How Does a Boat Cleaning Business Owner Spend a Workday?
- A boat cleaning business owner spends much of his workday in the water or at least in a dry dock if he is a small business owner with only a few employees. If the boat cleaning business owner owns a large business, he does only the administrative work the position requires and has employees do the "hard" work.
- At the beginning of the workday, the boat cleaning business owner checks the schedule, whether he has a small or large business. His schedule will tell him where he or his employees need to be for the day. He will load up his truck or van with all of his cleaning equipment--pressure washers, scrapers, brushes and chemicals and drive out to the first appointment of the day.
- Once at the appointment, the boat cleaning business owner will suit up if the boat is in the water. If the boat is in the dry dock, he does not have to suit up (rubber diving suit), but may wear a rubber suit anyway, so that he doesn't get barnacles and scum all over him clothing. He starts by scraping the barnacles off the boat. Once the barnacles are scraped off, he will pressure wash the boat if it's in the dry dock, or if in the water, he will wipe off any scum on the bottom of the boat. Scum is the green stuff you see on the bottom of boats that have been sitting in water for quite a long time. The scum is microscopic sea animals and dirt that stuck to the boat over time.
- When the boat cleaning business owner finishes cleaning this boat, he goes to the next boat on her schedule. If he does not do any of the "hard" work, his employees will do this part. If he does not have employees, he must do this, plus administrative duties such as payroll (he will still have payroll for himself), bank deposits, scheduling and customer care.
- If the boat cleaning business owner has employees, in addition to payroll, he must update any employee benefits, such as insurance claims, vacation and sick time and 401(k) plans, if they are offered. At some point during the day, depending on the schedule, the boat cleaning business owner must also replenish his supplies. He will take an inventory of all of the supplies he needs and order more if he is low on anything, including any chemicals used to get the scum and barnacles off the boat.