Quit Complicating It; Money Goes to Those Who Work (And Lead)

[Kak]

Those looking for a higher paying service business can start painting. My quotes on painting my old house to get it ready to list were very very high. Like $10k high. (This was the lowest bid)

I ended up buying a Graco paint sprayer to support the parent company which is a customer of mine. The overspray with airless is not a huge deal unless you are spraying furniture. Flat walls catch everything.

Man is it quick and easy to paint professionally with this thing. The sprayer was about $300. The paint was less than $1000. The ancillary stuff was probably $100.

That to me looks like ~$8500 in profit for 3 days of work. The sprayer will probably last a few years too.

Now you’ll say… “But Kak, I don’t want to paint for three days. That sounds like hard work.”

So don’t. Can you afford to hire a two guys when you’re getting $8500 in profit out the back end of this? Yeah.

Guess what… with the ever hated on this forum, ultra scary, employee… You can do three jobs at once.

Salt of the earth businesses make money folks.

 

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[Antifragile]

Those looking for a higher paying service business can start painting. My quotes on painting my old house to get it ready to list were very very high. Like $10k high.

I ended up buying a Graco paint sprayer to support the parent company which is a customer of mine. The overspray with airless is not a huge deal unless you are spraying furniture. Flat walls catch everything.

Man is it quick and easy to paint professionally with this thing. The sprayer was about $300. The paint was less than $1000. The ancillary stuff was probably $100.

That to me looks like ~$8500 in profit for 3 days of work. The sprayer will probably last a few years too.

Now you’ll say… “But Kak, I don’t want to paint for three days. That sounds like hard work.”

So don’t. Can you afford to hire a two guys when you’re getting $8500 in profit out the back end of this? Yeah.

Guess what… with the ever hated on this forum, ultra scary, employee… You can do three jobs at once.

Salt of the earth businesses make money folks.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Moved to it's own thread, too important to bury in the Chat thread.

Also, I have a similar story with my landscapers who were charging me $1,800 month for lawn care.

After watching the guy's crew for 1 month—3 guys would show up bi-weekly for 1 hour and I determined the owner was charging about $300/hour rates and 400% premiums on fertilizers etc.

Here's the thing...

I would have kept paying the price if the guy freaking did his job properly and lawn care was completely out of my hair, but he didn't.

The manager needed managing.

Every corner was cut, and I found myself tending to lawn care, on top of his $1,800/mo.

I cancelled his company, and he didn't bat an eye as he likely has 24 other dumbasses paying the same price.

I went out and spent $8,000 on my own mower and gear.

And now me and the wife do it, and we look at it as necessary exercise.

Bottomline, you can charge a premium price if you are the Lamborghini of the industry. . But you won't get away with it when you come rolling in with a Chevy.

Be completely hands-off where your company does NOT need to be managed. Automated, online systems. Reporting, problem details, etc. Text messaging support if needed.

Half the game is won just freaking showing up and doing a decent job.

 

[Ante.Thompson]

Those looking for a higher paying service business can start painting. My quotes on painting my old house to get it ready to list were very very high. Like $10k high.

I ended up buying a Graco paint sprayer to support the parent company which is a customer of mine. The overspray with airless is not a huge deal unless you are spraying furniture. Flat walls catch everything.

Man is it quick and easy to paint professionally with this thing. The sprayer was about $300. The paint was less than $1000. The ancillary stuff was probably $100.

That to me looks like ~$8500 in profit for 3 days of work. The sprayer will probably last a few years too.

Now you’ll say… “But Kak, I don’t want to paint for three days. That sounds like hard work.”

So don’t. Can you afford to hire a two guys when you’re getting $8500 in profit out the back end of this? Yeah.

Guess what… with the ever hated on this forum, ultra scary, employee… You can do three jobs at once.

Salt of the earth businesses make money folks.

Thanks for sharing, this is a great reminder to not overlook the simple businesses!

 

[Johnny boy]

Moved to it's own thread, too important to bury in the Chat thread.

Also, I have a similar story with my landscapers who were charging me $1,800 month for lawn care.

After watching the guy's crew for 1 month—3 guys would show up bi-weekly for 1 hour and I determined the owner was charging about $300/hour rates and 400% premiums on fertilizers etc.

Here's the thing...

I would have kept paying the price if the guy freaking did his job properly and lawn care was completely out of my hair, but he didn't.

The manager needed managing.

Every corner was cut, and I found myself tending to lawn care, on top of his $1,800/mo.

I cancelled his company, and he didn't bat an eye as he likely has 24 other dumbasses paying the same price.

I went out and spent $8,000 on my own mower and gear.

And now me and the wife do it, and we look at it as necessary exercise.

