This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features 20-year-old college student Jacob Shaidle, founding father of an Ontario-based grill cleansing company Shaidle’s cleansing. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Courtesy of Shaidle Cleaning. Jacob Shaidle.
What was your day job or essential occupation when you began working on the side?
I used to be a 15-year-old highschool student when I began my side business, Shaidle Cleaning. I all the time liked physical work, so it was natural for me. Before I began my company, at the age of 14, I worked full-time on a tree farm during the summers, but when my parents told me I needed to pay for college, I desired to make greater than minimum wage to make sure I could pay my tuition. I used to be shocked to learn the way expensive school really is! Today, I’m a full-time student during the school yr, and I run a company full-time in the summer. After graduation, I plan to proceed working at Shaidle Cleaning full time.
When did you begin your side business and where did you discover the inspiration for it?
I began Shaidle Cleaning in the summer of 2021. My mother asked me to wash the grill at home and suggested that after doing such a good job, I should go demolish the street. My parents mentioned that they cleaned out the neighbors’ grills to make more cash than I made on the tree farm. I might never have considered starting a grill cleansing business if they hadn’t suggested it to me!
What were the first steps you took to interrupt away from the game?
I needed the right cleansing products to get the Shaidle Cleaning off the ground. Fortunately, I already had a pressure washer at home from my dad, and I spent $400 (100% of my savings at the time) on other equipment. My first summer in business, I put all the things into two grocery bags and walked about a half mile from my house to wash the grills – I didn’t have a driver’s license or a automotive, so my only option was to walk. The second summer I made enough money to purchase my very own automotive, which allowed me to expand my service area and double my revenue.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in building your side team and how did you overcome them?
My three biggest challenges in business are ensuring amazing quality even after hiring people, maintaining a great online presence, and managing such a large variety of clients. I consider that good and well-planned training is very necessary to make sure the quality of services. But much more necessary was hiring hard-working, passionate people – individuals who had similar goals and mindsets as me and could work towards a common goal. Having an amazing team has been a factor in the success of our company.
Maintaining a great online presence is really difficult because a small business is competing with all these “sharks” having more customers and money to outspend us on promoting. With the help of my friend Aran Giffen, we managed to determine an online presence, selling people the story and our youth, passion and drive, relatively than the service we offer. We wish to make it clear that we are all students and our goal is to assist other students and that is how we present ourselves.
Finally, going from managing 100 clients in the summer to over 700 was a huge leap. As an owner, I need to have personal conversations with each customer, excite them about the service, and make sure they have the best experience every time. Unfortunately, I do not have time for this during the day. Instead, I used my employees’ great personalities to message, monitor, and ensure customer satisfaction. We’ve also made customer management easier with Jobberwhich mechanically stores all our customer information, sends automatic messages and organizes all the things for me as the owner.
How long did it take for you to attain stable monthly income? How much did the side hustle earn?
Since this is a seasonal business, I work hard every summer to extend my revenue from the previous season. In the first two months of business in 2021, I made $5,000. The next summer, when I had a automotive, I doubled my income to $10,000. It was a two-month summer in Years 11 and 12. During my first university holiday, I made my first $10,000 in a month and ended the summer with about $30,000.
This summer, which was my fourth summer in business, we achieved $100,000 in revenue in 75 days, ending the summer with roughly $150,000 in revenue. As a sole proprietorship, it wasn’t too difficult to take care of a regular income over the summer. This is because I often knock on doors for one or two days to fill my schedule for the week. Last yr we had a total of seven technicians and 20 people, so maintaining a consistent level of revenue was much tougher. We needed to quickly learn to coach employees, manage a sales team and serve tons of of additional customers. My best friend, Aran Giffen, has been a huge help to me in generating recurring revenue by managing our website, outreach, and internet advertising.
What does growth appear to be now?
I used to be in a position to expand my sole proprietorship into a successful business that allowed me to employ dozens of highschool and college students, helping them pay for their very own education. With a growing, passionate and hard-working team, we aim to eventually exceed seven-figure revenue. Automation is a big a part of with the ability to scale a business. We recently automated customer communications by partnering with Jobber last summer, which has helped us tremendously. This partnership has allowed us to expand our customer base to 1,000 grill cleanings and six-figure revenue this yr. Before Jobber, I spent a lot of time scheduling cleanings and manually sending appointment reminders to clients – it took up most of my day. Jobber takes over this function completely, allowing clients to book appointments online, automating reminders and sending invoices once our service has ended, which has allowed me to focus on growing the business. Without this partnership, we might not give you the chance to attain six-figure revenues or hire employees.
What do you enjoy most about this side hustle?
By far the most rewarding a part of owning Shaidle Cleaning was allowing my employees to pay for their tuition and college costs. I’m very pleased with my team and pleased with what we have achieved so far, and I truthfully only want the best for them. We are building a company around hardworking, dedicated and passionate students, and I value their work and effort greater than anything. My company is much greater than just cleansing the grill – we create a tight-knit community of learners and help them build and grow as people.
What is your advice to others who want to start out their very own successful side hustle?
Find great people to surround yourself with. I used to think it could be great to attain your big dreams alone – more fulfilling, productive and impressive. But I used to be completely flawed. One of my favorite parts of my job is meeting latest individuals who can assist and enable me in other ways. It’s much more rewarding to collect a group of individuals around a single goal and lead all of them to success than to do it alone. It’s much faster to make use of the amazing knowledge of others to push yourself forward in business, and sticking to a plan with the people around you is more impressive than mountain climbing alone in the mountains, leaving people behind.
With this message, I would love to say 4 very necessary individuals who have helped me achieve amazing things in business. Aran Giffen, Brendan Quinlan and my parents. Aran joined us in third grade and has change into one of Shaidle Cleaning’s best assets. Brendan has been my mentor for just over a yr and has given me more knowledge, skills and advice than anyone else in the business. Together with my mom and dad – who were all the time there for me and encouraged me irrespective of what and had the pleasure of watching the company grow from the first barbecue – I’m eternally grateful to those people and I only wish to proceed to grow with them.
This article is a part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being… young business owner.