Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Custodian Built a 6000 Monthly Side Hustle in Building Systems Auditing
Transcript
- Lucas: If you work in a school, an office tower, a hospital — you walk the same halls every day. You know where the boiler rattles, which conference room never gets cool enough, which bathroom sink drains slow. Luna: You basically have a mental map of every system in the building. Most people don't think of that as marketable knowledge. Lucas: Right. But today's guest — let's call him Marcus — turned that exact knowledge into a six-thousand-dollar-a-month side hustle. Marcus works as a head custodian at a public middle school in Ohio. He's been there nine years. And about two years ago, he started a side business doing building systems audits for small commercial property owners. Luna: Building systems audits — so he's looking at HVAC, electrical, plumbing, maybe the building envelope? What's the actual service he's selling? Lucas: Exactly. He performs a walk-through inspection of a commercial building — usually under fifty thousand square feet — and produces a written report on the condition and efficiency of all major systems. He'll flag an aging chiller that's due for replacement, a rooftop unit that's short-cycling, a water heater that's wasting energy. He also estimates the remaining useful life of each system and gives a rough cost range for repairs or replacements. Luna: So he's like a pre-purchase home inspector, but for commercial buildings — and ongoing, not just at sale. Lucas: Exactly. His clients are mostly small landlords who own a strip mall, a single-tenant retail building, or a small office. They can't afford a full engineering firm — that might cost five to ten thousand dollars. Marcus charges eight hundred to fifteen hundred per audit, depending on the building size. And he does four to six a month. Luna: That math works out. But how did he get from middle-school custodian to someone property owners trust with their buildings? That's a credibility gap. Lucas: It is. And he bridged it in a few smart ways. First, he already had hands-on experience with the equipment — he's been maintaining boilers, changing filters, troubleshooting VAV boxes for years. But he also invested in credentials. He got his EPA Section 608 certification for refrigerant handling — that's about a hundred and fifty bucks and a weekend of studying. He also took the BPI Building Analyst certification through a local community college. That cost him about six hundred dollars. Luna: Building Performance Institute — that's the same certification used for residential energy audits, right? Lucas: Yes. But he applied it to small commercial. He also picked up a certificate in building commissioning from an online program — that one was around a thousand dollars. Total investment: under two grand. And those credentials let him put 'BPI Certified Building Analyst' and 'Commissioning Agent' on his website and proposals. Luna: So he looked legit. But how did he find his first clients? Cold calling? I can't imagine small landlords are easy to reach. Lucas: He started through his existing network. The school district contracts with a few local HVAC companies. Marcus got to know the service managers. One of them mentioned a landlord client who was frustrated because his tenants kept complaining about uneven heating — and the landlord didn't know whether to replace the furnace or add zone dampers. Marcus offered to do an audit for half his normal rate. Luna: So that first job was almost like a beta test. Lucas: Exactly. He spent a Saturday at the building. He checked ductwork, measured airflow at each diffuser, looked at the age and condition of the furnace, checked insulation in the attic. He gave the landlord a prioritized list: first, seal the duct leaks — cost maybe eight hundred dollars. Then, if the tenant is still cold, add a zone damper system for about two thousand. Don't replace the furnace for at least five more years. The landlord was thrilled — he'd been quoted twelve thousand for a full replacement he didn't need. Luna: So Marcus saved him money. That's the kind of story that gets shared in landlord associations. Lucas: That's exactly what happened. The landlord referred him to three other property owners. Marcus also joined a local chapter of BOMA — the Building Owners and Managers Association. It's a hundred and fifty bucks a year for affiliate membership. He goes to meetings, hands out business cards. He also set up a simple website with sample report pages and client testimonials. Within six months, he was booking four audits a month just from referrals and networking. Luna: That's impressive. But here's what I'm wondering — he's still working full-time as a custodian, forty hours a week. How does he fit in four to six audits a month? Lucas: He does the audits on Saturdays. Each walk-through takes about two to three hours for a building under ten thousand square feet. Then he writes the report at home in the evenings — usually another two to three hours. So each audit is about five to six hours total. At fifteen hundred a pop, that's two hundred fifty to three hundred dollars an hour for his time. Luna: That's a killer hourly rate. Especially