Starting a landscape / lawn maintenance business

[hazmat]

I know there are some pro landscapers & lawn mowers here. I'm looking for some business advice.

A little background:

I am currently employed as a Mechanical Engineer for a defense contractor. Prior to this job I worked for a company that built ambulances. While in high school & college I worked for a small landscape / lawn maintenance company. It was the only job I have really enjoyed.

Taking some inspiration from SmilingGreen, I would like to give up my cubical for the great outdoors. I am starting to put a business plan together this fall to possibly start the venture up in the spring. My main motivation is to be my own boss, with financial reward being second place.

With 8 years previous experience, I have a good idea what I am getting myself into, & the equipment, insurance etc. required. I have a good friend who is a landscape architect who is a source of information & customers.

My dilemma is, do I start part time, or full time? How quickly can I sign up enough customers to provide full time work?

I've still got to pay the mortgage. Can I make enough as a solo operator to pay the bills? I'd need about $40K profit annually before taxes to keep my current standard of living. More in the future if I ever want to retire. I'd likely try to plow snow in the winter (Mass) & probably take a second job in the off season as well.

Eventually I'd try to expand by hiring employees (I know that finding good help is the industry's biggest headache). But I would need enough customers first.

Here are the options I am considering
Just me full time
Just me part time (keeping 40 hour job)
Just me part time (cutting back hours at "day job")
Me part time + employee(s) part/full time

I've checked out lawnsite.com, but value the advice here more.

Any help is appreciated

 

[hazmat]

Forgot to mention, Feel free to private message or email me (in my profile) if you have info you'd like to share privately.

 

[HoyeTractor]

Hazmat,
Have you seen this forum? http://www.lawnsite.com/ Spend a little time with the "search" feature and I think you will find more information than you have time to read.

Good luck,

 

[Kodiak]

I just had an afternoon lunch with 5 guys from other small one man operations. We were discussing the possibility of setting up a central dispatch Coop with them and a number of other small operators.

All calls go into a central dispatcher who then assigns them in a preset order or by the abilities of the different operators and there equipment. Larger jobs could also be shared by a couple of operators, so that no ones gets eaten up by a performance contract that was over their heads.

There are some big advantages to this. Over head operating expences such as advertising, office help, insurance as well as purchasing equipment and supplies could be lowered by sharing. And it should cut down on the cost of adding additional employees.

Right now this is just a theory that several of us here in Washington have ben kicking around. I'lladd more later about geting started and customer base, but right now I just had to throw that out while the details are fresh in my head.

 

[MikeFLA]

Hazmat,

I can't help your landscape related issues, but as a small business owner going on my fourth year, I will say this... Don't leave your employer until you have a good chunk of that 40K in the bank and a solid plan for success.

Once you do...follow your dreams!

 

[dummy]

<font color=blue>All calls go into a central dispatcher who then assigns them in a preset order or by the abilities of the different operators and there equipment. Larger jobs could also be shared by a couple of operators, so that no ones gets eaten up by a performance contract that was over their heads.</font color=blue>
Does all of the money from that call go directly to the operator(s) or is the money placed into a central fund? How is the "office staff" funded ? Is there a tax advantage to this arrangement versus a general partnership? How would you add (or subtract) operators financially?
An interesting idea, wondering how the rest of it plays out.

 

[dmccarty]

Hazmat,

I'll ditto the recommendation to LawnSite. I was reading up
on the subject earlier in the year and there is a wealth
of info on the site regarding your questions. They also have
discussion on how to GET business and what one should
charge.

Another good resource is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.jlconline.com>http://www.jlconline.com</A>. While
this site is aimed at the building industry there is a discussion
area or two about the business side of the business. Those
discussions are valuable for any small company.

Hope this helps, Good Luck!
Dan McCarty

 

[hazmat]

Thanks for the reply's and emails thus far. Keep them coming.

Not to offend anyone who frequents lawnsite, but you have to filter thru a bunch of garbage to find the gems of information/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Too many guys yelling at teenagers that they should be worrying about girls and school, not cutting the neighbor's lawn. Or slamming someone for considering buying truck brand X instead of Y. I'm not saying that there isn't good info to be found, just more work to find it.

TBN is the most civilized and useful discussion group I've found on the internet. A tribute to the founders & the members!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[EarPlug]

Hazmat,

Another option to explore is it purchase an existing business. This can offer several advantages. You get an existing customer base. Your cost of equipment would be less since you are buying used equipment but be carefull of condition and don't overpay.

Get a good accountant to do a business valuation. Most business owners think that their business is worth much more than it is.

Plan on not getting a paycheck for the first year, the money you earn needs to go back into the business to build it up. Figure on what your advertising cost will be then double it. Make sure you have enough working capital so when something breaks you will have the cash to fix it. Limit or avoid debt.

Jack

 

[hazmat]

<font color=blue>Get a good accountant to do a business valuation. Most business owners think that their business is worth much more than it is.</font color=blue>

Ain't that the truth. I checked out a lawn maintanence co for sale last year. Asking price $250K!!! Included 1 late model dump, 1 late model p/u, 1 old dump, 2 trailers & enough equipment for two crews & 60-80 accounts

According to his tax return, the guy netted $85K the previous year. He had hired a professional business broker (who happened to be a rookie) They were figuring that the business was worth 3X operating profits.

Their math was wrong on several levels. Mainly they didn't factor in a salary for the owner/manager and subtract this from the $85K. Second, a lawn maintanence company is generally valued at the equipment's worth + cost to aquire X number of accounts. The list went on. The trucks were red which is my favorite color/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I figured that the business was worth around 50-75K.

At the time, I didn't own a house yet, so no where to store the epuipment w/o paying $$$ in comercial rent. I've been keeping my eyes open, but am now limited by geography (you don't earn money driving to the lawns!)