Actually I spoke of house cleaning and even though people think they are the same, they are far from it. While most office cleaners used to charge between $18-$30 a man hour, we (house cleaning business owners) charged between $20-$90 a man hour. That was a while ago. While those numbers might have changed a little, I doubt office cleaning comes close to house cleaning even today. Plus, office cleaning can depend more on carpet cleaning, strip & wax jobs and other work on the side to make more profit. While those things can also be done in house cleaning, we didn't have to depend on those things for extra profit in house cleaning. I never mention this because people won't believe me but before the housing bubble hit we used to clean foreclosed houses and make as much as $500 per man hour. Not possible nowadays but we had it good for awhile!! I was asked to go back in the cleaning business last week..... I thought about it and the. told her, HELL NO!! It's great money but HELL NO!
If you want to be out of the house, instead of renting a space at a flea market why aren't YOU the flea market? Most sellers know that the person making the most money at a place like a flea market or festival is the person promoting the event. Start in a parking lot and go from there. Lots of easy ways to advertise a flea market that are free or cost very little.
With $40k x 3 you could open the most badass dog park in the US probably. Lots of money in dogs. The Fire Hydrant Dog Park. Have a space for a couple of food trucks to set up with 1 being specifically for dogs and take a cut of what they make. Have a couple more spots for a groomer truck and a vet truck.
If I had to do it all over again, I think I would be in the ice cream business. Pay minimum wage to the counter girl (hire a really nice looking girl but no skimpy clothes) and any day that she is all smiles and extra nice to the customers she gets her pay doubled. In reality you want to pay her that much anyway but if you make that stipulation, it could really benefit you. Be known for not being cheap with the ice cream. People don't mind paying $4 for a huge cone but we sure as hell don't want to pay $3 for a small cone that makes us think we got screwed. Just 1 extra swirl can make all the difference.
I'm sure it would cost so much more today but 20 years ago there was this guy that took out a mortgage and loans totally $200,000. He wants to open a haunted house. His wife was scared and told him if he lost their house she was going to divorce him. He opened the haunted house ($7 admission back then) and within the first 2 weeks he had broke even. So the remainder of the season was all profit, prolly 2 or 3 more weeks and we all know the closer Halloween gets, the more people go to a haunted house so his profit probably soared!!