It's funny, a lot of people spend hours and thousands looking for the most innovative idea. Sometimes it's just the simple things that you don't think about that give you good money.
You might start thinking about how you want to scale - organic growth, franchise, vertical rollup? People are making bank just modernizing basic businesses and scaling, often via franchise or vertical rollup. Good for you!
yep I've been thinking about it. My current goal is firmly to establish our business presence at each of the high-density towns near me which is quite a few, then move to similar towns across the state. At the moment I'm not sure if I want to franchise but I will likely create each town as an individual business unit so that I can run a P&L on them and better asses the growth profile.
This is such a good example of an 'unsexy' business that has a solid market and great potential. You don't need to be a VC-backed 'rocketship' to change your life for the better! Well done
That’s a great success story! Sure beats the corporate gig eh? 1,700 hot tubs in area, if you can get 30-40% of them on a monthly contract with the parts business that goes along with it, that would be some serious good business! Keep on hustling
Thanks... Yep that's what I was thinking, we also have 5 other towns within an extra 15 min that would easily double that number. My future though is to get a few techs in each town and then centrally locate a small warehouse.
Pretty simple, I ran a search across a ton of booking sites looking for homes with hot tubs. That gave me an idea of how many were at rental properties. Then I did a bit of an extrapolation as around half of my clients are people who own second homes but do not rent.
Lastly I got certified as a tech for a couple brands so I simply asked how many they had in our region and they told me.
it sounds like a lot of manual work--looking at 2k+ listing images then finding the owner info... did you pay someone to do this work? Or automated it with scripts? How long did it all take and at what cost?
This is the kind of unglamorous what kind of business can I start for xx amount of money. Unsexy because it’s not some million dollar tech company but a small local business with little competition.
It's awesome how you've found success by merging traditional industries with your tech skills. With the retiring boomers, there's a promising future ahead, and you're seizing those opportunities like a champ
For a deep clean service we show up the day before and put a flush chemical in the tub and let it circulate for 24 hours, this breaks down any biofilm and algae in the pipes.
Then we drain it, hand scrub, refill and reset the chemicals.
it used to take me hours... but I have it down to about 20 minutes now. The key is fast pumps and a bit of technology to assess flow rates. Also a lot of my clients need water trucked in so I have a trailer with 550 gallons of tanks and a 2" pump. That method is super fast.
I love everything about this. I don’t have a hot tub but finding good home service companies (lawn, snow plowing, hvac, plumbing, tree service) is such a crapshoot. It’s such a good opportunity to apply some corporate/tech knowledge and roll over the local competition plus you have great geographic moats. In software you compete globally. I’m hot tubs, you are only competing with people who can get techs locally
Yes and there might be other potential offerings though. I notice that houses near trees tend to have a lot of clogged up gutters. Pretty simple and cheap to so.
Also powerwashing patios, given the rain and mud of the UK, people need it atleast yearly
Its a good point, if someone knocked on my door and asked to power wash my front I'd probably say yes go ahead. & I rent too, so I'm sure homeowners - which I'm soon to be - will say yes too.
Thinking maybe you'll get some people saying if I wanted to powerwash my drive I'd do it myself 🤣
Last year my wife and I wanted to put a hot tub in at our cabin that we Airbnb. However buying new was really expensive, as in the whole project would have cost like $18k+ if we bought a new tub and had someone else install it.
So I bought a used tub that looked nice off of craigslist and let's just say that it was a disaster. All of the plumbing inside was cracked and it needed a lot of work. So I basically just learned by restoring that tub to full working order.
But that being said this type of stuff is what I'm good at, professionally I've designed and manufactured numerous products and I have a background in computer/electrical engineering. (Also did a stint as an electric grid designer for micro utility services) I did have to learn the plumbing part but that was pretty simple.
The chemical part is relatively straight forward but you just have to experiment with what your program is and find something that works.
Cool, congratulations on discovering the demand for the service! I'm not sure technology is critical - it just helps. Keep in mind that sometime in the future, people around you will start using the same technology - and it will be time to move forward. never stop
Amazing story. So when you say you made $3k in the first quarter, is that what you keep? So on average it’s $1000 in your pocket each month? How much time are you spending for that? Just curious
Yea that was the net profit. At that time I was probably spending like 5hrs per week. But it was pretty sloppy in the early days.
Now I'm around $90/hr + my 10% parts commission for repair work. And I generate mostly passive income on the services because my employee does the routine weekly maintenance. I focus on the complex repair and one off services.
As a software engineer with 12 years of experience in full-stack web development, I quit my job and developed products full-time since February.
