/biz/ - Business & Finance

Unless you can afford or make yourself a snazzy website and get some SEO then you’ll have to settle for other marketing. You should definitely get your business listed on Yelp and Google Business because that’s how zoom-booms find shit.

>>56529901
>I made it through 10 houses. 8 people were not happy to see
Hit the bricks. Firm handshake. That's what I did. Kids these days!

>>56529901
whoaaa you made it
you are a janny
finally success

>>56529901
lol

>>56530031
but im not doing it for free! :(

>>56529964
i definitely have to work on the website.

>>56530071
I'll built it for you for $2k

>>56530071
I'll build it for you for $2k

>>56529901

I wish /biz/ had more entrepreneurship threads. Thanks for the update on your progress, I'm reading the archive now. Even wagie-tier stuff like this is more fascinating to me than any crypto thread or /smg/, because you're actually working for yourself to make things happen instead of gambling. Chick-Fil-A might just be your big break. Consistent effort every single day is key. Did you go to rich neighborhoods? 2/10 seems about right, I come from a family of sales people. Don't let that discourage you, although I don't believe individuals is where the money is at for something like this.

Eventually your business will snowball. I know a guy who lives on a humble ranch in New Mexico but owns 10 cement trucks (worth 1MM each, made in Germany). He started out with a towable cement mixer and scaled up from there. Took him 20-30 years but he did it. I'm a software dev, but I'm fantasizing about the simple things that can accomplished if you make the right moves and put in consistent physical effort.

Ask for 2500
How much competition in your area is there?
They need to get it done for liability reasons, if nothing else.

>>56530071
>>56530118
Working for yourself is always based, even if it's as a janny. Most people used to be self employed but we've been manipulated and sometimes coerced into accepting the slave mindset of a wagie.
Although I'm a big believer in minimum standards, the more I learn about business the more I hate regulations and regulators. I have much more sympathy for the AnCaps now.

>>56530103
I'll do it for $1500

>>56530118
Consistency is THE key in that regard

Even the most retarded people made a success with their business eventually, because they sticked to it, i know someone that started an online shop doing pretty well at first, but eventually a recess in orders came and they immediately gave up after maybe 1.5 years, many such cases

So OP, dont discouraged even if it doesnt work out momentarily, never completely shut it down, it will pick up again

>>56530118
>Eventually your business will snowball.
most start ups don't snowball. they melt

Squarespace or FB page for a website, don't pay pajeets to build one for you

>>56530103
got a guy. sorry.

>>56530123
2500 is in my mind too much for a business that we're looking to do more. i'm assuming you know more than me though. We clean with steam and equipment that totals around 15k not including the van. I imagine there is competition but the owner and the gm just powerwash their kitchen themselves frequently.
i'm going to negotiate with them before sending the official bid.

>>56530118
I honestly have a hard time knocking on doors. I was pretty disheartened yesterday after it. fortunately we have another sports bar that wants us to clean their patio and dining room floors. we sent a bid for about $2100 for them, the gm suggested a bid of 1600(inside floors)+500(patio). we're waiting to hear back from them. I believe you're right it will scale.

in the meantime i'm applying for goshare for delivery here and there for extra cash using my sprinter van.

>>56529964
> You should definitely get your business listed on Yelp and Google Business because that’s how zoom-booms find shit.

Google business is better for service businesses. Most people when they are looking for services will Google the service and in their area and if you have a Google maps listing then that’s what most people will click on. Op needs to do this asap and make sure he starts getting good reviews, that way he will have his phone ringing and won’t have to do door to door as much to acquire business anymore

>>56530227
>start ups
But he doesn't have a start up. He has a business that provides a valuable service.

>>56530260
I'm not in that industry. (I have a window cleaning/pressure washing business.) But in my experience it's better to overbid than to go lower. It gives you a better attitude while doing the job. People are willing to pay, and if they aren't, you are dodging a bullet.

>>56529901
If you work well, do a good job an being honest I wish you success, if you are doing mediocre job or less and being dishonest with your clients I'm not wishing you any success.

