Gravy's Hustle Thread: $100k/mo or Bust!

[VinnieJones]

This is really motivating. Thanks for sharing! Good luck & keep grinding you seem to be on the right path. What is your youtube channel?

 

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[GravyBoat]

Commercial customers:

You mentioned the primary pushback for commercial as being future uncertainty around money but I imagine it also depends on WHO is the one actually paying for the gutter service...

If it's the tenant paying, chances are they don't put as much consideration or priority into budgeting for maintenance costs. The building is not theirs and so any $ that goes to upkeep is seen as a waste. Going back to the objection: You may try to rebuke by showing them how, if they plan on staying in that location, it will be worth it in the long-term. Spending a little bit of money every year will prevent an expensive, large issue down the road. If uncertainty is an issue then surely the former option is preferable since it's easier to budget for?

On the other hand, if the landlord pays for expenses like maintenance and Capex then ideally your service should already be budgeted for as these are critical expenses that can make or break their yield. It's just a matter of showing them why you are the best option. If they don't already include gutters into the equation then it may be as simple as showing them why they should and then sliding yourself into their books as a line item.

Residential customers:

I think the 2 buckets, tenants and landlords, still hold true as they did with commercial but in this case the residential tenants are probably really hard to sell on reoccurring services. Most of them won't be sticking around long-term and even if they do, most people don't care to think about future expenses. Maybe just focus on the landlords, if they are business savvy then you should be able to make a similar case as with the commercial ones.

Tenants never ever pay for services unless indirectly included in rent (which of course it is). Why would they? That’s the benefit of renting, you aren’t on the hook for these kinds of things.

I’ve had 2 tenants that I can think of ever pay for service and those were ones that had been in the house so long they may as well have just bought the thing. Dillusional people.

What you described is exactly my thought, wouldn’t you factor this into your budget as a landlord? Apparently, it’s not as common as you’d think. Most landlords are in business to make money, thus they are spending money reactively, only when forced to (when something breaks).

Right now I am focused on getting good property management companies who understand the benefits of preventative maintenance.

Closing commercial is a lot harder than residential for various reasons. I’d say I close maybe 30% of commercial that I quote, whereas it’s almost 85% of residential.

The other question that always pops up when scaling... why is there no big household name doing this? Is scale at that level possible? What hurdles have they ran into that I’m not foreseeing?

To be honest in this venture, I’m not really looking to scale past 100 or maybe 150k/mo because that’s my territory. I want it to be passive at that level so I can fund other ventures and focus time on those (big stuff). This little business was basically just what got my feet on the ground and finally something that worked. I had fully intended to sell or run it passively at some point.

 

[GravyBoat]

This is really motivating. Thanks for sharing! Good luck & keep grinding you seem to be on the right path. What is your youtube channel?

From The Gutter on YT I think it’s in my signature somewhere. I took all my old videos down because a customer actually pointed it out and I got worried but I might put them back up soon cause now idgaf

 

[GravyBoat]

Alright the deed is done.

Just wrote a check for $14500 to a film company.

And sent $3500 to a helicopter rental company.

We are on for June 5th/6th.

Stay tuned. This will be legendary.

 

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[GravyBoat]

For those who don’t know. I am making a short film as a tribute to the hustle, and to motivate others that going from 0-1 is in fact possible.

The point of the film is not to make money for myself (although I will have a back end offer to hopefully offset costs). The point is, to give some entertainment value back to the entrepreneur community, while simultaneously proving a point: TAKE F*ckING ACTION NOW!!!

I get so many people that hit me up, that haven’t started yet. For whatever reason, they’re stuck in their own heads. They have excuse after excuse after excuse, with varying levels of validity.

Ive talked about this to the ends of the earth, now all I can do is SHOW you.

If you want something, go get it. End of story. The world doesn’t give a F*ck about your excuses, problems, “buts,” or any other reason why you HAVENT done something. The world only cares when you HAVE done something.

