When I was in college, I worked as many side jobs, odd jobs and cash jobs as I could find. I didn’t have time to work a full 40-hour per week schedule, so I had to make some cash when I could. Cleaning rain gutters was always a good money earner.

If you follow these steps and work smart, you should be able to make up to $100 in less than 4 hours…
Of course, you will need to understand that if you combine other cash generating services (like washing windows) in your strategy, you could easily double this figure. The idea is to get on the property to clean the gutters, make your money, and then upsell the prospect to have other odd jobs completed.

Now before you go getting all excited, you must realize that this idea will require you to actually knock on doors and, in a sense, “sell” something, ie: your service. But you need the money right? Go do it!

Here are some tips on cleaning gutters.

Go to Areas With Large Trees

It is logical to assume that newer neighborhoods and subdivisions with no trees won’t need their gutters cleaned, so go to old, established areas with lots of large trees. If you do this, you are bound to find homes that have packed gutters. In fact, you can many times see them from the street because there will be actual weeds growing out of the gutters.

Look For Areas With Older People

It stands to reason that you will get more customers if you go to an area where the people are older and not able to climb on their own roofs. Either way, you should still hit every door as you new know when you will run across a younger couple that are just too busy to do it themselves even though they are able.

Make Up Some Fliers

You will need to make up fliers to leave on doors when people are not home. You’d be surprised that if you leave enough of them, you will get calls. Make the flier simple and clean. I also recommend you leave a price on there to people know exactly what the cost is before they call. Use your cell phone number on the fliers and be sure to answer professionally if you don’t recognize the incoming call.

Charge a Fair Amount

I charge $35 to clean the gutters on a single story ranch house. If it is a 2 story, I will charge $40 and maybe up to $50 for a tri or quad level. It shouldn’t take more than about 20 minutes to clean all the gutters on a typical house by hand.

Tools and Techniques

You will need an extension ladder and gloves for this side job. If you have a cordless leaf blower, all the better. You can scoop out the gutters by hand or blow out the leaves with the blower.

As always, BE CAREFUL and don’t fall off the roof! You should also keep records and return again after the leaves drop in fall and make more cash money on repeat business.

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