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Join over 90,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.
Free registration at the forum removes this block.- When you're on the roofs do you use any sort of safety harness? Is that a thing mandated by some sort of "safe work" regulation? Dragging a long hose filled with pressurized water and lots of random connections around on a slippery roof might cause problems. It would be a shame to see you get hurt.
- TikTok is fascinating to me. What's your end game with it? What kind of business opportunities do you see coming from lots of views on it? (if any?)
Thanks man keep it up.
What's up Fastlaners!
I haven't posted on here in quite some time.
I joined the forum in late 2013, before reading MJ's book. I found the Fastlane Forum through a forum called Luxury 4 Play (about cars). Someone had posted a link in the "business" section. I always asked myself, 'how do people afford these crazy cars?!' So I decided to delve down the rabbit hole and find out.
In 2014, I attended the Capitalism and Bacon meetup in Houston, Texas. There, I was introduced to the world of entrepreneurship. We had a blast over the long weekend, and made some life long friends to boot.
I lived in Idaho/Washington for the vast majority of my life. From 2014-2017, I started several online businesses, all of which failed in one way or another. Either I didn't put in enough effort, or the products weren't viable. I learned alot about myself during this time, and don't regret "action faking," since it taught me many invaluable lessons. I also found myself growing stagnant, and comfortable during this time. I partied alot, F*cked around, had an IT job making around 60k/year (age 18-22).
One day, in late 2017, I found myself laying in my girlfriend's bed, Netflix blaring in the background. I was blankly staring at my phone. I wondered how I had gotten to my current position. I wondered what else there was in store for me. I would equate this to my "F*ck this event," only it was a long time coming. I packed up my few belongings into my 87 Honda CRX, called my boss and told him I was quitting on the spot, and decided to move to Southern California.
Thankfully, one of my friends from the 2014 meetup was in a similar position. We ended up getting a house in San Diego, which we deemed the "Entrepreneur Hustle House." Since, we have had 2 other Fastlaners live with us, and countless others come to visit.
I had absolutely no money when I first moved here. We're talking maybe 3 grand saved up. I should have had alot more, but I was still in sidewalk mindset at the time. I started a drop shipping business, which ended up making a few k/mo, and sustaining me for a while. This didn't last, and before I knew it, I had maxed out several credit cards trying to keep this business, as well as others, afloat, alongside paying my rent.
I tried running an ad agency for other businesses as well, but realized it was inauthentic to myself. This floated me for a few more months, but came to a screeching halt one day when I realized I didn't even have enough money to pay rent.
This was possibly the lowest point in my life that I had experienced. I had crushing anxiety, defeating depression, and was overall underachieving in every aspect. I knew I could do much better, which is the reason why I felt so terrible.
The year before, I had met a guy in LA who owns a window cleaning business. I remember posting about it here long ago, he was actually trying to sell it. I asked him if he would let me work for him for a few days (another time where I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pay rent.) Thankfully, he let me, and in doing so, taught me the ropes of what he does. I soaked up information, asked lots of questions, and tried to gain clarity on the situation.
Last year, I decided to bite the bullet, swallow my pride, and start an offline service business, just like he had.
I set up a Yelp page, made my Google listing. Printed out thousands of door hangers and flyers. Spent my last few bucks on a squeegee, mop, and bucket, and began hitting the doors. I had a fire lit under my a$$, and nothing to lose, so I went as hard as I could, every day, until I started getting jobs.
Due to the low startup costs, and low barrier to entry, and insane work ethic driven by necessity, I was profitable within about 48 hours of deciding to start this business. I haven’t let up the gas since. By the end of 2019, I had grown the business to over 20k/mo revenue, around 80% margins. My only expenses were marketing, and a little gas to get to the jobs. I threw two ladders inside my sedan, used a hose, bucket, mop, and squeegee to perform home services for customers.