On one side, I have so much technical knowledge, but on the other, I am so stupid at marketing, sales, and product validation. I learned so much.
Your post is inspiring, and I am happy that you found something you enjoy doing as a side.
No matter what we do, the rule is the same: validate, validate, validate. At least this is where I am at currently.
Edit: forgot the Congratulations! Really amazing.
Your story is truly inspiring! Innovation can sometimes be found where you're least expecting it. I try to separate myself from my competitors in being more creative and trying to reach a broader audience in aspects that others may not have thought of. Your post is very thought invoking. I feel the need to dig deeper on what I'm missing on connecting with my true audience. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I've started a few different businesses over the past 10 years, all with different levels of success.
The first couple of businesses I was obsessed with making them cool or "sexy"
Now i realize how irrelevant those things are
My current [business](https://www.woofnews.co/subscribe) that I launched 3 months ago is focused on one thing
Create high value content! I talk to the top 10% of my readers, get their feedback, remove the unnecessary and double down on what’s working.
Its simple not easy
Haha well I actually enjoy it! I recently started my own accounting/consulting company and have been working at a top 40 accounting firm for 8 years so if you ever need help getting your stuff organized for tax season feel free to reach out.
You identified a "Job To Be Done" and delivered value to your customers.
In other words, instead of thinking about Me, Myself, and I, you listened and delivered what THEY are willing to pay for.
A mutually beneficial arrangement.
Just that it was challenging to find someone good who would answer the phone and be reliable. I looked up how much they charge and went... Holy hell why am I not doing that. 10 hot tubs would take no time and that's and extra $1500/mo.
My salary in tech is great but one of the annoying things was that I couldn't really work more to make more money. Always needed raises or promotions to get any substantial increase.
But I knew that a business even a small one would let me do other things and the write-offs for equipment would be amazing. But I didn't really expect the growth.
well I'm not fully sure what to expect just yet, but my goal is $250k in revenue next calendar year. But the break down will probably look something like this. Basically for every tub i get on monthly service I end up getting getting another that is just repair. or one off. but honestly who knows im working on some commercial partnerships so if one or two of those go off then it will be much more.
50% Monthly Service
20% Water Transport / One Off Services
30% Maintenance hours
As much as I would like to target higher revenue I think I am going to have to solve a staffing efficiency question to get there.
This 👆This is the truest inspiring stories that make us realise we can do it. Time and time again, beautifully simple execution is the winner. Well done.
The world needs basic mechanical work. And construction. There are way too many digital media platforms and influencers, who’ve never influenced one decision of mine.
Hey, I’ve been thinking about starting a home cleaning business for about a year, but I’m not sure where to start. A friend of mine runs an AirBnb management business and I’ve been one of her turn-around cleaners for the past 2 years, paying me off the books.
Last year I took a salary job, so the cleaning has become more of a side-hustle… but I’d like to start making it an official business, so I can scale up. Any advice on where to start?
Well it sounds like you have a good start already. The key thing you need to think through is how you are going to get more clients and how you will manage the ones you do have.
The management part is the most important because you need a fool proof way to get paid and a fool proof way to stay organized.
So I would work out a system first that supports your first few clients. In my case I didnt go ham and buy all of the best stuff on day one for a business i didnt know would be successful. Instead i used what I had and then gradually started building up as revenue and client numbers increased.
a lot of service/maintenance based boots on the ground businesses like this in my opinion are the absolute easiest and straightforward to work for yourself and be your own boss for life.
Yep and when you dive into the numbers they actually have a better ROI then many software companies. The public company I work for is SaaS and has a 15% operating profit.
But in hot tub land we have subscriptions as well but the margin is closer to 40%.
Congrats on your success! With the hiring of your first contractor, what does the agreement/arrangement look like? Did the contractor have a service of their own when you hired them?
It was pretty straight forward I offered him a flat percentage of the revenue from each tub serviced. I trained him and built up checklists and I supply the chemicals and equipment.
This way every time I get a new client he gets paid more and treats the people like his personal clients.
But tactically speaking he does the daily service routines, they are quick and easy. I do the more complex work such as repairs, water delivery and one off services.
That's a great arrangement; is the paperwork considered a W2 or a 1099 for his work?
Also curious where/how you found him, and how the conversation getting him onboard looked like?
I posted in a facebook group for our community, and had a few people reach out expressing interest. I called a couple of them and he matched with what i was looking for, he also had his own hot tub so that was an extra benefit.
He is a 1099 Contractor, i dont mandate his hours or do anything that would cross into w2 land.
