What bad economies did to boring businesses

The Boring Index gives 35 percent of its weight to demand that ignores the economy, and one of the sources on Trevor Kokenge's entry is titled as the story of a recession-proof landscaping business. Those are claims about what happens in a bad year. This database can check them against two bad stretches, 2008 and 2020, and the record is thinner than the label suggests.

2008: people started and bought, nobody published the numbers

Kokenge is the entry built most directly on a recession. He finished a landscape architecture degree in 2008, found no design jobs, moved back in with his parents and spent $300 on used tools, including a $50 mower. He worked part-time jobs to cover his living costs and put every dollar the business earned back into it. Plan-It Vision now does $22,000 to $29,000 a month at about 30 percent margins.

Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds met in 2006 and bought mobile home parks at roughly two dozen a year through and after the recession. In 2013 their parks generated $30 million of revenue, more than half of it profit. Dave Menz bought a failing Cincinnati laundromat for $85,000 in 2010, after 25 banks turned him down. His thesis is that laundry is a utility because clothes get dirty in every economy.

What none of these entries contains is a revenue figure for 2008, 2009 or 2010. The same is true of the owners who were already running when the recession arrived: Brian Winch's litter route from 1981, Brian Scudamore's junk removal company from 1989, the Menears' striping company from 1999 and EJ McCoy's lawn company from 2006. The database shows that people chose these trades in a downturn. It does not show how the revenue moved.

2020: two before-and-after figures, both up

Only two entries publish a figure for 2020 itself alongside one for 2019. Sam Evans's junk removal company did about $180,000 in 2019. When the pandemic hit he moved to contactless pickups, with customers texting photos for quotes and leaving items outside, and nearly doubled 2019's sales. Marcus Gram's vending route went from roughly $25,000 in 2019 to over $200,000 in 2020, which his timeline credits to the convenience of card readers.

Others started that year. Steve Hunsaker was in tech sales in 2020 when he read a Reddit thread about hanging Christmas lights, and grossed about $35,000 in his first season. Kyle Landwehr put $6,000 into junk removal in 2020 while working construction, brought in $10,000 in the first month and quit. Our ranking of the businesses founded since 2019 puts those starts in order. Two growing businesses and a handful of new ones are evidence the trades were open in 2020. They are not a measurement of a recession, and 2020 was an unusual one.

Demand on a schedule

The stronger argument in the entries is about why customers buy, not about any particular year. Joel and Hunter Davis's entry puts it in one line: the pool does not care about the economy, it turns green on a schedule. The entry notes that pool customers across the industry are billed roughly $150 a month whether the week was eventful or not. Dan Spracklin's 22,000 septic customers need pumping every three to five years. Scoop Soldiers' customers take weekly service because the problem comes back weekly. In each case the customer can delay, but cannot opt out.

Where the economy still gets in

Several entries carry demand that does follow the economy, though none of them says so in those words, so this is our reading. Daniel Tom's entry calls every active building permit a mandatory customer for somebody. That makes his demand legally required per site, and also means it moves with how many sites there are. Kokenge's margin comes from design and construction projects; maintenance keeps his crews busy. A property owner can postpone a project more easily than a mowing visit. Hunsaker sells upmarket lighting to households that measure the price against their own December.

Mobile home parks are the case where hard times do not move customers at all, and the reason is uncomfortable. Residents own homes that are expensive or impossible to move, so they absorb rent increases. Our piece on what lets a boring business charge more covers why Rolfe's entry is the most contested in the database.

How to read the label

The defensible version of recession-proof is narrower: the work has to be done eventually, by someone, whatever the economy is doing. That says nothing about price, volume or margin in a bad year, and the database does not yet hold a single owner's revenue through a full recession. If you are weighing a trade on this basis, look for demand on a biological or legal clock, then ask how much of the revenue is projects or discretionary add-ons. The margin ledger shows how thin some of these trades run, which matters more when volume dips, and our piece on seasonality covers the related problem of a slow quarter that arrives every year. Start here if you are new, and every owner named above is in the database with sources. This site is one of SideRoad's weekly builds, and we will add a downturn figure the first time an owner publishes one.

Common questions

Are boring businesses recession-proof?

The database cannot confirm it. No documented owner has published revenue through a full recession. What the entries show is demand on a schedule, such as septic tanks pumped every three to five years and pools that turn green regardless, plus two businesses that grew through 2020.

What happened to documented boring businesses during the pandemic?

Two entries report a 2020 figure alongside a 2019 one, and both grew. Sam Evans nearly doubled his 2019 junk removal sales of about $180,000 by moving to contactless pickups. Marcus Gram's vending route went from about $25,000 in 2019 to over $200,000 in 2020.

Can you start a boring business during a recession?

Trevor Kokenge did. He graduated into the 2008 recession with no design jobs available, started mowing with $300 of used tools, and Plan-It Vision now does $22,000 to $29,000 a month at about 30 percent margins.