Bottomline, you can charge a premium price if you are the Lamborghini of the industry. . But you won't get away with it when you come rolling in with a Chevy.

Be completely hands-off where your company does NOT need to be managed. Automated, online systems. Reporting, problem details, etc. Text messaging support if needed.

Half the game is won just freaking showing up and doing a decent job.

Made me think maybe we would have a two tier system. One for most places and another for premium. 95% of people just want things to look okay and not pay a ton. The only way to have margins that are even worth it for all the headache is to have about 120k a year revenue per employee. Realistically that means if a customer pays $3000 a year that means we can only spend roughly 60-70 minutes there each visit with one employee, with services being every other week.

But, if we accommodate the people who want the extra stuff that turns 60 minute visits into 3 hour visits, some people are willing to pay it, but the problem is if you are running a restaurant, it’s hard to build one part that sells Mcdoubles, and one part that serves Japanese A5 filet Mignon.

I think it would be nice if we had a separate crew, with a separate set of expectations, called it “select” and offered it as an option to anyone that complained about us not spending 3 hours at every visit.

 

[Subsonic]

Those looking for a higher paying service business can start painting. My quotes on painting my old house to get it ready to list were very very high. Like $10k high.

I ended up buying a Graco paint sprayer to support the parent company which is a customer of mine. The overspray with airless is not a huge deal unless you are spraying furniture. Flat walls catch everything.

Man is it quick and easy to paint professionally with this thing. The sprayer was about $300. The paint was less than $1000. The ancillary stuff was probably $100.

That to me looks like ~$8500 in profit for 3 days of work. The sprayer will probably last a few years too.

Now you’ll say… “But Kak, I don’t want to paint for three days. That sounds like hard work.”

So don’t. Can you afford to hire a two guys when you’re getting $8500 in profit out the back end of this? Yeah.

Guess what… with the ever hated on this forum, ultra scary, employee… You can do three jobs at once.

Salt of the earth businesses make money folks.

Might be an option for me, but oh wait, in Germany you need a 3-year education for that...

 

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[NervesOfSteel]

Moved to it's own thread, too important to bury in the Chat thread.

Also, I have a similar story with my landscapers who were charging me $1,800 month for lawn care.

After watching the guy's crew for 1 month—3 guys would show up bi-weekly for 1 hour and I determined the owner was charging about $300/hour rates and 400% premiums on fertilizers etc.

Here's the thing...

I would have kept paying the price if the guy freaking did his job properly and lawn care was completely out of my hair, but he didn't.

The manager needed managing.

Every corner was cut, and I found myself tending to lawn care, on top of his $1,800/mo.

I cancelled his company, and he didn't bat an eye as he likely has 24 other dumbasses paying the same price.

I went out and spent $8,000 on my own mower and gear.

And now me and the wife do it, and we look at it as necessary exercise.

Bottomline, you can charge a premium price if you are the Lamborghini of the industry. . But you won't get away with it when you come rolling in with a Chevy.

Be completely hands-off where your company does NOT need to be managed. Automated, online systems. Reporting, problem details, etc. Text messaging support if needed.

Half the game is won just freaking showing up and doing a decent job.

Either you're lying or its too easy to make money in the west.

 

[Johnny boy]

Either you're lying or its too easy to make money in the west.

Explain

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Either you're lying or its too easy to make money in the west.

Not lying—It's a large property with resort-like landscaping, plus the "you have a big beautiful home in an expensive neighborhood" premium.

 

[Kevin88660]

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/22/1245858737/gen-z-trade-vocational-schools-jobs-college

“You can expect to get your hands dirty and that's OK"​

The high cost of college isn't the only factor driving many young people toward skilled trades. With the use of artificial intelligence on the rise, many Gen Zers see manual labor as less vulnerable to the emerging technology than white-collar alternatives. They also say vocational schools are a straight path to well-paying jobs.

Pelman says increasing salaries and new technologies in fields such as welding, plumbing and machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, making them more appealing to the younger crowd.

"There are a lot of vocational jobs out there that are pretty attractive — HVAC repair and installation, electricians, solar panel installer — there's so much demand for wind turbine installers who, in many cases, make more than $100,000 a year — so there's a lot of demand for manual labor," she stresses.”

 

[Kevin88660]

I played around with chatgpt, trying to evaluate trades related career and business opportunties.

I first ask chatgpt to remove those professionals that are hazardous to health.

As a result, most post significant health related risk from falling or exposure to dangerous chemicals.

The fields left are
-Being a chef
-Massage Therapist
-Barber
-Healthcare/Medical assistant
-Locksmith
-Upholsterer
-IT, computer, gadget support and assistant

It seems that computer related field remains a big opportunity for business.

