My friend was struggling, penniless, living out of his car... he had just come back to town from 2 years of BASE jumping and kinda half-hoping to die while doing it, very unhappy with his life overall. One day he decided he was going to start a business, doing (at the time) deck cleaning/repairing, house painting, and fencing. He bought a $150 pressure washer, and already had a van and some paintbrushes and stuff like a hammer and saw and whatnot. He printed some fliers and paid $85 per route for the USPS to do direct mailing, I think it was 500 houses per route, he started with 2 or 3 routes. He found he would end up getting an average of 5 jobs (more calls, but 5 signed jobs) per route.., which paid for itself in way less than one job. He worked really hard building and evolving the business over the course of a few years. Now he just does deck staining and washing. So his material costs range from nothing (uses his pressure washer, he got a nicer one though), to a few cans of stain, so it's almost all profit. He doesn't have any employees, he does it all himself. He makes on average $200 an hour now because he's gotten really efficient at it and it's easy work, and never has to advertise anymore because it's all word of mouth (after 5 years). He was making up to 20 grand in a month when he was pushing hard, and bought some land and built his house (mostly himself, he did hire someone to pour the slab and do the electric work and some of the plumbing, and to drill his well, but he learned how to do literally everything else, I helped him some with the labor which was cool, too). He had a kid and now he prioritizes spending time with his family, since his kid is only 3. He usually works 10 hours a week, and makes around $2000 a week, and has over a hundred grand in the bank. He owns his house outright with no mortgage, and he's thinking about buying a second piece of land to build another house that will be an income property and another investment. He takes off for 3-4 months every winter with his family and they travel to Central or South America to surf and explore, and then he works more hours when he gets back to make up the deficit. He just left today for this year's trip actually.
He's probably the happiest person I know. he did work VERY hard to set the business up but he started it from nothing, with no investment, or virtually none, and no family money. His story always makes me think that if you try hard, you can manifest a better life for yourself. he's come a long way since I was renting my spare room to him for a DEEP discount 7/8 years ago, so he didn't have to live out of his truck.
babylonbee.com
