This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features 20-year-old college student Jacob Shaidle, founder of Ontario-based barbecue cleaning business Shadle cleaning. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Courtesy of Shaidle Cleaning. Jacob Shaidle.
What was your day job or main occupation when you started? side hustle?
I was a 15-year-old high school student when I started side hustleShaidle cleaning. I've always enjoyed manual labor, so this was a natural fit. Before I started my own business, at the age of 14, I worked full-time in the summer on a tree farm, but when my parents told me I had to pay my way through college, I wanted to make more than minimum wage to made sure I could pay my tuition. I was shocked to find out how expensive the school was! Today, I am a full-time college student during the school year and a full-time business owner during the summer. I plan to pursue Shaidle Cleaning full time after I graduate.
When you started yours side hustleand where did you find the inspiration for it?
I started Shaidle Cleaning in the summer of 2021. My mother asked me to clean our barbecue at home and suggested that I go knocking on the street since I did such a good job. My parents mentioned cleaning the neighbors' shutters to make more money than I was making on the tree farm. I would never have considered starting a shutter cleaning business if they hadn't suggested it!
What were some of the first steps you took to get yours side hustle from the ground?
I needed the right cleaning tools to get the Shaidle scrub off the ground. Fortunately, I already had a pressure washer at home from my dad and spent $400 on other equipment (100% of my savings at the time). That first summer in business, I put everything in two grocery bags and walked about half a mile from my house to clean the shutters – I didn't have a driver's license or a car, so walking was my only option. By the second summer, I made enough money to buy my own car, which allowed me to expand my service area and double my income.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during your build? side hustleand how did you navigate them?
My three biggest challenges with the business have been ensuring amazing quality even afterwards employment of peoplemaintaining a large online presence and managing such a high volume of clients. To ensure the quality of service, I realized that good and well-planned training was very important. Even more important, however, was hiring hard-working and passionate people – people who had similar goals and mindsets to me and could work towards a common goal. Having a great team has been the driving factor in the success of our business.
Saving a large online presence it's really challenging as a small business competing against all these “sharks” with more customers and money to spend more on advertising. With the help of my friend Aran Giffen, we've been able to create a great online presence, selling people on our story and youth, passion and desire rather than the actual service we provide. We want to make it clear that we are all students with the goal of helping other students and this is how we introduce ourselves.
Finally, going from managing 100 clients in the summer to more than 700 has been a huge leap. As the owner, I want to have personal conversations with each customer, get them excited about the service, and make sure they have the best experience every time. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time in the day to do that. Instead, I've used the great personalities of my workers to message, follow up, and reassure customer happiness. We have also made it easier to manage the client with Jobberwhich automatically stores all of our customer information, sends automated messages, and keeps everything organized for me as the owner.
How long did it take you to see consistent monthly income? How much has he done? side hustle win?
Since this is a seasonal businessI work hard every summer to make sure I increase my earnings from last season. In my first two months of operation in 2021, I made $5,000. The next summer, when I had my car, I doubled my income to $10,000. These were two-month summers in grades 11 and 12. My first summer of college, I hit my first $10,000 month and ended the summer with about $30,000.
This summer, which was my fourth summer in business, we did $100,000 in revenue in 75 days, ending the summer with approximately $150,000 in topline revenue. As a solo operation, it wasn't too challenging to see consistent income over the summer. This is because I usually knock on doors for a day or two to fill my schedule for the week. Last year, we had seven technicians and 20 people in total, so it was much more challenging to stay consistent with revenue. We had to quickly learn how train employeesmanage our sales team and deal with hundreds of other customers. My best friend, Aran Giffen, has been a huge help in making sure the income stays consistent by managing our website, contacts and online advertising.
What does growth look like now?
I've been able to grow my hustle from one man into a thriving business that has allowed me to employ dozens of high school and college students, helping them pay for their own education. With a growing, passionate and hardworking team, we aim to break even seven figures in income. Automation is a big part of being able to scale a business. We recently automated our customer communication by partnering with Jobber last summer, which has helped us tremendously. This partnership has allowed us to expand our customer base to reach 1,000 grill cleanings and six figures in revenue this year. Before Jobber, I spent a lot of my time scheduling cleaning and manually sending reminder messages to clients about their appointments – it ate up most of my day. Jobber takes this fully into account by allowing clients to book their appointments online, automating reminder messages and sending invoices at the end of our service, which has freed up my time to focus on business growth. We would not have been able to reach six figures in revenue or hire employees without this partnership.
What do you like most about this? side hustle?
By far, the most rewarding part of owning Shaidle Cleaning has been enabling my employees to afford their tuition and college expenses. I'm very proud of my team and happy with what we've achieved so far, and I honestly only want what's best for them. We are building a company around hardworking, dedicated and passionate students and I value their work and efforts more than anything else. My business is much more than just cleaning the shutters – we are creating a tight-knit community of students and helping them build and grow as people.
What is your advice to others hoping to start their own successful businesses?
Find great people to surround yourself with. I used to think it would be great to achieve my big dreams on my own – more rewarding, efficient and impressive. But I was completely wrong. One of my favorite parts of my job is meeting new people who can help and enable me in so many different ways. It is much more rewarding to rally a group of people around a particular goal and lead them all to success than to do it alone. It's much faster to build on the amazing knowledge of others to propel yourself forward in business, and it's more impressive to stick with the plan with the people around you than it is to climb the mountain alone, leaving people behind.
With this message, there are four very important people I would like to mention who have helped me do amazing things in business. Aran Giffen, Brendan Quinlan and my parents. Aran joined the trip in year three and has been one of Shaidle Cleaning's greatest assets. Brendan acted like mine mentor for just over a year now and has given me more knowledge, skills and advice than anyone else in the business. Along with my mom and dad – who have always been there encouraging me no matter what and have had the pleasure of seeing this growth since the first BBQ – I am eternally grateful to these people and only wish to continue to grow up with them.
This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a new business owner.