Recession? What Recession? This Business Keeps Winning

Shine Star

Learn how I discovered a recession-proof business that continues to thrive — even during economic downturns. Whether you're in the USA, UK, Canada, or Australia, this business model works globally and requires little to no capital to start.   In this video, I break down:  ✔️ Why this business survives every recession  ✔️ How to start it from scratch  ✔️ Real examples & earnings   Looking for a high-income skill, a future-proof business, or a way to escape the 9–5? This is it.   #RecessionProofBusiness   #PassiveIncome2025   #MakeMoneyOnline   #HighIncomeSkills   #FinancialFreedom   #FutureProofBusiness   #OnlineBusinessIdeas   #BusinessModel2025   #SideHustleForBeginners   #HowToMakeMoneyInRecession   #EarnMoneyFromHome   #DigitalEntrepreneur   #InvestSmart   #SurviveRecession   #RemoteWorkOpportunities     👉 Watch till the end for actionable steps to start today.   Must Watch  Share | Like | Follow

Transcript

00:00Imagine completely changing your career at 31 to own a street-sweeping business and making

00:04millions doing it.

00:05Brandon did exactly that, and we're going to steal his homework and teach you how to

00:09do it too.

00:10But first, how did he find this business?

00:12He was 75, and he just wanted to get out of it.

00:15And did he know anything about street-sweeping before that?

00:18I wasn't super confident in not having any business experience.

00:22I came across a podcast you were on, and I just remember thinking, like, this is how

00:25you build wealth.

00:26In this video, we're going to break down exactly how he found his business, the business

00:31opportunity in street-sweeping, and his key pieces of advice to start your own business

00:35just like this.

00:36Why?

00:37Listen to me.

00:38Well, I've bought a bunch of businesses just like this and own more at this company, Main

00:41Street Holding Company.

00:42So if you want to own small businesses, we might know a thing or two about that.

00:46Hit that subscribe button.

00:47I'll teach you.

00:48All right, so let's talk about how big this business is today.

00:54Last month, we did 75,000 in revenue.

00:57What do you think you're going to do in a full year?

00:59We're on pace to do around 650 to 700.

01:02If we go from May to May, we'll probably be in the 800 range.

01:05That's pretty damn good, especially because you started at what?

01:09We were doing about 15 a month when we took it over, yeah.

01:13Wild.

01:14Yeah.

01:15We bought this for 60,000, fully seller financed over five years, 2,500 a month or something

01:26like that.

01:27How do you get somebody to agree to sell you a business for $60,000?

01:32He was 75, you know, the baby boomer, silver tsunami, all of that.

01:39And he just wanted to get out of it.

01:40So we gave him an offer.

01:42He came to us and was like, hey, I want to get out of this.

01:45So we thought, okay, the equipment's maybe worth 100, 150 grand at most.

01:51Let's offer half that.

01:52And so we went with 60 grand and he said, all right, you own a sweeping company.

01:57You're a former baseball player, which leads naturally to street sweeping.

02:01Yes.

02:02This is like a common path.

02:03Right.

02:04Yes.

02:05And I imagine like you had no idea what a truck cost.

02:07Nothing.

02:08How do you determine that it's worth 150K or you just throw in 60K around?

02:13Just pretty much Google.

02:14So we looked up used equipment.

02:16A good truck is going to run for five to 10 years.

02:20And if you buy it used, you're probably looking at 80 to 100 grand at a minimum.

02:25We found some on auction that we use and we got them for 15, 20 grand each.

02:30But what were you looking for when you wanted to get out?

02:33I was looking for freedom.

02:34And so I did a bunch of research.

02:36I came across a podcast you were on forever ago with Eric Jorgensen.

02:40And I just remember thinking like, oh, okay, this makes sense.

02:43Like this is how you build wealth.

02:45Let's break down the business equipment really quickly.

02:47You got how many trucks?

02:48We have six total trucks.

02:51We run four consistently.

02:52Okay.

02:53There's something kind of brilliant with this other one when you realized you didn't want

02:57to do parking lots anymore.

02:59What happened?

03:00So we weren't making a ton of money on parking lots.

03:02We only had maybe eight to 10 customers.

03:05And the average ticket price for parking lots is like maybe 700 a month on a high end.