It doesn’t have always to be building a software company.

Every big company these days use an outsourced IT vendor to fix wifi, email and app related issues.

If that is too daunting, someone with another buddy can easily start a shop fixing iphones and sumsung phones, the two most popular brands.

I didn’t like chef or barber because I know what pro-longed standing can do to the legs.

Locksmith has an issue of finding recurring revenue. No one gets locked out of their houses repeatedly.

Upholster is furniture related. Furnitures are sold when people get married and new children are born. The global trends for these needs are not particularly good. I rather be a death make up artist.

Seems like a gadget/computer technician looks good on paper. Less health risk and bigger market size.

It has to involve a physical assistant on the spot. Something an IT assistant on the phone in India not being able to do it.

 

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[Kevin88660]

View attachment 56226

Miners in China work from home using 5G-enabled machinery to do heavy lifting

Work from home for blue collar workers.

mothership.sg

Remote mining is already possible. Some jobs could be outsourced or eventually done away with like automated driving.

 

[Vntonio]

He’s not lying, that’s how it is in the US, but not in Europe.

In Europe you pay a gypsy $25 and he mows your lawn two times per month. Even though there is a labor shortage for “sweaty” work, people don’t want to pay for it because they disconsider it. You’d be seen as a loser in Europe if you have a lawn care company. Such companies are mostly nonexistent in the EU. And that’s also why Europe is bringing in so many immigrants so they can be enslaved doing this dirty work that Europeans don’t want to do.

Every single word and dot is true.

I know you are a Romanian fellow as I am and I will strengthen what you said:

99% of my ex-university colleagues (horticulturists) avoided this work-lawn care and anything that has to do with it.
I live in a pretty rich area and almost every single house takes care of its own lawn and trees as I questioned even the richest guys (1-5-10 mil).
The ones who don't, just pay 50-80$ (some gypsies/very poor guys) who just do the job and leave.

There is more here to be said, as I have worked for one of the biggest companies in the capital and the founder told me that he makes the most money from the corporate who wants their inside flower to be taken care of. Also, from time to time, a rich guy would want a new garden, everything from A to Z and it would cost him around 8k-10k and the profit isn't that great.

Every single manager/engineer was paid with below-average income (I was paid the minimum wage and below that as I had to pay for the company car, the phone, and much more shit).


Windows washing? they pay the maid for this.
Pressure washer? Yes, there is some demand, but not that big as half of them do it themselves.
Detailing cars? There is some demand but my neighbor says that the competition made this business somehow less appealing to him as there are so many who do it and the demand isn't that great anymore.


Now let's talk about HVAC, plumbing, and welding: You need a certification, experience, and other things for this as people won't take you to repair their shit.
But I will be damned, you can make so much money with these...
One of my neighbors is a plumber, he makes more than 3-3.5k NET a month. He has the biggest house on my street, 6 cars.
The other neighbor is in HVAC, his income is somehow smaller, but he never worries about money either.
The most important take here-they both never worry about leads/demand.

 

[Kevin88660]

Moved to it's own thread, too important to bury in the Chat thread.

Also, I have a similar story with my landscapers who were charging me $1,800 month for lawn care.

After watching the guy's crew for 1 month—3 guys would show up bi-weekly for 1 hour and I determined the owner was charging about $300/hour rates and 400% premiums on fertilizers etc.

Here's the thing...

I would have kept paying the price if the guy freaking did his job properly and lawn care was completely out of my hair, but he didn't.

The manager needed managing.

Every corner was cut, and I found myself tending to lawn care, on top of his $1,800/mo.

I cancelled his company, and he didn't bat an eye as he likely has 24 other dumbasses paying the same price.

I went out and spent $8,000 on my own mower and gear.

And now me and the wife do it, and we look at it as necessary exercise.

Bottomline, you can charge a premium price if you are the Lamborghini of the industry. . But you won't get away with it when you come rolling in with a Chevy.

Be completely hands-off where your company does NOT need to be managed. Automated, online systems. Reporting, problem details, etc. Text messaging support if needed.

Half the game is won just freaking showing up and doing a decent job.

6 Manhours for $1800, excluding fertilizers?

They should have just spent 1.5 hours per trip to make it a good job without cutting corners.

The margin would still be decent, even if the guys were paid $50 an hour.

 

[BizyDad]

Imo to be rich you’d need to make $10K+/day — at that level you can easily afford wasting money. Buy a rolex a day, you hardly feel it.

At the prices MJ pays, that's 11 MJ lawns per day. So 2 3-person crews handling 110 total customers and his landscaper can hit that revenue wise. 130ish homes should hit the profit figure.

