
Cleaning restaurant floor for $1000 per night - ThomPete
https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/agf5c8/cleaning_restaurant_floor_for_1000_per_night/
======
nimbius
I am a master diesel engine mechanic by trade, and $100/hr is the lowest shop
rate ive seen for a journeyman mechanic. I havent earned less than $150/hr
since getting my ASE certs.

That having been said, it (like floor cleaning) is not easy work. Personal
protection and safety is critical. Slips, trips, and falls are the #1 killer
in these jobs

The video talks about de-greasers and gloves but shows the guy wandering
around in a pool of degreaser with tennis shoes, no gloves and short sleeves,
so im guessing he hasnt had a major accident yet. Degreaser is a base, so it
is very slick. It reacts with fats to form soaps, so it only gets slicker. Do
not wear keys on slick surfaces, or youll be picking them out of your leg
after a fall.

The idea that any of these blue-collar jobs "print money" is laughable. We get
overtime, sure, but we can also get canned quickly if we dont agree to take it
on. Expect to work nothing but third shift as a floor cleaner. expect guys
like me to yell at you when you move a rack or a tool chest and dont put it
back exactly where it was before.

To anyone whos thinking of doing this, Scrub your driveway every day for a
week and see if its still appealing.

~~~
jbob2000
The lesson here is to do your job with passion. This man loves his job,
otherwise he wouldn’t be posting and making videos about it.

It’s the same in tech. If you don’t have passion, you’ll bounce around tech
companies, never moving up, always making money, but never enough. But it’s
the passion that gives you the edge to deliver something 1% better than the
next guy, and so you get the big bucks.

Be passionate and the money will follow.

Edit: uhh did I say something wrong? Why the downvotes?

~~~
humbleMouse
You're probably getting downvoted because the idea that a passionless
developer can't deliver good solutions is stupid. Lots of developers are
passionless about software development and deliver software "better than the
next guy".

~~~
QualityReboot
Passionless developer here. Can confirm. All that matters is that I'm the best
available option. I grew up with the Linux community and agree with Stallman
on pretty much everything, but I still generate a mountain of proprietary
software for pay.

Feels bad, but I gotta eat.

------
josefresco
A couple notes, as my father owned and sold two carpet cleaning businesses.

$100/hour is actually fairly standard/reasonable. My father always shot for
$150/hour as his standard rate (he had no employees). 30 years ago he wasn't
making this but for the last 10-15 he was.

The assertion that his supplies and overhead are essentially "nothing" is
hilariously naive. I watched his video, he has equipment, not to mention the
other costs of running a small business (insurance etc.) I get that he's just
starting but it's just silly to assume no overhead if you're looking to
emulate.

Reading further, he says "I think you can get started for less than $15k".
Expect to spend at least that every year.

Cleaning floors is hard work. Much of my father's focus in the later years was
spent on reducing fatigue, and streamlining the services offered. It's good,
decent work, but not easy physically and mentally (worrying about equipment
failure)

Lastly, my father worked for _some_ restaurants. The % of restaurants that
_never clean their carpets_ is huge. There's a good chance that most of your
local restaurants have never cleaned their carpets.

~~~
alistairSH
Less than $15k seems questionable. He has a van to carry the supplies around.
Sure, you can lease or borrow, but there's $5k (for a used beater) to $20k
(for a new Transit Connect cargo). Two commercial buffers at $1000/each (less
used). Good shoes, heavy duty work clothes, another couple hundred. It adds up
pretty quick.

Then you add insurance. No idea what that costs, but between risk of injury
and liability, it's probably not pennies.

~~~
lotsofpulp
Then you add the health risks of traveling all the time (driving is the
riskiest activity most people take on, and more miles means more chance of
collision. Also the health risks of having to sit many hours in a car,
although could be negated if you are able to get a workout in on the job.

The biggest risk of all though is that there's a much greater chance any
injury can ruin your income potential, as opposed to office or desk jobs where
many times you can still keep working. And overtime, rote physical activity
will wear away at the body, especially bending over or being on your knees and
carrying heavy things on your back.

Health is wealth (quite literally too in the USA), and if you have an option
of being well paid without sacrificing it, I suggest taking it.

~~~
josefresco
Carpal tunnel almost killed my father's business completely. He used a "wand"
with a trigger that sprays water/soap requiring him to squeeze his hand
hundreds of times per job. After 20+ years of doing this, his wrists and
forearms were shot/inflamed. He required surgery, and was able to resume work.

Image of wand:
[https://www.worldwidecleaningsupport.com/media/catalog/produ...](https://www.worldwidecleaningsupport.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1800x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/w/h/wh982.jpg)

~~~
lotsofpulp
It's a shame we don't have more public health efforts to inform the public
about the long term damage from repetitive motions. Especially when the person
willing to do long term damage to their body is heralded as a hard worker, and
the person that protects against it by working diligently and not over
exerting themselves will be punished by not getting work. Similar situation
with office work and skipping on sleep.

------
wil421
I worked in various restaurants for about 7 years before becoming a Software
Engineer.

I knew the floor cleaner of one of the larger chains I worked for. He was
making $100k+ cleaning 5 or 6 restaurants and this was during the height of
the recession. He put maybe 60k miles or more a year and had to get a new car
often. The work required him to work 7 days a week overnight. It was extremely
hard for him to hire reliable people. His marriage failed in his late 40s due
to the hours and never having a vacation.

He did not like the work and it was very backbreaking. The overnight hours
ruined his marriage and friendships. Once he had enough money he was going to
retire to Costa Rica. One thing he did like was getting new trucks after about
80-100k mikes.

