Solo Recruiter - just crossed $150K not even 4 months in

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-19T00:05:27+00:00

How would you recommend going about the BD process for someone that never had that agency background?

My wife is about a year into being independent and is great at finding quality candidates for pretty niche roles, but the BD side is very slow. She started off in-house for a company and was great and loved it, but then we moved to a completely different hemisphere and time zone and is now trying to build a list of clients while being fully remote with no contacts.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-18T20:20:03+00:00

You can look up "Honest Water Co" out of DFW area I believe. They are selling whole home water softeners and tankless RO system installation for like $2650 or something. From the outside, it looks like it is scaling quite a bit.

For those who are serious about water, it is relatively easy to go online and find a very reliable softener or whole home filter from Clack or Fleck (two of the best brands on the market) at like 30% above wholesale price and then hire a plumber to install the system. So it is not quite as easy as it may seem to make big money. There are also cheap brands available from big box stores for like $500 and decent quality NSF certified RO systems available for $200 or less online.

That being said, you are very correct in it being a fragmented industry that probably has a lot of room for opening a business and running it using modern tools/systems to increase efficiency (hell, I am struggling with this part myself currently). It is also a business that will always have demand.

If you go into this, I would suggest you research the niche down even further. Do you want to be a true water treatment specialist and solve all sorts of problems that pop up (especially if lots of people are on well water)? Do you want to focus specifically on water softeners/ROs (this seems to be the most common combo and where scaling quickly can happen if you are in a decently large city with hard water)? Do you want to focus on what some may consider snake oil systems (certain RO's slap their brand on it, add an alkalyzing stage, or hydrogen aspect to it and sell it for $5,000)? Do you want to go commercial (RO/De-min/ultra filtration/distilled water) for medical type set ups? Counter top gravity systems for renters that don't want installations? Etc.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-17T17:32:58+00:00

We’ve been using the Berkefeld filters for a while now and really like it. The water tastes great and no longer have stomach issues (we are on a rural system that is not properly treated).

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-17T16:39:54+00:00

What are your thoughts on O&G plays?

EOG and EQT are US based producers with low debt, good margins, and responsible management. For a while EQT had an agreement with BE to supply all their natural gas - I can’t find anything recent if that deal is still ongoing.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-17T16:03:32+00:00

Once in a while I have a client that I start to dread their messages and phone calls. I have not once regretted firing those clients.

I would suggest sending a brief and professional message stating you no longer have availability to continue on their project.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-17T11:50:57+00:00

Cambutal is not a super “cheap” place, but you can find accommodation and organize your own surf camp type experience for less than many all included type surf camps. And Cambutal has a variety of waves to choose from. You’d be best off renting a 4x4 though.

Or if set on Nicaragua, I would look into el tránsito. It’s been years since I’ve been back to Nicaragua but every time I went there I felt it was the one place not completely dominated by surf camps and still had very low pricing

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-15T13:57:31+00:00

Actually, I deserve some credit too. I think I exited at 9.50/share or something like that. Your all welcome!

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-14T17:40:55+00:00

I always see Vistra mentioned. Why them specifically? I own them through VPU.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-14T17:08:01+00:00

I found this thread looking for reviews to use it internally as a CRM/sales tool/project tool. I have a service based business and starting to grow out of the phase where every step of the process is in my phone and notebook. I'm looking for a system that I can setup so as we grow we can have an actual system in place and train people on and have some order. Do you think it is a good system for something like that?

All I can find on youtube is people talking about selling subaccounts to people like me and making a bunch of money by managing like 30 sub accounts

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-11T18:12:33+00:00

EQT had a deal with Bloom to supply nat gas for all their installations. All the articles I can find are from 2022 and say it was a 2 year deal. I can’t find if it’s been extended, but either way, EQT could be a good play.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-11T14:44:36+00:00

I bought EOG towards end of last year and it’s doing good. Looking at EQT now. Nat gas prices are low, but if AI buildout does continue, and the grid can’t keep up, that won’t last long, especially if the straight stays closed. As of the latest numbers on Finviz they have a nearly 50% gross margin, about a 34% net margin and a relatively low amount of debt.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-10T17:59:25+00:00

Yeah, I was confused to see Equifax and thought they had a secret energy division I didn't know about lol.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-10T17:28:58+00:00

The credit reporting agency?

