Todayās read time: 2 minutes and 25 seconds
Whatās up party people! Weāre back with another side hustle idea!
Before we get started, letās connect on Twitter!
1. Business idea of the Week: A fish Tank Cleaning Service
Service based businesses are the best way to get started in entrepreneurship.
Learn how to do the task ā let people know you offer the service.
But one of the downsides to many service businesses is one off jobs.
This means you need to find a brand new customer for every job, so youāre always on the hunt.
For example, let's say you offer gutter installations. Every home only needs gutters installed once every 10-15 years, so repeat customers are almost nonexistent.
Thatās why recurring services are awesome.
Sign a customer once, and they pay you every month. But to sign a recurring customer, you need to offer a service that people need multiple times a year. And that leads us to todayās idea.
The idea: Create a fish tank cleaning service.
I recently overheard someone say āIād love to have a fish tank, but I donāt feel like cleaning it all the time and worrying about filtration systems.ā
Fish tanks are an awesome addition to homes, but they can take a lot of upkeep to clean.
But where thereās a pain point, thereās a business.
How to get started:
If youāre going to do this service, youāll need to learn how to actually clean and upkeep a tank.
Like most things, this can be learned on YouTube or Internet blogs.
Once you have an understanding of how to fulfill the service, itās time to find your customers.
Here are a few ideas to find your first customer:
Local Facebook groups or Craigslist.
Hang flyers at pet stores like PetSmart that sell fish and tank supplies.
Walk into businesses in your area that have fish tanks.
Pricing:
Since tanks come in a wide range of sizes, itās best to charge by the gallon.
This will take some research but you can come up with a model like this:
$1/gallon per month.
So a 50-gallon tank would be $50/month.
Play around with this to find a $ per hour that makes sense for cleanings.
Like most businesses, this service will make the most by selling to other businesses or commercial contracts.
Commercial > residential.
Because businesses almost always pay more.
And thatās a wrap!
2. Links I Like.
A timeline of going bankrupt - Hunter Durham
Toptalās exclusive network of top-tier freelancers in software, design, and more.*
Alex Hormoziās secret to sales - The Follow Up
* sponsored content
3. The Best Free Database for Business Ideas
If youāre like me, your constantly saying: āI wonder how much money that business makesā.
Thereās a bunch of different ways to make an educated guess.
But since most companies in the US are private, itās impossible to find the real numbers.
Lucky for us, things are a bit different in the UK.
Unlike the US, every company in the UK has to report their financials every year.
And all of these financials are housed under a public database called Company House.
This means we can go look at all of their revenue, expenses, and profit. Itās all there.
This is an awesome tool to get business ideas, see what business models do the best, and learn about the financials behind many industries.
So much value, totally free.
Donāt sleep on this.