Acquire 10 clients a month, you hit the figure in a little over a year. Acquire five clients a month, you hit the figure in a little over 2 years.

I'm not saying it's easy, but it doesn't sound so difficult either...

Now let's talk about HVAC, plumbing, and welding: You need a certification, experience, and other things for this as people won't take you to repair their shit.
But I will be damned, you can make so much money with these...
One of my neighbors is a plumber, he makes more than 3-3.5k NET a month. He has the biggest house on my street, 6 cars.
The other neighbor is in HVAC, his income is somehow smaller, but he never worries about money either.
The most important take here-they both never worry about leads/demand.

So what lesson have you learned here?

 

[ironmind]

Might be an option for me, but oh wait, in Germany you need a 3-year education for that...

Same in Spain, burocracy sucks in UE

 

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[ZackerySprague]

Not lying—It's a large property with resort-like landscaping, plus the "you have a big beautiful home in an expensive neighborhood" premium.

View attachment 56228

To some level, I'm glad I don't have a house right now. Use to rent in the past, but that's a lot of grass. Lol. Glad my apartment complex does it for me.

Not that I don't enjoy mowing, but man.

 

[BizyDad]

The issue for Europeans though is that those prices for that type of work don’t really exist. In Europe we have exceedinly few lawn care or even landscaping companies. Those are much more popular (and better paid) in the US.

I understand that.

However, as other Europeans have commented, there are labor related businesses that can be started that Europeans will pay for.

You made the comment that the biggest opportunity is still in tech, and maybe that is technically true depending on your view of the word biggest. However, you have been at this for about a decade now, so making a million dollars inside 2.5 years doesn't seem to be all that easy...

But with your marketing knowledge, go hire a plumber or electrician, or find one to be a partner, and you might just build something to scale.

I'm sure you could present all kinds of challenges against what I just said. After all, I don't really know the challenges Europeans face. But I believe you're smart enough to figure them out if you wanted to...

I believe someone reading this is also smart enough to figure it out...

I do prefer a business where the demand is already there, if I could have a choice.

If the choice isn't yours, whose is it? Of course you have a choice. You choose not to...

I'm not knocking your choice. But I'm also not believing you when you act like you don't have the choice...

I’m not sure most people can comprehend how hard that is.

Really? Why are you putting people down? Or at least, why are you making it sound like talking to people is super hard?

I mean you're the guy who would prefer not to turn a wrench or get an HVAC education, so I would say that you have it pretty easy.

FWIW, you presented a surprising amount of limiting beliefs in one quick message. I do expect better from you and I know you have a higher belief in yourself than this.

At the very least, I wanted to respond, not to argue directly with you (You obviously think your choices through) but I wanted to present counterpoints for aspiring entrepreneurs out there.

Good luck all.

 

[natavjp]

I live in Japan and a moving company is a great example from this part of the world. In Japan, moving your household will cost you a lot of money. These companies will come to your place, estimate your possessions, and give you a quote. All these companies are expensive, but - oh boy - they do an amazing job moving, after you see them work, you realize why they charge so much for such simple labor.

Theoretically, if you did not want to pay, you could try moving on your own, hire a truck, and load it up, you could spend three days doing a lot of lifting, packing/unpacking, organizing, and so on.

There are just NO other options here.

There are no cheap guys, (you have to have a license to own/operate/park moving trucks, due to minimal space on the streets in the city), and there are no immigrants who are looking for a side job (they must be properly employed and thoroughly trained if they do this job).

This is just an example, of how a seemingly low-skill job can become a very premium price service when there is no corner-cutting and the main goal is to serve the client in the best way and make their moving experience as effortless as possible. The movers show so much respect for the house, space, and possessions; they never chat/laugh with each other, only speak when necessary, they confirm in advance how you want everything organized, painstakingly label shelves, etc... I can go on and on describing this process. In Japan, it is ART.

The thing is, the Japanese know that moving is expensive and they factor it in, they prepare and they pay. It is similar to air travel. If you are planning to fly overseas you do not expect a huge discount because you can get a standing place on a plane. You save money, you budget it in and you buy a proper ticket.

 

[Kevin88660]

I agree. It’s definitely doable. The issue for Europeans though is that those prices for that type of work don’t really exist. In Europe we have exceedinly few lawn care or even landscaping companies. Those are much more popular (and better paid) in the US.

I do prefer a business where the demand is already there, if I could have a choice. I’ve never run a business like that though. All my businesses were heavily sales focused and succeeded or failed due to strong or weak sales. I never ran a business where sales just came to me, or it was simply a matter of turning ads on or doing some simple thing of that nature.