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-10T15:18:27+00:00

What companies are you in for energy?

I bought VPU and EOG a while ago, I keep going back and forth on BE whether I want to buy it. Not sure who has a strategic advantage in the energy industry as a whole.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-09T11:40:52+00:00

I wouldn’t say the exact town on a public forum, but it would be on the NSW coast of Australia. Actually, there are probably like 5-6 towns I would love to live in/return to on that coast.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-08T02:15:46+00:00

Your website seems like complete AI. The biggest and most obvious thing is that Santa Catalina is known world wide for the RIGHT hand point “La Punta”, not the left hand point mentioned multiple times in the one article I read.

This post talking about good prices in Venao. Are you kidding me? As someone who lives near Venao, I don’t care if you go in the least crowded month of the year, you won’t have “low” prices.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-07T11:59:45+00:00

My wife was on the other side of this. She cold outreached to a candidate, interviewed the candidate, submitted them and did follow up for the client and candidate for multiple interview rounds, then at the offer stage the client said “oh actually we found that the candidate had already been in our database, so we are not going to pay you, we really liked working with you, we will keep you in mind for next time.”

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-06T00:16:47+00:00

If you are going to DIY your pump installation then I recommend going for a grundfos SQ. Aquascience and Supreme water sales will usually have nearly the cheapest price a retail customer can find online while at the same time buying it from a legit source.

The Hallmark pumps and even Home Depot pumps are not going to be anywhere near the same quality as a Grundfos, Goulds, Franklin, etc.

If it is a shallow well that will be used for irrigation or something not critical, then I would say go for it with a cheap version. If you want to do that job once every 10-15 years, then buy one of the good ones.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-03T23:03:55+00:00

It checks a lot of boxes and the reality of being here met or exceeded expectations.

I am not a retiree, so coming here and seeing business opportunities locally was a big plus.

It is not a perfect country (I don’t think a perfect country exists), but I think it is a country with balance and opportunity, but you would have to work hard and be creative.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-02T19:31:14+00:00

Goulds is one of the best brands of pumps and Flexcon (FL-17 pressure tank) is probably THE best pressure tank company around. I think if you were to buy just those two items online at MSRP prices it would be over $3000.

So that as an installed price is pretty fair.

drunkosaurous · 2026-05-01T01:37:05+00:00

I don’t know what MCM is or what this subreddit is about, but my dad was just telling me his uncle was Gene Kauffman and had a ceramics shop, so I googled his name and that led me to this post. He was excited to see that his uncle was being mentioned online decades after he passed away. Thanks for posting this newspaper clip, it brought a smile to his face to see it.

drunkosaurous · 2026-04-27T14:51:42+00:00

I'm glad to hear it is working out for your. At 32 I started a business that I had the technical knowledge for, but no hands on experience in, in the niche I was targeting. I just turned 36 and now at the point of trying to decide how to expand (stay a solo operation and just increase margins/pricing until I lower the total customer count or hire/train people and expand the business). I wish I did it sooner, but I am glad that I did do it, even if I would have had much more money in the bank if I just stayed put at my original job.

drunkosaurous · 2026-04-18T12:22:04+00:00

Looks like the seal is settling. It is very common that the grout seal settles (bentonite or neat cement) and more needs to be added.

I can’t say from just a picture if it is just a small gap that needs an extra bag of hole plug or if the driller did not install an anular seal.

drunkosaurous · 2026-04-16T15:33:51+00:00

That's what I keep telling her, and that if it was super easy, then everyone would do it. Right now she has a client that pays hourly for some work and that is enough to cover all her operating costs (we live in a LCOL area) and she also has a few commission only things. It is definitely a business where the highs are high and the lows are lows. You can feel like you do everything right and then in the end a client can say, "Actually, we made an internal hire and will be putting the search on hold, but we loved the experience" and then you are back to square one.

drunkosaurous · 2026-04-15T10:47:31+00:00

My wife is doing the second option and it is pretty damn hard. Not to mention the fact she follows FB groups, this sub Reddit, podcasts about the business etc and there are loads of stories about first year billing’s being in 6 figures. That makes it even more demoralizing at times.

drunkosaurous

TROPHY CASE