Subsonic
How you do anything is how you do everything
FASTLANE INSIDER
LEGACY MEMBER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
The End of a Journey
It may have been a few days so I'll post one more update here to show what I am up to.
The window cleaning hustle was a great one but honestly I cant see myself building a home services/window cleaning company for the next bunch of years. It is a rather easy to start opportunity with a moderate to low need in my market here. Yes I know there are ways to make this better and to stop being a comodity and whatnot but lets be real here: I started to make some money and to collect experiences. I did archive both these objectives (though the money one less than the experience haha). If I go into this space then purly to make money and if thats the goals I would much rather be in a good market with people that love to spend money, while not being confined to my location here.
Moreover I really dislike this business since each sale causes pain to me and because even just scaling to 10k a month runs into opperational complexity for my situation, since I want to finish school and cant work that much.
The results
I made 1027€ in total value created.
I took home 143€ in profit...
Lets break down why I made so little money. I was running about 20% margins between taking workers with me and the cost of advertising (when factoring in my own time at 15€ per hour).There were two other big factors that cut down the rest of my profit (and all the money I payed myself as a working in theory): 1. Fixed overhead expenses. Since I went out of my way to operate this hustle legally compliant I had to pay a bunch of fees in the range of 50€ to 150€. This wouldnt be significant if I was making more money but since I did not make more money it ate lots of my income. 2. A failed advertising project with the local newspaper. I had them hand out flyers with their newspaper and I got nothing from 3k flyers. Boom 237€ down the drain.
The other thing I gained were some valuable experiences that one only gets when engaging a market.
1. The formular to making the first money is the following: Make an offer and give as many people as possible a chance to pay you. The reason most wantrepreneurs never make their first € is because they never actually get their offer in front of people who can pay for it or better yet, never actually make a concrete offer.
2. Service with a smile makes a huge difference. I suck at cleaning windows and always did a poor Job, yet noone got mad at me or even told me they were not satisfied since I was always kind and did everything the customer asked me to.
3. TIME is important. Its not just so you can be lazy on the bahamans but also so you can actually deliver to customers throughout the day(and night). Since I go to school I could only work on weekends, which created problems and limited the ammount of people I could work for.
4. Website and ads stuff. Its all great and good to read about these things but actually doing them with a purpose is huge and easily teaches 10x more effectivly. I learned how to take calls, I learned how google ads work and how you actually make money with them, I learned how to run facebook ads, I learned how to build and host a website using templates, vs-code and google web servers.
Lastly, I learned that I need to get into something with the plan of solving a problem, not to make money. Despite what @MJ DeMarco told me, I consider this venture somewhat money chasing. While I did work with a market need I never gave thought to what problem I am solving. If I were to start again I would think which problem I am solving first. If that was dirty windows, I can think of better ways to solve that problem than to just clean them for people.
The lesson here is to not focus on what you want to do but instead of what problem you are solving. This goes for everything. No, dont start a marketing agency because you want to do it. Think of the problem (spa owners want to get more customers) first and then work out a solution. Now you can be much more creative and not just limited to one way to solve that problem. (You can do ads for them, license them a great working business model, build them affiliate programms, develope a robot that goes door to door for them...)
Overall I would rate my experience here 6/10.
For now I am focusing on expanding my Skills. I dont want to become a freelancer but I do want to have Skills that allow me to build solutions to problems. Currently I am taking a great course on Web-Development on udemy. Its not the end in itself to be a webdev but its a means to an end. The money invested into this course and the few weeks it takes me to get through it (~70h video material and probably 100 hours in coding exercises if they keep getting more difficult) will give me a Skill that will, for one, make sure that I will always be able to work somewhere in a nice office or from home for more than minimum wage when I need to work. It will also save me thousands for every business venture I get into, since I can build a website with advanced funcitonality myself.
I already have a thing I am working on, as I am learning how Webdevelopment works. Its going to be a while untill I start a progress thread again so I want to thank all the people who gave super valuable advice in here.
Thanks @BizyDad for kicking my a$$ to actually do shit and for helping me get my first real customer.
Thanks @savefox for all your tips and actionable advice.
Thanks @piano for being competition
Thanks @jclean for your insightful reply.
And sorry for all the great advice I got and never implemented. In my next progress thread I will actually impement the advice I am getting.