So from my vantage point a business that doesn’t require big efforts to market & sell is extremely attractive. As I said before, I’d be happy to pay someone 50% of what I earn from a client for the period they sign them for just for them to do the marketing and selling of that client. That is a HUGE amount I’m willing to spend — and the reason why is the relative difficulty of customer acquisition in my business. Last year I spent an average of a bit more than 20 hours per week just on sales calls lol. That’s not even factoring all the time that went into marketing to produce those calls in the first place. I’m not sure most people can comprehend how hard that is. This year by comparison I’ve been lazier and so far mooched off last year’s gains while cementing the team structure and internal processes.

Lawn care might not be a good business in Europe but the spirit of the discussion is to look into all physical trades as a potential business ideas.

From a business perspective just because the hourly rate is good doesn’t make it a good business. Just because the hourly rate is bad doesn’t mean it’s a bad business.

Ultimately when you move into a business owner you are charging the spread between the employees doing the physical labor, and the revenue you receive. The value you provide is the enterprise in marketing, coordination and quality assurance.

In Singapore only the richest could afford private gardens. Most of the gardens and grass are public properties. It creates a huge demand for contractors. Most of the workers are from Bangladesh on work permit. It is really a to G business, you bid for government contracts.

Commercial cleaning is a big demand here also. Local employers with work permit employee from Bangladesh.

They are paid like minimum 800 a month with OT can be up to 2k a month for unskilled labor. Employers have to pay a separate tax of 700-1000 a month to the government.

So the per head cost I estimate is minimum 3-3.5k factoring other miscellaneous and insurance.

These workers work six days a week, (some seven days illegally) to make more money. Most got into debt to be able to come to Singapore. They work their a$$ off the first year just to clear the debt.

 

[HYPOMANIC]

I try to build a lawn care business in Germany.

I think if the need is there you can always build a profitable business.

The need is there for sure cause people just aren’t willing to do the work.

 

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[NervesOfSteel]

Explain

Not lying—It's a large property with resort-like landscaping, plus the "you have a big beautiful home in an expensive neighborhood" premium.

The reason why I said the following:

Either you're lying or its too easy to make money in the west.

is :

That to me looks like ~$8500 in profit for 3 days of work.

For just 7 houses a month, that's 8500 x 7 x 12 = $714,000 annually! Deduct some overheads, that's still $500,000 in annual profits (Given $10,000 remains the lowest bid) .. That's 2.5 Mills in 5 yrs + an easy exit of a minimum $2 mill on the lower side.

Also, I have a similar story with my landscapers who were charging me $1,800 month for lawn care.


I cancelled his company, and he didn't bat an eye as he likely has 24 other dumbasses paying the same price.

$1800/ month and supposedly the Lawn Care company gets only 15 homes to take care of .. that's

$1800x15x12 = $324,000 annual revenue with consistent cash flow.. that's being a millionaire in less than 5 years if the company never outgrows those 15 clients!


The numbers are ridiculous!

What's the skill set you need to maintain a lawn or paint a house, as compared to manufacturing a product/ code an app/ nurse a patient .. etc?

The numbers vs the skill set required are unbelievable!

With these numbers, there's a humongous margin gap to fight the competition.

Either the majority of people in the Western world are too dumb to see the opportunities, or the numbers are false or the numbers presented here come with a catch!

 

[HYPOMANIC]

The reason why I said the following:



is :

For just 7 houses a month, that's 8500 x 7 x 12 = $714,000 annually! Deduct some overheads, that's still $500,000 in annual profits (Given $10,000 remains the lowest bid) .. That's 2.5 Mills in 5 yrs + an easy exit of a minimum $2 mill on the lower side.



$1800/ month and supposedly the Lawn Care company gets only 15 homes to take care of .. that's

$1800x15x12 = $324,000 annual revenue with consistent cash flow.. that's being a millionaire in less than 5 years if the company never outgrows those 15 clients!


The numbers are ridiculous!

What's the skill set you need to maintain a lawn or paint a house, as compared to manufacturing a product/ code an app/ nurse a patient .. etc?

The numbers vs the skill set required are unbelievable!

With these numbers, there's a humongous margin gap to fight the competition.

Either the majority of people in the Western world are too dumb to see the opportunities, or the numbers are false or the numbers presented here come with a catch!

I think most people oversee this massive financial potential of such businesses.

 

[Kevin88660]

The reason why I said the following:



is :

For just 7 houses a month, that's 8500 x 7 x 12 = $714,000 annually! Deduct some overheads, that's still $500,000 in annual profits (Given $10,000 remains the lowest bid) .. That's 2.5 Mills in 5 yrs + an easy exit of a minimum $2 mill on the lower side.