Based, this is what /biz/ was meant to be, not faggot neets gambling on meme tokens

>>56530232
This. Heck, ask chat gpt to build one for cheap and make pajeets seethe

sb post the gif of some polak roachmaxxing and steam cleaning in a drain

>>56529901
Is a steam cleaner effectively just a power washer? You're able to do car interiors, patios, restaurant kitchens with the same piece of equipment?

I work a 9-5 from Wednesday to Sunday and it's a mandatory on site office job. I have some free time to do a side-gig but I don't know which trade should I start with.

I gave up on drawing up smut, and can't draw hot shit at work.
Any side jobs I could do while at work, biz?

>>56530526
>while at work
There's not much you could do covertly unless you have your own office and it's fully remote. Perhaps it would be better to learn something at work that you could monetize in the future?

>>56530434
i was an officer in the army and before that went through basic. Every/any sort of cleaning i do there's a drill sergeant telling me its not good enough. When i was using it to detail cars and RV's i would be pretty thorough because its mortifying for me for a customer to tell me i missed a spot.

>>56530486
been using chatgpt to write all my emails and bids for me. lol.

>>56530524
same main piece of equipment but different accessories such as a floor cleaner like in my op pic. there are other attachments such as a long wand, short wand, brush, squeegy etc.

>>56530216
I get discouraged but keep on trucking anyways. thankfully i work out at the gym and it's a good way to distract me from real life here and there.

>>56530524
Hopefully he/she has different heads :(

>>56530227
Sure they do, but there's still a shit ton of snow to go through.
You gonna give up on your chance for your very own snowman just because one snowball melts?

>>56529901
I used to run a business steam cleaning police cars after someone vomited sharted or bled in them. It sounds pretty bad but I didn't clean anything myself, I trained other people, handled the contracts, admin, supplies, logistics etc etc. If you get low wage people working for you, you will have morons and it will be a nightmare trying to handle them

>>56530526
Dont be a bitch and give up if you can draw

>>56529901
do you have the archive to the previous thread?

>>56530751
>>56504811

>>56530806
Aha ty, and good luck OP all the best in your ventures.

very coool dude hope u do well keep chuggin

>>56529901
> I personally do not like door to door bugging people but i can see the necessity of it.
maybe mail out flyers for awhile to build up brand recognition. more expensive but you can probably get more people in the area aware of your services and you don't have to go door to door. its good to make a personal connection but that can come after and if they like you. you can knock on maybe 50 doors in a day while building up and get like a 5-7% rate of people taking your number and then you still need to convert that minority of people. versus sending out a bunch of flyers over time to people who run local businesses in the mail or to houses or whatever, maybe costs some money but you might be able to get hundreds or even thousands of flyers out and converting even 0.5% of, say, 1000 people and business would be better than converting 2 people while knocking on doors. and do a targeted run of those ads, don't send flyers out to crack heads in the hood send it to people who would definitely need to have a clean business because they interface with customers and who might have dirty floors like mechanic shops, bars & restaurants, super markets, etc. just an idea.

>>56530691
Than good luck anon

>>56530950
Then*

>>56530950
thanks brother!

>>56529901
>Made it to 10 houses. 10 people didn't want to see me but 2 were polite about it.
ftfy

This is a good gig OP. You don't need any bullshit SEO or websites. Just business cards and word of mouth for this sort of on-site service. Make sure you have the right tools to make cleaning as easy as possible. Caked on grease is a bitch to get off.

>>56530215
I'll do it for a couple cheeseburgers and you pay the hosting fee.

>>56531575
thats how i feel man!

>>56531642
I got the right equipment for it for sure. when i do it ill post some pics. Thanks man.

>>56531728
Deal.

>>56531887
Good update. I wish you the best of luck, cleaner anon!

>>56529901
If someone came to me offering interior car clean I would take it. Just fyi

>>56530123
>They need to get it done for liability reasons, if nothing else.
OP isn't certified to do it.
he doesn't even know he should be certified.

so most places aren't going to hire him unless he does really good work AND gets certified.

