9 Service Businesses You Can Start Under $1,000 (No Experience Needed)

0:00 Most people think starting a business requires tens of thousands of dollars and a business degree and some kind of special skill. But I'm going to show you nine businesses you could literally start this week for less than a thousand dollars. And some of them are making people six figures a year doing work that most people aren't even thinking about. So my name's Austin Zaback and I've been building businesses for over a decade in the real estate industry, pest control, and a bunch of other stuff. And so if at any point in the video you get any value, do me a huge favor, go ahead and smash that like button and it'll help get this video in front of more people who need to see it. All right, so let's start with the most unglamorous one on the list and probably the one that's going to make you say there's no way. And that is dog poop cleaning. Now this industry is bigger than most people realize and is actually growing really fast. In 2024 alone, 66% of US households reported owning at least one pet. That's 86.9 million homes. And out of those, 65 million of them own at least one dog, making dogs the most popular pet in the country. And those dogs produce over 10 million tons of waste every single year, over 20 billion pounds. A single dog drops about three quarters of a pound a day and most of it goes uncollected. And the people who own those dogs, well, they love their animals just like I do, but they don't want to deal with that, right? And that is your business. The pet waste removal market is already in the hundreds of millions and it's projected to hit 537 million dollars by 2035, growing on an average of 7.2% a year, which is a trend line that you want to be on the right side of. Now let me make this real for you with an actual example because I've actually seen it first hand. So I had a poop scooper who I found online. Now she built a route of 300 customers and she was coming to my house one time per week. And in about 10 minutes she would come into my backyard, clean up all of the waste, sanitize all my turf, and she was out of there. One day I walked out and I started talking to her and I was asking her how many jobs she could do in a day and she was doing 30 jobs a day and she actually had quite a few employees and each employee was doing 30 a day. At an average of $69 a month per customer, she was doing about $20,000 a month, which is just over a quarter of a million dollars a year picking up dog poop. And the startup cost to get into this is literally a rake, a scoop, some bins, maybe to store your waste, disinfectant bags, gloves, and a reliable car with a little bit of storage to haul it all out of there. So all in, you're looking at probably about $500 to get started. And there is almost no business on earth with that kind of return on that kind of upfront investment. And the real power here, if you know anything about it, is the recurring revenue model. These aren't just one-time jobs. Customers pay you every single month recurring. You're going to the same yard, the same route, and it runs like clockwork. You build your route tight, optimize it by the neighborhood, and you either scale by adding more scoopers like she did, or you run a lean solo operation and you clear some serious cash. Is it unglamorous? Of course it is, but it's recurring and it is scalable. The jobs that nobody wants are almost always the jobs that are worth doing. The second one has become super popular and that is power washing. And what if I told you that you could take a thousand dollar investment and build a business that does over a hundred grand a month? That is exactly what happened with a guy that I know personally. Before starting his pressure washer business, he was a financial advisor and he heard how consistent the demand was in pressure washing. He made the jump and on day one he bought a trailer, he bought a water tank, a hose, and a surface cleaner. He didn't have any experience, he didn't have any industry background, he just watched some YouTube videos online like the one you're watching right now. He showed up and he got to work. And four years in, his best month crossed over a hundred grand. And that is the kind of story that should make you put down whatever excuse you've been holding on to. So let's talk about why it works.

3:48 The US pressure washing industry generates over 1.2 billion dollars in revenue across more than 32,000 companies and it is still growing. Residential and commercial demand is consistent year-round. People always need their driveways, their patios, their storefronts, and their building exteriors cleaned. It's not seasonal the way that some people think. It is a service with near infinite repeat customers because all things get dirty again all the time. Average residential jobs run anywhere from $400 to a thousand bucks just to wash a home's exterior. And the best part is that you can launch this business for around a thousand dollars covering your equipment and even picking up used gear to keep costs down. With a pressure washer, a surface cleaner, some hoses, and some basic marketing, you can be running jobs within a week after you decide to start.