$1800/ month and supposedly the Lawn Care company gets only 15 homes to take care of .. that's

$1800x15x12 = $324,000 annual revenue with consistent cash flow.. that's being a millionaire in less than 5 years if the company never outgrows those 15 clients!


The numbers are ridiculous!

What's the skill set you need to maintain a lawn or paint a house, as compared to manufacturing a product/ code an app/ nurse a patient .. etc?

The numbers vs the skill set required are unbelievable!

With these numbers, there's a humongous margin gap to fight the competition.

Either the majority of people in the Western world are too dumb to see the opportunities, or the numbers are false or the numbers presented here come with a catch!

The truth is somewhere in between.

The profitability does not look as great as the raw numbers shown at first glance.

You still need marketing, training, insurance, equipment, advertising, and ten years life span reduced inhaling paint.

And if you are a solopreneur/laborer, you have time limit on income.

If you are business owner the game is turned against you. The high hourly income for a painter becomes a cost to you. You become an “agent” putting things together. This means to make that money you still have to get your hands dirty doing the work itself to keep most of the profit.

Despite the “flaws” these hands on hustles and traditional offline business are still wonderful opportunities who people who want a guaranteed millionaire path in 15 years.

I say this with confidence that the only reason you should not get into a traditional offline business is that you are aspiring to build something scalable and innovative with 8 figures exit. Otherwise you are wasting your time and youth.

Slowlane jobs such as professional managers and STEM graduate positions, these are flowing to India rapidly. Work from home? Sure! Remove the geographical barrier to entry most white collar jobs in developed economies are nothing more than overpaid monkeys.

 

[The-J]

"Lawn care won't work here"

I remember some time ago I was looking at the street view of a rich neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria (don't ask me what it's called I don't know).

It was one of the nicest neighborhoods I've ever seen in my life. Lush, green lawns, beautiful flower beds, luxurious houses, gates on the driveways...

You know the people who live there aren't doing their own lawns!

 

[Mindsetmary]

Moved to it's own thread, too important to bury in the Chat thread.

Also, I have a similar story with my landscapers who were charging me $1,800 month for lawn care.

After watching the guy's crew for 1 month—3 guys would show up bi-weekly for 1 hour and I determined the owner was charging about $300/hour rates and 400% premiums on fertilizers etc.

Here's the thing...

I would have kept paying the price if the guy freaking did his job properly and lawn care was completely out of my hair, but he didn't.

The manager needed managing.

Every corner was cut, and I found myself tending to lawn care, on top of his $1,800/mo.

I cancelled his company, and he didn't bat an eye as he likely has 24 other dumbasses paying the same price.

I went out and spent $8,000 on my own mower and gear.

And now me and the wife do it, and we look at it as necessary exercise.

Bottomline, you can charge a premium price if you are the Lamborghini of the industry. . But you won't get away with it when you come rolling in with a Chevy.

Be completely hands-off where your company does NOT need to be managed. Automated, online systems. Reporting, problem details, etc. Text messaging support if needed.

Half the game is won just freaking showing up and doing a decent job.

So good! I pay $1,600 CAD for the season (22 cuts) for a .75 acre and every week my basement windows are covered in clippings and if the kids left something behind in the yard, it gets cut up into a million pieces (toys included)! I'm just waiting for my son to turn 16 and I'll buy the ride on and give him the job instead! Great share MJ, happy cutting! (=

 

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[NervesOfSteel]

The truth is somewhere in between.

The profitability does not look as great as the raw numbers shown at first glance.

You still need marketing, training, insurance, equipment, advertising, and ten years life span reduced inhaling paint.

And if you are a solopreneur/laborer, you have time limit on income.

If you are business owner the game is turned against you. The high hourly income for a painter becomes a cost to you. You become an “agent” putting things together. This means to make that money you still have to get your hands dirty doing the work itself to keep most of the profit.

Despite the “flaws” these hands on hustles and traditional offline business are still wonderful opportunities who people who want a guaranteed millionaire path in 15 years.

I say this with confidence that the only reason you should not get into a traditional offline business is that you are aspiring to build something scalable and innovative with 8 figures exit. Otherwise you are wasting your time and youth.

Slowlane jobs such as professional managers and STEM graduate positions, these are flowing to India rapidly. Work from home? Sure! Remove the geographical barrier to entry most white collar jobs in developed economies are nothing more than overpaid monkeys.

@Kevin88660
@MJ DeMarco
@machinistguy

I was wondering that it's totally unjust skill wise for someone to be a millionaire by cutting grass or painting walls as compared to someone with exceptional skills that constitute to manufacturing and before tha, skills to acquire the Capital to own a manufacturing plant!

But I found the answer.

Its the upper Cap!

I had a meeting with the owner of a major assembly and manufacturing line .. who is a direct vendor for Toyota, Honda and alike.