The premise of the film is simple: I have to make $500 dollars cash before the sun goes down... or I don’t come home...

I will have nothing besides the clothes on my back. No money. No car. No tools. Just my bare hands.

It will be Survivor style. I simply have to create $500 worth of value before the day is over.

I am going to get dropped from a Helicopter in a residential neighborhood in Suburbia California.

I will have 12 hours to conjure $500 bucks with my bare fists.

My dream would be for this to go viral, and set off a chain event “Challenge” called the “Rags to Riches” challenge, where I inspire other people to make their own version of the challenge.

I rented a helicopter and hired a Hollywood tier film crew with my own money, out of pocket. I have zero expectations to make the money back.

All I ask for is your support by watching, commenting, and sharing the video once it drops.

I will keep y’all posted on the date. We are filming this weekend.

I hope this short film inspires you as much as it did me.

David

 

[GravyBoat]

Wrapped up filming yesterday evening.

Was absolutely legendary.

Completed the challenge of making $500 in one day with zero money, no car, no phone, and no tools.

Started the day out in a sleeping bag at a park, like a literal homeless person. Then proceeded to conjur up $500 dollars out of thin air without asking for it. Only providing $500 worth of value.

I actually pulled in $600 because the last guy tipped $100.

My next move is to blow this project up. Going to put a few grand in ads behind the video when it drops.

If anyone has experience in getting videos to catch waves or gain traction, please hit me up.

Im beyond excited to drop the project.

 

[GravyBoat]

Once the video drops, I am going to give away the $500 made yesterday to a new, aspiring entrepreneur who DMs me the best pitch, the best reason WHY they deserve the $500, on Instagram.

The goal with this is to drive potential leads to consulting biz, as well as grow personal brand as a “Hustle Pornstar” on IG and Tik Tok.

I think this is a powerful tool because I can then retarget those who followed me with many years of dope content, providing them insane amounts of value.

If anyone has experience with giveaway campaigns like this please DM me as well.

 

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[SteveO]

You are a stud.

 

[GravyBoat]

I realized something crazy today.

Your energy has an ROI. You can choose to do whatever you want with it. Some peoples ROI is 100m, others is 100 dollars, on the same amount of time and energy.

You can take supplements, tweak sleep, diet, exercise, and surround yourself with energy. But ultimately, everyone has roughly the same potential expenditure of energy as the next person.

Most people live in with a scarcity, negative energy. There’s always something going on in their head that causes hesitation.

That’s why some people make $0 dollars in the same 24 hours that some make 1m.

It all comes down to having an abundance mindset, vs a scarcity mindset.

Once you realize that life is just a game, and your “failures” are really just lessons learned, you unlock abundance.

Once you prove to yourself that you can do something once, then again and again, you unlock confidence.

Once you reach a goal you’ve set out to achieve, you unlock safety, stability, and reassurance that you in fact, CAN do it.

I see a lot of people with negative energy not achieving shit because they don’t have abundance, confidence, or reassurance. They instead have scarcity, excuses and ultimately a negative outlook on life.

Here’s the way to fix it:

Set a small goal for yourself each day. Name ONE THING each morning as your MOST important task.

If you do this one thing, you win. End of story. ALL you need to do that day is the one single thing that you deemed most important. If that’s literally the only thing you did that day, then went back to sleep in your bed for the rest, you still won. Because you moved closer towards your ultimate goal.

If you DONT set this “One Thing” as your most important task of the day, chances are, you won’t do it, because you aren’t clear on your path to your goal.

Make this one thing very, very small. No more than 2 or 3 hours of work. If the task is larger, break it down into sections of 1-2 hours each.

After a few weeks of accomplishing your “One Thing” each day, you will start to feel like you’re succeeding. You get at LEAST one “win” each day. After 3 weeks you’ve now taken 21 steps closer toward your bigger goal. You can now smell the goal, taste the goal, it’s in plain sight in front of you.

