Powerwashing or College?

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Currently 16 and unsure on what to do in life. I live in south florida and have been having an internal conflict on if I should go to college or not. I’ve done very well in school and most likley could get into any state university I wanted to, but I dont see the value in college.
Being a 3rd generation business owner (dont own a business, but father and grandpa have both owned businesses for most of their life) College just seems to pander to people looking for job security and I don’t see it helping me in reaching my goals of owning a business and one day having money to invest in real estate for passive income.
Powerwashing seems like it could be a good business to get into with a low barrier of entry that has an income potential well above any job coming out of college.
My question to you guys is, does this sound reasonable?
I have saved about 8k over the past few years from summer jobs, odd jobs, and birthdays, and could probably have about 15k by the time I graduate high school, when I’d be opening the business, so I do realize I’d be in an advantaged position compared to most 18 year olds. Do you see any problems with my age and trust issues with customers?
I do live in a wealthy city (Boca Raton) where home prices range from 300k to many being well into the millions. How does this effect business? I’ve heard it’s hard to start in Florida due to saturation and price cutters.

What do you guys think?

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Go to college and work part time. You’ll leave with business experience, an income AND a recognised education.

I quit University to work for myself, for a variety of reasons but mostly out of necessity. It bugs me that my degree is not completed. Without a degree, I’m now stuck working for myself. The interesting jobs available aren’t available to me… whether I want them or not.

Everyone will give you different advice, but mine is …do both. Who can predict which one will be most valuable to you in 5 years.

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If your grades are as good as you say. I would suggest you go to school to at least try it. I say that because it gives you a little broader perspective at an earlier age than just going to work right away. If that means you take entrepreneur classes at the community college it would do nothing but help you in Pressure Washing, real estate or any other endeavor you decide to pursue. In fact you can start PW part time while in school to include high school for that matter. You’ll learn about marketing, finance, structuring your business etc. and unlike most college students you can put what you learn to use right away. BTW, good for you for thinking this far ahead and putting together a plan.

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Go to school part time and power wash part time from there see where each takes you. Don’t look at school as a way to make more money. Instead use school to better yourself. Take classes that interest you. You don’t want to just know power washing your whole life, expand your knowledge. I’m 23 years old and attending college for the IT field. I also do marketing and currently work a full time job in the lighting business. My goal is to start a power and soft wash business within the next two years. As of right now I’m just doing a ton of research and saving up to get the business going.

In conclusion,

Don’t limit yourself to just washing. Go to school. You might find something you’ll like. If not, well at least you would have learned new things. These are just my thoughts and I hope you find what is right for you.

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Totally, if you have the ability, go to college AND do pressure washing, which should pay for a lot of things, maybe by the time you graduate you’ll have a crew and won’t touch a pressure washer again ;D

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Go to college. Get a degree in something practical and interesting to you. It’d be much harder to do later on in life once your married and providing for a family if you ever decided you wanted a white collar job, which at some point you might. Sure, the education you get in school isn’t always that valuable, but a degree with your name on it is worth a lot. And employers like to know that you can go at something like college and have the ability to successfully get all the way through.

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Photonics. I got my first job as a Controls Engineer doing industrial automation and I have not used one bit of information from any of my classes at any point since I graduated. I have learned everything on the job. BUT I never would have gotten the job without a degree in Electrical Engineering. You see? In a way, my degree didn’t help me at all. I haven’t used it. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be where I am without it.

And work through school. No part time crap. School full time and work full time. That’s my biggest regret is not working more through school. I financed all of my schooling. Huge mistake. Make the sacrifice and work and go to college full time for 4-5 years and graduate debt free and your life will be one million times better than if you did something else, even if you don’t use your degree.

Edit: My wife reminds me…Start with community college. Live near home. Work full time. School full time. Pay a small fraction of the price of a full university per credit. Then transfer out after 2 years when all your general education requirements are met.

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Grass is always greener. Pressure washing is littered with people who have college degrees and left good careers to pursue washing. Also littered with people who have college degrees that are fairly worthless… ask me how i know about that one.

Hey Ben, it’s awesome that you are planning for the future at such a young age. There’s no doubt in my mind that you are going to do well for yourself.