~~~
brookside
This guy broke his back to buy multiple new trucks which is almost...tragic.

[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/04/28/what-does-your-
wor...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/04/28/what-does-your-work-truck-
say-about-you/)

~~~
masonic
"and if he can't drive with a broken back, at least he can polish the
fenders."

Billy Joel, "Movin' Out" (1977)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movin%27_Out_(Anthony%27s_Song...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movin%27_Out_\(Anthony%27s_Song\))

------
hourislate
He makes it look like it's easy. There are a lot of different outfits
competing in the same space, a whole industry set up to clean restaurant
Kitchen Hoods, Grease Traps, Floors, etc and it is super competitive. The only
plus is your costs are not super high (pressure washer, mops, buckets, hoses,
and vacuums). Detergent can be purchased as you need it. Labor will be
difficult with employees calling sick, not showing up, not doing a good job,
etc.

The most successful part of this industry were the outfits making their own
soaps, detergents, etc and providing them to the cleaner/cleaning companies.

There is no easy money unless you know someone who can help you get some big
contracts. Otherwise you will be chasing the same nickle the other 10 guys
are.

------
chasd00
my father in law did commercial HVAC work as an independent and his wife did
the books. He made 250k/year before retiring.

The work was very physically demanding though. He wanted to hand the whole
business to his son but the son wasn't interested. Ironically, his son is a
phd at the University of Chicago studying ancient turtle teeth, or something
like that, and can barely pay the rent for his apartment.

------
exabrial
High school my best paying job was assembling busses for Chance Coach for
$18/hr (in 2002 dollars). I mainly installed windows, seats, and A/C units.
This was not easy work, it was not in air conditioning, and coworkers didn't
like working with "a kid". I truly appreciate my SE career now though and I
think it taught me a lot about resiliency and getting your hands dirty.

------
jermaustin1
A buddy of mine owns a commercial carpet cleaning business in the NYC metro.
His company operates at around 20% profit after salaries, benefits, equipment
repair/replace (replaced all generators this year), chemicals, garage rent for
his 3 trucks, etc.

I'm not saying you can't get away with less equipment, staff, etc, but you
aren't able to scale the work up.

~~~
beatgammit
That's sounds pretty great and you could probably replace yourself, leaving
you with some nice residual income.

------
JoeAltmaier
Lots of talk about professionals earning more than this. But you can do this
kind of thing with no education at all. Right out of school. All you have to
do is, be willing to get your hands dirty.

One of the best business models is, selling something that is mandated. Like
cleaning restaurant floors (health and safety rules).

~~~
adrianN
Willing to get your hands dirty, wrecking your health, and never having time
to socialize because you sleep when others are awake. Nightshift work is
associated with all kinds of health problems.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_working#Health_effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_working#Health_effects)

~~~
dazc
In a previous life I earned good money doing re-modelling in banks and office
buildings. Because these businesses needed to stay open with minimal
disruption, a lot of work was done at night and weekends.

I never got used to switching from day to night and days off were spent mostly
sleeping.

Eventually it came to an end, after about 8 years, and I returned to the land
of the living, working 9-5. The adjustment was difficult and the drop in
income wasn't much fun either.

I ended up changing jobs every few weeks because there was always some reason
to leave and eventually I just stopped working altogether. I didn't know it
the time but I was drifting into a severe depression that lasted several years
and ended with me living on the street.

I can't say for sure that working nights for so long set me on that road but I
have a strong suspicion that it was a major factor.

I got lucky after a short while, got back into work and it's all just a bad
memory now. I do wonder where I'd be now though if I'd just stuck to working
days, like most people do?

------
hackermailman
Restaurant knife sharpening is another small business that prints money.

~~~
jeletonskelly
Do they bring the equipment in and sharpen on-site or do they bring freshly
sharpened knives and take the dull ones to be sharpened? Seems like if you had
enough initial capital you could buy a ton of new sharp knives, swap them
every day, and then spend a whole weekend day doing the sharpening of the
knives you rotated out. Then you could keep your 9-5 M-F and make some cash by
working a pretty low stress weekend day.

~~~
jressey
I worked in kitchens for about 10 years and the most common model I am aware
of is to pick up the knives weekly and drop some other ones off. I assumed the
knives belonged to the sharpening folks. They were garbage knives, but garbage
knives are as good as your $300 tempered Japanese knife if you sharpen them.

~~~
wl
While you can get a good edge on a knife made with garbage steel, the edge
goes away quickly.