After a while, this will start to create confidence. Then abundance.

I am going to make another post outlining exactly how I structure my whiteboard to ensure success. I don’t leave this shit up to chance because the odds are NOT in your favor.

 

[ZCP]

Summary: Take F*cking action. Get shit done. Put excuses to the side and do epic shit.

Proud of you @GravyBoat . You inspire me over and over again!

 

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[GravyBoat]

I just purchased a small business for $20k.

It should add $100-300/day in profit within 6 months from now.

The business is semi automated so won’t cause me much added stress.

Update on Home Service Biz:

Sales girl of 2 weeks closed 11k worth of work, with the potential to be 300k+. What a god damn good idea.

She closed a hotel manager that also manages 30 other hotels. The 11k job will take 2 days and cost me around $700 in labor/expenses to complete. So let’s just say 10k profit.

If we do well (which we obviously will), he is going to have us do the 30 other hotels.

This should be some nice repeat revenue for the biz. So glad I steered in this direction.

Should be a good week!

 

[Mario_fastlaner]

Just wow. Keep going man, you’re killing it.

 

[Private Witt]

I cant not wait to see this video, I will share the chit out it. Just subbed to your YT channel and checked out your vids, great content and really enjoy the short clip strategy with major value brought. I think there is a lot to be said about brief impactful content and at the same time you can intertwine long versions and people will consume.

I remember reading this thread way back and will take the time to read again, such an amazing story. Congrats on all the success and the new businesses.

 

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[Hampus]

Hey David,

I am excited for the video as well! Undercover billionaire 1-day version. Awesome idea and so cool you went all in on it. In terms of your Youtube channel there seems to be something weird going on. Your most recent video from yesterday is a 1h phone vid from inside some house in in India that seems like it was uploaded by mistake, or you got hacked? I also have to disagree with Private Witt about the shorts - I don't think they are the way to go. Especially the ones with the google voice overlay instead of you talking, they come across like weird spam videos and definitely dragging the quality of the entire YT channel. So if you're planning to keep building on the channel or releasing your Rags to Riches challenge on there, I would have a look to try to understand what's going on.

Best,
Hampus

 

[liero1]

GREAT SUCCESS story with the business, well done and really aspiring. any criticism allowed? that youtube channel really would shout /scam/ to me if I didn't know better. the short videos with voice over are super low quality, the longer ones don't have any views whatsoever, it just looks like there is a YT strategy missing/not working.

 

[faust]

Hey David, been following your thread for a bit. Congrats on the success with more to come.

The other question that always pops up when scaling... why is there no big household name doing this? Is scale at that level possible? What hurdles have they ran into that I’m not foreseeing?

After seeing how well things were going for you, I had the same question. Found a large gutter cleaning company on the east coast called Ned Stevens Gutter Cleaning that seems to be everywhere from Georgia to Massachusetts. So it does seem possible.

Unfortunately looks like they were also fined over 100k total by OSHA for cases of inadequate fall protection. From what I can find, it seems like OSHA wants a roofing anchor to be installed to be up to their standards. Obviously isn't good for quick jobs, and could open you up to liability if your guy messes up their roof when he installs it or removes it after.

By the time you're operating in 11 states, 100k probably won't sink you. But seems like even the big guys haven't found a quick, cheap way to solve the fall safety problem.

 

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[B.Cotter]

But seems like even the big guys haven't found a quick, cheap way to solve the fall safety problem.

Sounds like a business idea in there somewhere.

 

[jclean]

Tenants never ever pay for services unless indirectly included in rent (which of course it is). Why would they? That’s the benefit of renting, you aren’t on the hook for these kinds of things.

I’ve had 2 tenants that I can think of ever pay for service and those were ones that had been in the house so long they may as well have just bought the thing. Dillusional people.

What you described is exactly my thought, wouldn’t you factor this into your budget as a landlord? Apparently, it’s not as common as you’d think. Most landlords are in business to make money, thus they are spending money reactively, only when forced to (when something breaks).

