Make Money With A Pickup Truck
If you have a pickup truck, you have something that a lot of people do not have. You have a way of moving things around. With a little bit of hustle, you can turn that into a regular source of cash. Here are some of the top ways to make money with your pickup.
Cutting Lawns With A Pickup Truck
The biggest expense in a lawn care business is the transportation to move all the equipment around. You probably already have or have access to a lawnmower and a trimmer. All you need to do is get the word out about your business. Luckily, business cards are cheap. Print out a thousand cards with a call to action like a new customer special. Then go put the cards on the doors in your target neighborhood. Be sure to dress nicely so that if you happen to catch a homeowner out and about, you can talk to them and give them your sales pitch.
So, how money can you make with your pickup and a lawn care business? Do the math. You can easily do 10 to 12 lawns a day if you plan a nice route and earn $30 to $40 a lawn. That is $360 to $480 a day which is a great payday if you need money. In addition, you will get a nice tan and might lose some wright if you need it.
Small Moving Jobs With Your Truck
Post an ad on Craigslist for small moving jobs. Many people need to move a sofa or a refrigerator across town and they have no way to do it without renting a truck. It would be much easier for them to pay you to do it. All you need is a few cheap moving blankets, some tie downs and a dolly and you are in business.
Want to get even more creative with moving? Park yourself out in front of a home improvement store or a store like IKEA. Get a sign advertising moving services and you might be surprised at just how much work you might get. I cant count how many times I have seen someone trying to stuff an oversized item into a hatchback to no avail. At that point, they can either return the item or pay you to help them move it. You could easily make $200 a day to $500 a day if you put in a full work day and hustle.
Metal Recycling With Your Pickup
Ever see those guys running down the load with a truck full of metal junk? They are recycling metal and you can get paid to do it. All you need to do is find a local scrap yard and get their rates for various metal.
Then, you need to find the metal. One way to do that is to check the free stuff section of Craigslist. People want their scrap metal gone and will let you come and take it for free. Another way is to drive through neighborhoods on bulk pickup day. Then you can NEATLY go through the piles of debris and grab the recyclable metal. Just be courteous and do not make a mess.
Junk Removal With Your Pickup
People have jun and always will have junk. At some point, said junk must be removed. This is where you come in. You can advertise your services on Craigslist or you can print out business cards with your information and hand them out door to door. Here is another great tip to get work, contact realtors. Realtors are always helping people get their house ready for sale and this often involves removing clutter. Most realtor offices will allow you to place fliers int he mailboxes of realtors. Get a large stack of flyers printed up and go to town.
Use Your Pickup Truck To Clean Carpet
Not the truck itself of course but you can use it to get carpet cleaning equipment around. Professional carpet cleaning machines, not rug doctors, are heavy and bulky. You need a truck to get them around. Look for a used machine at pawn shops or carpet cleaning supply stores and get a bottle of carpet cleaning prespray for about $30. You can then charge anywhere from $15 to $40 a room depending on what kind of customers you go after and how good you are. Do good work because your reputation is everything in this business.
Trash Pickup Services With A Truck
Rural areas of the country are not served by municipal trash services. They still have trash though so how do they get rid of it. Many will burn some of it but you can not burn everything and the practice is becoming less common and even frowned upon. This is where you come in. For about $20 a week, you can take away their trash and dispose of it at the local dump. You may need to provide barrels and if your business grows enough, you might need to invest in a trailer. The great thing is that this is regular work with contracts that you can easily build upon. It is a business that could grow very quickly.
Make Money Just Driving Around
If you have a four door truck, you can put it to use driving people around the city for Uber or Lyft. You will make around $25 an hour and you can work when and where you want. Don’t care to let people in your truck? No problem, you can still make money driving food around with Uber Eats or Grub Hub.
About Starting A Business With Your Truck
Every city is different as far as licensing , insurance requirements and taxes go. If you find yourself in a lucrative business that you want to carry on with, you will want to find out what the requirements are where you plan to work. Pay particular interest to the need for business insurance (which is cheaper than you think) and sales tax collection.
The key to any business, whichever one you chose is attracting and keeping customers. To find customers the most cost efficient way is by word of mouth. Tell all your family and friends that you are in business and would appreciate it if they would spread the word. Ask them to post something on facebook about it for greater reach. If you are part of a church, tell the community that you are in business. Be careful with expensive print media, radio advertisements and phone books. They will have huge learning curves and do not offer much of a return on investment.
As far as keeping your clients, be sure to do good work and reach out to them on occasion to see if they need more work. It is perfectly legal to call a customer that you have had dealings with in the past. The do not call list does not apply. Besides, if you are nice and do great work, they will not mind the calls.