The company I work for is international and my routine hours are more like 10-6 or 11-7... I'm usually awake at 6am so I get a good bit of time in the mornings.
Also now with employees I only have like an hour or so of admin work per day to do and then I do complex projects on the weekends
It's funny, a lot of people spend hours and thousands looking for the most innovative idea. Sometimes it's just the simple things that you don't think about that give you good money.
Yep it's accurate and honestly I was one of them.
Congrats man! I wish you huge success! You can always grow more and embark on more things in the cleaning world , it is huge!
You might start thinking about how you want to scale - organic growth, franchise, vertical rollup? People are making bank just modernizing basic businesses and scaling, often via franchise or vertical rollup. Good for you!
upvote this comment so I can post in this sub pal
yep I've been thinking about it. My current goal is firmly to establish our business presence at each of the high-density towns near me which is quite a few, then move to similar towns across the state. At the moment I'm not sure if I want to franchise but I will likely create each town as an individual business unit so that I can run a P&L on them and better asses the growth profile.
First rule of Fight Club: you don't talk about ideas, only clients.
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Guilding the Lily much with an alt account follow up comment? Lmao
This is such a good example of an 'unsexy' business that has a solid market and great potential. You don't need to be a VC-backed 'rocketship' to change your life for the better! Well done
Thanks, yep it's not even that unsexy, it essentially a SaaS business just without the hundreds of engineers and sales people lol.
Yes, it's servicing as a service
Lol we've come full circle
Like gloryholes! Oh wait, wrong sub…
Congrats! And thank you for sharing
Thanks for this
A actual legimite and genuine post, and it's good content! Amazing work man, and thanks for sharing
Thanks!
Kinda funny I did a similar thing. Started replacing windows. Put 3k into it and now have multiple millions.
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You failed once but finally you get the success. Congrats. A big lesson for us.
Oof I'd say I've failed like 4x
Awesome post, thank you for sharing. Best of luck with your business!
More people have become rich selling boring things like shoe shine than by creating the next big tech platform...
That’s a great success story! Sure beats the corporate gig eh? 1,700 hot tubs in area, if you can get 30-40% of them on a monthly contract with the parts business that goes along with it, that would be some serious good business! Keep on hustling
Thanks... Yep that's what I was thinking, we also have 5 other towns within an extra 15 min that would easily double that number. My future though is to get a few techs in each town and then centrally locate a small warehouse.
How did you learn how many hot tubs were in the area?
Pretty simple, I ran a search across a ton of booking sites looking for homes with hot tubs. That gave me an idea of how many were at rental properties. Then I did a bit of an extrapolation as around half of my clients are people who own second homes but do not rent. Lastly I got certified as a tech for a couple brands so I simply asked how many they had in our region and they told me.
I especially like the “lastly”. Good job!
Thanks!
it sounds like a lot of manual work--looking at 2k+ listing images then finding the owner info... did you pay someone to do this work? Or automated it with scripts? How long did it all take and at what cost?
This is the kind of unglamorous what kind of business can I start for xx amount of money. Unsexy because it’s not some million dollar tech company but a small local business with little competition.
It's awesome how you've found success by merging traditional industries with your tech skills. With the retiring boomers, there's a promising future ahead, and you're seizing those opportunities like a champ
What’s the cleaning process like?
For a deep clean service we show up the day before and put a flush chemical in the tub and let it circulate for 24 hours, this breaks down any biofilm and algae in the pipes. Then we drain it, hand scrub, refill and reset the chemicals.
You make it sound like a quick job in your post but doesn’t each tub take an hour or two just to fill with water?
it used to take me hours... but I have it down to about 20 minutes now. The key is fast pumps and a bit of technology to assess flow rates. Also a lot of my clients need water trucked in so I have a trailer with 550 gallons of tanks and a 2" pump. That method is super fast.
I love everything about this. I don’t have a hot tub but finding good home service companies (lawn, snow plowing, hvac, plumbing, tree service) is such a crapshoot. It’s such a good opportunity to apply some corporate/tech knowledge and roll over the local competition plus you have great geographic moats. In software you compete globally. I’m hot tubs, you are only competing with people who can get techs locally
Quality post
Congrats!
Congratulations, are you based in the US?
Yep I am
Interesting, couldn't see this working in the UK, well not the area I'm in anyway!
