Started BinBlast in Spring Valley a little while back, and here's what surprised me most: this is one of the easiest recurring-revenue local services you can run.

A few things I learned early:

• Bin cleaning sells itself on smell, not looks. Nobody calls because their bin looks dingy — they call because it reeks in July. Lead with the smell angle in your marketing, not "shiny bins."

• Bundle pricing beats à la carte. Most households have 2 bins (trash + recycling). Price the bundle so it's obviously the better deal ($55/mo for both vs $30/mo for one) — it pushes almost everyone to buy both.

• Route density is everything. One truck, one tank of water, and a tight neighborhood route is the whole business model. Don't take a client outside your zone until you've saturated the one you're in.

• It's recurring by nature. Trash day happens every week whether you show up or not — so once someone signs up, they rarely cancel. Retention is the easy part; getting the first sign-up is the hard part.

If you're thinking about a local service business and want something with low startup cost, high repeat demand, and almost zero competition in most towns — bin cleaning is worth a serious look.