Super Can Cleaner
SUPER CAN CLEANER
Making the world a better smelling place...one garbage can at a time.
Click Here to Listen to the Audio/PODCAST Version
This is what I did to make money during August. Luckily, I already had everything I needed so it didn't cost me a cent to start. If you buy everything on your own it will be around $250 but let me also explain how to work around that at first.
The concept is to clean outside garbage dumpsters at peoples' homes using a pressure washer. The pressure washer is the most expensive thing obviously and it also requires that you have a truck or something to carry it around in. Both of these can be avoided, let me first tell you how to go about cleaning then I will talk about getting equipment and advertising.
Lay the cans down on their side with the bottom elevated to let the water and junk run out. I laid the open end of the can in the street and the bottom on the curb, that way all the junk that got washed out just went straight into the gutter. I used a 15 degree nozzle for the pressure washer and just blasted away at the inside, removing all that junk that had built up of the months and years. It comes off suprisingly easy with a pressure washer and takes only about 5 minutes per can. I would also spray the inside with a lysol type concentrate, scrup the inside quickly, and rinse with the pressure washer before spraying another round of the lysol and letting that stay to finish up the cleaning.
My setup was my pressure washer attached to the tailgate (down, not closed) with the bucked of lysol stuff and a coil of hose next to that. I would pull up, attach the hose, and start cleaning. From pulling up to driving away I could clean 3 dumpsters in less than 15 minutes. I would charge $10 for 1, $15 for 2, and $20 for 3. When I had a day full of appointments I would make about $50 an hour.
To advertise I would go door to door. I tried flyers and got an ok response rate but door to door worked incredibly well. Some days I would get a job at half the doors I knocked on. Heres what to do if you want to get started with no money.
Make a flyer that is 4 to a page. Make 100 copies so you end up with 400 flyers. Go out either at 10pm the night before the garbage comes or early the morning of and stick flyers on garbage cans and doors. With that you will proably get at least 3 calls which will be enough to rent the pressure washer for the first week. Rent a pressure washer (make sure its gas so you don't have to carry a long cord and find a plug also) that can fit in whatever vehicle you have. If you have a truck, you are set. If you do not you can go door to door just pushing the pressure washer along. Coil the hose around the handle, hang a gallon of the lysol stuff from the handle with an S hook.
Now this may be a ghetto setup but this is just until you can buy a hitch and trailer for your car (approx $200) and buy a pressure washer of your own. Once you have the equipment though its all profit. I used one gallon of lysol to clean nearly 40 cans to make about $300 so its not like you have a lot of money to spend once its all paid off.
Here is a very important key if you plan to try this. After each and every job ask them if they want you to come back every month to keep them clean and fresh. Offer a really good deal since it will only take you a minute or two per can to clean them again, and within a month you can have jobs setup for months and months to come.
You may want to look into advertising with the local money mailer or ValPak too, I never did so I can't tell you how effective it is but give it a go and let us all know how it goes!
That's it for now...see you next week!
Making the world a better smelling place...one garbage can at a time.
Click Here to Listen to the Audio/PODCAST Version
This is what I did to make money during August. Luckily, I already had everything I needed so it didn't cost me a cent to start. If you buy everything on your own it will be around $250 but let me also explain how to work around that at first.
The concept is to clean outside garbage dumpsters at peoples' homes using a pressure washer. The pressure washer is the most expensive thing obviously and it also requires that you have a truck or something to carry it around in. Both of these can be avoided, let me first tell you how to go about cleaning then I will talk about getting equipment and advertising.
Lay the cans down on their side with the bottom elevated to let the water and junk run out. I laid the open end of the can in the street and the bottom on the curb, that way all the junk that got washed out just went straight into the gutter. I used a 15 degree nozzle for the pressure washer and just blasted away at the inside, removing all that junk that had built up of the months and years. It comes off suprisingly easy with a pressure washer and takes only about 5 minutes per can. I would also spray the inside with a lysol type concentrate, scrup the inside quickly, and rinse with the pressure washer before spraying another round of the lysol and letting that stay to finish up the cleaning.
My setup was my pressure washer attached to the tailgate (down, not closed) with the bucked of lysol stuff and a coil of hose next to that. I would pull up, attach the hose, and start cleaning. From pulling up to driving away I could clean 3 dumpsters in less than 15 minutes. I would charge $10 for 1, $15 for 2, and $20 for 3. When I had a day full of appointments I would make about $50 an hour.
To advertise I would go door to door. I tried flyers and got an ok response rate but door to door worked incredibly well. Some days I would get a job at half the doors I knocked on. Heres what to do if you want to get started with no money.
Make a flyer that is 4 to a page. Make 100 copies so you end up with 400 flyers. Go out either at 10pm the night before the garbage comes or early the morning of and stick flyers on garbage cans and doors. With that you will proably get at least 3 calls which will be enough to rent the pressure washer for the first week. Rent a pressure washer (make sure its gas so you don't have to carry a long cord and find a plug also) that can fit in whatever vehicle you have. If you have a truck, you are set. If you do not you can go door to door just pushing the pressure washer along. Coil the hose around the handle, hang a gallon of the lysol stuff from the handle with an S hook.
Now this may be a ghetto setup but this is just until you can buy a hitch and trailer for your car (approx $200) and buy a pressure washer of your own. Once you have the equipment though its all profit. I used one gallon of lysol to clean nearly 40 cans to make about $300 so its not like you have a lot of money to spend once its all paid off.
Here is a very important key if you plan to try this. After each and every job ask them if they want you to come back every month to keep them clean and fresh. Offer a really good deal since it will only take you a minute or two per can to clean them again, and within a month you can have jobs setup for months and months to come.
You may want to look into advertising with the local money mailer or ValPak too, I never did so I can't tell you how effective it is but give it a go and let us all know how it goes!
That's it for now...see you next week!
4 Comments:
what types of businesses are the valpack mailers best suited for? it's a pretty big investment/risk for a student, but the pay-off has the potential to be big. what do you suggest in terms of evaluating if this type of advertising is right for your business?
Do you have any experience with internet based marketing? Would it be wise to create a website for a business and put that on a flier or in a mailer, so maybe the customer could go there for extra info? Would this be useful for a part-time job such as the garbage can cleaning?
Do you have any experience with internet based marketing? Would it be wise to create a website for a business and put that on a flier or in a mailer, so maybe the customer could go there for extra info? Would this be useful for a part-time job such as the garbage can cleaning?
Would you have like a cleaners van to go along with you or would you come in your own car? Do you think it would be better to hand out fliers or do you think it would be better to go door-to-door to advertise your business?
- Nikki
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