Articles Ranking
Ten owners ranked by their biggest reported month
A $200,000 septic peak, $120,000 cleaning months, a $58,000 vending route run two days a week and a $10,000 month fifteen months in. Ten owners ranked by their best reported month, and why a month is not a twelfth of a year.
Monthly revenue is the figure owners most often give in interviews, and ten owners in this database have one on record. This page ranks them by the largest month each has reported, from Kim Hatch's $200,000 septic peak down to Anna-Marie Ortiz's $10,000 cleaning business. Where an owner gave a range, the order uses the top of it.
Every figure comes from the owner's entry. A month is a narrow window, and the figures are not all the same kind: Hatch's is a peak-season month, Robinson and Silesky's is the peak before they sold, Hill's is gross sales. Revenue is not take-home pay, and the margin ledger covers what each trade keeps. Our guide to reading a revenue figure explains why those differences matter.
Turner Septic's peak-season month, 18 jobs a day and up to 400,000 gallons pumped. A slow winter month is about $30,000.
Bumble Bee Cleaning in Seattle, with a second market in Atlanta. Started on about $5,000 in 2015.
GoDetail's months at age 22, after a $500 start. Later coverage puts the business near $900,000 a year at 60 percent gross margins.
Orange Window Cleaning's peak, about four and a half years after a $150 start, run through subcontractor crews. They sold the company.
More than 100 machines at 40-plus Tampa Bay locations, from one box truck. Gross sales, and he typically works two days a week.
Slam Dunkin' Junk while he still worked the truck himself, before a broken ankle made him hire. His first month was $10,000.
Plan-It Vision in Seattle, at roughly 30 percent margins, from a $300 start in 2008 that included a $50 mower.
The Laundry Room in Lanham, Maryland: one 40-machine store with four employees, per CNBC Make It.
You Call We Haul's later run rate, 75-plus jobs a month at 65 percent job margins with a team of three, before the 2024 sale.
Cool Aunt Cleaners in late 2024, about fifteen months after she started it with her last $2,000.
Left out, and why
Steve Hunsaker. Valley Christmas Lights books more than $800,000 in roughly two months a year. That is a season, not a month, and no single month is published, so it is not ranked. Split evenly, which it surely is not, it would top the list.
Scoop Soldiers. EJ McCoy and Josh Cahill's company reported about $1.25 million a month in 2023, but that is systemwide revenue across more than 90 franchise territories, not one business.
Dave Menz. His entry gives about $7,000 a month of combined profit from his first two laundromats, and $3,000 to $4,000 a month added by the third. Those are profit figures, not revenue, so they cannot sit in this column.
Marcus Gram. He reports $800 to $1,300 a month per machine, which is a figure for one machine rather than the business.
What the list shows
A peak month is not a twelfth of a year. Hatch's best month is about six to seven times her slowest, by our division of $200,000 by $30,000. Multiply the peak by twelve and you get a business that does not exist. Our article on seasonality covers what carrying the slow months costs her.
The top four did not do the work themselves. The Mondragons, Tursunbaev and Robinson and Silesky all reached their figures with crews or subcontractors, and Hatch's company runs 18 jobs a day. The best solo figure on the list is Landwehr's $30,000 to $40,000 from his own truck, and his entry is clear that his gross margin fell from about 50 percent to about 20 as he hired. Our piece on the margin cliff covers that trade.
The bottom of the list is where the top started. Ortiz's $10,000 month came about fifteen months in. Landwehr's first month was also $10,000, and the Mondragons started on about $5,000. The startup cost ladder shows what each of these owners put in.
Where to go next. The annual view is in every documented owner ranked by revenue, the Boring Index scores each trade, and every owner above is in the database. This site is one of SideRoad's weekly builds.
Common questions
What is the biggest monthly revenue a documented boring business owner has reported?
Kim Hatch reports up to $200,000 in a peak-season month at Turner Septic in New Hampshire. Her slowest winter months bring in about $30,000. Next are Cristobal and Sandra Mondragon, whose Bumble Bee Cleaning reports $120,000 to $140,000 months.
Can you multiply a monthly revenue figure by twelve to get the annual figure?
Only if the business is steady through the year, and many are not. Kim Hatch's best septic month is roughly six to seven times her slowest. Steve Hunsaker books more than $800,000 of holiday lighting in about two months and very little the rest of the year.
How much can one person working alone bring in per month?
The best documented case is Kyle Landwehr, who says he was doing $30,000 to $40,000 a month in junk removal working the truck himself, before a broken ankle forced him to hire. That is revenue, not take-home, and his first month was $10,000.
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