>>56529901
$2000 is very cheap, you should also learn the words and call up/learn your competition to see what they charge. A company getting quotes avoids the most expensive and the cheapest and looks for a long term relationship. I have friends who are welders and while they always came in cheap, they'd be passed over - did the sales101 and had them charge 30%+ and call up other shops to ask technical questions and get quotes and figured out what the floor and ceiling was for the area.

That's what you need to do.
>>56529964
At this point, getting a wix.com site and a cheap domain works. I'd say if you have the free time, namecheap/porkbun, get the domain and wordpress with a simple template for call/email/social media handles captured is 90% of the work needed to have an *online presence*

>>56530118
It's very easy, /biz/ is super lazy but there is always a cost associated with this. You can start small, e.g. pressure washing, lawn mower, etc and the skills really do carry over to other niches.

>>56530216
This, consistency is key.
>>56530260
you're selling yourself short, lol, 2500 is nothing for a business in the USA. knocking doors is hard work, it is rejection, it's better to do it high as fuck or whatnot, but you can get cheap salesguys to do it for you, base pay + commission 10-20% would motivate alot of people.

the yelp/yellow pages shit works alot too. >>56530377
Exactly this.
>>56530732

I woudl also extend to biohazard/murder/death cleanup, you can easily register as a proper corporation (which you should anyway) and contact the county morgue, get more and go from there - this is a business I've always wanted to get into, but I don't spend much time in the USA and I make too much revenue with other business/tech shit that I just haven't really gotten into it. biohazard nowdays is $$$$ and 99% of the people are scared from blood and shit. It really isn't that bad. If you can do carpet and bleach, you'll be better than 99% of bz in the space.

>>56533042
Certification is bullshit, you can make your own and post it - that way you can market it as unique and such.

With that said, *I* do highly suggest OP to file an LLC, it costs $60-120, if you don't have a company address, then use the local wework address - they don't give a fuck and they're bankrupt in a week anyway, so that would be successful. Agent address should be yours, but it doesn't matter as well - all you will get is business spam, but what you want is the LLC registered, showing you as OWNER OPERATOR (don't use fucking CEO or OWNER) that way when you open your bank account it's more direct to do so - that way you will appear on the surface as knowing some shit. When you get company checks, make sure to get something in the 5000+ number and make it like that, don't do 0001 or 1000 because thats a sign of a new corp (and yeah lol they can look it up on the states corporation site but 99% of people dont, they just look up the DB profile.)

Within 6 months, you'll be able to get credit cards for your biz too - which is nifty cause you can float and properly itemize your revenue/expenses so you always make no money and ca ntake the most deducitons.

You should also get indeminity insurance, just in case you do fuck something up - it's cheap, probably $100-250/month, but for cleaning, I don't see it being more than $600/yr - 25,000 or so should be sufficient. IF you can get more for same/cheaper, do it. The nolo books for small biz are good because while you can work/make money, people forget the compliance shit and if you have a strong foundation (e.g. what I wrote) you solve 97% of the issues you'd run into when handling large money, taxes, etc.

Marketing is a big deal, and you do want to place SEO high. I wouldn't buy fake reviews but they can be. a great way to pidgeon hole for someoen that just pulls up results on their phone. Issues OP has now are marketing and scaling. Easy to solve now that you know their name.

>>56533107
>I woudl also extend to biohazard/murder/death cleanup
generally also requires very specific classes and licenses in the US.

>>56533160
>Certification is bullshit,
until you get caught operating without it, Yes.

how will OP get caught, you might ask? Someone with the proper certifications will hear of him and turn him in.

someone like me. Or perhaps one of his clients.

>>56533160
>I don't see it being more than $600/yr - 25,000 or so should be sufficient.
It's based on payroll/revenues, and the industry standard is $2.5 million. Kek'd at your estimates though.

price isn't far off. It's about $100/month or $1200/year

>>56533166
No it does not. There is an OSHA course but everything else is bullshit. Don't mix bleach and ammonia, don't huff crystals just do the OSHA bloodborne pathogens personal protective equipment (PPE) and that's it.