This guy owns Land of worth $80 mil
His net annual revenue is worth $120 mil

And he was upset because he makes only %age of what the major manufacturing units such as Toyota and Honda make annually!

This was my latest WTF moment. I wasn't prepared to comprehend the numbers he was talking about in a 3rd world nation.

Conversation with him blew every gray matter out of my head and ears and nose!

Then we had a long conversation

And he finally said .. its possible that some genius will open his laptop one day, spend a month coding and give FB a run for their money .. but for everything else, the World needs our machines up and running for 24/7 ..

There's no upper cap for skilled business!

Damn! I can't sleep! I want to be his competition in next decade!

 

[Kevin88660]

@Kevin88660
@MJ DeMarco
@machinistguy

I was wondering that it's totally unjust skill wise for someone to be a millionaire by cutting grass or painting walls as compared to someone with exceptional skills that constitute to manufacturing and before tha, skills to acquire the Capital to own a manufacturing plant!

But I found the answer.

Its the upper Cap!

I had a meeting with the owner of a major assembly and manufacturing line .. who is a direct vendor for Toyota, Honda and alike.

This guy owns Land of worth $80 mil
His net annual revenue is worth $120 mil

And he was upset because he makes only %age of what the major manufacturing units such as Toyota and Honda make annually!

This was my latest WTF moment. I wasn't prepared to comprehend the numbers he was talking about in a 3rd world nation.

Conversation with him blew every gray matter out of my head and ears and nose!

Then we had a long conversation

And he finally said .. its possible that some genius will open his laptop one day, spend a month coding and give FB a run for their money .. but for everything else, the World needs our machines up and running for 24/7 ..

There's no upper cap for skilled business!

Damn! I can't sleep! I want to be his competition in next decade!

I think you confuse skill with scale.

Higher skill confers higher margin usually. Higher scale gives you higher revenue.

You can run a clinic as a doctor with high skill (20 years of exp with six years of medical degree) but low scale.

Margin is due to barrier to entry and supply demand dynamic. Higher skill usually itself its an example of barrier to entry.

You can be a supplier of big brand like Toyota and Apple. Guess what the margin is very low. Because there are many competing firms for such big order customers.

The suppliers of Apple in China earn a net margin or no more than 5 percent.

And if Apple staff asks you something, it is expected that you reply within 30min.

So in this ecosystem it’s high skill but still low margin because many suppliers are chasing for one big customer. But you get compensated in scale.

You can be a billionaire like Foxconn boss (a supplier of Apple), you own factory lines and you give your worker 15 min of toilet breaks per day monitored by cctv. Because your margin is not high. Operating lapses means losses. Foxconn has nets over worker dormitory and factories to prevent suicide.

I think the window of opportunity exists for outdoor low-skilled ventures due to other barrier to entry like mindsets in developed countries. Young people do not want to get their hands dirty anymore. Another more important barrier is passport. People cannot move freely to work everywhere globally. If that’s the case workers from latin america will rush to North America and wipe out these opportunties.

And skill levels can vary depends on the niches. Residential cleaning might be low skilled. Cleaning for hospitals might not be.

The physical assembly businesses are extremely stressful businesses for the owner because the tight margin means asymmetrical downside risk. Every unit you produced carries a cost (unlike scalable internet business and software which scales with no per unit cost).

This is my own view and it might sounds defeatist, most people, to avoid wasting time , should pick location tied, high need based, traditional offline businesses. Physical geographical barrier is the best moot against competitors smarter and more hardworking than you. You just need to grind to not fail. The average guy hates it because it is not a business sitting in front of a laptop at home. The smartest most savy entrepreneurs are pursuing bigger things and not interested in these also.

 

[Onakosa]

Every single word and dot is true.

I know you are a Romanian fellow as I am and I will strengthen what you said:

99% of my ex-university colleagues (horticulturists) avoided this work-lawn care and anything that has to do with it.
I live in a pretty rich area and almost every single house takes care of its own lawn and trees as I questioned even the richest guys (1-5-10 mil).
The ones who don't, just pay 50-80$ (some gypsies/very poor guys) who just do the job and leave.

There is more here to be said, as I have worked for one of the biggest companies in the capital and the founder told me that he makes the most money from the corporate who wants their inside flower to be taken care of. Also, from time to time, a rich guy would want a new garden, everything from A to Z and it would cost him around 8k-10k and the profit isn't that great.

Every single manager/engineer was paid with below-average income (I was paid the minimum wage and below that as I had to pay for the company car, the phone, and much more shit).


