I want to start a port a potty rental company. Big profits once you get your name out. Messy business.

AggieMainland said:

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I want to start a port a potty rental company. Big profits once you get your name out. Messy business.

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I had a professor tell the class that this was the business to get into. This was 24 years ago and didn't take his advice. Get into the working world and see how much folks pay for porta potties...

My side gig is hauling my kids around to their various sports. My job keeps me busy and I don't want to try to pick up anything else to fill the little free time I have.

My wife is a teacher and does photography on the side. She left teaching and did it full-time after our 2nd was born, but she went back into teaching when the fun wore off as it became a job. She now does it a few times a month and has leased a studio for it, but does get busy during the fall when women seem to want pictures. After expenses, she brings home $1000-1500/mo that we put into savings and use for vacations/trips. Not a bad gig, and doing it part-time has brought the fun back for her.

And she's not some mom that decided to become a photographer after buying a camera and having friends tell her how good they were. She has been doing it to some degree since she was a teenager and even took photography classes in college as her electives/arts. Her mom has done sports photography for probably 30 years as well.

As long as it doesn't make you miserable or take away from your friends/family time (and your "real" job), I'm all for a side-gig. I had a consulting gig that I picked up during the COVID nonsense when I got cut. Initially, I was working 30+ hrs a week at $75/hr. Nice to have while doing the GLG (and other) consulting calls at $50-300 for an hour call discussing industry trends.

I have a full-time gig now, but may spend about 8-10 hrs a month at $75/hr with that original gig, so it's a little extra spending/saving/play money every month for little effort.

Would I pick up another one on top of the one I have? Maybe. I get up fairly early every day so I have time to kill. If the gig was right. I think I was in the right place at the right time to get the gig I got and am able to keep doing it. I made sure I read through all the employment terms and there are a handful of stipulations (non-compete, non-solicitation, etc) to be mindful of if I were to seek out another one.

If you are looking for one, depending what you want to do or can do, temp and/or staffing agencies may be a good place to start for contract gigs.

one safe place said:

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LitreBoy said:

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I made sure I read through all the employment terms and there are a handful of stipulations (non-compete, non-solicitation, etc) to be mindful of if I were to seek out another one.

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Good advice. Had a pretty young guy living in our RV park and he was knocking down just over $200k a year doing pipeline work. He ran a crew and was a supervisor. Started a side gig that involved pipelines but was unrelated to his current job. In fact, his company did not even offer the same services he was doing on his side gig. One day he showed up at the yard and they fired him, took his company truck because they found out about what he was doing.

His side gig became his job, he traveled all over, and I think did well for a time but now back working for another pipeline company. So yeah, best to look into those things before starting something.

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Especially when you are likely to have an "adjacent" gig to what brings in your primary income.

woodiewood1 said:

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I have a friend that started a business bleeding the water out of air compressors once a month and now has about 100 clients who pay him from $25 to $50/compressor once or twice every month. Some clients have six or seven compressors. Now it is his main line of business.

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Say what now.

Call it an average $30/mo/compressor. For draining water? Are these homeowners who don't know how to turn a ball valve? I would assume not if some have multiple units.

Hopefully his commute distance is reasonable because aside from vehicle & insurance costs that's almost pure profit.

one safe place said:

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LitreBoy said:

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I made sure I read through all the employment terms and there are a handful of stipulations (non-compete, non-solicitation, etc) to be mindful of if I were to seek out another one.

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One day he showed up at the yard and they fired him, took his company truck because they found out about what he was doing.

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The company truck specific call out in that sentence is interesting. Was he utilizing his company truck to do this adjacent service? If so… he's pretty lucky he just got fired and lost the truck and not sued.

I know a guy who wanted to do exactly what he did for his company but for a client base they his employer didn't go after. They said fine… go for it. A month later, they fired him for utilizing company assets for his business (he was advertising himself in bids as being an employee of his company) and sued him for violating his non compete agreement and right after he left… started bidding on direct for that client base.

What city is his biz? I need a window cleaner

bkag9824 said:

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woodiewood1 said:

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I have a friend that started a business bleeding the water out of air compressors once a month and now has about 100 clients who pay him from $25 to $50/compressor once or twice every month. Some clients have six or seven compressors. Now it is his main line of business.

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Say what now.

Call it an average $30/mo/compressor. For draining water? Are these homeowners who don't know how to turn a ball valve? I would assume not if some have multiple units.

Hopefully his commute distance is reasonable because aside from vehicle & insurance costs that's almost pure profit.

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I think he runs within about 50 to 90 miles of BCS to Waco, Brenham, Nav, Cameron, Conroe, etc. I think that all of his work is commercial work. People just don't want to fool with doing it on multiple compressors a few times a month. The same as with coffee service. Why pay a company to supply coffee supplies when a company can do it themselves and even have it all delivered to their office weekly or monthly? They just don't want to bother and just pay a couple of hundred dollars a month.

He has expanded with an employee helping into replacing air conditioner fitters in commercial buildings and doing well with that also.

Real Estate Agent

Cypress

don't have one. My main gig did the trick.

AggieMainland said:

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I want to start a port a potty rental company. Big profits once you get your name out. Messy business.

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I've done a few projects for these in the past. Large capex requirement but it can really scale.

TCEQ and environmental stuff can be a huge pain to deal with (dump sites).

Units cost a couple hundred bucks. Monthly or weekly rentals can be anywhere from $40 to $100.

I believe their targeted payback was 6-8 months depending on utilization.

Shoot me a DM! Have a couple Texas Veteran orgs that I'd love to plug you in with!

Are you involved with Montgomery County Veterans Commission?

I am not, but would welcome the chance to get involved. Very close friends with the founders of a few non-profit Veteran support groups.

woodiewood1 said:

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bkag9824 said:

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woodiewood1 said:

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I have a friend that started a business bleeding the water out of air compressors once a month and now has about 100 clients who pay him from $25 to $50/compressor once or twice every month. Some clients have six or seven compressors. Now it is his main line of business.

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Say what now.

Call it an average $30/mo/compressor. For draining water? Are these homeowners who don't know how to turn a ball valve? I would assume not if some have multiple units.

Hopefully his commute distance is reasonable because aside from vehicle & insurance costs that's almost pure profit.

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I think he runs within about 50 to 90 miles of BCS to Waco, Brenham, Nav, Cameron, Conroe, etc. I think that all of his work is commercial work. People just don't want to fool with doing it on multiple compressors a few times a month. The same as with coffee service. Why pay a company to supply coffee supplies when a company can do it themselves and even have it all delivered to their office weekly or monthly? They just don't want to bother and just pay a couple of hundred dollars a month.

He has expanded with an employee helping into replacing air conditioner fitters in commercial buildings and doing well with that also.

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So he will drive 100-190 miles round trip for 30 bucks. That's asinine.

Got a bunch of sectional barges for rent if anybody has a need…

Conroe_Ag_8 said:

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Shoot me a DM! Have a couple Texas Veteran orgs that I'd love to plug you in with!

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Can't DM but you're welcome to send me an email to info@rockinganv.com at your leisure!