You mean that people are making almost a starting teacher’s wage for cleaning out gutters? I realize that this is not full time, but who is paying that kind of wage instead of finding some kid to do it for $8/hr? I just paid a kid about #10 to reinstall Windows on my computer, and it wasn’t an obvious method, either.
$25-30 per hour??? Surely you’re missing an emoticon here.
I am certain you don’t do these kind of things for a living. The fact is, scrapping metal can make decent money. Prior to the recession good money was made.
I don’t think you’re talking reality here.
Yep, I’m serious. Check around with some of the people you know who own or rent their homes and pay to have their grass cut and ask what they’re paying for their lawn mowing service. I’d wager that they’re paying an average of $30 - $35, and that it takes the person who is doing the work about one man-hour to do the job. Very typical around here in middle America.
People expect to pay more for professional service, and besides, $8-an-hour kids aren’t that easy to find in the first place, and even if they were there are quality of work issues and liability issues because young guys aren’t the most thorough and careful of workers.
And then there’s inertia. Even people who might want to hire someone rarely get around to doing it. So if you show up and offer to do the work or leave a flyer by way of advertising, and as long as you present a good appearance, you’ll get their business because they’ve been wanting to get it done anyway.
So check it out. Go to some lawn care forums (Google will turn 'em up) and check out what those guys are making for lawn mowing in the summer and leaf, gutter cleaning and pressure washing in the winter (not to mention hooking a blade up to the front of their trucks and doing snowplow work in the dead of winter).
And then there’s chainsaw work to tame trees that have grown over the summer and to clear out damaged trees and limbs in the wake of heavy ice storms.
I’m tellin’ ya, $30 an hour is low-range average for most of this kind of stuff. I know about all this because once it came to my attention I researched it thoroughly with the idea of writing a book about it. In the end I didn’t because after putting out a few feelers to people who could use the money I came to feel that the target audience were likely people who couldn’t be arsed to do it anyway. Unmotivated and too much like work.
But for people who are willing to invest a little time in learning to do the job and do it well (and let’s face it, it’s simple work to begin with), and to put in the time and effort to advertise and find customers, $30 an hour is not only possible but really just average.
WTF? 
Dude, do you have any idea how many people are trying to do this right now? I’ve fist-fights break out over who gets to approach someone for lawn-mowing services. Sure, there’s lots of work but there are even more people who are desperate for work out there.
$25 an hour? What planet do you live on?
Yeah, a couple years ago that might have been possible in upscale neighborhoods but in a lot of places the market is glutted with everyone who owns or can borrow a push-mower and they’re underbidding each other into the poor house to get work.
Janx, I’ve told you some simple and effective ways in which you can quickly make some pretty good money. They are all cash businesses that pay you immediately when the work is done (which means you have no billing to contend with and no waits for your money – you get paid each day you work. None of them require a much in the way of experience and they don’t require much in the way of money to get started. I don’t know of any better way a person with no experience and a minimal amount of money can go out and almost immediately be earning money at the rate of $25 - $35 an hour.
I’ve told you what I’ve learned from my own personal research and from people I’ve known in the business. I’ve shown you how you can verify the amounts, and I’ve shown you how you can gain helpful knowledge online from people in the business. Again, look up some lawn care forums online. People in the business from all over the country discuss their work there, so read up and see what you find.
(And also think about how often you’ve seen guys with mowers in their trucks fighting in somebody’s yard over who’s going to mow it. :rolleyes: It isn’t their call anyway. Whoever the homeowner hires is going to be the one who does it. And besides, the odds that you will show up at someone’s home at the same time as another mowing service are almost infinitesimal. And even if something like that were to happen, all you’d have to do is move on down the street or over a couple of blocks. Trust me, this is not a problem.)
And with regard to under bidders, you won’t encounter that much either. But you don’t want the kind of customer who hires them anyway. There are plenty of people out there who prefer quality work and are willing to pay for it. Let the under bidders work for the cheapskates. There is plenty of work for everyone because the market is always in flux. People get older, or they get divorced, or they move to a different home, or they start making more money. Each time one of these happens, a potential new client for lawn (or leaf, gutter, or hauling) service is created.
So in closing, you asked how you could make some quick money, and you appear to have a truck and to be willing to work hard to make it, so I told you of some ways that you could do that. And any of the methods I mentioned will earn you, once you’ve learned what you’re doing, $25 - $35 dollars an hour. Don’t listen to naysayers. Check them out and try them out for yourself.
I think you’re exceptionally unrealistic.
Collecting scrap is a business not unlike a paper route for many. Many of the scrap guys have figured out where/when businesses produce scrap. Most others simply troll alleys/ industrial areas for scrap. In that respect it’s not unlike a lawn care or other business.