Windows washing? they pay the maid for this.
Pressure washer? Yes, there is some demand, but not that big as half of them do it themselves.
Detailing cars? There is some demand but my neighbor says that the competition made this business somehow less appealing to him as there are so many who do it and the demand isn't that great anymore.


Now let's talk about HVAC, plumbing, and welding: You need a certification, experience, and other things for this as people won't take you to repair their shit.
But I will be damned, you can make so much money with these...
One of my neighbors is a plumber, he makes more than 3-3.5k NET a month. He has the biggest house on my street, 6 cars.
The other neighbor is in HVAC, his income is somehow smaller, but he never worries about money either.
The most important take here-they both never worry about leads/demand.

He’s not lying, that’s how it is in the US, but not in Europe.

In Europe you pay a gypsy $25 and he mows your lawn two times per month. Even though there is a labor shortage for “sweaty” work, people don’t want to pay for it because they disconsider it. You’d be seen as a loser in Europe if you have a lawn care company. Such companies are mostly nonexistent in the EU. And that’s also why Europe is bringing in so many immigrants so they can be enslaved doing this dirty work that Europeans don’t want to do.

Truth. Here in the UK there has always been a lot of stupid snobbery towards trades both skilled and semi-skilled. As such, we now have thousands of unemployed graduates walking around (with massive university debts) and we have to import our lorry drivers, brickies, hospital care assistants etc, from other countries.

 

[NervesOfSteel]

I think you confuse skill with scale.

No Sir. I fairly understand the difference. I was just blown away by the fact that someone who can just cut grass, or paint a wall can make a million dollars in the Developed nation.

Higher skill confers higher margin usually. Higher scale gives you higher revenue.

No. Margin depends on the Niche.

Its comparatively easy to grab a 90 percent margin in a niche, but when volumes grow, the net profit figures matter more than the percentages.

You can run a clinic as a doctor with high skill (20 years of exp with six years of medical degree) but low scale.

You are comparing selling time with scalability. Not high skill vs Low skill. You need to solidify your business basics.

Margin is due to barrier to entry and supply demand dynamic. Higher skill usually itself its an example of barrier to entry.

No. Its usually the people with resources don't want to enter specific Niche. They want to enter global markets.

You can be a supplier of big brand like Toyota and Apple. Guess what the margin is very low. Because there are many competing firms for such big order customers.

The suppliers of Apple in China earn a net margin or no more than 5 percent.

They own 1.4 million square metres of land as their plant, employ 200,000 people and they are worth 23 billion Dollars.

And if Apple staff asks you something, it is expected that you reply within 30min.

You're always answerable to your customer. An iPhone customer demands instant answer from apple. Foxconn enjoys the 30 min window. LOL

You can be a billionaire like Foxconn boss

Yes sir. It's all about money. And that's why you're here as well.

you own factory lines and you give your worker 15 min of toilet breaks per day monitored by cctv. Foxconn has nets over worker dormitory and factories to prevent suicide.

Since apple users are OK with these norms, foxconn doesn't give a middle finger to these issues. They manufacture for Apple, and Apple users are ok with these norms either.

It's Apple's responsibility not foxconn !

I think the window of opportunity exists for outdoor low-skilled ventures due to other barrier to entry like mindsets in developed countries. Young people do not want to get their hands dirty anymore. Another more important barrier is passport. People cannot move freely to work everywhere globally. If that’s the case workers from latin america will rush to North America and wipe out these opportunties.

And skill levels can vary depends on the niches. Residential cleaning might be low skilled. Cleaning for hospitals might not be.

The physical assembly businesses are extremely stressful businesses for the owner because the tight margin means asymmetrical downside risk. Every unit you produced carries a cost (unlike scalable internet business and software which scales with no per unit cost).

I agree that the youth is more comfortable in sitting behind a computer, in a hope that since they have joined a group, they will be entrepreneurs really soon.

And scalability depends on the entrepreneur and his product.

This is my own view and it might sounds defeatist, most people, to avoid wasting time , should pick location tied, high need based, traditional offline businesses. Physical geographical barrier is the best moot against competitors smarter and more hardworking than you. You just need to grind to not fail. The average guy hates it because it is not a business sitting in front of a laptop at home. The smartest most savy entrepreneurs are pursuing bigger things and not interested in these also.

The sales pitch of "from laptop to millions in a weekend" is more attractive to youth as compared to "let's sell what we make and forge an empire with blood, sweat, grease and Oil" ..

Good for me, keeps the competition away .. ha ha !

Unless I become a part of a revolution like dot com bubble (AI revolution is not here yet and it won't be available for general public), I can only literally "forge" (manufacture) my way up .. LOL ..


(BTW, foxconn manufacturers 500,000 iPhones a day .. is there a company across globe that does 5000 lawns/windows/floors a day?)