03:11And so I was getting calls, you know, 2 a.m., 3 a.m., hey, my truck broke down or my driver

03:18would go and take a nap in the parking lot.

03:20And those were problems I didn't sign up for and I didn't want to take care of.

03:24So I found a local owner operator.

03:27He was pumped because he has a pressure washing business.

03:30So I give him, I subcontract everything.

03:33We made a nice little deal and he helps me on the parking lots and pressure washing.

03:37And he sends and refers customers our way.

03:40I will not say no to a customer.

03:43So we have asphalt quotes going out.

03:45We have, we're doing pretty much anything pavement related.

03:48We've done a good job on the lead gen and I just ask every customer, like if our driver

03:52sees a pothole, he sends me a picture and he's like, hey, this needs to get fixed at some

03:56point.

03:57I contact the customer and let them know.

04:00So how big is this business today?

04:02Today it's about 700 grand.

04:03Nice.

04:04And how big do you think you can make this bad boy?

04:06We have a competitor that does 5 million to 12 million.

04:10Not too shabby.

04:11Why did you decide on a street sweeping business?

04:13If you had been looking at all of them, what were like the 10 things that made you think

04:17this one?

04:18So I wasn't super confident in not having any business experience.

04:22I was a little worried.

04:23And so I thought, how can I make it so I'm not going to fail?

04:27At minimum, I'm going to learn and maybe lose 60 grand.

04:29At most, I have a business that's profitable and I didn't put any money into it.

04:33It just was an investment and a place that I could learn the skills of business and then

04:38do what I wanted to after.

04:39So basically you were like, I don't care if it's a widget, a trucking company, a street

04:42sweeping company.

04:43I just want it to be a yes business, which is no matter what I win.

04:48Yeah.

04:49Heads, I win.

04:50Tails, I win.

04:51I think that's brilliant.

04:52Yeah.

04:53But then if you think about street sweeping overall, it's kind of a brilliant business.

04:55Recurring revenue.

04:57You can run it remote, which you do.

04:58You live where?

04:59Arizona.

05:00And we are where?

05:01We are in Oxnard, California.

05:02Not next to each other.

05:03You also have a business that doesn't require very many people.

05:05You have four main full-time employees or two?

05:08I have two drivers, a contractor that helps us mechanically, and then a contractor overseas.

05:14So not very many people in this business.

05:17This plot of land doesn't look too expensive.

05:19No.

05:20No.

05:21And you get to rent it out.

05:22And you also have a business that doesn't have that many moving parts.

05:26So if you're learning the game of business, you get to do it without a really complex business.

05:30Yeah.

05:31And the competition isn't crazy.

05:32There's not 50 sweeping companies in here.

05:36It's pretty much us and a couple other smaller parking lot jobs, and then the big private equity.

05:42It was a no-lose situation.

05:43I love that because if you can pick your competitors as either the guy's so big they care nothing

05:48for the little clients, so you can steal them, private equity, or people have been in business

05:53forever but they're small and they're not really wanting to compete anymore, you get

05:57to sit in the beautiful middle, which is, hey, I'm hungry, but I'm small.

06:02I can steal from both competitors.

06:04Yeah.

06:05Love it.

06:06Oh, important tip.

06:07When you're building a business, don't reinvent the wheel.

06:10Pricing is hard to get right.

06:11And if you mess it up, it can cost you a lot of money.

06:14You could waste time crunching the numbers yourself or worse, just wildly guessing with

06:19projections.

06:20But you don't have to when HubSpot's got you covered with this template, which we're stealing.

06:25This is the thing that does math for you on nine different pricing strategies.

06:29One's based on your competition's prices, one on your hourly rate.

06:33You just plug in your own numbers and it will tell you exactly how much profit you can expect

06:38to make.

06:39So you can find the perfect price for, say, your new street sweeping business.

06:43Steal HubSpot's homework.

06:45This resource is completely free.

06:47Link is in the description.

06:48Thanks, HubSpot.

06:49By the way, you guys really actually do love this template.

06:51I'm stealing it too.

06:53So how long did it take for you to go from, I want to buy this business to the business

06:59business closed?

07:00About a month.

07:01So we found out about it in, I think, April of last year and we closed in May.

07:07We have to put like a big disclaimer, not representative of all results, but that's kind of wild.

07:11I think a lot of people would say, man, Brandon's just lucky, but you actually were searching

07:15around and learning from the sidelines for a couple of years.

