Those articles were blowing smoke!
No one is going to hand you a high paying job cleaning up death, unless you become a nurse!
The Good - The Bad - The Ugly - The Crime Scene Cleanup School - The High School Diploma -
We do not hire and we do not know anyone that hires crime scene cleaners. This is the type of business that you start, in general. Some people do their business cleaning alone (crime scene cleanup video), and others hire help (crime scene cleanup video). We do not know how many hire help, but they are few.
Forget what you have read on the Internet about crime scene cleanup. Those articles were written by writers trying to catch your interest and impress their bosses. Those writers, like you, need their job.
What about the "big money" that you have read about and heard about. Just how "big" is big? Some technicians make as little as ten dollars per hour. Some make twenty-five an hour, but this is not for forty hours per week. And in fact, more than once this writer has heard employers of crime scene cleaners brag about how little they pay their technicians - - "Brag!", I said. And why not? After all, employers invest their capital, time, and labor to build a business for which they expect employees to increase their profits. This is how it works in any business, including crime scene cleanup. Owners make the money. Employees do the work.
There is big money out there for the few, the proud, and the ambitious. Usually, the big money goes to owners of businesses that have been around for many years. Then there are the carpet cleaning companies that make the transition to crime scene cleanup so easily because of their cleaning knowledge, abilities, and skills. Likewise with water damage and restoration companies. By simply sending their employees to the American Red Cross for blood-borne pathogen training, they can begin cleaning crime scenes tomorrow in most states. It is not a big deal. The big deal is in finding work. Established companies have long established business relationships to help market their new crime scene cleanup services. Do you?
Like many areas of the US and Russian economies, crime scene cleanup is wide-open to cronyism. In the case of cronyism in crime scene cleanup, coroners' offices, medical officers' offices, police agencies, and other public servants select their friends and other scoundrels for the best jobs, the most lucrative. They leave other companies out. In return, they receive kickbacks or the admiration of their friends and relatives. Perhaps these public servants even own crime scene companies and send vital business information to their managers. We know for a fact this is the case in Orange County, California, and it has been so for years. We think that it is ironic that Orange County, California is one of the great strongholds of the Republican Party's ideology! Free enterprise, freedom from government intervention, and so on. Return to top.
Go here for a graphic image to get a better grasp of how cronyism works.
The reader might guess that business and government relationships are vital to many crime scene cleanup companies. It is just so.
If one starts a crime scene cleanup business on their own, they really should have a relationship to the government entity responsible for delegating the rewarding death scene cleanup jobs. Short of a government relationship, you will need a lot of money for marketing, like pay-per-click marketing. Of course, there is location. Like real estate, location is vital. However, even in the cities of Detroit, Chicago, and Washington DC, work for the start-up company is hard to come by. Competitors in these cities have many years of experience and hundreds of strong business relationships. A small start-up company must overcome these relationships as well as cronyism. Return to top.
The Crime Scene Cleanup School
"Eureka!" shouted a few 19th century California gold miners. With great enthusiasm many hopeful, young, optimistic workers flooded into California's vast wilderness in search of gold. The myth of easy money by finding gold in abundance spread far-and-wide.
The sad facts of this nation-wide myth are that gold was found by a very small number of the hopeful miners. But, some lucky store owners made big money by selling the picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows needed by those new to prospecting, the majority of new comers. So "Eureka!" shouted the store owners and real estate tycoons; they had found gold in the hopes of the naive, star struck prospectors. It was easy pick'n, but not for the majority of miners.
So it is in the crime scene cleanup field of cleaning.
Like the store owners and real estate tycoons of old, today's crime scene cleanup school companies often sell a hope, rather than a reality. Saddly, the hope leads to nowhere for the vast majority, and how could it be otherwise? Just think about it. If it is all that easy to make big money in the crime scene cleanup field of cleaning, would not many others have traveled to this land of opportunity long ago, even before you heard of the idea?
Well, it is so. Anyone trying to take your money to make you a crime scene cleaner is probably no good for you. They are in the business of making money. They will first sell you a mouth full of mushrooms. You know, those tiny plants that grow in the dark and are fed bull shit!
Think about it, one company in Huntington Beach, California promises all sorts of goodies, even employment with rising pay scales. All its students need to do is fork over a few thousand dollars and then wait to be called for work. Imagine that! And how many hours of part-time, on-call work at fifteen dollars an hour does one need for debt repayment?
Let us see here. At fifteen dollars an hour, 15 divided into 3,000 equals 200 hours, or 5 weeks at 40 hours per week. You be the judge. Is there a guarantee of 5 weeks work at 40 hours and fifteen dollars per hour? And for how many years?
Save your time and money. Go to ROP or a community college and learn a trade. Try nursing for a sure means of building a worthwhile future for yourself and family. Do not allow some jerk to rip-off your money.
If you do not have a high school diploma, shame on you. Stop being lazy and turn the television off and leave it off. Stop playing games and get real. Read books, big fat books that keep your attention. Study night and day. It is time to grow up. Take control of your mind. Stop day-dreaming. You can make it big if you work hard and study hard!
Without the right knowledge and abilities you cannot go far. By reading numerous hours you will learn to synthesize your knowledge and evaluate it. Use the dictionary every day - - even read the dictionary every day.
If you have problems staying with your reading, find something interesting to you. Read what keeps your attention. Any printed material that keeps your attention is good for your reading development skills.
Before long, your attention to reading tasks will begin to grow and mature. Soon your interest in reading more subjects will grow. Later you will become a skilled reader and eager to read about big ideas, helpful ideas. Start today and read for life. Reading is the key!
Eddie Evans, Professional Cleaner