4:38 And there is another angle and that is potentially looking at trash can cleaning. So think about this. You're already at the house, you already have the equipment, the water and the cleaning solution. The customer's trash cans are literally sitting right there. You can go knock on their door or text them and give them a call and you can offer to clean them for an extra 20 to 30 dollars per can and most homeowners will just say yes without even blinking.

5:01 So that's a 40 to 60 dollar upsell on a job that you were already doing. Now you multiply that across every residential customer on your route and you just potentially added thousands of dollars a month in revenue without adding extra driving and miles and wear and tear in your vehicles. You're monetizing what is already right in front of you and that is my favorite thing in the world to do. And the best operators in this space don't just pressure wash, they become the full exterior maintenance solution for their customers. And that is how you increase your average ticket and recurring revenue and make yourself hard to replace. Before I get into the third point, I want to say something that I truly believe. You will never be rich until you stop underestimating how lazy people actually are. Because the businesses that make the most consistent money are almost always built around the things that people simply don't want to do and taking out trash is one of them.

5:51 I actually did a full business tour with the founder of a company called Can Monkey, which is a company that does one singular thing. They literally take out your trash cans from your garage or your backyard to the curb on collection day and then they bring them back. That is the entire service. And the idea started with one simple observation. The founder is walking his dog one night when he watched his neighbor pull up in his Mercedes, drive straight into the garage, and leave the trash can at the end of the driveway. He thought, if I don't want to do this, neither does my neighbor. And that one observation turned into a very profitable business.

6:26 And that same founder told me that they had over 4,000 active subscriptions across 18 states with over 500 runners taking out and doing those routes. And they charge $49.99 a month per property and that covers trash and recycling going out and coming back every single week. At 4,000 active subscriptions, that is 200 grand a month in recurring revenue from literally rolling out people's trash can to the curb. And the churn rate on their homeowner subscribers is less than 1%.

6:58 So once people have this service done for them, they never go back to doing it themselves. It's that same psychology as the poop scooper business. Once somebody does it for you and you enjoy the luxury of not hassling, you literally forget about the cost on your credit card statement. Now think about this from a startup perspective. You don't need a truck, you don't need special equipment, you literally need a neighborhood, a schedule, and the discipline to show up every week. Think about who actually needs this service. We're talking elderly residents who can't manage heavy cans in hotter cold climates potentially, people with second homes who wanted to look like somebody's living there for security reasons, and busy families who don't just want to deal with it. Also, Airbnb and short-term rental properties where somebody has to take the cans out in between guests staying in their home.

7:45 And every single one of those has a problem and you are the solution. Okay, the fourth business is one of my favorites. People will always accumulate stuff, right? They move, they renovate, okay? They downsize, they clean out their garage that they haven't touched in a decade. And when they're ready to get rid of it, they don't want to deal with it, okay? They want somebody to show up, load it, and make it disappear. And that is junk removal. And the opportunity here is actually pretty massive. So the US waste collection services industry is expected to surpass 90 billion in annual revenue by 2030. So this isn't really a niche, it is a massive recession resistant market with room for small operators to carve out serious income in their local area. For a single junk removal vehicle, you can realistically generate 500 to 1500 dollars a day. Jobs are priced typically by volume, so you show up, you quote the job on the spot, and then you load all that stuff, and you get paid. There's not really any invoicing or getting paid 30 days later, you get cash in hand as soon as you're done with the job. And the average cost of a junk removal job is anywhere between 250 to 300 dollars for a standard load. Now here's what I love about this business from a startup standpoint. The barriers to entry are really low. The startup costs are pretty modest and the overhead is minimal. And if you already have a truck, you're halfway there. The real way to crush it in junk removal is just through relationships, okay? Think real estate agents, property managers, estate sale companies, contractors. These people have a consistent stream of properties that need to be cleared out. Landlords and property managers alone rely heavily on junk removal companies to clear out units between tenants. And with the average apartment turnover rate in the US sitting around 40 to 50% annually, that is a steady reliable pipeline of work. And the best part of the business is how simple the growth model is. You start with one truck, maybe a trailer, and yourself, and when you get busy enough, you add another truck, you add another driver, and you rinse and you repeat. You don't need a complicated strategy, you just need to outwork the competition and market yourself and your business in a way that your competition is not. Number five is one that I do not see a lot of people talking about and that is solar panel cleaning. Most people see solar panels and they think clean energy, but what they don't think about is who's actually cleaning those panels and that is the opportunity.