07:19Yeah.

07:20And then you knew when you saw something that's unique.

07:22Yeah.

07:23And honestly, there wasn't any due diligence to do.

07:26It was, you have trucks, you have contracts.

07:29Let's see if we can make this work and we'll give you a lowball offer.

07:32Yeah.

07:33You ready for some second math?

07:34Let's do it.

07:35Okay.

07:36How much do you charge per job?

07:37740.

07:38740.

07:39How many hours does it take per job?

07:41Four hours.

07:42Four hours.

07:43How much does it cost you per job?

07:45300.

07:46How many jobs could you do in a day?

07:48Two.

07:49How much does that mean you can make in a day?

07:51I can do this math.

07:521480.

07:53There you go.

07:54And how many days a week do you guys work?

07:55Five days a week.

07:56Five.

07:57I don't have a napkin for that.

07:58And so if you worked five days a week for an entire year, you'd make...

08:01385k.

08:02385k a year as a one-man band.

08:04This is called napkin math.

08:05You should tell us in the comments if I did this incorrectly.

08:07I'm sure you'll tell me anyway.

08:08All right.

08:09We're not going to use a napkin for this one, but let's say there's some young gun listening out

08:12there and they think, I don't want to buy one of these companies.

08:14I want to start one.

08:15How much would that cost, do you think?

08:17On a small scale, you could buy a parking lot sweeper for 50 grand and it would be a,

08:23you know, a nice sweeper, but you would be doing small jobs.

08:26For some of the bigger jobs like the HOAs and city work, you would need a truck that you're

08:31going to spend 150 to 200 grand for a reliable truck.

08:34So you got a great deal on buying this bad boy.

08:36Yeah.

08:37So we've actually replaced all the equipment.

08:39We got this one that does our city work on auction.

08:42Um, thank you city of Scottsdale.

08:44And we bought that for 15 grand and we got two just like it.

08:48And then the other two we bought, uh, fairly new or fairly used.

08:53Um, this one's the newest one that we just bought for 205,000.

08:58And then that one we bought for around 150.

09:01And you finance them when you buy them.

09:02Yes.

09:03For 200K.

09:04Yeah.

09:05You probably could pay cash for one for 15K.

09:06Yeah.

09:07But even so you could use the assets of the business as a loan to buy the truck.

09:10Lots of different ways to do it.

09:11The problem if you start it is you got no money.

09:14You got to go out and buy the thing yourself.

09:16You could finance the truck purchase, but that has to be off of your income.

09:20Yeah.

09:21In some way, shape or form.

09:22Cause there's no income from the business.

09:23It's why I actually push people a lot to buy businesses.

09:26Cause if you don't have a lot of money, how are you going to start?

09:29It's a high barrier to entry.

09:30So I'm not going to get competition just kind of hopping up, which is really nice.

09:34I like that part, but I was able to get in at a very low level, which is sweet.

09:38So it's not always true.

09:40You can totally start businesses, but sometimes it's easier to buy.

09:44Let's break down every single cost in this business from an equipment perspective in 60 seconds.

09:48Ready?

09:49These.

09:50Gutter brooms.

09:5140 bucks a piece.

09:52How many on a truck?

09:5310.

09:54400 bucks.

09:55Cost?

09:56Skid plate.

09:57$300.

09:58This one, we have a new water system, new skid plates, new vacuum, new hopper.

10:05Probably about 15 to 20 grand we put into it.

10:08For this business, you also need water.

10:11Water.

10:12Keeps the dust down.

10:13And you have an interesting model here with this water.

10:15So we're next to avocado farms.

10:17And this is technically part of the farm.

10:20So we rent from them.

10:21They get run off from the avocado farms and it gets cycled into our water tank.

10:26So free water.

10:27Free water.

10:28So the costs are essentially this.

10:30Labor, hourly wage.

10:31Yep.

10:32Your trucks, anything that goes wrong with the trucks, water and dumping.

10:37Correct.

10:38Anything else?

10:39Insurance is obviously all the other overhead.

10:41Insurance is a big expense.

10:43Rent, we pay two grand a month.

10:45And then any of the supplies on the trucks come with it.

10:48So that's baked into the hourly rate.

10:50You too can rent this beautiful establishment for $2,000 a month should you so choose.

