r/sweatystartup

Hey y'all, hope you're doing good.

After realizing my limited knowledge on cars when helping a friend buy a used car on fb marketplace, I thought to myself that being a mobile pre purchase car inspector to make sure a car is good would be a great sweaty(ish) startup to get into. I see some demand in my area, but no established players. Mainly informal fb posts.

The thing is, i know almost nothing about cars, so I'm wondering on whether you guys see the viability of this and how you would recommend learning to be able to actually offer this service. marketing would be done via ig/tiktok around people looking to buy their first car, as well as possibly making a blog.

Thoughts/advice?

Hi all, I just did a quote for a bathroom renovation project last week. Client said they will get back to me.

Now they have ghosted me and I found out later they went with someone else. Feels like I am losing jobs not because of price but because I am bad at following up.

What do you guys actually use? CRM, spreadsheet, phone reminders, or just memory? Curious what's working for small shops.

I was thinking this morning about how when solar panels came out, people made money installing them. Same for any new technology. What are some things that are currently up and coming that will create blue collar jobs?

Hey yall,

I’m going to be starting a side hustle for pressure washing trash cans. I live in an affluent area with tons of houses, so I think as long as I hit as many as possible, I’ll be able to find clients.

That said, I see A LOT of conflicting information about it. A lot of people seem to just be selling courses on it with no real experience.

Can yall help me with what I need to buy? What is the best, affordable option for a gas powered one? And if it’s truly much better to have a trailer, what does that entail?

My biggest question is, I don’t understand how to collect the waste water, especially with a hand-powered pressure washer.

Please help, I could use advice from those with experience! Thank you so much!

Been running a hardscaping operation for about four years now. currently got 8 guys on payroll. honestly nobody warns you that when you start a sweaty business you basically become a camp counselor.

My entire crew is obsessed with sports betting. it started with me just holding the cash for their weekly bets because they'd always argue over who owed who on monday mornings. then guys from a roofing crew we share a lot with started wanting in on the action

next thing I know Im getting texts at midnight on a saturday trying to calculate spreads on a piece of scrap drywall. it was getting ridiculous and honestly pulling my focus from actually bidding jobs and running the business.

eventually I just threw the whole little operation onto a Pay Per Head platform so the math and tracking is just handled. I dont have the time or energy to be playing excel spreadsheet bookie when im already trying to coordinate 14 yards of gravel delivery for monday morning.

anyway... anyone else end up managing these weird accidental side things just to keep your guys happy and focused? swear to god the landscaping part of this job is the absolute easiest part.

I've been building my service company for a little over four years now, started with just myself and a truck and have slowly grown it to the point where I have a few guys helping me run it, good clients that keep coming back and something that actually feels real for the first time.

Getting married in a few months and I've been so focused on keeping the wheels turning and planning the wedding that I never really stopped to think about what happens to everything I've built once we sign that paper, whether any of this becomes shared once we make it official and what I should have figured out by now that I probably haven't.

Just want to make sure I'm not leaving something important on the table here, not sure if I'm overthinking it or if this is actually something I should be sorting out before we get too far down the road.

Feels like we’re just trying to survive right now. Is anyone else outsourcing more just to keep costs down? Not even sure if this is the right move, just trying to figure things out

I’m a dyslexic handyman and my brain is mush by 9 PM. I’ve left thousands on the table over the years because I’m too buggered to sit at a laptop and type out professional invoices.

I finally found a way to do it all by voice from the van. It "reads" my emails, pulls market prices (AU/US/UK), and drafts the whole PDF and email reply for me. Zero typing.

It’s been a life-saver for my head space. I’m just an indie builder, but I’m curious, how do you lot handle the admin burnout?

Happy to let a few people try the system I made if it helps you get your nights back.

In Short our business will be sustainable toothbrushes and we will donate 10% of earnings to removing plastic from our oceans.

Our name ideas:
- Brush Better
- Brush Forward
- Brush Revolution 
- Brush Collective
- All Smiles
- All Smiles Club

Also feel free to share your own ideas.

I keep seeing studios open and then close within a year or two, so I’m wondering if this is actually a profitable business or not.

Is there something most people are missing, or is it just a really tough industry to survive in?

Especially curious how much of it comes down to memberships and keeping people consistent.

Question I don't have an car right now but wanted to start an low cost cleaning business. I live in philly so I don't know if it would be worth it to give it an shot? I would travel by bus and Uber while using an foldable roller cart with supplies in it.

Also add an couple of questions too. would I need an vacuum right now? I can get a mobile and bucket etc.

or when you first started out did you just only do cleaning service without vacuuming?

I also I have wet vacuum for "pets" that I used only twice and now its just sitting in the basement. I also have an extra swifter wet mop as well I could use.