~~~
mywittyname
Those cheap restaurant supply knives he's talking about can hold an edge just
fine. They _look_ cheap because they have that plastic handle, but they are
very durable in my experience.

~~~
fhood
Durable yes, good edge retention? Not so much. Restaurants like this tend to
prefer softer more durable steels, like that found in your classic Henkels
(usually refereed to as German stainless). A chef's personal knives tend to be
a very different style. Usually modeled after the Japanese style of knife
(very thin stock, very high (62+) hrc). And the steel tends to be either
carbon steel or vg-10 or better for stainless.

------
bsenftner
I know a guy in Sacramento with a lawn mowing business. He hirs high school
guys and pays them minimum wage. He has 4-6 teams going 4 days a week, and he
clears $300K a year. His expenses are 6 trucks, 40 riding mowers, and gas. His
employees tend to be high school burn outs.

~~~
bsenftner
Perhaps I should add he's a mid-50's immigrant from Vietnam with a giant
extended family, and he's their only earner. The guy works his ass off.

------
paulpauper
don't understand why they would pay $100/hour to have floors cleaned when
restaurants pay employees $15/hour or close to minimum wage for low-skilled
work. is cleaning floors so difficult that it necessitates a specialist who
charges $100/hour?

~~~
hackermailman
Because of laws stating you have to professionally steam clean kitchens/floors
at X intervals, this guy probably is doing a few dozen restaurants per month
on a weekly basis not the same one every night.

Normal non grease/kitchen specialist cleaning is ten cents per sq.ft per month
or so for cleaners so even cheaper than having your own employees do it, with
liability protection.

------
sublupo
> It usually comes out to no less than $100 per hour

So the person works 10 hours a night?

~~~
beatgammit
Across their team, sure. In the Reddit thread, the OP said he has employees.

------
schnevets
Nice to see /r/entrepreneur get linked here. If you can get past the
wantrepreneur BUY MY EBOOK spam bullshit there's a lot of good information in
that sub.

I especially like the more location-sensitive, small business posts like this
one. I like to think that someone can provide good advice and someone else
from a totally different region can apply that knowledge in their own
community, which is a net gain for that local economy.

r/EntrepreneurRideAlong used to be another one, with a specific focus on
starting a cleaning service in 27 days.

~~~
MuffinFlavored
> wantrepreneur

I'm super curious... when does a wantrepreneur convert to an entrepreneur?
Like... if you call somebody out/knock them for being a wantrepreneur but
calling themselves an entrepreneur, you are "hating" and it "fuels them" until
they "finally make it"

How many actually make it though?

~~~
schnevets
In the context I provided, I think a wantrepreneur is anyone presenting
themselves at a far higher value/position than they are in reality, usually in
a matter that is detrimental to others.

I know starting a business is all about "faking it until you make it", but
there are tons of braggarts talking about "wielding influence and connections"
(because they purchased 20,000 twitter followers) or "becoming a product
visionary" (because they hopped on the instagram/twitch/dropshipping bandwagon
at the right time and have no redeeming differentiation). Usually these
personalities are just annoying, but sometimes these people have hostile
intentions.

I personally call myself a wantrepreneur occasionally, as someone who is
interested in the culture and community of founders, but who hasn't actually
delivered a product yet.

------
chromaton
Many posts here mention the physical difficulties of the floor cleaning
business, presumably from moving heavy equipment, etc. One person mentioned
carpal tunnel syndrome from repeatedly working a valve on a spray wand.

So there might be even more money here for someone who can figure out how to
solve these problems: lighter tools, ergonomically designed handles and
triggers, etc.

------
m0atz
As they say, “Where there’s muck, there’s brass”.

------
chasd00
The way to do it is bill $1000/night but pay someone $50/night to actually
clean the floor.

------
tompccs
I love this sort of thing.

One of my favourite things to read about are entrepreneurs (although they were
doing this before they was even a name for it) in an industry that seems
simple to outsiders (say, freight haulage) and building a business out of
nothing. No fancy education, no world-changing technological insight, just
pure hard work and business smarts to see where the opportunities lie, when
and how much to bet, and building on each success to make a bigger one.

It's not romantic to most people, so these kinds of stories don't get heard
much, and there's a sneering snobbery about people who, when they got rich,
don't have a good story which complies with the enlightened public's idea of a
"genius" \- they tend to assume rich people must be academically brilliant, or
they could only have got rich doing something unethical.

Read up on Marks and Spencers (first retailer in UK to pass £1bn in profit),
founded by a poor Polish immigrant and a cashier. There are tonnes of stories
like that, much better inspiration than a lot of the SV Ivy League grad gets
showered with VC money story (which, incidentally, feeds into the mistaken
notion that there are only opportunities for the rich and well-connected under
capitalism).

------
Yuval_Halevi
The beautiful thing about business opportunities is that you can create them
by mastering a niche.

And once you do, You can charge a lot more.

------
ispimpinpimpin
I'm interested in learning how to do this.

~~~
UweSchmidt
It's a business, so you'll have to figure out some of it yourself. Otherwise
it would be a job.

------
westiseast
“where’s there’s muck, there’s money”