Subsonic out.
It may have been a few days so I'll post one more update here to show what I am up to.
The window cleaning hustle was a great one but honestly I cant see myself building a home services/window cleaning company for the next bunch of years. It is a rather easy to start opportunity with a moderate to low need in my market here. Yes I know there are ways to make this better and to stop being a comodity and whatnot but lets be real here: I started to make some money and to collect experiences. I did archive both these objectives (though the money one less than the experience haha). If I go into this space then purly to make money and if thats the goals I would much rather be in a good market with people that love to spend money, while not being confined to my location here.
Moreover I really dislike this business since each sale causes pain to me and because even just scaling to 10k a month runs into opperational complexity for my situation, since I want to finish school and cant work that much.
The results
I made 1027€ in total value created.
I took home 143€ in profit...
Lets break down why I made so little money. I was running about 20% margins between taking workers with me and the cost of advertising (when factoring in my own time at 15€ per hour).There were two other big factors that cut down the rest of my profit (and all the money I payed myself as a working in theory): 1. Fixed overhead expenses. Since I went out of my way to operate this hustle legally compliant I had to pay a bunch of fees in the range of 50€ to 150€. This wouldnt be significant if I was making more money but since I did not make more money it ate lots of my income. 2. A failed advertising project with the local newspaper. I had them hand out flyers with their newspaper and I got nothing from 3k flyers. Boom 237€ down the drain.
The other thing I gained were some valuable experiences that one only gets when engaging a market.
1. The formular to making the first money is the following: Make an offer and give as many people as possible a chance to pay you. The reason most wantrepreneurs never make their first € is because they never actually get their offer in front of people who can pay for it or better yet, never actually make a concrete offer.
2. Service with a smile makes a huge difference. I suck at cleaning windows and always did a poor Job, yet noone got mad at me or even told me they were not satisfied since I was always kind and did everything the customer asked me to.
3. TIME is important. Its not just so you can be lazy on the bahamans but also so you can actually deliver to customers throughout the day(and night). Since I go to school I could only work on weekends, which created problems and limited the ammount of people I could work for.
4. Website and ads stuff. Its all great and good to read about these things but actually doing them with a purpose is huge and easily teaches 10x more effectivly. I learned how to take calls, I learned how google ads work and how you actually make money with them, I learned how to run facebook ads, I learned how to build and host a website using templates, vs-code and google web servers.
Lastly, I learned that I need to get into something with the plan of solving a problem, not to make money. Despite what @MJ DeMarco told me, I consider this venture somewhat money chasing. While I did work with a market need I never gave thought to what problem I am solving. If I were to start again I would think which problem I am solving first. If that was dirty windows, I can think of better ways to solve that problem than to just clean them for people.
The lesson here is to not focus on what you want to do but instead of what problem you are solving. This goes for everything. No, dont start a marketing agency because you want to do it. Think of the problem (spa owners want to get more customers) first and then work out a solution. Now you can be much more creative and not just limited to one way to solve that problem. (You can do ads for them, license them a great working business model, build them affiliate programms, develope a robot that goes door to door for them...)
Overall I would rate my experience here 6/10.
For now I am focusing on expanding my Skills. I dont want to become a freelancer but I do want to have Skills that allow me to build solutions to problems. Currently I am taking a great course on Web-Development on udemy. Its not the end in itself to be a webdev but its a means to an end. The money invested into this course and the few weeks it takes me to get through it (~70h video material and probably 100 hours in coding exercises if they keep getting more difficult) will give me a Skill that will, for one, make sure that I will always be able to work somewhere in a nice office or from home for more than minimum wage when I need to work. It will also save me thousands for every business venture I get into, since I can build a website with advanced funcitonality myself.
I already have a thing I am working on, as I am learning how Webdevelopment works. Its going to be a while untill I start a progress thread again so I want to thank all the people who gave super valuable advice in here.
Thanks @BizyDad for kicking my a$$ to actually do shit and for helping me get my first real customer.
Thanks @savefox for all your tips and actionable advice.
Thanks @piano for being competition
Thanks @jclean for your insightful reply.
And sorry for all the great advice I got and never implemented. In my next progress thread I will actually impement the advice I am getting.
Subsonic out.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
