing on pressure washing. I still work 40hr/week at my full time job, so all of my jobs are scheduled on the weekends (primarily Saturday).

I initially invested the following:
  • $1550 for equipment -- brand new 4 gpm pressure washer, surface cleaner (for concrete cleaning), hoses, reels, gas can and special equipment for house washing (j-rod and downstream injector)
  • $50 for graphic design -- logo, marketing materials such as door hangers, EDDM post cards
  • $0 for website hosting -- I was already hosting a web site for one of my side hustles so I used the $50/yr hosting on there to add my website for free
  • $200 for physical marketing materials -- yard signs, door hangers, business cards
  • $110 for online marketing materials -- FB ads.
  • $70 for misc -- gas to and from jobs, gas for the pressure washer itself
For a total of around: $1980

Just yesterday I hit my total money in of: $2280/total! I plan to hit around ~12k-~15k by summer's end due to raising my rates much higher than in the beginning and having a better understanding of what marketing works best in my area.

At this point, I am now making anywhere from $70-$120/hour profit per job after expenses (gas, marketing, maintenance) now that all my equipment is paid off. Eventually, I am going to look into actually creating this into an established business, but for now, I am still working 40 hours a week at my full-time job, in addition to a couple of side hustles I've been running for years.

Some things I've learned so far:
  • If you don't have an idea, spend a day or two researching, then just start something. I spent months searching for the perfect idea and came up with very little and caused myself too much stress trying to perfect something. Once you get a good service based business running with high paying money in per hour, then you can look into more competitive areas like e-commerce
  • Online marketing is extremely competitive, you have to sink in a lot of time figuring out what ads work and what doesn't. I'm still trying to wrap my head around just FB ads.
  • For service-based businesses, yard signs will bring in a LOT of high-paying work.
  • Don't be afraid to talk to people or market physically, people love a hard-working, polite, customer service-oriented business owner. I've been in neighborhoods where I did 2 jobs and left doing an extra job and quoting 4 other jobs in the $170-$450 area.
  • Join forums and Facebook groups dedicated to your service-based niche. This helped me tremendously and I gained a mentor within a few days of being in these places.

Closing remarks:
Just get out there and do it, it seems scary but you will be 100x happier acting than sitting in your room waiting for something to come to you. Not everyone is going to get into a million-dollar e-commerce business right off the start. That's OK, you can still create a very high pay for your time, and transfer that money into action on a business that operates without needing your time.
Ending this post with a video that helped when I was feeling overwhelmed:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8&ab_channel=JockoPodcast
 
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Last edited:

Hampus

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
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Apr 29, 2021
14
12
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania
Hey Fridge! That's awesome. It's exciting to hear you were able to get your idea off the ground and start making money so quickly by simply taking action. I'd be happy to hear an update on how much you've been able to make and how many hours you spent working on your business in 1-2 weeks from now. Keep up the good work!
 

new_in town

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
150%
May 4, 2021
2
3
Hey all,
April 3rd 2021 (about one month ago) after being told I was going to be kicked out of my place of living within a few months, I opened up my first real business focusing on pressure washing. I still work 40hr/week at my full time job, so all of my jobs are scheduled on the weekends (primarily Saturday).

I initially invested the following:
$1550 for equipment -- brand new 4 gpm pressure washer, surface cleaner (for concrete cleaning), hoses, reels, gas can and special equipment for house washing (j-rod and downstream injector)
$50 for graphic design -- logo, marketing materials such as door hangers, EDDM post cards
$0 for website hosting -- I was already hosting a web site for one of my side hustles so I used the $50/yr hosting on there to add my website for free
$200 for physical marketing materials -- yard signs, door hangers, business cards
$110 for online marketing materials -- FB ads.
$70 for misc -- gas to and from jobs, gas for the pressure washer itself
For a total of around: $1980

Just yesterday I hit my total money in of: $2280/total! I plan to hit around ~12k-~15k by summer's end due to raising my rates much higher than in the beginning and having a better understanding of what marketing works best in my area.

At this point, I am now making anywhere from $70-$120/hour profit per job after expenses (gas, marketing, maintenance) now that all my equipment is paid off. Eventually, I am going to look into actually creating this into an established business, but for now, I am still working 40 hours a week at my full-time job, in addition to a couple of side hustles I've been running for years.

Some things I've learned so far:
If you don't have an idea, spend a day or two and just start something. I spent months searching for the perfect idea and came up with very little and caused myself too much stress trying to perfect something. Once you get a good service based business running with high paying money in per hour, then you can look into more competitive areas like e-commerce
Online marketing is extremely competitive, you have to sink in a lot of time figuring out what ads work and what doesn't. I'm still trying to wrap my head around just FB ads.
For service-based businesses, yard signs will bring in a LOT of high-paying work.
Don't be afraid to talk to people or market physically, people love a hard-working, polite, customer service-oriented business owner. I've been in neighborhoods where I did 2 jobs and left doing an extra job and quoting 4 other jobs in the $170-$450 area.
Join forums and Facebook groups dedicated to your service-based niche. This helped me tremendously and I gained a mentor within a few days of being in these places.

Closing remarks:
Just get out there and do it, it seems scary but you will be 100x happier acting than sitting in your room waiting for something to come to you. Not everyone is going to get into a million-dollar e-commerce business right off the start. That's OK, you can still create a very high pay for your time, and transfer that money into action on a business that operates without needing your time.
Ending this post with a video that helped when I was feeling overwhelmed:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8&ab_channel=JockoPodcast



Some things I've learned so far:
If you don't have an idea, spend a day or two and just start something. I spent months searching for the perfect idea and came up with very little and caused myself too much stress trying to perfect something. Once you get a good service based business running with high paying money in per hour, then you can look into more competitive areas like e-commerce
Online marketing is extremely competitive, you have to sink in a lot of time figuring out what ads work and what doesn't. I'm still trying to wrap my head around just FB ads.
For service-based businesses, yard signs will bring in a LOT of high-paying work.
Don't be afraid to talk to people or market physically, people love a hard-working, polite, customer service-oriented business owner. I've been in neighborhoods where I did 2 jobs and left doing an extra job and quoting 4 other jobs in the $170-$450 area.
Join forums and Facebook groups dedicated to your service-based niche. This helped me tremendously and I gained a mentor within a few days of being in these places.
Hi fridge,
You 're absolutely right. I experienced the same situation as you did. Just weeks over weeks of planning and thinking without any results. I 'm fed up with waiting and planning.
I just want to get started, so I have decided to start a website by next weekend about eldercare. We'll see what happens, but at least I get into action.

Thanks for sharing your ideas :)
 

Mathuin

Provide Relative-Value or Die Trying
Read Rat-Race Escape!
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Speedway Pass
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Dec 20, 2020
669
2,410
Belfast, Northern Ireland

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