Articles Ranking
The highest margins before you hire anyone
Eight margins from the stage when the owner is still the labor, largest first, with each one labeled as an owner's figure or an industry benchmark.
The margin ledger lists every margin the documented owners have stated, at whatever size they stated it. This page narrows that to one stage: the business before its first hire, when the owner is the labor. Four of the eight figures come from named owners. The other four are industry benchmarks quoted on the entries, included because the owners in those trades have not published a margin of their own, and each is labeled.
Read the column with care. Some figures are gross margin, some are net, one is EBITDA, and two sources do not say. They are ranked by the figure as reported, using the midpoint where a range was given. Where two entries are close, the order between them is not meaningful.
Reported for 2019 on about $180,000 of sales, from a $1,000 truck. The sources do not say how many people were on the truck that year, or whether the figure is gross or net.
Our division of roughly $82,000 of operating earnings by $135,000 of 2025 revenue, from documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. No employees. The only figure here that is both verified and certain to be solo.
Reachable only on a dense route. Brannon Fowler built more than 1,000 clients and has not published his own margin.
Gross margin in year one, working the truck himself. He reports 30 to 35 percent once crews arrived.
His figure for the starting stage. The company began as a two-person operation.
Net, for an owner who services the pools personally. Joel and Hunter Davis report $851,000 of franchise revenue and have not published a margin.
EBITDA for a solo single-truck operator in a reliable snow-belt market. No snow operator is documented in the database yet.
For a skilled two-person crew. Luke and Heather Menear started their company together and have not published their own margin.
The last three share a midpoint of 40 percent, so their order is arbitrary.
Left out, and why
Mobile detailing. Alan Tursunbaev reports about 60 percent gross on roughly $900,000 a year, which would place third. It is measured with crews in the vans, each paid 30 percent of the job plus tips, so it is not a figure from before hiring.
Vending. Marcus Gram reports keeping about half of revenue. He also reports five part-time employees taking about 10 percent of it, so the figure belongs to a later stage.
Litter cleanup. Brian Winch started with roughly $250 of hand tools and has never published a margin. Hand tools and walking suggest a high one. A guess does not go in the column.
What the order shows
The top of the list sells the owner's own hours. Junk removal needs a truck, fuel and dump fees. Storage unit flipping needs an auction account and a vehicle. When the inputs are that thin, most of each dollar is payment for the owner's labor, and a margin above 50 percent is partly a wage that never appears as a cost.
A high percentage on small revenue is a modest income. Haskell's roughly 61 percent is about $82,000. Evans's 70 percent on about $180,000 is roughly $126,000 by our multiplication. The snow benchmark puts a solo first season at $85,000 to $140,000 of revenue, which at 35 to 45 percent is about $30,000 to $63,000. These are good livings and they are capped by one person's hours.
The cheap starts and the high margins are mostly the same businesses. Evans began with about $1,700 all in, Landwehr with $6,000, the Mondragons with about $5,000, and Haskell's first locker cost about $10. The exception is bin cleaning, where the rig runs $25,000 to $50,000 and the margin only arrives with a dense route. The startup costs page has the full set, and the under $10,000 ranking puts the small ones in order.
None of these numbers survives the first payroll. Landwehr's sequence is the documented case: about 50 percent alone, 30 to 35 percent with crews, about 20 percent once an operations manager ran the company. The pool benchmark falls from 35 to 45 percent to 15 to 25 percent with employees. The margin cliff piece covers how much more revenue it takes to come out ahead after that step.
How to use it
If the aim is income from your own work in the first two years, this ranking is close to a shortlist, and the picker will narrow it by capital and working style. If the aim is a company that runs without you, the column matters less than what the same trade keeps with employees, and less again than what it sells for, which the exit ledger tracks. Every owner named here is in the database with sources.
Common questions
Which business has the highest profit margin for a solo owner?
Among documented owners, junk removal and storage unit flipping. Sam Evans reported roughly 70 percent margins on about $180,000 of junk removal sales in 2019, though the sources do not say how many people worked that year. Michael Haskell's verified 2025 figures work out to about 61 percent with no employees.
Why are margins higher before hiring?
Because the owner's labor does not show up as a cost. Kyle Landwehr reported about 50 percent gross margin working his junk removal truck alone, 30 to 35 percent with crews, and about 20 percent after hiring an operations manager.
Is a high margin the same as a high income?
No. Michael Haskell's margin of about 61 percent produced roughly $82,000 of operating earnings on $135,000 of revenue. A solo margin is capped by the hours one person can work, which is why most owners in the database eventually accepted a lower percentage on more revenue.
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