This cold and chilling winter month, we bring you a different type of idea around making money without having a job. This idea will only apply to those of us in the north and north east regions as the weather will be key to making lots and lots of money. Snow month are punishing in the northeast region, and as I am writing this we are expecting 10″ of snow by night.
Who is plowing your neighborhood?
It has been proven that major highways and major roads will be covered by contractors that work for VDOT and more times than others will have major amount of machinery to salt, sand and plow just about any large roads. There is another component to plowing that is often overlooked due to the misconception that VDOT does it all. The towns and communities around those roads are not approached or treated by VDOT, as their contractors do not have the smaller machinery to actually get through streets without damaging things, which means that H.O.A’s and town leaders will look at independent contractors with plows to actually condition their streets which explains why your driveway and street are the last places to get done.
What can you do about it?
This is the simpler part of the problem as it can be addressed two ways:
1. The truck: If you own or are willing to purchase a used truck (Ford F150, Dodge Ram) then you can make more money. You will need a working truck, a plow ($2200-$4000 used) and you are in business, you can earn up to $300 per hour depending on your town and their budget. This means that by the end of the first winter, you will have most likely gotten the entire cost of your investment back. Each consecutive winter will simply mean that you are 100% profit. This method can make you quite a it of money as you might receive calls to be on stand by and will earn $20-$50 an hour just for sitting in your truck waiting for snow.
2. On foot: The second method is based on doing the same thing on foot. Sidewalks, driveways and smaller alleys and streets need to get plowed manually as cars cannot be precise in snow removal in small areas. The idea is to get together with a crew of 5, and offer your services as a team. The average pay will be $20-$30 an hour and will be require you to form an L.L.C with insurance and bonding, which will cost you a total of $1000 for the 5 of you for one winter.
How to maximize your earnings?
Small side work: Create a flier offering snow removal services to all the neighborhoods and put them out in September, charge town homes $20 and larger single family homes $50 per storm. Your job will be to have a clientele that commits to hiring you when there is snow, a minimum of 100 homes will be needed if you want to make big money. You do the math, assuming 50 homes and 50 town homes, $1000 and $2500 would give you $3500 per snow day. Assuming it snows 4 times in a winter, you are looking at an average of $14,000 for 3 months worth of work. Not too shabby.
So remember, this year as unemployment remains at 10% there is opportunities to make big money in very little time without having a job.