All those certifications you see out there are marketing scams designed to psyop you into thinking *that* company is the only one qualified to clean up shit.

All they do is go to grangier or lowes, buy bleach, buy ammonia, stick their label from vistaprint on the bottle so it seems official, stick a magnetic shit on their van/truck (van is better for many things imo) and go around in a fucking uniform. I highly suggest offering free laundry service for employees in this space (also their personal clothes) because thats how you retain but there is no fucking certification outside that. You do want insurance incase for some odd improbaility they get Herpes/HIV but these viruses are very delicate and unless the corpse is fresh, the risk of getting that is minimal provided you don't fucking lick blood and use gloves and bleach. Many employees are stupid as fuck, and may do stupid shit, but it takes minimum 6-8 hours for body discovery to release it to a clean up crew, which means, overnight, 10 hours + 6 hours = 16 hours body was lying somewhere to clean up, which means the risk of viruses is pretty low.

bacteria survive and can be more risky, but they are generally treatable with antibiotics and aren't as life threatning unless they are immunocompromised. The other thing I would say is there is a big fear of the *FENTANYL* which is also bullshit but you sell it drug clean up is easier then blood LOL but the media/law enforement think "omg death" lol it really isn't.

see, how we went from steam to biohazard? That's called pivioting and establising a vertical. , same employees, same equipment higher cost and more fear. marketing changed slightly to do this, and steam cleaning now is an upsell. congrats anon, you're part of the american dream.

>>56533198
>There is an OSHA course but everything else is bullshit.
OSHA 40 hour HAZWOPER and often a HAZMAT course. State requirements vary.

these are very specific licenses and courses. Not at all difficult to get, but he will get busted operating without them.

>>56533174
LOL you are confusing certification with licensing,to clean shit there is no barrier. contracting yes you must be licensed with the state. cleaning, no. OSHA stuff is federal so sure, but

to fucking get in a truck, go around town and clean shit, there is no gatekeeping shit of certifications that say *you* can't work. Sure maybe you can't compete on all jobs, and a competent AP/company hiring team may pick someone else over you cause it says that - but to steam clean, to spray bleach and such have no minimum certifications. I would say to serve food has a higher barrier then fucking to clean shit up.

But 100% biohazard has no, NO classes, licensing requirement outside PPE shit from OSHA that is it. Indeminity Insurance will charge you more, but maybe 10% going to your next post...

>>56533185
I would say it's geographic, 2.5 million is probably safe, It's been years since I got quotes lol

LOL imagine needing a fucking license to clean, all those poor mexican immigrants are working twice illegallly now!

>>56533229
>there is no gatekeeping shit of certifications that say *you* can't work.
your competitors are the usual gatekeepers if the clients don't check.

I find out you're undercutting me and don't have your compliance shit in order, we're going to have a court date and I will take you down.

mexicans cleaning stuff on their own is a slightly different problem since it's the client that's breaking the law and suing potential clients is bad for business. So that usually slides. If it's a company I'm going to send a polite letter to their purchasing agents though about using illegal labor.

>>56533264
Yes, this is true and I agree that business turn each other in - but you are conflating that you need a license. A certification means you know the industry standard of something, but not knowing an industry standard =/= does not equal breaking state or federal law. requring certification may be codified in some industries, but certification is not licensing and doing unlicensed work is always illegal - doing unlicensed work while uncertified is not illegal if no certification is needed.

100% agree it's a compliance tidbit, but I 100% know for biohazard because I would've invested a huge chunk of my time/money into it but didn't cause I choose to live outside the usa and do other shit outside the USA. biohazard is a fucking goldmine of a business and so fucking easy to do - I feel bad for posting it on here beause once you find out, you go "wow, really that much?" and people really avoid "dirty jobs" in general.

tidbit: mexicans cleaning shit on their own is both an employee and employer problem, they can't work legally, and employer should screen their identity docs before work, everify crap - the loophole is a 3rd party contracting firm so the company that hires 3rd party contracting firm is immune because they passed the checks off to the other company, which did not have a standard, and these companies open and close yearly, right about the time they need to really file/report taxes, yes it's illegal and gets stopped but good luck chasing it down much - the company will stop only if bad PR/social media but who fucking really documents that much time into it? At the end of the day, the illegal workers get more hurt/exploited because they don't know the rules and social media gets them fired LOL

>>56533309
The OSHA classes are legal requirements, not industry standards set by the vendor.