Right now I am focused on getting good property management companies who understand the benefits of preventative maintenance.

Closing commercial is a lot harder than residential for various reasons. I’d say I close maybe 30% of commercial that I quote, whereas it’s almost 85% of residential.

The other question that always pops up when scaling... why is there no big household name doing this? Is scale at that level possible? What hurdles have they ran into that I’m not foreseeing?

To be honest in this venture, I’m not really looking to scale past 100 or maybe 150k/mo because that’s my territory. I want it to be passive at that level so I can fund other ventures and focus time on those (big stuff). This little business was basically just what got my feet on the ground and finally something that worked. I had fully intended to sell or run it passively at some point.

@GravyBoat
I am a business owner from Belgium we do window, roof , solar panel and gutter cleaning.
We work with +- 9 people
this month the revenue will be close to 85k usd.
To have business on repeat i think you need to drop the prices to make it affordable for homeowners. So you can service them on a regular base. The windows keep cleaner so your amount off labour drops.
Trust and reliability and convenience are key words especially when you have wealthy customers
We use a software to keep track off all the business it automatically gets on the schedule. The big advantage for us is that every time we do a client we can give them a thank you card with the next date written on it. So we dont get 100 calls a day with customers that wants to know when we are coming back to them. Also billing is semi automated. The software keeps track on payments,scheduling and billing.
To have gutter cleaning on repeat is possible but is more difficult to sell the reason is because people dont see the problem. Once they had water in there home due to water infiltration it is much easier to put them on a schedule.

I could go deeper in this topic but my written english is very basic.

 

[GravyBoat]

View: https://youtu.be/7F4zzw02dX0


The movie is here ladies and gents. Please share with whomever you feel needs to see it.

Hope you all enjoy. I will respond to these comments later!!!

 

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[Private Witt]

Well done, really enjoyed this video. Great ending was a nice twist and looking forward to hearing on how that goes, also that last house looked huge, gutters forever.

 

[ZCP]

@GravyBoat = Beast Mode

 

[thechosen1]

One thing that holds people back is seeing this and thinking "I make nearly that much with my job, and it's easier."

But, what you are doing here is scalable and can expand into a CENTS business.

Very cool video!

 

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[ZCP]

@MJ DeMarco can you tweet / linkedin / share @GravyBoat 's video? let's get him some views!

 

[Fox]

View: https://youtu.be/7F4zzw02dX0


The movie is here ladies and gents. Please share with whomever you feel needs to see it.

Hope you all enjoy. I will respond to these comments later!!!

Just watch the whole thing - excellent content!

This was really cool to watch - you kept it super legit and really showed the mindset/approach it takes.
Also, the production crew did a great job, was easy to watch the whole thing (and it's a longer video).

"Spread the fan"

 

[MotionDesign]

View: https://youtu.be/7F4zzw02dX0


The movie is here ladies and gents. Please share with whomever you feel needs to see it.

Hope you all enjoy. I will respond to these comments later!!!

Well...that was f*cking awesome!

 

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[Tiago]

Amazing video!

 

[ZCP]

Bump

View: https://youtu.be/7F4zzw02dX0

 

[Kid]

+1 view and like on yt from my side

 

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[GravyBoat]

Just a reminder!

I am GIVING AWAY $500 bucks made in the video to someone who DM's me ON INSTAGRAM, NOT HERE. The best pitch as to how they are going to use the $500 to start their business!

Tell all your friends. DM my IG and I will do a feature video with whoever gets it!

 

[Hampus]

Awesome video @GravyBoat !!!!

Again, if you want your online presence to come across as professional and someone who knows what they are doing - would suggest having a look at some of the previous videos on your Youtube acct and cleaning up the junk:



Cheers to the #ragstoricheschallenge going viral and hope we get to see some vids from other hustlers here on the forum sometime soon (even if they don't include a chopper)