10:03 Dirt, dust, pollen, and bird droppings build up on solar panels over time and they block the sunlight from reaching the cells. That means that the system that the homeowner paid tens of thousands of dollars to install is running at a fraction of its potential. Regular cleaning, typically one to two times a year, can boost power production by 10 to 20% in dirty conditions. And that's not really a minor improvement. I mean, for a homeowner who invested 20 or 30 grand on a solar system, that is real money being left on the table when those solar panels are literally just sitting there dirty. And once you frame it in a way to a homeowner that you're not just cleaning their panels, you're actually recovering lost energy output and protecting their investment, the sale becomes incredibly easy. So, let's talk about the size of the market. The solar panel cleaning industry was valued at 1.22 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach 2.57 billion by 2035, which is more than doubling in 10 years and it makes sense when you look at how fast solar adoption is growing across the country. Places like Arizona, Texas, California, and Florida are markets that are absolutely loaded with solar panels on residential and commercial rooftops and of those homeowners and commercial building owners, they have no idea that this is a service that even exists. The startup cost is one of the lowest on the entire list. You need a soft wash system or a low pressure hose setup, a squeegee, a water-fed pole, and some basic cleaning solution. You can get started for like five to 800 bucks and you really don't even need a truck or anything like that, you just need a vehicle to get there. And in most states, there is no license required to do the work. The business model itself lends perfectly to recurring revenue cuz you can sell customers on a two-time per year cleaning package. Bill them automatically, show up, do the work, and move on to the next roof. This is one of the most underserved, fastest-growing home service niches available right now.

11:54 The demand is there and the competition is still so thin so you can get in before the market is super saturated. Window cleaning is one of those businesses that looks too simple to be taken serious and that is exactly why you should probably jump into it because most people overlook it. Competition is relatively low and the revenue gets left on the table. So, every home, business, storefront, and office building have windows and almost none of those owners want to deal with cleaning them. It's one of those tasks that kind of sits on your to-do list forever till somebody like you shows up and offers to handle a form. So, here's what the numbers look like in the real world. The average window cleaning job on the residential side runs about $550. So, if you were to do six jobs a day, you're looking at over $3,000 in gross revenue in one single working day. One operator doing this in Arizona did 392 grand last year with a small team of subcontractors and he started with $500 worth of equipment. A squeegee, a mop, a bucket, a bell, a step ladder, and some basic cleaning solution. That's your entire kit to go out and start making money on day one.

12:57 And as you grow, you add water-fed pole systems to clean higher windows and a better ladder setup maybe and eventually you're running an entire crew. The pricing model's relatively simple and residential jobs are priced by square footage and how many stories the home has. And once you've done enough homes, you can quote almost anything over the phone in under two minutes. Now, here's where this business can really compound. You can sell quarterly exterior cleaning packages to homeowners and lock in monthly contracts with commercial accounts like restaurants, retail stores, and office buildings. Commercial clients don't price shop the way residential customers do. They really want reliability and they'll typically pay for it to have somebody consistently come out every single month. So, at $500 to start with no experience required, window cleaning is one of the most straightforward paths to building a real service business from scratch. All right, number seven is one that I actually did when I was quite a bit younger. So, if you live in a warm climate state like Florida, Texas, California, or Arizona, this is one of the most reliable businesses that you can build. But even beyond the warm weather states, pool cleaning is a service that never goes away once somebody has a pool. A neglected pool will turn green and it will grow algae and become unusable very quickly. So, the homeowner either has to deal with it themselves every week or they have to pay somebody like you to handle it. The pool cleaning and maintenance service market was valued at 26.77 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach just under 40 billion by 2030, growing at about 7 and 1/2% annually.