10:55Let's talk about decreasing risk.

10:58Are we ready?

10:59If you want to decrease the risk in your business, what do you do?

11:02You lower your cost to buy it and you make sure that you're going to have the customers come along when you're actually buying it.

11:08How did you do that?

11:09We looked at how long customers had been on with them and they hadn't lost any customers in the last year.

11:15We've taken over and we've only lost one from just typical increasing your rates.

11:20What else do you think first time business buyers maybe like yourself didn't think about when it came to risk?

11:30I thought every business just kind of does 15 to 20% profit.

11:33I didn't really think through like, okay, if you get to 50,000 in revenue, then all of your costs are covered and then the rest is profit or whatever it is.

11:42So the numbers got better as we got bigger and they keep getting better.

11:47Each customer has stayed on for the entire time, but each customer is worth around six grand right now.

11:53Well, every month that increases because they're on recurring contracts.

11:56What's valuable now is only going to keep growing as we grow our customer list.

12:01Yeah, it's so smart.

12:02Not to mention the more customers you bring on board, the more diversified your business is.

12:06Yeah.

12:07Which means that if you go to sell it, you're going to be able to sell it for more.

12:09If your customers have been there for longer and there's more of them, your multiple goes up for what people will purchase you for.

12:15And then simultaneously, if you're trusted, you can sell them more services.

12:18One of the cool things you talked about as to how to increase revenue and profit in a business is you said.

12:24I will not say no to a customer.

12:26I don't say no.

12:27Tell me about that.

12:28So we have clients that deal with any sort of asphalt or pavement maintenance.

12:33And so we're the ones who are on site the most where they're either weekly, twice monthly, whatever it is.

12:39And so if there's a new pothole or the stripes are getting a little pale or whatever it is, they need a new repaving.

12:46I have my drivers look for those things and they contact me.

12:51I call them and say, hey, if you're ever looking for a quote for repaving or blacktop or whatever it is, any service, let me know.

13:00I'll help you out.

13:01So we do pressure washing.

13:02We do asphalt.

13:03We do all of that.

13:04And I have some local companies that I use.

13:07They love the leads.

13:08I say, hey, you know what, what kind of finder's fee can I get for this?

13:11Or I take their price.

13:13I mark it up depending on how hard it's going to be for me and then send it to the customer.

13:18This is called subcontracting and it's brilliant.

13:21We're going to break it down for you.

13:22All right.

13:23Let's explain subcontracting and how to make money without doing more services using a bunch of random shit we found in your rat infested warehouse.

13:30Let's do it.

13:31Okay.

13:32First, you guys do street sweeping here.

13:34If somebody calls you and they want street sweeping, you go out there and you do it.

13:37If somebody calls you and wants paint striping, what happens?

13:40I find multiple paint stripers and get prices for them and send it to the customer.

13:45And then how do you make any money?

13:46I take a little bit off the top.

13:48Amazing.

13:49So you quote this, you take this, and then you charge this price for somebody else to fulfill it.

13:53Correct.

13:54Why does anybody want to do that?

13:55It's the easy button.

13:56So I say yes to every customer and I don't care what the job is.

14:00I'll find it and I'll do their job.

14:02So what else would you make money on?

14:03Striping.

14:04Pressure washing.

14:06Asphalt services.

14:08Repaving.

14:09I don't know.

14:10The point of the business.

14:11Anything.

14:12The point of this is in every single business, you have multiple lines of revenue.

14:19Even if you start with what's called your core or your foundation product or service, you have satellite products or service that surround it.

14:27And whether you fulfill it or somebody else does, it allows for diversification in your business model, which means that you have less risk.

14:34Should we go clean some shit now?

14:35Let's do it.

14:36Okay.

14:37If you guys liked this video this week, you should check out our newsletter.

14:40I'm obsessed.

14:41We write pieces like this every single week with even more detail.

14:44We'll check it out in the next one.

14:46Now back to the video.

14:48What do you street sweep here?

14:50This is a future paving job that I'm going to contract, hopefully.

14:55But I need to, I met him yesterday and I need to ask more about his business.

14:58I'm really curious about what he does.

15:00Oh my God, that's fascinating.

15:01So four things you do to 3X your business.

15:04One.

15:05We, well, one, we raise prices on current customers to market level.

