Who Else Want to Make £50K a Year Cleaning Wheelie Bins!
Whether in boom time or bust there are certain things that are unavoidable – death, taxes and DIRT.
Now I’m not suggesting you switch careers to become a funeral director or accountant, but when it comes to dirt there are plenty of ways to make money.
It may be ‘old school’ but there will always be a demand for services and products that ease those jobs none of us really like doing. I’ve mentioned many times that establishing car valeting, domestic cleaning and ironing services are sure-fire money earners. And with a bit of imagination, these can easily be leveraged so that you get other people to do the dirty work for you!
And there’s a lot more...
One of my Lifetime Members – Karen McBride – has been running her own successful Wheelie Bin Cleaning Service for 14 years now with her husband. And I bet you’d be surprised to learn that she pulls in a £50K+ annual income from her service.
She is also now sharing this totally ignored but proven business plan with others. I won’t pretend that it is an easy or glamorous job. And Karen is squarely pitching her business plan at the more serious end of the market with a price point to reflect that.
However, if you are considering starting a new business and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, then this could be the one for you.
I actually reviewed this way back in August 2006, but thought it was the right time to dust it down and give you a quick reminder and update.
So how big is the wheelie bin cleaning market? The UK currently has more than 23 million wheelie bins and this figure is expected to grow as more councils change over from traditional black sacks. There are already a couple of UK franchises dedicated to the area, but I still see plenty of scope for others to exploit both the domestic and commercial markets.
Why clean wheelie bins? I know it’s pretty obvious, but it’s worth considering. An unclean wheelie bin is probably the single most unhygienic thing in any home or workplace and it’s a little known fact that besides the awful smell, the bacteria lurking in your bin can cause diseases such as Salmonella, E Coli and Listeria!
And it’s one of those jobs that all of us know we should do, but rarely if ever get around to doing. So what if someone could come along once a month and for just a couple of quid do all the work for you? Also, commercial businesses are obliged by health and safety regulations to keep their premises and refuse facilities up to scratch.
And that’s where you come in: this is a great business opportunity for anyone willing to work hard, with plenty of enthusiasm and initiative (plus a little bit of common sense doesn’t hurt either). Based on the figures I’ve seen it seems absolutely reasonable to get a customer database of 1,500 customers within six months and (depending how much you charge for the service) should generate a turnover of around £50,000+ annually.
What are the start-up costs? The 2 main options are: 1) Investing in an automated vehicle which you can load the bins on to the back of where they are cleaned automatically or 2) Going the manual route and using a handheld highpressure spray. If you take the manual route (which seems best for domestic customers), you’ll need around £6,000 in start-up capital. This covers vehicle, machinery, stationary and advertising literature, but once you start, the overheads are low (especially if you do the cleaning yourself!)
How long would it take to build the business? It should take around about 6 months to build a customer database of approx 1,500 customers and their bins will be cleaned every month (or fortnightly). After the initial 6 months everything should be falling into place and it then becomes automatic.
When it comes to marketing your business, Karen advises either door-to-door canvassing (don’t worry you can get others to do this). You could expect to generate around 10-20 new customers per day per canvasser. Another way, and favoured by Karen, is ‘bin tagging’ – this is where you travel to neighbourhoods and attach your promotional material to the bins left out and then generate prospects.
How much could you make? Once you’ve paid your initial start up costs, there are very low overheads. At £3.50 per clean this generates a turnover of £5,000+ per month. Take off costs and you could be netting around £4,500 per month.
I’ve seen similar franchise operations showing a potential earning capability of over £90,000 per year. Of course this all depends on your own efforts and the time you invest in your business.
Growth Potential: Once you have built your database you get repeat business – so it only needs topping up rather than constantly having to canvass and advertise.
If you’re entrepreneurial then I could easily see this kind of business rolled out across different areas. With a couple of years experience it is also perfect for turning into a franchise. You should also consider the potential of rolling out your service to the commercial market.
Are you suited to this opportunity? You’ll need plenty of enthusiasm and the ability to work hard on your own. It’s well-suited to a couple who are able to share the tasks of the admin side and the cleaning side. It is quite a physical job so you do need to be reasonably fit. It is the kind of business that you can employ others to do, but in the beginning you would need to be a hands on manager to ensure the success of it.
The drawbacks are that in the beginning it is physical and you have to be very organised. As I mentioned earlier, this is a full-time opportunity with regular hours of 8.30 to 5 Monday to Friday.
What to do now: Take a look at Karen’s Wheelie Cleanies website at www.wheeliecleanies.co.uk. I am sure she won’t mind me saying that the website doesn’t quite do the opportunity justice (as Karen is a WRMM Lifetime member, we’ll be working on that!). So if you are interested after reading this review, please contact Karen directly via email on karen[@]wheeliecleanies.co.uk or call 0871 7894291. She can give you all the details you need.
STOP PRESS – STOP PRESS
Whoever Heard of Making £800 a Week Cleaning Bed Mattresses!
We all know that the bed bugs and dust mites that are in every home can cause all manner of nasty ailments from allergies to asthma. Another What Really Makes Money reader – Kev Johnson – contacted me with details of his own ‘Business in a Box’ series that includes detailed step-by-step plans for setting up your own mattress cleaning business.
Presented on DVD, Kev Johnson takes you through the set up, promotion and all the practicalities of running this kind of business.
Although this is a proven business model, Kev has not run this business himself. Yes, he’s done the research and figured out all the elements that go into running this kind of business, but he hasn’t done it himself. Nothing wrong with that, but I wanted you to know upfront.
It isn’t a negative to me, but Kev has a strong brummie accent on the DVD voiceover. To my ears (coming from South Birmingham myself) it is warm and trustworthy, but to others the accent has less positive connotations. If you are not accent prejudiced then you’ll be just fine.
Now I want you to do me a favour. Please at least take a look at Kevin’s website – www.homebizdvd.co.uk
I want you to see beyond the awkward design and tricky navigation. For someone who hasn’t any experience of copywriting, website design or indeed business opportunity publishing, he has made a sterling effort and he deserves to have some success.
You can also email Kevin Johnson on homebizdvd@yahoo.co.uk of you need any further details.
By the way, Kevin is a bit of a serial producer. You’ll also find How to DVD sets for Pet Sitting, Same Day Courier and Domestic Cleaning businesses. Ok, yes he has ripped me off (and admits as much). He saw all these (apart from the mattress cleaning) in back issues of What Really Makes Money. And you know what, I think he has done a great job.
The Mattress Cleaning Business DVD costs £77 which is a fair price for the information contained. He offers a full 30 day money back guarantee and I know he would honor it!