Owning multiple companies

[promower]

Not sure what forum to put this in but its not very lawn care oriented. Anyways I was thinking about starting a new venture within the next few years and wanted to get some opinions, especially from people who currently do more then lawn/landscape. My plan was possibly getting into setting up temporary tents for festivals, parties, reunions etc... I dont want my current business to suffer from starting a new one, and since this new company would be mostly seasonal like lawn care the summers could get really busy which they already are. But I was thinking with some good employees and management I could budget my time between the two companies and if the tent thing went well, I could basically have management run 75% of it. Being in the lawn/landscape field currently I have a lot of contacts that could help get me started in the tent business. Just trying to get some thoughts if owning 2 seasonal business that conflict with each other can be done successfully. I dont want to be so burnt out I hate getting up in the morning or never see my family, I think (but dont know) if this business could be planned well enough and have the right people that my actual labor or office time could be somewhat minimal, 10-12 per week. So who owns more then 1 company? what are some pros and cons.

[tonygreek]

i'm always a fan of expanding into other fields of business. off the top, the thing that jumps out at me is that it's primarily a fri/sat/sun/mon business. if you can give 7 days a week, why not?

i think you might also find that if you market to current lawn customers, you might see the friday mowing requests increase, along with upselling other landscape prep work for their event.

[The landscaper]

I like the idea of multiple businesses. Currently I am working 2 businesses. The second is just a direct marketing business now, but I plan to get into 2 or 3 other things. I will just be sure to have great people around me to help me through it all. I dont think 5 businesses is too much.

[Frontier-Lawn]

Right now i have the lawn bizz & Ebay bizz. later (5yrs) i plan to start up a car audio/ custom shop, than do custom choppers.

[Tvov]

off the top, the thing that jumps out at me is that it's primarily a fri/sat/sun/mon business. .

That was my first thought. There go your weekends! I have heard of a couple guys in my area that have bought a couple of those blow-up moon bounces and slides, and have them reserved for kids parties almost every weekend during the summer. This isn't too bad, because they only take like 20 minutes to set up, and maybe an hour to take down. As long as there isn't too much travel time, I could see this working.

Actually, now that I think of it, most tents that are rented for parties are setup on Thursday, so that the people can arrange seating/tables before the weekend, and they are usually taken down on Mondays. That may work well, and you may very well be able to use your mowing crews to help setup/take down. Some of your guys may be very happy to get a few overtime hours to do this, especially if it is during the week and not on weekends.

Keep us posted on how things go.

[djf]

What do i do ? What ever it takes ! It's all about cash flow.

[SodKing]

My Father runs 6 companies, it can be done

[Georgia Bull Dog]

I run 3 businesses ! I manufacture landscape lighting, have a large irrigation business and I am an H2B recruiting company. Need to establish priorities for the particular stage of your life. What is most important to you at this time.
Noe

[Anthony-MB]

I have a full time job plus run 2 businesses, lawn care (summer only) and wholesale-retail(ebay / fleamarket)

The main thing is to organize your space and time between your companies

[Pro-lawns]

i run my lawn care company plus i race stock cars on the weekends
both make me good money but it is time consumming and some times i dont have time for the famliy duriing the week but we are together on the weekends
if u have what it takes go for it

[promower]

I guess I will have to see where I'm at in a few years, I handle stress pretty good but I would hate to never be home or constantly be dealing with work all summer. I think once the cost of some of the intial startup expenses were covered this could be a good side business.

[lawnlubber]

We've met and I think you could run a second business if you tried. It's just that Gallagher Tent and Awning has been around here for many years, can you compete in that business? Not saying you can't, just need to consider it.

[ECS]

One of the LCOs here has several businesses. He has a regular alwn business. Under another name he has a landscape business. Under another he has a Bed & Breakfast and under another he has a business that brings Mexicans into the states leagally. Guess what type of help he has working for him. He has been very sucessful with all of them but little by little he is starting to loose some business because the people are wanting english speaking people coming to their place. He now is having them take english courses while they are here.

[tonygreek]

i think that, as an entrepreneur, it's always a good idea to spread out your investment in case the bottom falls out of one industry. i view it no differently that having a stock portfolio. something's got to balance out the lean times.

that being said, i own a replacement business (windows/siding/gutters), which led to the lco start-up (more to drive business to the replacement business, through current customer referrals and to keep my trailer signage out on the streets). i also am a partner in a niche web applications/software company, as well as in the early start-up phase of a small business publishing company. we're also in the planning stages to start 2 other parallel home improvement companies.

i'm also a 50/50 partner, in a 21 month old daughter and a baby on the way....

signed,
Freakin' Insane :dizzy:

[Groundcover Solutions]

I think that it is a very good idea. I friend of mine started a tent rental and set up biz when he was back in highschool with one tent. He has quite a few now and makes a good amount of money doing it. I would think your first year just getting everything set up would be quite hectick but once you got managment and good employees in place you could just schedual and send the guys out. The guy that owns the shop right next to my office is in the party rental biz and his tents are a huge seller he never goes out in the field just sends one of his trucks and a couple employees out to do the dirty work.

[promower]

Thats what I thought Groundcover, once the intial equipment is bought its just a matter of getting a few jobs and sending out the guys to set it up. Hey lawnlubber, we've met, and I couldnt compete with the companies you described, but I'm confident that if a little time was put in I could schedule 15-20 tents a year, little less then one a weekend during the summer. It would be some good extra cash flow that I could just invest the profits, or take the profits and invest it towards real estate. Or if the bottom did fall out of the lawn maintenance business I at least would have something to fall back on. The insurance of a back up plan is very appealing even though things seem to be going great with my current business.

[lawnlubber]

Plenty of people set up tents to sell fireworks you know any of those guys. Along with weddings and all the festivals they have all summer around here I guess you could market the business. You ready to start cleanups yet, I'm hoping this week.

[promower]

Definately ready for cleanups. Suppose to have a few 60 degree days this week. Picked up a new mower to so I'm anxious to try it out.

[Watkinslawnservice]

You will have to let us know how it works out for you. I think as long as you have the ambition, go for it! I work a full time job and am doing the lawn biz on fri and sat. My wife has a cleaning biz that has a huge potential if she were more antriprenuirial(sp?) I have been thinking that maybe someday I will take over the cleaning biz too and she can just work for me. Good Luck!

Dave