15:09Two.

15:10We got a good website presence, SEO, Google ads.

15:14Three.

15:15A lot of cold contact.

15:16So I, any construction job I drive by when I'm here, I leave my number.

15:21I leave everything.

15:22Hey, you know, you ever hire this service?

15:24We're here.

15:25We do it all.

15:26Number four.

15:27How many emails do you think you send a month?

15:298,000 a month.

15:30That's like an automated process that you have set up.

15:32Yeah.

15:33So you got a little army of robots back then.

15:34Yes.

15:35Okay.

15:36So all it really takes is having a better website, more cold calls, a little army of robots,

15:40and not being scared of door knocking.

15:42Yeah.

15:43Also, didn't you just come back from somewhere?

15:45Yeah.

15:46I was in Hawaii for the last three weeks.

15:47Did your business completely fall apart?

15:49No.

15:50It actually was our best revenue producing month and profit.

15:53So you just need to leave.

15:55I just, yeah.

15:56I was like, okay, maybe I have my hands in too many things.

15:58And it was a good opportunity to trust the team and see what they're capable of.

16:03Let things break and then fix it.

16:05And nothing broke.

16:06So.

16:07I'm just going to go on vacation more, except when I do, my businesses fall apart.

16:10So you're doing it right.

16:11Yeah.

16:12I don't know.

16:13It's simple.

16:14Let's do a game of pros and cons.

16:15Why you should absolutely not do this business and why you should do this business.

16:18I'll start with pros.

16:19You give me the dirty cons.

16:21Pro.

16:22Recurring revenue.

16:23Lots of equipment.

16:24Easy market.

16:25Not a ton of customers want your service.

16:28Not a ton of competition in rural areas.

16:31CDL drivers are hard to find.

16:33Add on services.

16:34California restrictions and regulations.

16:37California general.

16:38California.

16:39Big red flag.

16:41Homeless people of California.

16:43Yeah, that's true.

16:44Average order value high.

16:45Low amount of service area.

16:47We have to drive to every spot.

16:49Pretty simple task.

16:50Expensive disposal.

16:52Not very many employees.

16:53Only can service a customer once or twice a month.

16:56Cheap rent or place to lease.

16:59Low search volume on Google.

17:01A type of business that private equity buys frequently.

17:04The typical call I get is, are you sweeping my street today?

17:09And it costs me money because it's a Google ad usually.

17:11Oh, it's a lead.

17:12It's usually a lead and it's a resident saying, is my street getting swept?

17:16What's the name of your company?

17:17Cleaner Streets.

17:18Cleaner Streets.

17:19What's the website?

17:20Cleanerstreets.com.

17:21Straightforward.

17:22Very simple.

17:23Cleanerstreets.com.

17:24Cleaner Streets is the name of the company.

17:27Any pros you think I'm missing?

17:29Prevailing wage.

17:30The state requires, we pay our drivers $78 to $80 an hour.

17:35So they're happy when we get those jobs and we can charge really high when we get those

17:40jobs.

17:41Oh, that's a good one.

17:42Yeah.

17:43And maybe the only other con is, dirty business.

17:45Very dirty.

17:4615 million baby boomers are about to let their businesses die in this country.

17:52It is going to look like a land with no more owners.

17:55And this movement for you to become an owner is not just for you to become rich and make

18:01a ton of money.

18:02It's also because if not, we become a land where the big guys own everything and we own

18:08nothing.

18:09If you want to chase your American dream, you're actually doing a favor to the baby boomer

18:13who doesn't have a kid that wants to take over their business.

18:16Now you get to be that owner.

18:18America, baby.

18:19That should be good.

18:22Now we, we kill it a little bit and then bang.

18:27Dude, great instructor.

18:28Good work.

18:29Nailed it.

18:30I'm available.

18:31What do you think?

18:32Available for hire.

18:33Available for hire.

18:34Let's go.

18:35I think, you know, you got to treat her like a lady.

18:36I feel like this car is a lady.

18:38She needs to be warmed up.

18:39She needs to be at the right temperature.

18:41I think, yeah.

18:42Very picky.

18:43Yeah.

18:44I'm not a lesbian, but I get it.

18:46Okay.

18:47Now I'm going to turn the actual car off.

18:49Here.

18:50Right there.

18:51Yep.

18:52Until next time.

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