Frustrations with interviewing in this wild job market

Toyman! said:

Do it again. 

Pick something that is underserved or not offered at all. 

It can be lawn care or pressure washing, or computer repair, or any number of things. 

There is a kid near me who makes pretty good money replacing phone screens and batteries.

 

To complement what Toyman (and lots of others) said, here's a little-known secret: don't buy any equipment that you can rent.

Here's another one: you can rent almost any piece of equipment ever.

How did my sandblasting company become a construction company? Home Depot rentals. I should have started by renting the damn sandblaster, just to mitigate some of the start-up risk--mine was a former United Rentals unit itself.

I have a friend who will, when there's a snow storm in Virginia, rent every single piece of equipment he can find in a 200 mile radius (biased towards Virginia, of course), round up all his buddies with their trucks and trailers, and drive down there. He'll plow, scoop, and tractor his way to more money than you'd imagine. He pays his friends well for their work, he pays for the rentals, and then keeps the rest.

If I lost my job/career tomorrow, I'd be in Home Depot tomorrow; or browsing United Rentals, to see what equipment there is to rent, which equipment I might find interesting to use, and then start looking for work where I'd use that equipment. Next, the website would go up and I'd start advertising. I promise you, I'd be working next week. I can't tell you what I'd be doing, but I would be doing something, and I'd probably be pretty happy doing it.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Your business failed because your approach to business is 100% backwards.  
 

You thought of something you thought would be a useful tool, built it, then tried to find people who would buy it.  Nobody wanted it.

Identify what people need/want FIRST.  Create a tool/ system/ service to address their needs (even if you think it's stupid).  Sell to people before you even finish building the tool.

Until you can understand this, you will never understand business success.  
 

And no, I wouldn't buy your consulting services.  They have a 0% success rate.  I seek advice from people who have been successful, not people who think they know a better way than everyone else.

Business risk assessment is not the same as the ability to identify everything that might go wrong.  It's about identifying the risk, evaluating the likelihood, prioritizing, and managing it.

Many years ago I started using a business risk assessment matrix. Here's an example:

There are many variations on these matrices.  Some are simpler than others. I chose the example I posted because it is a little more detailed- it gives stuff to read and think about.

Things on the matrix that score a 10 are important and need to be dealt with right away.  2's don't matter.  6's aren't as important as 10's.

Even catastrophic events on the matrix such as "multiple deaths" and "Destruction or complete loss of >50% of assets " don't earn 10's if they are rare events.

No business can deal with every problem at the same time. That creates analysis paralysis, and kills all possibility of forward momentum.  Businesses have to identify risks, but prioritization is critical before a business acts on particular threats or risks.

Hopefully it's a useful tool for anyone who is interested.

In reply to confuZion3 :

I really like the idea of browsing HD Rentals for inspiration.

I'd start a handyman business/light home renovation.  It's impossible to get bids for work right now.  If you can get someone to come out and talk with you, it's more likely than not that after they've come by, you'll never get a bid from them.  Let alone have them show up on time and do the work right and take care of any issues that may arise.

We want to have the kids bathroom redone, nothing big.  Retile the floor, granite counter top, new lights/faucets/mirrors/shower door.  Easy, quick job.  Have had more people say they'd come out and not show up, or show up and then not give a bid vs people following through.

A few of the guys we know that do show up/do work well have increased their hourly rates from $75 to $150-200.  

Be the guy that's clean cut, shows up on time, puts in bids and then completes the work and you'll have more work than you can handle.

How's Adrian's handyman business going?  Last I saw it seemed like he had work, and very little invested in startup.

It was Adrian, right?  I'm terrible with names.

confuZion3 said:

To complement what Toyman (and lots of others) said, here's a little-known secret: don't buy any equipment that you can rent.

That makes sense on one hand but on the other it seems counterintuitive.  I could see that being the case much more often if it would cost someone to store the equipment but if not, and if it is used several times/week, I would think owning could be better.  Can you elaborate?

In reply to jfryjfry :

I think he meant initially to keep a low start up cost. After establishing a customer base and income then you would start to buy the equipment and arrangements for storage. I know a few folks that have done this specifically with forestry mulchers attached to skid steers. Then on to dirt moving equipment and hauling to fill in days without mulching on the schedule.

In 2000 I got a job working 12hr shifts, and had so much time off I decided to start a part time business. With no more than a few hundred bucks, and the help of an engine builder, and a few machine shops I started my camshaft business. It was a lot of running around, and a little investment eventually, but I did it for 20 years and made a lot of side money. I'm trying to get out of it, but the lure of making a grand for a days work is pretty enticing, so I now do a run every six months or so.

I just did the math and realized that I'm not charging nearly what I should. My initial price for doing a pair of DOHC cams was $250. I only just bumped it up to $325, but according to inflation I should be charging $450. 

jfryjfry said:

confuZion3 said:

To complement what Toyman (and lots of others) said, here's a little-known secret: don't buy any equipment that you can rent.

Can you elaborate?

No.

Just kidding. Yeah, you rent equipment when you start to gauge whether the work will be profitable for you. You can try lots of things out on lots of jobs. See what makes you the most money, or keeps the most steady work coming in. Or whether you even like using it. And frankly, if you're going to be doing a certain kind of work, but you won't be doing it very frequently, you can probably manage by always renting certain equipment. Say you go in and rent a hand-operated concrete grinder (been there, done that), and you find that you used it once for a job, you made money on that job, but it's not a great deal of your business--storage space is limited, new equipment is expensive, and you just have to do the calculation to determine whether it's worth it. Even if a used piece is only marginally more than the rental costs, you have to have a place to keep it.

