Looking at starting a Power washing business while at college

MrMiata

I’m going back to college this year.
I’ve some money saved and I’d like to try and start a small side business that I can work on while at college.

I’ve a little less than €2000 to spend, I’d like to keep that as low as possible naturally enough.

I’ve got a car and that’s about it.
If it was easier I could change it in for a van, that’d be down the road though.

I was thinking of buying a petrol power washer, maybe a surface cleaner, trailer and some other basic cleaning equipment.
So I could start a small outdoor cleaning service, houses, driveways, shop fronts etc.
Maybe window washing and the likes too.

Am I mad?

It’s relatively low start up costs and the main ‘cost’ is your time..
Seems like something I could work around college.

What insurance would I need?

Is there something else I’m missing?

Gloomtastic!

You're not mad but you will need to work at it to get it off the ground pretty quickly.

For something like this you're competing against our ethnic cousins for business. No. 1 rule - if you don't ask, you don't get!

As part of your launch budget get postcards printed from Vistaprint.com. Pick an area and knock, door to door, and ask them if they'd like their drive washed?

Smile, give then your name/introduce yourself and look them in the eye at all times. If they ask for a price, go in with a high price and then drop it if you need to. When you've done one job go door to door say 'you've just done x's drive at no. y' and would you like your drive done at a reduced rate?

You'll also need a water tank as access to taps is not always possible for front drives.

Insurance, you'll need Public Liability Insurance. Get in touch with bizbroker.ie and ask them to quote you.

Good luck to you!

Tell me how

Maybe start with the window washing as it might be less outlay and give you a chance to gauge market.

Is there a contract cleaner you could tie in with? They might subcontract some jobs to you.

You'll be expected to have insurance and to declare income to Revenue and one of the conditions of car insurance you currently have is probably that it's only being used for social and private use.

MrMiata

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

You're not mad but you will need to work at it to get it off the ground pretty quickly.

For something like this you're competing against our ethnic cousins for business. No. 1 rule - if you don't ask, you don't get!

As part of your launch budget get postcards printed from Vistaprint.com. Pick an area and knock, door to door, and ask them if they'd like their drive washed?

Smile, give then your name/introduce yourself and look them in the eye at all times. If they ask for a price, go in with a high price and then drop it if you need to. When you've done one job go door to door say 'you've just done x's drive at no. y' and would you like your drive done at a reduced rate?

You'll also need a water tank as access to taps is not always possible for front drives.

Insurance, you'll need Public Liability Insurance. Get in touch with bizbroker.ie and ask them to quote you.

Good luck to you!

Most fellas around seem to be Irish, I would have thought otherwise but it doesn’t seem that way.

I’ll 100% be doing business cards, flyers etc.
I was thinking of getting a cheap-ish drone for aerial photos so I could do before and afters..
I’d say marketing is my strong suit, if i’m going to be better at my competition than anything it’ll be how I sell it..

I was wondering alright about water supply.. some people seem to just carry extra long hoses while others have a dedicated water tank trailer.

I’m hoping I won’t get shafted on insurance, just with everything going on with public events and even guys renting bouncing castles (dirt cheap at the minute) I hope it doesn’t trickle over into general work like power washing.

Bandara

https://www.epa.ie/licensing/watwaste/wwda/

The above is your problem....

ShauntaMetzel

You are not mad but I don't think as a student you should do such businesses. Why don't you start giving tution to kids? I don't think here you need any investment or why don't you start remuse' writing job (yes, you can engage several your college fellow) if you are good at writing?
On the other hand, I also not discouraging your business idea but isn't a better idea if you start it as a company? with teammates? You can also start your own delivery service as well. You only need to engage some shopping marts, pizza cafe and other fast food businesses and if you have a team, they will definitely hire you. All in all, I am happy you thought to start your own business.

Doctors room ghost

MrMiata wrote: »

Most fellas around seem to be Irish, I would have thought otherwise but it doesn’t seem that way.

I’ll 100% be doing business cards, flyers etc.
I was thinking of getting a cheap-ish drone for aerial photos so I could do before and afters..
I’d say marketing is my strong suit, if i’m going to be better at my competition than anything it’ll be how I sell it..

I was wondering alright about water supply.. some people seem to just carry extra long hoses while others have a dedicated water tank trailer.

I’m hoping I won’t get shafted on insurance, just with everything going on with public events and even guys renting bouncing castles (dirt cheap at the minute) I hope it doesn’t trickle over into general work like power washing.

If you go at it spend the price of the drone on a yard brush and a shovel and barrow.it will be better spent.none of the fancy dan drone stuff.that won’t get a roof or gutters washed.
Also you only get one spine so be careful working at heights.insure yourself well

AmberGold

Shouldn't have too many issues competing with our "ethnic cousins" given the shenanigans that they get up to. Two recent cases on my road involved a neighbours tyre being slashed when she complained about the work and another crew getting paid before they started (a neighbour had to leave) they promptly did a runner.

My advice would be when cold calling do everything not to appear like one of our good friends.....Ok Boss!

Homer

You will also need a licence and insurance to operate the drone also so I would avoid that starting out.

tacofries

I had the same idea back when I was in college but never pursued it!

I’d say rent a power washer from a toolhire place for 40 quid a day for your first 5 jobs. If you’re still as keen on the business at the end of those, then think more about buying your own equipment.

Don’t go all guns blazing buying the newest and best stuff. Rent first, validate your idea, buy a power washer, throw it in the boot of your car and only buy a trailer once you have earned enough money to pay for it.

ironclaw

You don't happen to be reading /r/sweatystartup on Reddit by any chance?

If you are, read on, if not, the rest is a small rant about it. I'll say from the offset, I'm all for a person starting a business and I'm not knocking you, just giving my honest feedback from my own perspective and having a close friend in the industry in Canada.

Power washing is batted around as a 'sure thing' on that subreddit along with a myriad of other businesses that really don't stand up to any close scrutiny. Sure, they may work, but you bust your backside to get them up and running, and then to actually run them. Power washing each and every day is not good on the body, ask anyone in the industry a few years. It's also saturated. That entire subreddit, and the other posts that pop up, are a long term SEO play from the person spouting them. No such thing as a free lunch etc.

A huge amount of what they post is not applicable in Ireland, mainly around red tape articles such as insurance, liability and society norms. For example, power washing is a huge business here in Canada/US, often every year on a house, but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone in Ireland doing it on a regular basis. The reasoning in Canada being slushy ice winters that bring grit and salt, along with heavy leaf fall in Autumn. Also, disposable income is far higher. Not to mention, the cost of starting a business in North America is a lot less and there are certain advantages they enjoy (Completely wrong word choice, but you know what I mean) that we don't in Ireland e.g. bankruptcy, consumer protection, lacks EPA laws etc.

Long story short, there are easier and more profitable ways to make money in college than power washing, and you'll only make 'real' money at scale. Take the above post as an example, if anyone cares enough about their drive to powerwash it, they'll likely spend the 50EUR on a rental and do it themselves. How much more could you charge to overcome their laziness but not charge too much that they deem it more cost-effective to do it themselves?

jetsonx

tacofries wrote: »

I had the same idea back when I was in college but never pursued it!

I’d say rent a power washer from a toolhire place for 40 quid a day for your first 5 jobs. If you’re still as keen on the business at the end of those, then think more about buying your own equipment.

Don’t go all guns blazing buying the newest and best stuff. Rent first, validate your idea, buy a power washer, throw it in the boot of your car and only buy a trailer once you have earned enough money to pay for it.

Excellent advice.

And when you do buy your equipment - you will be much closer to buying equipment which fits your needs much better.