Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 177 posts

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#141

Post by localcasestudy »

mtrimpe wrote: post #94
edw519 wrote: post #53

This time next year on reddit: "From working my ass off 90 hours per week running a business that wouldn't scale to nice salary/benefits for 40 hours. I'm taking home the same net and I feel like I'm on vacation." I don't want to sound too snarky and I really admire OP's initiative and ability to make things happen, but this just doesn't smell right. It's easy to get excited by nice revenue in the beginning (as he sh…

Isn't the real message here that we shouldn't forget that many of us startup geeks can completely out-design and -SEO virtually any local service provider out there and that there might just be big money in doing so? It is indeed important for him to realize that he'll be 'just an another agency' though and needs to start acting like one. That doesn't negate the fact that a properly-SEO'd site which outperforms local…

>Isn't the real message here that we shouldn't forget that many of us startup geeks can completely out-design and -SEO virtually any local service provider out there and that there might just be big money in doing so?

THAT'S IT! I don't think what I did was that difficult (I had luck along the way, and went over the top in some ways,yes) but at the end of the day, I think this is the main takeaway from this experiment.

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#142

Post by localcasestudy »

ma2rten wrote: post #99
edw519 wrote: post #53

This time next year on reddit: "From working my ass off 90 hours per week running a business that wouldn't scale to nice salary/benefits for 40 hours. I'm taking home the same net and I feel like I'm on vacation." I don't want to sound too snarky and I really admire OP's initiative and ability to make things happen, but this just doesn't smell right. It's easy to get excited by nice revenue in the beginning (as he sh…

I does not scale well compared to what? I might scale poorly compared to your average social network silicon valley mobile app startup, but it scales well compared to any other small business. He does not need a physical space and there are almost no other fixed costs. Also I feel he is using his "computer skills" to gain a competitive advantage by doing SEO and he also has an original brand. If he was able to replac…

Yeah we'll see. I don't even know if I want to scale at all. Seriously if I could double current earnings within this year, quit my job, help my family, (use some extra money to diversify a bit) I'm good.

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#143

Post by localcasestudy »

infinite8s wrote: post #126
edw519 wrote: post #53

This time next year on reddit: "From working my ass off 90 hours per week running a business that wouldn't scale to nice salary/benefits for 40 hours. I'm taking home the same net and I feel like I'm on vacation." I don't want to sound too snarky and I really admire OP's initiative and ability to make things happen, but this just doesn't smell right. It's easy to get excited by nice revenue in the beginning (as he sh…

Based on the labor discussions here and on reddit, next time this year might be more like: "I thought I had a good thing going paying my workers as 1099s, but then I was audited and all my workers were reclassified, the IRS went after back taxes and my workers sued for benefits, and the fact that I incorporated as an LLC didn't matter (since an LLC offers no protection against IRS recovery of back-taxes due to reclas…

I will, this week. Luckily if I have to fix this I don't need to go that far back, I'm only in a couple months.

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#144

Post by localcasestudy »

personlurking wrote: post #116
neonkiwi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem to be generally true that running a business has a worse payout than a normal job, but in this case, the OP says he's spending seven hours a week on the maid business: http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/sblc6/from_an_...

Interesting because my ex-girlfriend basically did what the OP did and she worked like a crazy woman from 7AM to 8PM with no days off, dealing with her team, clients, etc.

I have a full time job.

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#145

Post by localcasestudy »

tptacek wrote: post #109
bhousel wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct that the maids are employees, but since he only just started this business, it seems like a very fixable problem to convert them to employees. I ran some numbers on a free paycheck calculator site (paycheckcity.com) and assuming the following: Washington DC, wage of $20/hr, 30 hrs/week, married (2 exemptions), the numbers come out to: Weekly Gross Pay $600.00 Federal Withholding $29.81 Social Security…

If his current employees are 1099, they're paying SECA, and the numbers are 2x this. If he switches to W2, he'll pay half of FICA, and the workers the other half... but now his job offer is significantly less attractive. He also owes $187/yr for uninsurance per employee. Dealbreaker? No idea. Obviously people do make a living running housekeeping services.