I would also add that while it’s great to be planning for the future, dont let it overwhelm you to the point of stressing over it. Age is relative, but at 16, you do need to appreciate what you have right now. Keep a healthy balance between enjoying your youth, and planning for the future.

College is great, but it sure isn’t what it used to be… for the most part.

You dont need to graduate high school to start a business. Do some research, and maybe a little part time work with local washers. Senior year (or whenever you feel comfortable) start taking jobs on your own part time. By the time you graduate, you will have a much better idea if this is something you want to pursue or not. I mean… sounds like you are going to be working part time anyway… so why not do pressure washing, right?

If you do good work, and present a professional image, customers wont be turned off by your age. It’s true that FL has a lot of washers, you will have to evaluate this aspect as you learn more about your area. But hey… there’s always Kansas, right? :grinning:

Great to have you here. Keep reading, there is a lot to learn on message boards like these.

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true about the grass.

So why, at 18, exclude college? Plenty students run a successful part time business alongside studies. He could wrap up his studies without debt and have a business… that leaves both options open in the future.

Even better, follow in the footsteps of @5star, get a bloody good education and use it to grow a business empire.

Who says your education has to be irrelevant and worthless? My half an accounting degree comes in handy very regularly.

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My window cleaning business has been around in one form or another since 16, 29 now.

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The country is flooded with college degrees. They don’t hold the same importance as they did 30 years ago. Internet had made it easy for anyone to get a degree. I have two AA degrees thanks to online courses. Neither one benefit me now. Education for the point of self knowledge is never a bad thing. But, if you are looking at college merely as a route to job placement consider trade certificates at community colleges. N o matter what the economy does people will always need plumbers, welders, electricians etc…

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Bingo. A bachelors degree is the new high school diploma thanks to college being much easier to get into and “free” until it comes time to pay student loans.

I joined the Navy to pay for college, got out and earned finance & economics degree, went to work for a finance firm for 3 years.

College was a good time, but most of that time I wish I had stayed in the Navy. Working in an office 60 hours a week almost killed me. I hated it. So now I have this 6 year gap in college and the suit and tie world where I wish I had done something different.

I’m on “Team Don’t Go To College” though.

Here’s why people think I’m a crazy person. I think you should take that $15k, buy a plane ticket, back pack through Asia, or South America, or Europe. Spend every last dime of it skydiving, traveling, ride a moped around the 762 turns from Chiang Mai to Pai.

A year later you can come back and start a business on next to nothing after experiencing more in a year than most folks do in 10. You’ve got a lifetime make money. You can go to college later too and get into an even better college because now you have a killer college essay.

Unless of course you die. Which has happened.

If I had kids, which I don’t have any intention of having, I wouldn’t save for their weddings, college, first cars, whatever.

We’d spend a few years figuring out what they wanted to do between high school and growing up, plan for it, then spend for it.

Sincerely,
The Crazy Person17453203530_35677b3770_m This is me fist bumping an elephant at a buddhist elephant rescue on a travel date with a British teacher on holiday.

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Btw I did this in 2014 when I left finance. Sangkran or the Thai New Year is a 4 day water fight. Everyone carries super soakers and water balloons. Even the monks. Incredible.

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College no doubt get the degree , I have never been nor smart enough to get out of high school…I married a smart woman real smart she got her Masters a Vandy, now got 2 kids one Dr. at Vandy one RN St Thomas… So you need to get the degree to have… That to fall back on if needed or if know what you want to be in life and go after it…
Now I work in a Factory 35 years 7 days and 7 nights a month. make $30 a hour $56hr on 12hr Sundays…
that is with no High School or college degree… College not everything but it helps.

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If I were you I would save up that 15k, get a semi reliable used cargo van and convert it into a stealth camper. Travel the country with some friends and worry about the business later. You are only young once.

I went to college, dropped out, got into a high paying white collar job. It sucked so bad.

If I were you and I am assuming that you have good grammar, communication skills, basic math, I would just go for a year for the experience and parties.

Unless of course you want to be a doctor or something. If you wanna sit at a desk then no, not worth it.

