Service Business Ideas

I came across this youtube video:

Right off the bat, Tim mentions how these 12 business ideas can be started with little to no upfront investment and without any skills. So 9 seconds into the video and I’m EXTREMELY skeptical.

Tim says he uses subcontractors to manage his junk removal business, which he manages remotely. Now I’m intrigued.

“You can make money doing the most simple & mundane task for people”. He also tells the viewer to click the link and bio to download 150 “low competition service business ideas”. I went ahead and did that so you don’t have to (even though I’m writing this newsletter to NO ONE, haha):

Ok, so those were the ideas. Nothing fancy, just regular stuff that people pay for. Well, maybe minus a few of them… Anyways, I like how most of these are just basic services that people always need - often it’s the morning mundane stuff that gets people paid.

However, I’m not so sure any of these are as cut and dry as being able to start them immediately with no skills or upfront investment. Most of these require some equipment or specialized understanding (assuming quality work is required to sustain profitability).

That’s an important point here because the theme of this video is about ideas that anyone could do, and I’m just not sure that’s the case. Nonetheless, I do like these ideas and are probably the simplest business ideas someone could start.

Can Monkey
He talks about Can Monkey, a business who brings garbage cans to & from the curb and they grew by selling into Air BnB and property management companies. They procure 600 new customers each month and make about 3 million per year. All you would need to start this business is to make a list of Air BnBs and property management companies and ask if they’d like to use your service. They don’t have a high domain rank and don’t have a lot of traffic on their website which means most of their business is from calling property management companies and Air BnBs.

Kroopins Poopin Scoopin
Sometimes a shit business is a lucrative business. This company makes 6 figures per year.

Parking Lot Cleanups
Ever wanted to be a legal lot lizard? Tim brings up the story of Brian Walsh who runs this type of biz who earns over 600k per year doing this and has dubbed it “the simplest business in America”. Brian runs a site called cleanlots(dot)com where he talks about this. This is a great business because it’s primarily done in the early morning or late at night which means it’s a great way to do this as a side whistle or to get available contractors. While huge commercial parking lots often have their own service for this, but strip malls with 5-7 stores are a great sector to focus on. You can call property management companies and ask to speak to whoever manages their commercial properties and pitch them.

Laundry Pickup & Dropoff
Poplin(dot)co is a company who does this. Go after commercial businesses like restaurants to wash their cloth items. Basically anyone who has a bunch of dirty laundry regularly.

Laborer Brokerage
Basically where you rent out laborers to help people move. For eg, Community Labor Partnership does this. They simply connect laborers with people who need laborers and if they charge $100, $50 is paid thru the website and the other $50 is paid to the laborer directly upon completion. Everyone wins. They use tons of Craiglist ads for moving labor.

Trash Can Cleaning
This is an entire industry, but there’s a lot of people making 6 figures doing this. You just need a pressure washer & soap. One could go after commercial or residential customers. Calling on HOAs is a great move.

Mattress & Couch Cleaning
This is going to peoples houses to d deep cleans.

Industrial Byproduct Flipping
This is going to commercial businesses and warehouses and finding things they are trying to get rid of (pallets, crates, spools, etc) and re-selling them to other businesses. Can enter a warehouse district, see if they have any old pallets they need to get rid of, and re-sell to businesses who need pallets.