Part Time Business Ideas

barrymung

Hi Paulwf

I'm not dismissing the hire thing without thinking about it. I did do a lot of research a couple of years ago. Unfortunately it's quite a complicated business hiring a piece of electrical equipment as the unit needs a full safety test before each and every hire which obviously eats into profits. In addition, the machines are easy to damage if someone does something silly, such as using washing powder instead of the proper chemicals (Yes, it happens)

Owain,

Yes, it'd be great if people wanted their carpets cleaned at weekends and logic would suggest this'd be the case. However, the majority of people (In this area at least) want them done weekdays. I think it's because most people round this way are families where the wife doesn't work but the kids and husband are out during the day. No one wants a carpet cleaner spoiling their quiet weekend!

What I'm looking for is a business which fits better with my weekend availability. Long term I'd probably sell the carpet cleaning as a going concern.

Thanks for all the feedback so far!

Horace

Although the carpet cleaning business is viable - people don't want their carpets done at the weekends so I would be inclined to pass this on to someone else and do something else instead.

You could try Jamie at Home - I understand that for £100 outlay you can set up as a Jamie at Home party planner (this is selling Jamie Oliver products at parties) which you should be able to fit around your day job. https://www.jamieathome.com Its a new idea of Jamie Oliver's which seems to be going quite well, I found out about it from a friend who sells it, she set up in January this year and is doing quite well.

dharm999

Barry

As the carpet cleaning is at high margins why not get someone to do it for you? Once you've built up a number of regular customers you could then give up the day job.

Other customers to try for weekend work are:

New build homes - need cleaning before people move in
Show homes - need regular clening, maybe that could be done at weekends?
Rental properties - when we used to live in rental properties, when we moved house we've done it at weekends, and you have to give the house a clean before you go, maybe that's a market you can tap into?

Have you thought about more than just carpet cleaning, maybe expanding into other cleaning as well? Maybe PC keyboards (heard that s pretty lucrative), etc.. that would be cleaned at a weekend when peole arent at work? Also office cleaning as again people aren't at work at weekends?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

is this business 'delcared' or not?

as i am a bit concerned as you said the only expense the window cleaner had was a bottle of washing up liquid every few days, what about his travelling costs, public liability insurance... clothes, uniforms, squidy cleaning things ( sorry dont know what htey called lol) which i know they need to replace quite often...

dont forget it isnt all and clean and simple as it looks... there are hidden costs ..

I got a feeling that you think the grass is greener in another business, and to be honest if your business is doing what you say it is... at this time with the recession, you are doing brilliantly.

ALL businesses have got to work and push harder to get business in at the moment...

I dont know why but something doesnt sound right here....

got a weekend business making a great profit, but yet you want to do something else? like selling canned drinks in a bootsale where you would need to sell a heck of a lot of cans to make any sort of money...

how much do you charge per carpet? and how much are your overall costs? including insurance, transport, business insurance on your transport etc? How long does it take you do do the average size carpet? so how much profit are you paying tax on ?

greyteam1959

He's a CARPET cleaner not a WINDOW cleaner Cooltrikerchick.
And I agree with you....... its dead easy to run a 'profitable' business until you start to take all the cost ( & I mean ALL ) the costs into consideration.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

mervyn11 wrote: »

He's a CARPET cleaner not a WINDOW cleaner Cooltrikerchick.
And I agree with you....... its dead easy to run a 'profitable' business until you start to take all the cost ( & I mean ALL ) the costs into consideration.

yep i know that, but what i was getting at, the op made a ref. to a window cleaner's only running cost was a bottle of washing up liquid. which is obviously not his only running cost...

so is the op getting a bit confused with the profitablity of his own business, or are they doing on 'the side' so no PROPER runnings costs are taken into the consideration, as it sounds like its all back pocket money to me

xbrenx

barrymung wrote: »

At the moment I run a carpet cleaning business

I need my carpet cleaning after 2 winters of using the wood burner
Whereabouts are you?

barrymung

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

is this business 'delcared' or not?

I dont know why but something doesnt sound right here....

got a weekend business making a great profit, but yet you want to do something else? like selling canned drinks in a bootsale where you would need to sell a heck of a lot of cans to make any sort of money...

how much do you charge per carpet? and how much are your overall costs? including insurance, transport, business insurance on your transport etc? How long does it take you do do the average size carpet? so how much profit are you paying tax on ?

Obviously, I'm not going to give you exact figures but...

Average job is probably £120, average time spent probably two-three hours.

Out of this material costs less than £5. Fuel less than £5. Liability insurance around £100 per year. Income tax/NI at usual rates (YES, I fully declare everything and pay the correct tax on all profit). Advertising probably 50p per job.

Machine would cost around £2500 for a new one.

barrymung

xbrenx wrote: »

I need my carpet cleaning after 2 winters of using the wood burner
Whereabouts are you?

About 200 miles away..!

(I don't know what you plan to do but if you can borrow a machine PM me and i'll post you some professional carpet cleaner)

barrymung

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

yep i know that, but what i was getting at, the op made a ref. to a window cleaner's only running cost was a bottle of washing up liquid. which is obviously not his only running cost...

Obviously not and I didn't actually say that. To clarify, what I said was the only outlay was a bottle of soap, meaning the only regular material costs.

Now, back to the subject, what IS a good business that can be run at weekends?