Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make money as a ‘Hangover Helper’
Reading Time: 3 minutesA night out is all fun and games until you are brutally forced awake at 7am by the alarm you forgot to turn off with a pounding head.
Surrounded by piles of crumpled tins and trash, a few dodgy stains and bowls of half eaten cereal (or what you hope is cereal), the morning after is never fun.
The fact that a ‘big one’ can never be a tidy one is something entrepreneurs in Colorado count on, however, as their genius start up scheme capitalizes on mess to make nice clean cash.
Self-titled ‘Hangover Helpers’, these lads hit upon gold late in 2013 and their success story is something students around the world can learn from.
Read on to find out how you could start earning your way out of your student debt.
The ‘Stella’ Service
What are the two main magic ingredients to a hangover cure?
- Food
- Dettol
Original Hangover Helpers Alex Vere-Nicoll and Marc Simons identified this gap in the market back in 2013 after living the hangover life at the University of Colorado and realizing that they could make some money providing these essentials.
Operating on an appointment only basis, the domestic gods’ after party service includes the provision of a warm burrito and a Gatorade to help with the healing process.
They also come loaded with mops and mouth masks to disinfect houses and restore them to their former order.
Get your name in lights
Although you might be hard pressed to find a student at your university that doesn’t go out, one thing is seeing them out and another thing is getting them psyched about the service you are offering.
Vere-Nicoll and Simons got lucky being the first to properly pioneer their scheme and made headlines on CBS World News, Regis & Kelly and were even featured in Forbes magazine.
As the pair said, however, this global notoriety was a result of the serious advertising that they did around their university, flyering from day to night and making appearances on their local radio stations.
While it’s true that the concept is no longer unique, the story of the original Hangover Helpers proves that a nice amount of money can be made if you make the most of your local target audience.
As well as the techniques the two graduates used to get themselves known on campus, other marketing ideas to think about include teaming up with local clubs and DJs to offer a discounted service and getting your branding on other start-up products that pitch to a similar range of students.
Rake in the monies
While you could theoretically start charging your customers whatever you like, it’s important to think about their limited means as students and your potential competitors.
As Vere-Nicoll and Simons found, charging $15 (about £12) per room mate worked well for their area and enabled them to make on average $60 for a half hour of work!
Not bad.
Setting yourself a base rate, however, is only the beginning as, if your business really takes off, you could start thinking about introducing different packages with a range of different breakfast foods and cleaning services.
Are you making money as a Hangover Helper? Let us know in the Comments section below!
The Hangover Helpers is a great idea.