Part Time Business Ideas

barrymung

I currently work full time but am always looking for ideas for a small business that I can run in my spare time (Mainly weekends), firstly as a way of supplementing my income and secondly as a form of redundancy insurance (ie something to do should I find myself out of work).

At the moment I run a carpet cleaning business, profits are high but it's often difficult to fit jobs in. People *always* seem to want jobs doing when I'm not available! Also, the nature of the Carpet Cleaning business is that you have to advertise, advertise, advertise in order to bring in work, something that can be expensive and is often unpredictable.

Thoughts so far are:

Bouncy castle(s)

Ice cream

Candy floss

Portable skittle alley rental

Cold drink sales (@boot sales etc)

Printing decorative ribbons (For weddings etc)

Does anyone have any experience/opinions of the above? How successful are they? Do they require a lot of advertising?

Any other suggestions for weekend businesses?

lincroft1710

I don't understand this!

You say you run a carpet cleaning business so how can you be made "redundant"? And the profits are high and you can't always fit customers in. Are the customers all wanting their carpets cleaned at the same time.

Most businesses have to advertise. There was a thread about bouncy castles a few weeks ago and advertising the business. A lot of boot sales have the refreshments side already sorted and many are only open for 6 months of a year.

JeremyDe

This is rather strange. If a business does have a very high profit margin then it's either rare or a miscalculation on the turnover/expenditures.

If it's (A) then you would probably be better off by hiring an employee rather than starting a completely new business venture.

If it's (B) then you may have to analyse your turnover and expenditures to ensure your profit model is accurate before proceeding with any further expansion.

paulwf

If I ran a carpet cleaning business but couldn't fit in all the jobs I'd be hiring out carpet cleaning machines rather than bouncy castles

I'd also be getting specialist help with the advertising budget if possible. I'm not quite sure what is possible but there might be a local PR company that knows the local advertising sales people and can give you a heads up...certainly worth networking and bouncing around a few ideas.

Savvy_Sue

I wonder if the OP is running his carpet cleaning business in his 'spare' time, and has another job he fears he may be made redundant from. But he can't fit in all the carpet cleaning because people don't want to be limited to evenings / weekends.

If I've read that right, I'd seriously consider jacking in the day job ... if the profits are SO good!

kandyfloss

If you are running a sucessful carpet cleaning business and making lots of money from it why the need to start another buisness at weekends?Just say to the people that you can't fit in that you would be willing to come round Saturdays and Sundays to clean their carpets while they go off shopping or having their hair/nails done on a Saturday and visiting relatives on Sundays.That way you would be able to fit in all those extra customers and so won't need to start up another business plus they won't have to book days off from work to be in the house to let you in as they would be there first thing at weekends before they go off and do their thing.

Life is too short with starting up more and more business's when you have a profitable one on the go.

barrymung

Hi

In answer to your questions..savvy_sue is correct. I work full time for an employer and *could* be made redundant at any time. However, the prime reason is to supplement the income from my day job.

The carpet cleaning biz is part time, mostly weekends as I work for my employer during the week. It's high profit in that material costs are very low. (It's the same with window cleaning..£40 per hour earnings and the only outlay is a bottle of washing up liquid every few days)

Most people want jobs doing during working hours during the week. There lies the problem.

I *could* jack in the day job and work full time at carpet cleaning but I'd lose the security of the day job. CC also tends to be very seasonal too.

TOP carpet cleaners can earn £70k full time, however, this is the exception rather than the rule. Most average ones earn less than this and business can be VERY variable.

What I'm after is a business which fits in around my current day job, rather than one that doesn't!

barrymung

Kandyfloss, unfortunately people generally want them doing during the week (Daytime). Don't know why but that's the nature of the business.

barrymung

Paulwf, machine hire isn't really a go-er (Been there, tried that)

Firstly, people are only willing to spend £30 max per day to hire what could be a £2500 machine. Sometimes the machine will come back broken because the customer hasn't followed the instructions and used Daz to clean his carpet. (You try telling a customer that he's wrecked a pair of vacuum pumps at a cost of £200 each..!)

In addition, the machine has to be cleaned, tested and PAT tested before the next customer hires it...all for £30.

Out of this comes insurance, tax etc...etc.

With regards to advertising, it's simply a lot of leg work that I really don't have the time for, given the day job.

One of the most effective ways of advertising a CC business is by door-to-door leafleting. When I do thing I get around a 4% success rate. Compared to the rest of the CC industry, this is considered high.

Owain_Moneysaver

I think you need to find carpets that can be cleaned at the weekend or in the evenings.

Rented properties often have void periods between lets of several weeks, a local letting agent could give you steady business, if they give you keys you can do the carpet in the evening and (hopefully?) it will be dry for viewings the next day.

Holiday cottages in many areas are let Sat-Sat so again there might be a market for weekend cleaning,

Can your machine also do vehicle carpets and upholstery? If so, local coach hire companies might want coaches cleaned ready for the next day.

In your adverts why not state 'discount for evening and weekend cleans' - people might be more willing to have cleaning done at a time which they feel is less convenient if they're getting a discount.

Office cleaning is often done in the evenings, and smaller office cleaning contract firms might not have their own machine, so might be willing to subcontract that part of the work to you.

paulwf

It sounds to me that the carpet cleaning is working - given the limitations of your day job which is always going to be an issue - so I'd focus on services related to that. You then have a bit of extra income for now as well as the possibility of expanding if you get made redundant. That's be far more useful than getting a second job that is always going to be weekends only.

Try and have a think about services that are related to carpet cleaning. That way you can use the same advertising leaflets, website, company name etc. Focusing on one area will be so much more effective than diluting your efforts on various unrelated projects. Off the top of my head I can think of rug and upholstery cleaning but there must be a lot more.

Hire can be very lucrative for items that are used infrequently so the customer doesn't want the hassle of storing it. We used to hire roof boxes at £50 a week and bikes at £20 a weekend, they were sold at the end of the season for what we paid for them so it was pure profit. I don't know anything about carpet cleaning so I might be completely wrong but could you get a £200 machine at trade price, hire it out at £30 a time (plus extra for the cleaning fluid and make this compulsory) then sell the machine after a few hires at cost price? I can see why hiring out a £2,500 machine will cause issues but I don't think you need to go down that route. I think my Sainsburys has a carpet cleaning hire concession, I can't believe they use such expensive machines.

Seriously, don't dismiss hire but rethink it, if you can get the right trade deals it's all profit