I realized in order for this business to scale past 20k/mo, I need systems in place. I have since hired a full time secretary to deal with all day to day, and help me create systems. I implemented a CRM, accounting software, and automated lots of daily tasks. I also became legit, finally got insurance, and a business license (LOL). I have also hired another employee to work in the field.
I have done alot of “soul searching” in the past few years. I took alot of time for myself, and really dug deep. What kind of person do I want to be? If I could do anything in the world money aside, what would I be doing? What is AUTHENTIC to my character, and what are things I really love doing?
I realized my gifts are along the lines of helping others. I genuinely want to push other people along to achieve their goals and dreams (especially when it relates to my personal story). My long term goals include blowing up my “entrepreneur hustle house” concept, only this time, I will own the houses, and rent them to young people who didn’t go to college, as a sort of “incubator tank” for businesses. I want to push young guys especially, just like myself, because I’ve seen the power of it.
My current goals, in line with my larger goals are:
Scale the offline home service business
Create YouTube videos helping others do the same thing I have done
Network with those people
Get them to move in together
Invest in their businesses (once I have more capital)
I want to create an ecosystem for myself in the future. So I am taking steps to get there today.
I will use this thread as a place to hold myself accountable, but mainly for a place to be able to look back and see my story over the next few years. I miss posting on the Fastlane Forum. It was a huge part of my childhood, and has led me to meeting some really cool people. I owe it to other readers and members to document my journey.
I hope other people can relate to countless business failures, action fakes, and losing lots of $ in the process to find something that actually works for them.
Comments/questions/concerns welcome.
David
Very motivational post David, my question to you is what made you want to choose the window cleaning business and stick to that one instead of something else? What made you say this is it and this is what is what i am goig to scale ?
Do you have fulltime employees at the moment ?
You might be onto new buzz word.hustle house
I have one full time employee plus 2 others "part time."
This business was profitable pretty much from day one. I was in a VERY tough financial place, and the business dug me out of my hole. It's very simple and easy to run, and enjoyable.
I was caught in the drop shipping loop as well as SMMA for a while, which was just like pulling teeth. In this blue collar service biz, people literally beg me to come perform services on their homes. There's no "sales" involved, they already sell themselves. Then I upsell them, but this comes naturally.
Also the profit margins in this business are great. You really can get started for barely any money.
Thanks for the reply David, we have been working on construction as well. We have been testing what is the most profitable gigs to then niche it down and go from there. Still lots of testing, right now we are outsourcing 80% of the jobs but once we have our profitable gig we will stick to those.
Me myself was also questionable about should I go the online route, but there is just no money in the
So you flip houses, then got into the construction side of it? That sounds bad a$$.
Sounds like an opportunity you would never have had, had you not been taking action, flipping the houses in the first place!
Anyway, PM me your YouTube, your link is broken. Will definitely check your stuff out. Maybe we can do a collab video.
Today we had a rain storm. My phone was absolutely poppin. Here's some of the income from today:
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Also video taped myself working in the rain. If you want it, you godda go get it, rain or shine.
In this business, Rain = money.
Wow i was amazed and shocked at the prices folks are willing to pay to have windows cleaned. Here in the UK people only want to pay £20-£30 per house. What a tight bunch we are over here..lol
Great thread. Thanks for sharing. Don't see enough hustle threads like this around here lately. Keep going.
Love this!! You're the Gary V of Windows. Crush it crush it crush it!!
Also I would get a used truck, maybe, don't end up in some sort of Final Destination situation in case of car accident lol
Booked a job from a neighbor yelling at me while on a roof today. Got his number and set him in the calendar. He saw me spraying his neighbors rain gutters, and told me he needed me to do his too.
Guy had 3 BMW's parked in the drive way, he obviously didn't care about price. Literally keeping up with the Jones's.
Another FAT day of profits! The reason I'm posting screen shots is for MOTIVATION TO GET OUT THERE AND DO IT YOURSELF!!!!!!
