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What will I be doing ?
If you want to be paid to exercise, consider starting your own construction cleanup service. Residential and commercial buildings that have just undergone construction are a mess. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other subcontractors build quickly and efficiently, throwing waste aside for some one else to clean up. You can offer to clean up the site for an hourly rate, a flat fee based on the size of the building or for a reduced rate if you can recycle waste.
Specially, construction cleanup services pick up trim and waste from excavation, drywall, electrical, plumbing, roofing and other contractors. They do this after hours, evenings and on weekends when workers aren’t on-site, putting in as many as 45 hours a week.

What will I need to start ?
There are few skills required to clean up a construction site. However, the owners and contractors are trusting you to pick up only waste and not good materials. Develop this trust into a relationship of honesty and your business will grow.
You will need safety equipment to ensure thay you don’t step on nails or are injured by other materials. You will probably need to be licensed and bonded as are other subcontractors. You may need a truck to haul away materials, though some services keep a large dumpster at the site where materials can be placed during cleanup.

Who will my customers be ?
Your customers for a construction cleanup service are building contractors and subcontractors. You may work directly with a general contractor responsible for a group or subdivision of homes or a large commercial building. Or you may be hired by an electrical or plumbing contractor to clean up after their crews and recycle what you can. Check your area telephone books for contractors.
One enterprising construction cleanup service also rented outdoor toilets to construction sites. Not only did it add to income, it also gave the service a prominent place to advertise !

How much should I charge ?
Contruction cleanup doesn’t require extensive skills or training. The work is physically demanding and does require that you learn to work efficiently. The hourly rate for a construction cleanup service is $20 to $45. However, the service is usually priced by the size of the job, measured in square feet, and the difficulty. For example, you may be hired to clean up a group of 12 new homes of 2,000 square feet each for a month. If you calculate that the total time will be about 120 hours and you can charge $25 an hour, your fee will be $3,000. Divide that amount by the square footage and you come up with 12.5 cents per square-foot. If you find that your time estimate was accurate, you can bid future jobs at 10 cents per square foot for easy jobs and 15 cents per square foot for difficult jobs, with the average rate at 12.5 cents per square foot.

How much will I make ?
Once you’ve established your business and developed some experience, most of your time will be spent working rather than selling your services. In fact, you may ask someone in your family to take calls, quote jobs and schedule your time.If so, you can be more productive and more profitable. Remember to deduct for overhead, including a pickup truck or a car and utility trailer as needed. Calculating overhead at 20 percent income and estimating about 1600 billable hours each year at $25 an hour, your annual net income can be about $32,000.

How can I get started ?
Do you know any contractors ? If so, talk with them about your service. Offer to do one job for free if they will show you what to do and give you a reference when done. If you don’t know any contractors, call a few and offer your services. After you’ve done a couple of jobs, produce a flier listing your services, references and prices, then circulate it to job sites and mail it to contractors.
Don’t forget to check with state and local construction licensing offices as your area may require licensing, bonding, certification or other regulations for your service. Many construction cleanup services start by working weekends, then building the business into a full-time venture as soon as possible.

From the book of Dan Ramsey, Title : 101 Best Home Businesses, CAREER PRESS, 3 Tice Road, P.O. Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417, 1-800-CAREER-1, 201-848-0310 (NJ and outside U.S.), FAX : 201-848-1727

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