When you earn beyond a specific threshold it seems that time becomes more of an issue than money, and one aircraft detailer knows this better than most as he shares how he earned $16,000 in a single day by cleaning a $25,000,000 private jet.
You'd be surprised at quite how much money you can earn by simply being available, as certain people are willing to hand over staggering amounts of cash if you're able to be there when they need you to be.
Having the skills to maintain vehicles as expensive as luxury private jets is bound to earn you a pretty penny - especially if you build up a reputation - yet one man on TikTok has shared how you can earn six-figure totals in just one day by being on call.
Why did he earn $16,000 for the job?
As reported by Supercar Blondie, Tiktoker and aircraft detailer 'UDETAILERS' managed to turn an urgent callout job into $16,000 across the course of a couple of hours.
He starts the video by sharing a text he received from a client on a Monday morning, despite taking Saturday through Wednesday as days off. The text read that he was 'needed at SMF' for an emergency, causing him to 'drop all his plans for the day'.
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"When he said that, I headed right home to pack up," the TikToker revealed. "In this industry, an emergency means money. Clients do not care how much something costs, rather that it just gets done and on their schedule."
He reveals that the cost of the job itself came to $12,000 for the wash, $3,000 for the rush fee, and an additional $1,000 for travel, making definitely worth the hassle of changing plans last minute.
"20 percent of what we made this year was actually from rush fees, callouts, and travel. That's $1,200,000 in fees," he reveals.
What did the job entail?
You might be wondering what the job was and why it was such an emergency considering how much he managed to get paid, although you might need to prepare yourself to be disappointed.
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While the plane itself is certainly worth the money it takes to clean, being a $25,000,000 Mercedes Benz craft that has broken records, the 'emergency' was simply that it being flown the next day so needed a brush up.
This particular plane gets cleaned after every other flight, so it wasn't even that dirty, but there was some bird poo and insects that needed scrubbed off.
"We were called out for a full exterior wash and bug removal," the detailer recounts. "We always start on the front and top, working our way back in sections because the rinse and wash will drip down and we want to avoid letting it dry on the paint."
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Frustratingly, there was no lift available in this particular hangar either meaning that he needed to lug around a ladder every 5 feet or so, making the job far harder than it could have otherwise been.
It goes to show that you don't necessarily need to break your back to earn the big bucks, and it's all about being there at the right time and washing the right things.
Predictably, many people in the comments are either asking how to get into this particular line or work or jokingly announcing that they've started their own aircraft detailing business today, but while the work seems easy on the outside, it's likely far harder to reach the point at where you're on speed dial for the mega rich.