I don't have much money so I would be going to dollar tree and family dollar to get things.

I can make a digital flyer and see if I can get some physical ones made but what else would I need to start etc?

I am in the process of starting up a one man clearing operation. The plan is to start small and hopefully move up to bigger equipment eventually. I plan on doing brush and small trees primarily. I have the truck, utility trailer, and chainsaw. What other small equipment might I need while staying small?

ious to see stats/ad performance from other detailers. Roas, cpl, cpa

Mine are about 3.5x roas, $4 cpl, and a $40 cpa

Just want to see how my stats compare to others since there’s no information online for detailers specifically, and I wanna know from real businesses and not agency gurus.

I don’t have the best credit so I’m wondering if it will be a waste of my time trying to apply for a loan.

I have a service business as a sub, where the margins get eaten up on smaller job by driving time and there needs to be someone cracking the whip on a crew for the prime to make good money, I offer subbing on this and I can match the margin 1:1 of the prime...

However as the jobs get longer the margin climbs as drive and downtime + fixed costs become a lower % of the total cost for the prime and eventually they go from like, 30% margin on a 1h job, to 50% on a 2h and up to like 55% on 3h+... I can't make any money matching that margin, the hours are per crew so a "3h" is actually like 9 man hours, sure I can probably do it in 7 if I am crushing, but generally I am looking for a competitive pricing plan that I can approach the prime with that makes subbing look appealing for those up to 9h jobs, talking per hour is not working because once the jobs get bigger it would end up being way more expensive than their crew. Fixed costs for me are about $100 per day and it's in canada so we are dealing with about 30% tax on any labor.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I’ve been importing products for my auto supply business for about 2 years now, and along the way I’ve gotten pretty good at finding direct manufacturers overseas and navigating the whole process (pricing, tariffs, shipping, etc.).

Lately I’ve had a lot of friends, family, and other business owners asking if I can help them source their products the same way. It’s gotten to the point where I’m wondering if there’s actually a business here.

Where I’m stuck is how to monetize it properly.

Here are the models I’ve been thinking about:

Markup on landed cost (product + tariffs + shipping)

Percentage of the total order value

Percentage of the savings compared to their current supplier

I feel like each one highlights a different kind of value:

Markup = simplicity

% of order = scalable with volume

% of savings = aligns incentives

But I’m trying to figure out what actually works best long term, especially if I want to scale this beyond just helping people I know.

Second part of the question:

Do you think this is actually a real need/business, or just something that seems valuable from the inside but isn’t that big of a market?

Would love to hear from anyone who’s done sourcing, importing, or consulting like this.

Appreciate any thoughts.

I own a residential construction business that is low key, low volume, and mostly detached garages, additions, and the occasional tiny home. Most budgets are tight and leave little room for full landscaping. I’ve been thinking for a very long time about investing in a small hydro machine to help with soil stabilization and even to help give my projects a finished look. Most of the seeding would be on prepared ground or landscape ready ground.

Just thinking a small scale hydroseeding business might be a lucrative add on for me? I could target yard repairs or fill ins while I’m not doing any of my own work. My main goal would be to stay small with it because I’d not want to be a competitor with the big commercial outfits that do large areas.

Am I thinking too far out of my lane with this little add on venture? This would definitely not be a sole source of income, more of an investment into a cash flow to help with the sporadic pay days of building.

I’m interested in starting a mobile mechanic business, but I’m worried about getting in over my head. For any of you that did this, were you working as mechanics before? And for how long? How experienced were you really before starting?

I’ve never worked as a mechanic, but I do my own maintenance for my cars. I restored my totaled car including airbag replacement, rear axle beam, shocks/struts, control arms, steering rack, and alignment at home. I feel confident that I can figure out how to do any job, but where I lack confidence is in speed. I know working as a mechanic first would definitely be ideal, but I can’t really afford to take a pay cut from my tech job for a year or two to do that.

Hey,

Me and my partner host a podcast where we talk to business owners about how they're actually growing their companies.

Lately we’ve been wanting to feature more people running traditional service businesses — cleaning, landscaping, trades, logistics, field services, that kind of thing. A lot of growth content online is aimed at SaaS startups. We want to hear from people building real businesses with real operations.

The format is simple: we talk about what your business does, who you serve, and what's been working (or not) when it comes to getting and keeping clients. 30-40 minutes, recorded, goes on YouTube.

Good fit if you:

Own or run a service-based business (any size) Have grown past the "just me" stage and have some lessons to share Are willing to talk openly about the journey — what worked, what didn't No prep needed. Just a conversation.

If you're interested or know someone who'd be a good fit, drop a comment or DM me.