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@awesomewash1 is right. Sitting at a desk is not for everyone. I hate it. I have a really awesome salary, but I’m miserable. I hate working for someone else, always having to please other people, working on other people schedules. It’s not something I want to continue doing. It’s why I’m starting to get into pressure washing now. I’m also starting a real estate class with my wife next weekend so that we can both get our real estate licenses and have income working for ourselves that way as well. All this so that I can hopefully get out of my desk job.

However, having my degree and the salary that goes along with it has been a huge blessing to us. Even though I don’t want to continue working as an engineer, I’ll always have my degree and several years experience. If anything ever happens and we need a good steady paycheck, I can be a Controls/Electrical engineer pretty much anywhere in the country very easily.

The other guys make good points about skilled trades also. I work with electricians, plumbers, metal fabricators, plastic welders, and pipe fitters, and painters every day. They all make good money. But they work hard and they work a lot of overtime. But steady jobs. Always in demand. And good pay for sure.

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Do what you want. If you are going to go to college and hate it and not love the field you go into then forget it.
If you are going to go into your own business and wish you had gone to college then go to college.
No one can tell you what to do. You have to figure it out for yourself.

The world is full of people who are bitter they didn’t go to college because they tried to start their own business and didn’t give it everything and gave up. They will tell you to go to college because they didn’t do it right.

Then their are people who went to college (a lot of times because someone else told them they should) and they are bitter because they went and never use their degree.

I’m 21 I didn’t go to college because I didn’t want to. I wanted to start my own business, that is and was my dream. I didn’t see that college would get me there the fastest. So I didn’t go. I don’t regret that decision. I have my own business a beautiful wife and a new-born daughter because that’s what I wanted.

One woman told me that “You will never be successful if you don’t go to college”. Depend on what you think success is. If that is a 9 - 5 corporate job where you get a nice salary then go home and don’t have to think about it, then yes. She was probably right. But that’s not what I wanted.

Sorry for the rant but this subject always makes me mad. Everyone imposes their opinions about what you should do because they are bitter about their life. Now I know that’s not how everyone is, but that was my experience.

You should read a book called “Better Than College” It helped me in my decision and really opened my eyes to possibilities outside of college.

Sorry for the rant. Hope this helps.

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Depends on which degree…

For 2 yr get Radiology Tech with a CT/MRI certification…MRI techs make 80k in metro hospitals.

College 4 year…Petrochemical Engineering…Make the same as MRI tech but once you have experience you can work overseas and pull 200gs.

The highest paid 5 to 6 yr is a Doctorate in Pharmacy (PharmD) to do retail Pharmacy…
Pay is trending at 250 K and they don’t hire foreigners as the command of the English language is a must as many drugs sound the same. It used to be a BS in Pharmacy was sufficient but now you need the extra 18 months for the PharmD…You can work per diem at 50 k per each day of the week.

Skip all the Tech school degrees except Radiology Tech…that’s the only Associate Degree that will make you 80k…most all other college degrees will leave you unemployed save the Pharmacy degree.

BTW… part time work is tough with a hard Science 4 year and up degree…you could get the Rad Tech degree and work for a PW company on the weekends…

Good luck and way to go considering this all up front!

Cheers. Greg

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Great advice here. College is only worth it if you consider how easily you can get a job and how much it will pay. You also need to keep in mind that you will most likely shift careers. I am assuming I will have about 10 career changes in my life.

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Bottom line is, we’re just a bunch of random guys on the internet. Listen to what mom and dad say if you are under their roof.

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Don’t do that! Mom and Dad don’t know JACK and will have you doing something they want you to do. My daughter is a Lawyer and is unemployed…Told her to do the Pharmacy or DVM(Vet) and she became a paid liar. Luckily Dad picked up her BA/MA and JD or she’d have 500k in debt.

See the “market” …Pharmacy and MRI are KING as 50k people turn 65 each day and go on Medicare. Old people need drugs and MRIs…don’t listen to @Innocentbystander…he’s inhaled to much bleach vapors over the years…lol…OTOH…I get 3 calls a week minimum to do Retail Pharmacy from headhunters…Live your own dreams; not your parents…

Or join the military…that’s noble and will make a man out of you.

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