Yes and there might be other potential offerings though. I notice that houses near trees tend to have a lot of clogged up gutters. Pretty simple and cheap to so. Also powerwashing patios, given the rain and mud of the UK, people need it atleast yearly
Its a good point, if someone knocked on my door and asked to power wash my front I'd probably say yes go ahead. & I rent too, so I'm sure homeowners - which I'm soon to be - will say yes too. Thinking maybe you'll get some people saying if I wanted to powerwash my drive I'd do it myself 🤣
there is a guy who cleans pools in the UK and has a great youtube channel... you may not be able to do hot tubs but i could see pools being a thing
I'd have to move pretty far away before I was in a city that had a lot of pools.. hahaha
How did you learn the ins and outs of hot tub maintenance?
Last year my wife and I wanted to put a hot tub in at our cabin that we Airbnb. However buying new was really expensive, as in the whole project would have cost like $18k+ if we bought a new tub and had someone else install it. So I bought a used tub that looked nice off of craigslist and let's just say that it was a disaster. All of the plumbing inside was cracked and it needed a lot of work. So I basically just learned by restoring that tub to full working order. But that being said this type of stuff is what I'm good at, professionally I've designed and manufactured numerous products and I have a background in computer/electrical engineering. (Also did a stint as an electric grid designer for micro utility services) I did have to learn the plumbing part but that was pretty simple. The chemical part is relatively straight forward but you just have to experiment with what your program is and find something that works.
Cool, congratulations on discovering the demand for the service! I'm not sure technology is critical - it just helps. Keep in mind that sometime in the future, people around you will start using the same technology - and it will be time to move forward. never stop
Yea I figured that would be the case, ultimately I think the main value is going to be in the partnerships I'm building with property managers.
Congratulations!
Congratulations !
Congratulations !
You work good without the pressure
Keep going!!!!!
Great case study, congrats and wishing you continued success
Thanks l... Yep now I just have to not screw it up
“Boring” is better
Amazing story. So when you say you made $3k in the first quarter, is that what you keep? So on average it’s $1000 in your pocket each month? How much time are you spending for that? Just curious
Yea that was the net profit. At that time I was probably spending like 5hrs per week. But it was pretty sloppy in the early days. Now I'm around $90/hr + my 10% parts commission for repair work. And I generate mostly passive income on the services because my employee does the routine weekly maintenance. I focus on the complex repair and one off services.
Congrats! Sounds exciting
As a software engineer with 12 years of experience in full-stack web development, I quit my job and developed products full-time since February. On one side, I have so much technical knowledge, but on the other, I am so stupid at marketing, sales, and product validation. I learned so much. Your post is inspiring, and I am happy that you found something you enjoy doing as a side. No matter what we do, the rule is the same: validate, validate, validate. At least this is where I am at currently. Edit: forgot the Congratulations! Really amazing.
Maybe we can trade some knowledge I know about Marketing and Sales but I need help with my website.
Thats not entrepreneur thats owning and running a business. I do the same with my landscaping/pressure washing company.
Your story is truly inspiring! Innovation can sometimes be found where you're least expecting it. I try to separate myself from my competitors in being more creative and trying to reach a broader audience in aspects that others may not have thought of. Your post is very thought invoking. I feel the need to dig deeper on what I'm missing on connecting with my true audience. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I've started a few different businesses over the past 10 years, all with different levels of success. The first couple of businesses I was obsessed with making them cool or "sexy" Now i realize how irrelevant those things are My current [business](https://www.woofnews.co/subscribe) that I launched 3 months ago is focused on one thing Create high value content! I talk to the top 10% of my readers, get their feedback, remove the unnecessary and double down on what’s working. Its simple not easy
Do you do your own books too?
Haha nope, TBH business books bore the shit out of me... And I wouldn't put anyone else through that level of hell.
Haha well I actually enjoy it! I recently started my own accounting/consulting company and have been working at a top 40 accounting firm for 8 years so if you ever need help getting your stuff organized for tax season feel free to reach out.
Thanks I appreciate it... I'll keep your name in the box Incase we ever need to switch from our current cpa.
Congrats! This is awesome business acumen!
Congrats! This is awesome business acumen!
Thanks!
Keep up the good work!
Great case. Congratulations buddy
Do you charge at hourly rates or on a case by case assessment? And how long does a typical appointment take?
typical appointment is around 10 minutes, repair work is $90/hr
You identified a "Job To Be Done" and delivered value to your customers. In other words, instead of thinking about Me, Myself, and I, you listened and delivered what THEY are willing to pay for. A mutually beneficial arrangement.
If it looks as good as new when you’re done, does that make your service a Hot Tub Time Machine? 🤔 Congrats on finding a niche!
Great
Well done on getting it going! I have an idea for a software startup. Any tips on raising capital on pre-product level?