Plus, maintaining some equipment can be challenging. If you get a good rental company that keeps their equipment up to snuff, and will support you if it fails, you might have better outcomes on some jobs.

Temporary employment service, got 2 of them working on the floor right now. The temp service will pay them $100 cash at the end of the day. If one of them showed a minimal amount of motivation I would hire them for full time. Are there no temp services in Canadada?

docwyte said:

I'd start a handyman business/light home renovation.  It's impossible to get bids for work right now.  If you can get someone to come out and talk with you, it's more likely than not that after they've come by, you'll never get a bid from them.  Let alone have them show up on time and do the work right and take care of any issues that may arise.

We want to have the kids bathroom redone, nothing big.  Retile the floor, granite counter top, new lights/faucets/mirrors/shower door.  Easy, quick job.  Have had more people say they'd come out and not show up, or show up and then not give a bid vs people following through.

A few of the guys we know that do show up/do work well have increased their hourly rates from $75 to $150-200.  

Be the guy that's clean cut, shows up on time, puts in bids and then completes the work and you'll have more work than you can handle.

Handyman work can be super fun. Not only is every job different (and so less tedious), but you learn a WHOLE lot of stuff that will help you one day when someone trips and falls through your drywall, or your neighbor's dog plows through your storm door again. Pay attention to licenses, but in the U.S. a Home Improvement Contractors License really isn't hard to get. Basically, I think it's some online training, a test, and a nominal fee.

My dad did handyman stuff as a side gig (mostly for fun) when I was probably 15 or so. I went and helped on a few jobs. We had a good time, and I learned a lot.

In reply to TRoglodyte :

Yes, they pay about $20/hr and most factories use them at some point. In some cases it's how they do their hiring 

I've been landing hinge dates with Doctors and lawyers. Swoon them with my handyman skills, and getting paid to hang shelves, curtains, painting, etc. Paying race car bills 1099ing myself under my LLC. Maybe I'll meet one worth keeping around one day. 

Jokes aside. One of my kids friends bought a pressure washer of FB marketplace and has been making on average, $200 a week pressure washing peoples driveways in the neighborhood all summer. Kid is 12, love his ambition. It's got my daughter motivated to try and find something similar. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

Tell him he's not charging enough. 3-4 years ago I was quoted $400 to pressure wash my driveway, sidewalk, and patio.

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

I've always cut lawns since 4th/5th grade and I still cut my lawn.  Once a kid was rolling his lawnmower by ringing doorbells so I hired him that day.  Felt it was worth helping the youngster learn the work/money lesson. 

We hire a HS kid to trim our bushes - I own 2 trimmers but we're helping kid learn this lesson too. 

Yea any time there is a youngin out there hustling, I'll hire them and try to show them tips along the way. Hell it was motivating to me do something else on the side 

docwyte said:

Be the guy that's clean cut, shows up on time, puts in bids and then completes the work and you'll have more work than you can handle.

Under rated comment. I do consulting, the number of clients that say "Thanks for calling me back" with genuine surprise in their voice is astounding. 

DirtyBird222 said:

Yea any time there is a youngin out there hustling, I'll hire them and try to show them tips along the way. Hell it was motivating to me do something else on the side 

This.

Also 100% ALWAYS stop at a kids lemonade stand and buy something.  ( a good tip will make their day too  ! ! )

jfryjfry said:

confuZion3 said:

To complement what Toyman (and lots of others) said, here's a little-known secret: don't buy any equipment that you can rent.

That makes sense on one hand but on the other it seems counterintuitive.  I could see that being the case much more often if it would cost someone to store the equipment but if not, and if it is used several times/week, I would think owning could be better.  Can you elaborate?

I love this question (coming from you)...

Are you aware that most of the cameramen who work with you don't own all their own equipment?  They rent. Bodies, lenses, dollies, everything. Usually from each other. 

In reply to SV reX :

Haha yea it's true but they would all own it if they could rent it to the shows!   That's where people start making a lot of money - renting their equipment to the production companies. Heck, I do it whenever I can. 
 

Renting initially to gauge viability and/or when equipment is rarely used but needs to be maintained/stored also makes sense.  

Something surprising I ran across. If you, like me, assumed that modern LLM-powered ATS systems would be less vulnerable to missing terms that aren't an exact string match to the job description vs. the "glorified grep script" systems that preceded them, you would be wrong:

https://www.businessinsider.com/former-department-of-labor-investigator-shares-resume-ats-tips-2025-9

Employers are likely making the same assumptions and giving the ATS less synonyms to match as well, the end result being a more rigid and "dumb" system than what came before.

Holy E36 M3 it's getting worse somehow:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-ups-layoffs-labor-market-jobs-economy/

My son has been told not to come in or sent home early from the dealership he works at because it is so slow.  

He was sent home at lunch today because it was slow and was filling out applications this afternoon. Their first child is due in April, so no time to dwell on the job market. 

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I think Oracle is up 11k this year with another 10k expected. They rarely are brought up because they don't publicly announce numbers, you have to follow WARN filings and SEC filings to figure it out.........and the vast majority of reporters don't.  

One of the funniest stories I've read about all this AI slop is the JP Morgan spent $2 billion on AI.......................to save $2 billion.