Hungover Accountant Starts “Morning After” Party Cleanup Service

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Have you ever had too much to drink and regretted it the next morning? Or maybe your body regretted it? Or how about this, whether you drink or not, have you ever hosted a party in your home, had some guests over, and then had to clean up the next day? And you weren't very excited about it. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and today's story is fascinating.

It's all about an Australian accountant who is hungover after drinking too much at a Christmas party he hosted. He then wakes up and thinks, "If only someone could clean up this mess and bring me breakfast." What a fantasy. He then comes up with an idea for an unusual cleaning service that goes on to do exactly that and earns $30,000 in a year part-time. As always on the show, truth is stranger than fiction. Stay tuned for the story of a hungover accountant who starts a morning after party cleanup service.

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Drinking too much on a night out can have its consequences. You might wake up the next morning with a ton of regret and a wicked hangover. In that situation, all most people want to do is lie in bed and wait for the storm to pass. However, today's side hustler thinks a bit differently. Meet James Hookway, a full-time chartered accountant from Perth in Western Australia.

For James, it was while hungover after a Christmas party in 2014 that he came up with a unique business idea. He and his wife had thrown the party and the next morning they lay in bed dreading the inevitable after party cleanup. While procrastinating over when to start the job, they began talking about how great it would be if there was a service that would clean up after your big party and maybe even bring you breakfast in bed. After having a good laugh about it, they dragged themselves out of bed, had a big breakfast of their own that they had to make for themselves and got to removing all traces of the night before. But the idea stuck with James and like a fine wine, actually got better with age.

Fast forward to July, six months later and the concept had stayed with him. He did some research and realized that although there were a lot of cleaning companies out there, none of them were marketed specifically at the after party/hangover crowd, which can be a large market in Australia. They were all fairly generic, boring companies with terrible branding. Thinking that there could be something there, James decided to test the concept and to keep things simple, he created a Facebook page describing the proposed service and shared it with his friends and family. The name for the page almost wrote itself.

He called it Hangover Helpers, boom. And then like a bottle of champagne on New Year's Eve, things went pop. Perhaps it was that perfect name, the concept itself, or maybe the right person just so happened to share the page, whatever the cause, what followed, was one of the craziest weeks that James had ever experienced. He was contacted for interviews on TV shows, radio stations, and by journalists from major publications all over the country. He had achieved national exposure in less than two weeks.

This is something that most larger companies are never able to do despite expensive and time-consuming campaigns. With all that free marketing, it was inevitable his first customer would come on faster than a headache after too many gin and tonics. And that's exactly what happened. James had no cleaning equipment, so when he got that first booking, he had to go out and buy some. He picked up some basic cleaning products and a Ghostbusters-style vacuum cleaner, as well as some food supplies for the breakfast, because it was, after all, cleaning and breakfast.

When he showed up for the appointment, the house was a total mess, but that didn't faze him, because it meant he was able to get some great before and after photos to showcase the type of work he was capable of. After the cleaning was done and the party host had enjoyed their breakfast burritos, James knew this could be a viable side business. With that first job completed after a successful launch and all the attention he was getting, he decided to build a brand around Hangover Helpers. This meant graduating from a simple Facebook page to an official website. James figured that an investment in a professional-looking brand and website would be important to the business.

It could catch people's attention and be clear and concise about what the Hangover Helpers brand was all about. With that set as his goal and acquiring some additional equipment, his startup costs drank up $25,000 from his savings. This is, of course, not an insignificant amount, so stay tuned to have a comment on that at the end of the episode. Fortunately, he began to recoup his costs quite quickly, and in that first year, just a few months, actually, the first six months, Hangover Helpers generated $15,000 in sales. Over the next 12 months, the revenue doubled and he hit $30,000.

Not bad at all for a weekend cleaning gig outside of a full-time job. The best part of all this is that James has not had to spend a single cent on advertising. All of the business comes through word of mouth and there's social media presence on Facebook. The range of parties James has seen are incredibly varied. He's cleaned up after everything from dinner parties all the way to full-blown extravaganzas that the cast of the Hangover movies would be envious of.

There've even been occasions where he's shown up with people still asleep on the couches. He's vacuumed up around them. He once turned up to a party that was still raging early on the next morning. However, James tells us that the biggest, messiest party occurred just a few months ago. Now, of course, we had to ask about this.

This was a party of around 350 college students who showed up at a mansion while the parents were out of town. The backyard was the size of a football field and there was so much mess left over, James had to call in a trash removal company to help. Even the Hangover Helpers had a Hangover after that one. Despite the headaches, James has a lot of fun with his side hustle. It isn't making enough money to pay all the bills just yet, but he hopes that in the future he can expand to more cities and go national across all of Australia.

He's already expanded to Melbourne with the help of some dedicated cleaning teams on the ground there. James, side hustle school and the party hosts of the world salute you. You're helping them recover one Hangover at a time. [Music]

All right, a few comments, a few thoughts about the Hangover Helpers. Great job, James, and what a great name, by the way.

I mean, I think that's the first comment is Hangover Helpers, great name. No wonder that it took off from just a simple Facebook page and perhaps offering a service that is kind of basic and boring, a cleaning service, but offering it in a unique way to a specific group of people is what helped him stand out from the crowd. I mean, it is just a cleaning service. Probably any other cleaning service would be willing to come and clean up the morning after a party. But the fact that he had that great name and is specifically targeting that group of people or that target market, that is a big part of what's allowed him to be successful, at least looking at it from the outside.

And also I had a comment about these startup costs. You know, $25,000, I mean, that's not a small amount of money, right? But the thing is, in this case, it sounds more like an investment in the business than actual startup costs, because his startup costs were, he made a Facebook page, which is free, and it really took off. And then orders started coming in after he's being featured on TV and radio across Australia. So at that point, it's almost like he's making an investment in an existing business.

Like the business is already up and running. He just has to figure out how to actually fulfill the orders that he's getting. So it's not like he's digging into his savings and taking this $25,000 risk. I don't want to imply that there's not any risk at all because there is some risk. But the point is, he had this proven concept.

He had interest in the business. So that's when he said, okay, I need a more professional website. I actually need to build some systems, get some proper professional equipment and so on. But he didn't do that until there was this clear interest. Anyway, well done, James.

Great concept, great title, really fun. And I look forward to hearing what happens next as you continue to expand. Maybe this will give one of our listeners an idea to do something similar somewhere else in the world. Who knows? Listeners, wherever you are in the world, thank you so much for being part of Side Hustle School.

As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Our show notes for today's episode are at sidehustleschool.com/605. Come and swing by, say hi. You might find a surprise or two there. You never know.

I also hope you'll take the time to do something for yourself today. Just get a little bit closer toward that goal, toward that mission, or just that general idea of doing something for yourself, creating some freedom, perhaps creating a new source of income, which is what we talk about every single day on the show. So I hope you'll join me as well tomorrow for another story. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School.