for work that's basically just noticing things he's been trained to notice for years. Lucas: Right. And the key insight is that he's not competing on price with engineering firms. He's competing on accessibility and practicality. A small landlord doesn't need a full building energy model or a thirty-page engineering report. They need someone to walk through, point out the three things that are most urgent, and give them a ballpark budget. Marcus is that person. Luna: And he's uniquely positioned because he actually works in a building every day. He knows what real-world wear and tear looks like. Lucas: Yeah. And that's the angle that a lot of people miss. If you're a custodian, a maintenance tech, a building engineer — you have a skill set that's incredibly valuable to small business owners who don't have a facilities department. You just need to frame it as a consulting service and add a couple of certifications. Luna: And it's not just schools. Think about hospitals, apartment complexes, retail chains. Anywhere with a physical plant. Lucas: Exactly. And the beauty is that the side hustle income is high enough that Marcus is now thinking about going full-time. He's at six thousand a month, but he thinks he can get to ten within a year if he starts doing audits for larger buildings and maybe hires a part-time report writer. Luna: That's the dream — turning a side hustle into a real business. But I want to talk about the risks. What if one of his audits misses something critical, like a cracked heat exchanger that later causes a carbon monoxide leak? Could he be liable? Lucas: That's a real concern. Marcus addresses it in two ways. First, he has a very clear scope of work in his contract: he performs a visual inspection only. He does not disassemble equipment, does not test for gas leaks or carbon monoxide, and does not guarantee that his report identifies all defects. Second, he carries general liability insurance. He got a policy through a small business insurer for about six hundred dollars a year. Luna: So he's protected. And presumably he's also building a reputation that makes referrals easier. Lucas: Right. And that's the flywheel. The more audits he does, the more landlords trust him. He's now at the point where some clients hire him annually for a 'health check' on their buildings. That recurring revenue is huge. Luna: That's a smart upsell — an annual maintenance audit. It's lower price but predictable. Lucas: Yeah. He offers a basic annual check for four hundred dollars. He spends an hour walking through, flags any new issues, gives a one-page summary. He does about ten of those a year on top of his full audits. Luna: So what's the one takeaway for someone listening who might be a custodian, a janitor, a maintenance worker — thinking, 'I could do this?' What's the first step? Lucas: I'd say start with the EPA Section 608 certification. It's cheap, it's fast, and it gives you a baseline credibility in HVAC. Then offer to do a free or discounted audit for a friend or family member who owns a small commercial property. Build a sample report. Then use that to get your first paying client. Luna: And don't underestimate the power of your current network. The HVAC techs, the plumbers, the electricians you work with — they know building owners who have problems. Lucas: Exactly. Marcus's entire business started from one conversation with an HVAC contractor. That's the kind of lead that's sitting right in front of you if you're already in a building every day. Luna: You know, speaking of things that are sitting right in front of you — listener support is what keeps this show going. We keep the podcast ad-free because a lot of you have told us you prefer it that way. If you've gotten something out of episodes like this one, a couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Just a simple way to say 'keep going.' Lucas: Yeah, it really does help. We don't have a big production team — it's just me and Luna and a lot of Saturday mornings recording. So if this show has helped you think about a career move or a side hustle idea, that link is there. No pressure, always free to listen. Luna: Okay, back to building systems — what's the biggest mistake Marcus says people make when they start this kind of side hustle? Lucas: He says it's overpromising. A lot of people want to sound like an engineer and use jargon, but landlords just want clear, practical advice. He says the best feedback he gets is when clients say, 'You explained it in plain English.' Luna: So clarity over complexity. That's a good lesson for any consulting hustle. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's why Marcus is succeeding. He's not trying to be something he's not. He's a custodian who knows buildings. And that authenticity is actually his competitive advantage. Luna: Love that. So if you're listening and you've got a building — a school, an office, a warehouse — that you know inside and out, maybe it's time to start looking at it through a consultant's eyes. Lucas: Yeah. Marcus proved that the side hustle is already in your building. You just have to walk through it with a clipboard and a business card. Luna: And a liability policy. Lucas: And a liability policy. Right. That too.