Hi i'm only in a few months, none of this is a deal breaker. I've made mistakes along the way, but I think everything is fixable, luckily I'm not in year 6 or something lol

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#146

Post by localcasestudy »

sparknlaunch12 wrote: post #132

This is a really impressive story. Sure there are some obstacles and challenges - but this is the fun of very real life business. The guy has taken a traditional business and applied all the buzz of the web (social media, lean, etc etc) to establish a profitable business in 4 months. I would love to hear from others willing to share similar experiences of turning an idea into one business (cleaning), then repeating t…

Thanks, if I duplicate it that would be crazy! We'll see, I'm excited!

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#147

Post by tptacek »

localcasestudy wrote: post #145
tptacek wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If his current employees are 1099, they're paying SECA, and the numbers are 2x this. If he switches to W2, he'll pay half of FICA, and the workers the other half... but now his job offer is significantly less attractive. He also owes $187/yr for uninsurance per employee. Dealbreaker? No idea. Obviously people do make a living running housekeeping services.

Hi i'm only in a few months, none of this is a deal breaker. I've made mistakes along the way, but I think everything is fixable, luckily I'm not in year 6 or something lol

"I wish you way more than luck."

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#148

Post by mattmaroon »

qeorge wrote: post #102
edw519 wrote: post #53

This time next year on reddit: "From working my ass off 90 hours per week running a business that wouldn't scale to nice salary/benefits for 40 hours. I'm taking home the same net and I feel like I'm on vacation." I don't want to sound too snarky and I really admire OP's initiative and ability to make things happen, but this just doesn't smell right. It's easy to get excited by nice revenue in the beginning (as he sh…

Incoming anecdote.. My uncle, Peter Dussmann, started out cleaning offices, then started an office cleaning company, than bought an office building...now he owns one of the largest service companies in the world (50k+ employees). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dussmann When you make money it opens up other opportunities. How you leverage them is what matters. That said, I'm 1000% Uncle B.

Too many people think of scaling too narrowly. They think it means doing more of the same thing, which it can. Or it can mean something like this.

There's no reason a cleaning service can't scale very, very far. Look at Merry Maids.

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#149

Post by mattmaroon »

edw519 wrote: post #53

This time next year on reddit: "From working my ass off 90 hours per week running a business that wouldn't scale to nice salary/benefits for 40 hours. I'm taking home the same net and I feel like I'm on vacation." I don't want to sound too snarky and I really admire OP's initiative and ability to make things happen, but this just doesn't smell right. It's easy to get excited by nice revenue in the beginning (as he sh…

I think you're wrong on almost every point.

Seems like it can scale quite well. Look at Merry Maids and Jani-king. It wouldn't surprise me if a more modern maid service that was entirely corporate-owned (rather than a franchise) supplanted the current leaders at some point.

The margins seem high enough that layers of management could work.

Difficulty in keeping good employees hasn't stopped Wal-Mart or McDonald's.

Times are tougher than most people alive can remember, so if it's working at all now, it probably can only get better.

There may be a solid first-mover advantage, so barriers to entry that are non-financial may exist.

It sounds like his part of the work isn't difficult. I don't know if I'd define what a maid does as difficult either. It just sucks.

Running a business of any size is a major personal growth opportunity.

My guess is customer service calls will happen at reasonable hours. Nobody wakes up at 4 am to decide their maids did a bad job.

I can't comment on taxes. He claims to be insured/bonded. I don't know much about that for that sort of business though.

Re: From idea to replacing full-time salary in 4 months

#150

Post by evanwillms »

qznc wrote: post #28
patio11 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd have to squint an awful lot for the evaluation to fall out that way. I'm a contracted software dev. I'm going to run down a list of questions from the IRS. Mentally score which ones sound like a cleaning laborer. I have business cards, a personal website, and a professional reputation. My clients ask for me by name. I do not submit applications. I do not respond to advertisements of employment. I often have dis…

I'd say the distuingishing factor is that you have multiple clients. A maid, who is only working for one "agency", looks fishy. At least, that is the main argument here in Germany.

The Canadian appeals court has actually created precedent for an an economically 'dependent contractor'. That contractors may run their own business and meet many of the independence criteria, but still be working for a single firm or contract.

Summary of the case at: http://www.djmlaw.ca/downloads/Snapshot_April_2010.pdf

Post reply on HN