14:27 And North America is the largest market and the demand keeps climbing as more residential pools are built and homeowners are increasingly preferring to outsource the upkeep entirely. So, here's what the business model actually looks like. You show up once a week, you skim the surface with a net, you brush the walls of the pool, you'll sometimes vacuum the floor of the pool, and you'll make sure that the pool looks clean and clear. Besides doing that and then adding chemicals depending on what the pool needs, that really is the core service. Most residential customers pay anywhere from 100 to 150 dollars a month for you to come out every week. And the startup cost is again one of the lowest on the list. I mean, all you really need is a net, a brush, a vacuum, a head, and a pole and it'll run you a couple hundred dollars. You'll need some chemicals too, but the reality of it is you only need to buy the chemicals as you actually put on the accounts. And then you just need a reliable vehicle with storage and you're ready to take on your first client. You don't need a degree or a license in most states. You just show up, you do the work, and you let the recurring revenue continue to build. And the retention in this business is honestly really good if you're good at your job. Once a homeowner finds a reliable cleaner that they actually trust, they almost never switch unless they move. Number eight is lawn care and lawn care might be the most proven path on this entire list. It isn't flashy and it isn't new, but it's been building real wealth quietly for many, many decades and it shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. The US lawn care and landscaping industry reached 184 billion in 2025, employing 1.4 million people across 650,000 companies in the US. And here's what makes that number so compelling from a business opportunity standpoint. The market is highly fragmented with no single company controlling over 5% of it, which means there is no Walmart of lawn care dominating your neighborhood.

16:19 According to the National Association of Landscape Professionals, the typical lawn care company serves around 355 customers. And it all starts with one mower and one route. The average household spends about $600 a year on lawn care and if you multiply that across a single neighborhood, you're looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars within a couple mile radius of where you live. And that money's already being spent. The question is whether it's going to you or to somebody else.

16:45 If you do eight to 10 lawns a day, you're generating 400 to 750 dollars a day in revenue solo. Last not least is mobile detailing. Car detailing and specifically mobile detailing is one of those businesses where the barrier to entry is so freaking low, it almost doesn't feel real. You literally don't need a commercial space, you don't need any employees, you don't need really hardly any equipment. You just drive to the customer and you detail their car in their driveway and you get paid. The global car detailing industry is projected to surpass 58 billion by 2030, growing at nearly 6% annually. And mobile detailers consistently achieve 60 to 80% gross margins, which are some of the highest in any service business on the list. And here's why mobile detailing works so well as a startup.

17:32 You're selling convenience as much as you're selling a clean car. Busy professionals and luxury car owners or even families that own multiple vehicles, they don't want to drive somewhere and wait. They want you to show up at their house or their office while they're either working or sitting on the couch at the weekend and that convenience commands a premium and people pay it without hesitation. So, depending on where you live, you can charge 50 to 100 dollars for a basic wash. And if you upsell them or if they have a luxury car and you're doing a wax or a buff or polishing or doing a deep clean on the car, you can charge two to 400 dollars. And if you position yourself in an affluent market, your average ticket will go up significantly.

18:12 So, if you do three high-end cars a day, you could clear a thousand bucks. So, I just gave you nine different businesses that you could start in 2026 with less than a thousand dollars with no degree and a lot of them without a license and you can make six figures or multiple six figures literally this year. And the only thing that separates the people who watch videos like this and actually go out and make it happen are the people who just take action. They're the people who like the video, subscribe on the way out, and then go take action and start the business. But in all seriousness, if you want more content like this, comment down below what you liked in this video, which business you think you might start in 2026, or maybe you already own one.

18:51 I'd love to interact with you in the comments down below and I'd love if you subscribe to my channel so you could catch more videos like this in the future.