For ANYONE struggling! Please! Take a close look at what I'm doing. You can so easily do the same. Even if you're in the same city there's so much demand out there, there's room for everyone.
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I always get on the roof if I can, which is around 90% of the time. Sometimes there's just no way, or it's too steep.What's your favorite way to clean the gutters? Do you get on the roof or clean from a ladder?
I always get on the roof if I can, which is around 90% of the time. Sometimes there's just no way, or it's too steep.
This makes it go much quicker. Moving the ladder around and getting into weird angles is what takes the longest amount of time.
Also, you need to factor in the cleanup. The less mess you make, the less mud/dirt/shingle dust you have to clean at the end! I try to dry scrape as much of the chunks as possible before blasting with a hose or pressure washer.
One thing I've been doing recently is upselling on roof pressure washing. Just upsold a dude yesterday for $1350 extra. His gutters were trashed and his roof had serious growth on it. I went up there, took pics, and showed him. He agreed on the spot.
From the roof is always the easiest unless it's too steep or too sketchy. It will cut the time in half.
Also try not to let much of the debris go down the downspout because they can clog easily. Always dig as much of it as you can before hand into a bucket. I created a little hook for my bucket that can easily hang from the rain gutters as I scoop the stuff out.
It's a dirty job but trust me, when you get paid at the end, you won't even remember
Just cleaned my 2nd set of gutters. After seeing your success with gutter cleaning, I added it to my services as an up-sell! It seems you are having success installing new gutters/guards, correct? Might have to look into that myself
Have 3 roof cleanings coming up as well. What pump are you using for the roofs?
How are you advertising for roof cleanings? And how are you completing them? Tile or shingles?
I've been using a dogshit 2100 PSI electric one for roofs because I can bring the thing up on the roof with me. But it takes way too long. Next one I'm getting a 3400 PSI gas and a long a$$ hose instead.
Honestly the installs have been rocky. It has resulted in WAY more callbacks than any other service. I've probably gotten 2 calls backs total for rain gutter CLEANING, and maybe 5 total for window cleaning, in the entire time the biz has ran. We do 80/20 the jobs but I do as good a job as the customer wants us to do. I take hella good before and after pics of every gutter job.
When you say you added it to your services, you added it on your website? On your flyers? On Yelp?
Absolutely killing it bro, congrats and well deserved. Way to show how it's done.
More jobs, add more employees and you'll be laughing.
Question; you say you're looking into buying a van/truck at some point since you use your car to transport material.
Seeing the money you make per day/week makes me think you should be able to afford some kind of decent van after a week or 2 weeks of work, no? Saying this because I know you can buy a brand new Fiat Ducato (pretty big van/truck/car) for 20-25k here in NL. So never mind second hand, easily sub 10k.
Say you invest 5k or 10k on it; that allows you to transport more material and upsell more jobs, you'd make that money back in a month.
Just curious to your plan
Look into a soft wash system! More cost effective,efficient, and it’s the only way that you should clean roof. Pressure washing can damage shingles and takes way too long. Soft wash is 60 PSI and cleans with chemicals. The pictures below is a section of a roof that took me 10 minutes to coat and about 20 minutes of it drying
All of my roof cleanings have been in the same neighborhood, after doing 1 roof, 4 others want it done! I just received my post cards that push for roof cleaning as well. Get some yard signs and put them up while you are working too!
I added “Gutter cleaning” to my website after seeing this thread! I kept it off of my postcards and my truck wrap I’ll be getting as I primarily want to focus on pressure washing/soft washing and use gutter cleaning as an up sell, most people are interested once you offer it! After seeing your success with the installations, I thought about adding that too
More craziness today. Two screenshots attached, one more for $325 on the way after I send the guy some pics.
Got a few other guys I'm helping to do the same shit in other cities. Feels GOOD to help others in the same position as me. We bounce ideas off eachother and make shit happen. Trying to surround myself with straight hustlers only. No excuse makers or negativity. Positive vibes only.
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