Just as restaurant hood cleaning has legal requirements, not just industry standards.

these are laws. If you don't follow these laws and get the certifications, you are not licensed to do the work.

>>56530071
>i definitely have to work on the website.
WordPress is free to use and web hosting should only cost you $10/mo. A domain name will be $15/year or so on name cheap. Use cloud flare (free) to keep a snapshot of your website up in case it goes down for some reason.

If you pay someone to make a website for you make sure (You) own the website and have the ability to revoke the other guys login credentials, otherwise your site will likely be held for ransom by whoever made it.

>>56530526
learn certs so you can hop to another job. plenty of non-IT jobs require certs, I'm studying some for water distribution right now, and I could've gotten all my study material for free if I wanted.

I've been in your shoes, dead end office job with down time, use the down time to look into other careers, I went through 4 or so different research phases before I settled on water. just don't be complacent with using down time just lookin at memes.

>>56533107
we're going to feel him out for the price. I'll look into the corpse cleanup. that sounds like it could be something and i don't mind blood and shit. could be some good money.

>>56533160
Got an LLC set up. insurance is good to go. Credit card, everything. i have a financial advisor friend that is taking care of taxes, payroll and everything for free. he convinced me to start the business. he's not taking a paycheck until we scale and start making money.

>>56533198
Im definitely going to look into it. it sounds like a serious may to make money.

>>56533264
As far as certifications i only need certification/license to clean grease hoods. i plan on cleaning just the outsides of them so ill be good. I have OSHA30 but not the hazmat. if it comes to it and i deal with dead bodies i'll get squared away.


I'm looking tomorrow to go to realtor offices and pitch my cleaning service. when they tell me no politely ill pitch the office for cleaning their cars for $150 a go. i think that might be better than door to door knocking in the meantime.

why dont you make a tik tok of yourself cleaning shit for free

people will like you if you are offering free cleanings, its like an investment in future clients, most people dont mind paying but they dont trust you will do a good job for the money

>>56533330
Are the OSHA courses a license or certification?

>>56533229
>But 100% biohazard has no, NO classes, licensing requirement outside PPE shit from OSHA that is it. Indeminity Insurance will charge you more, but maybe 10% going to your next post...

inb4 neuroatic or schizo - but you are conflating licensing and certified as the same thing. A license is granted by the state, shall issue/may issue is a big discusison point for some things, but nursing license, doctor license, pharmacy license, etc.

There is no license to clean, yes there are federal certifications and as I posted orginally, I brought up the PPE OSHA course. Completing a course, and becoming certified does not mean you are licensed to work, it means you are certified to work.

>but anon, that seems nurotic as fuck to point it.
It's a big deal to argue over *and understand* semantics like this - gatekeeping exists at every level and the more fancy the words, the more people avoid because they don't understand.

Don't get me wrong, anon - you have a fair point and compliance is 100% an issue, but I'm just being a stickler on needing a license to clean. I do concede that geographic region may impose a license, idk, cali probably has it and HCOL cities but outside of that, I really wouldn't think so for biohazard and most.

>>56533380
>Are the OSHA courses a license or certification?
they are a certification on jobs that don't legally require them, and a license on jobs that do.

I might start pressure washing this summer bros. Thoughts?

>>56533174
Unironically this. Many years ago when I was 16 I went to all the small businesses in my area and made fliers to hang up on people's doors that had like 10-15 business ads on each side. Got to a point where I was making like 4k/mo then I got fucked because a competitor reported me for operating without a license. I didn't even know I needed a license and a grown man went out of his way to bankrupt a teenager from legal fines.

>>56533417
how old are you? got a job right now? living with parents to save rent?