need help with my biz

[ematthews]

I have been tring to get started in the lawn bizz for about 6 months and i have decided to go full time next spring. I have one problem and it is tring to get enough money for the equipment i need to go full time. Right now I have a john deere commercial 21in and a full kit of echo trimers and blowers. I need to move up to at least a 36in wb by the time i go full time.The other problem is i support a family of 4 with a income of about $50.000.00 a year, so i know the first 2 years might be a little rough. My question is. how can i get a decent wb and move into the bizz full time with as little headache as possible. Are used mowers worth looking at or should i try and buy new? My scenerio right now is i have 3 yards that i do on a weekly basis and i have bid for my neighbor hood entrance contract as well. Whats some advice you could give that might help me.

[qualitylandscaping]

reply

I would advertise first. Base your decision of what equipment to buy, based on the amount of work you receive from advertising. Buying used can save alot of money, you just need to find a good piece of equipment that doesnt have more than 500 or 600 hours and isn't beat up. It should have been regularly maintained too.. I don't think anyone would prefer to buy used, but if its all you can afford, there is nothing wrong with it.

Email me or post if you have any more questions.
Good luck!

[Scott]

reply

where in FL do you live?
If you read Phil's post's on how to get started, you might have to dig a bit, you might be able to get 50k your first year but you'll have to hussle, long nights/weekends, maybe taking jobs for less than you'd like, taking on some crappy jobs, until you get a good name for yourself, then the referrals will start coming in.

Also copy down all the proposals, contracts and flyer info on this site and tweak it a bit to fit your company.

You could start out this fall, working weekends with pressure washing and possibly turn those customers onto lawn maintenance come early spring. A small 2500psi washer at Sam's or HD would run you in the neighborhood of $500. Small initial investment which could pay for itself in a 2-3 jobs. You could work out of your truck, just a pressure washer, some chlorine, maybe a rainsuit(optionable) and you're off. Do a search on pressure washing and Mr. Admin has some good sites on how to price them. Then take the $$$ from the pressure washing, and then buy whatever lawn equipment you need. If you could line up three jobs per month at $200-$300 a pop, by spring you should be able to afford a fairly nice used lawnmower or a hefty deposit on a new one. The profits from your first 3-4 jobs would get sucked up to pay for your washer and flyers. If you find that pressure washing is really paying off and jobs seem to come fairly easy, I'd opt to get an additional larger washer.

Other good services which pay well are fall/winter/spring clean-ups, irrigation repairs, landscaping, landscape lighting, debris hauling, mulch replacement, minor tree trimming, etc...

I hope this helps and if you need any other advice please don't hesitate to post your questions!!!

[cole1980]

reply

Dang when did you change over Scott. Nah, just kidding around.

E.Matthews,
I have the same plans as you for this next season. I am using Scotts awesome post and going to put it to good use. I have a buddy that works at an equipment company. They deal in industrial/commercial pressure washers and sandblasters and such. He was telling me about a really profitable attachment. It is like a 24" and available in 32" pressure washer broom. Has aluminium cover and looks kinda like a push broom. It cleans great and is not that expensive. If you plan to do pressure washing, get attachments that cover and clean more than the provided nossle. Admin or Phil have some great links under the post pressure washing service, I think is the post. Do search option and check.

Good Luck. I am about to get a nice one about $750.00 from where I work and get the attachment from my buddy.

E.Cole

[parkwest]

reply

Hey scott, if the guy lives in Florida do you think he has to wait for spring to start lawn maintenance?

emathews, suggest you go to the sba.gov web page. They have a lot of forms and useful information on small business.

If you need $50k net income to support your family, your business, I would think, would need to gross over $500K/yr. You'll need to assemble a core team of players to handle that volume of business.

Remember also when you ask questions on these forums, most of the guys here have grasscutting jobs, very few have a lawn maintenance business. I would suggest you get your hands on all the books you can on running a successful contracting business.

Good luck!

[Scott]

reply

well he did say he's been trying to get into this for 6months and decided to go F/T in the spring. Can he start earlier since we live in FL,, sure. But north FL is different than south FL. Our warm season grasses here in the panhandle will be in its full dormant stage by November time frame and come out roughly mid March, depending if you push it with ferts and how healthy it is. I can only assume the growing season in mid to south FL is longer due to the warmer climate.

I usually start advertising in the free papers early late Feb to early March just to get my name out there, and he can do clean-ups whenever, hopefully earlier than later.

I'm not too sure about the 1/2 million gross to net 50k though. There are alot of guys here that do well at crunching #'s and they could be more informative than I. I do believe that being a solo operator that you'll hit a wall of gross income and to get over that you'll have to hire some help and take a hit in profits until business builds up to support that extra help. Phil has touched on this several times that you should get into selling time, other peoples time. Perferably not yours but others that work for considerably less. You supply the equipment, a good company name, and other people's time. But those lessons will come later and these posts will be here for a long time. And I believe there's a current thread/debate on "how much a solo operator can make."

Think about the pressure washing idea, it might work-out and get you into a nice mower. Little investment with good potential. Just hope you're not in my neck of the woods and get all my house washing jobs!!!

[ematthews]

reply

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by parkwest</i>
<br />
If you need $50k net income to support your family, your business, I would think, would need to gross over $500K/yr. You'll need to assemble a core team of players to handle that volume of business.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Not sure I understand what you were saying with this. I am starting up a one man operation not a subcontracting business. If I was a sub contracter and only had a return of 50k off a 500k sell I would be worried about that ratio. If you could explain what you were saying it would help me out alot. Thanks.

[dwwhitten]

reply

I just started in April and I was grossing over a thousand a week within 2 months, I havent figured in wear and tear but I spend about 50 bucks a week on gas for my truck and equipment. I also picked up a pressure washer, I got the $1000 3600 psi from HD for $600 (reconditioned) my first job I got $300. Just so you know I have a 48" Lesco WB w/ catcher, 42" MTD rider,21" push W/bag, Lesco Stick edger,Stihl trimmer w/hedge attachment,stihl BR400 BP blower, and the above mentioned washer, and I haul it all around in a 14' x 6' enclosed trailer. The catcher and the bagger are only for leaf pick up for what dosn't mulch up first.
I love my work..... DWWhitten

[Jack]

reply

you might want to check and see if there is a small business development center in your area. It might be listed with the Small Business Acceptance Corp. They offer a class on starting your own business. They work in conjunction with SCORE the retired executives program, and you may find them to be helpful in your area, and help you develop a business plan.

[parkwest]

reply

emathew, if you don't understand what I'm saying, please allow me to suggest you contact some CPA's in your area and ask them what you can expect to make in the lawn business as a owner/operator grasscutter. They should be able to give you numbers that you can then decide if the ROI is what you could live with or not and how much you would need to gross with those numbers to see if you could live on the return.

[ematthews]

reply

Thanks for the help everyone.