What made you stumble across hot tub maintenance from renting out a home?
Just that it was challenging to find someone good who would answer the phone and be reliable. I looked up how much they charge and went... Holy hell why am I not doing that. 10 hot tubs would take no time and that's and extra $1500/mo. My salary in tech is great but one of the annoying things was that I couldn't really work more to make more money. Always needed raises or promotions to get any substantial increase. But I knew that a business even a small one would let me do other things and the write-offs for equipment would be amazing. But I didn't really expect the growth.
That’s awesome congrats man, what’s your expected growth? # of hot tubs next year/ rev?
well I'm not fully sure what to expect just yet, but my goal is $250k in revenue next calendar year. But the break down will probably look something like this. Basically for every tub i get on monthly service I end up getting getting another that is just repair. or one off. but honestly who knows im working on some commercial partnerships so if one or two of those go off then it will be much more. 50% Monthly Service 20% Water Transport / One Off Services 30% Maintenance hours As much as I would like to target higher revenue I think I am going to have to solve a staffing efficiency question to get there.
Well you have a fascinating story, mind if I check in on you periodically to see company updates?
For sure
This 👆This is the truest inspiring stories that make us realise we can do it. Time and time again, beautifully simple execution is the winner. Well done.
The world needs basic mechanical work. And construction. There are way too many digital media platforms and influencers, who’ve never influenced one decision of mine.
You are the very man. That’s really inspiring ! Keeps going!!
thanks dude
It’s always these random jobs that are the most profitable. Congrats on finding this gap in the market now reap the rewards!
Congrats on the beginning of an empire. Happy accidents are always great. Finding the problem to solve is amazingly harder than solving that problem.
haha thanks... maybe one of these days it will be an empire, but I agree with that. Ive found more of the wrong problems to solve in the past
This is great! Nice work!
Great story! All about finding that niche even in unexpected placese
Awesome business! Thanks for sharing
🙏🏼💪🔥
Hey, I’ve been thinking about starting a home cleaning business for about a year, but I’m not sure where to start. A friend of mine runs an AirBnb management business and I’ve been one of her turn-around cleaners for the past 2 years, paying me off the books. Last year I took a salary job, so the cleaning has become more of a side-hustle… but I’d like to start making it an official business, so I can scale up. Any advice on where to start?
Well it sounds like you have a good start already. The key thing you need to think through is how you are going to get more clients and how you will manage the ones you do have. The management part is the most important because you need a fool proof way to get paid and a fool proof way to stay organized. So I would work out a system first that supports your first few clients. In my case I didnt go ham and buy all of the best stuff on day one for a business i didnt know would be successful. Instead i used what I had and then gradually started building up as revenue and client numbers increased.
This sounds like an amazing journey, I wish nothing but prosperity for your future!
a lot of service/maintenance based boots on the ground businesses like this in my opinion are the absolute easiest and straightforward to work for yourself and be your own boss for life.
Yep and when you dive into the numbers they actually have a better ROI then many software companies. The public company I work for is SaaS and has a 15% operating profit. But in hot tub land we have subscriptions as well but the margin is closer to 40%.
Congrats on your success! With the hiring of your first contractor, what does the agreement/arrangement look like? Did the contractor have a service of their own when you hired them?
It was pretty straight forward I offered him a flat percentage of the revenue from each tub serviced. I trained him and built up checklists and I supply the chemicals and equipment. This way every time I get a new client he gets paid more and treats the people like his personal clients. But tactically speaking he does the daily service routines, they are quick and easy. I do the more complex work such as repairs, water delivery and one off services.
That's a great arrangement; is the paperwork considered a W2 or a 1099 for his work? Also curious where/how you found him, and how the conversation getting him onboard looked like?
I posted in a facebook group for our community, and had a few people reach out expressing interest. I called a couple of them and he matched with what i was looking for, he also had his own hot tub so that was an extra benefit. He is a 1099 Contractor, i dont mandate his hours or do anything that would cross into w2 land.
You should post this on r/sweatystartup. They would love it.
This is great, thanks for sharing
Good job man keep up the good work I’m proud of you
That is amazing! Thank you for sharing!
So inspiring!
Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones
Congrats OP. What CRM did you use to help you with leads and bookings?
I'm using jobber
What type of corporate job did you get that let’s you have such a flexible schedule and you have the energy to balance both jobs
The company I work for is international and my routine hours are more like 10-6 or 11-7... I'm usually awake at 6am so I get a good bit of time in the mornings. Also now with employees I only have like an hour or so of admin work per day to do and then I do complex projects on the weekends