Any idea how many lawn care customers you need to sustain a living? If it’s like other service businesses that I’m aware of (I’ve started them) it takes 4 years of persistent effort to build a sustainable customer base, not to mention the cost of equipment, trailers etc.
I’m not disputing that the lawn care business isn’t a means to a living. But the notion that all the scrap guys can seamlessly and effortlessly transition into lawn care/ home maintenance business people underestimates just how difficult and time consuming that would be.
Scrap is fine, but the OP indicated that he had decided that wasn’t the way he wanted to go, and asked if anyone knew of some other ways he could quickly make some money. So I offered him some ways that I know of to do that. It doesn’t really matter to me what he does. If he can make money hauling scrap metal and that’s what he wants to do, then that’s fine.
With regard to a sustainable business, I suppose that depends on your needs. But only seven weekly customers (or one lawn a day) at $30 a pop will gross $900 a month. Two lawns a day (or fourteen weekly customers) will gross $1,800 a month. And so on.
Basic expenses are gasoline, trimmer string and edger blades, none of which is going to amount to much relative to income. Truck repair and gasoline really shouldn’t be any more than what a person would normally incur driving back and forth to work somewhere, and occasional mower or other equipment repair are likewise minimal when compared to gross.
And to go a little further with regard to a sustainable customer base, people don’t like having to try out new lawn guys. If you do a good job and are dependable, they will stick with you and provide a loyal and dependable source of weekly income.
And yes, the hardest part of the business is acquiring new customers, but even that really isn’t that hard if a person is willing to put some effort or advertising into it. My cousin, who recently retired at age 62 and who has previous mowing experience, decided last August to get back into it part-time to supplement his Social Security income. He lives in a rural but growing suburb of a metropolitan area of 1.2 million people. He ran a small ad in the local paper offering mowing service with a discount for seniors and got six new customers the first week. And since you’ve been in the business, you probably know the significance of that, which is that by August most of the people who pay to have their lawns mowed have someone doing that already. So to me that speaks pretty well to the fact that there is always business out there for people who want to go after it.
Customers can also be acquired through the use of flyers and by door-to-door solicitation, and as you probably already know, new customers often come also from neighbors of people you’re already mowing for once they’ve had a chance to guage your dependability and the quality of work that you do. Your lawns begin to cluster, in other words (which is also good in terms of keeping a tight route).
Getting back to the OP though, mowing is pretty much done for this year in most of the country. Leaf work, gutter cleaning, fence repair, tree and limb work, and hauling are income opportunities that are more widely available now.
But again, none of this is intended to disparage the selling of scrap metal. Nor was it ever my intention to tell all the scrap guys to switch to mowing. I was merely talking to the OP, who indicated that he had lost interest in scrap and wanted to know of some alternative means of income. If he still wants to do scrap work and he can make the money he needs by doing so, then that’s fine too.
Will post later-----and I’m not trying to discourage anyone from going into business for themselves------ but I think you’re missing quite a bit here.
It is doable, but unless you’ve done this yourself I can tell you it is much harder, and time consuming then you’re painting.
SA you’ve done research - I’ve done the actual work. You’re painting FAR too rosy a picture here.
One item you’ve left completely out of the equation is weather - you can’t do that work when it’s pouring outside. So it’s not a matter of simply scheduling Mr. Smith Tuesday mornings and Ms. Jones Wednesday afternoons - if it rains you’re out of work until it stops, then you’ll be overloaded catching up.
In many parts of the country you won’t be mowing lawns in winter. Yes, there’s snow removal, but it’s not nearly as steady or predictable.
Right now, the lawn guys are losing customers to the recession - if the customer can’t pay they don’t hire lawn/gutter maintenance. Not to mention the times you do the work and don’t get paid - and it DOES happen.
It is can be very hard to capture a customer base right now. The competition is fierce, there are a lot of folks trying to get into the business thinking it’s easy money, and people are mowing their own lawns/cleaning their own gutters/whatever to save money.
But one thing you DID miss - you can mow lawns AND haul scrap. Because if you value you’re equipment at all you’re going to walk the lawns before mowing looking for debris, and even in the nicest neighborhoods trash accumulates along the street and in bushes. Half the cans I turned in this summer I found while doing lawncare.
The OP said he has a good job, just needs a little extra money. Picking up a couple yards to mow may be enough.
A lot depends on location. My brother in law quit a good career to mow lawns and he wouldn’t touch anything for $30 an hour. He has invested time and effort though. The OP might be ok mowing a couple neighbors lawns for $20 a pop.
I’m not sure I would want any of the characters who pick cans out of trash anywhere near where I live. Certainly not showing up and walking all around the yard, even when I’m out, to see where all doors and windows were, how to get into the garage or shed, any stored ladders, what sort of locks, etc.
OTOH, Elizabeth Smart’s dad was the kind charitable sort who gave the odd home maintenance jobs to homeless shelter inhabitants…