Employee's -vs- Income?

[charlesw]

Just wanted to compare some stats.

How many people are in your crew (including yourself)?
What is your yearly income (not including expenses)?

[andyslawns]

I am a one man show. I think you can make a lot more money by yourself but you wont do as many big jobs. I have only 14 accounts at 30-40 bucks a piece, each one takes about 30-45 minutes each. To sum it all up i make about 5k a year thats after maintance, gas,new equitment. Its not much, but not bad for a 15yr old.

[MATTHEW]

I have been thru 4 guys in 2 tears. Now I'm solo
again.I like it much better this way. I really
needed help in the spring, and I'm really gonna need
it in the fall, but right now I am slow. No rain in
a while. If I was paying a guy now- I'd be in serious
trouble. But if You hire a guy and when times get slow,
they do not want to hear that you cannot use them this
week! They will be gone! I say either you hire someone
full time and keep it that way (to get a good employee)
or just stay solo and streamline your accounts.

[lawnman_scott]

Can make alot more with employees in my opinion. 3 on our crew, and thinking about a fourth and splitting up into two crews. There are more headaches, thats for sure, and good employees are out there, but very very hard to find.

[Guardian]

With the use of your equipment, you can probably earn $30+ an hour alone. With a helper & no additional equipment, you can easily make twice that. Plus you share the work load - I wouldn't dream of going out alone.

[Runner]

I agree, but it's when you start seperating crews that your stuff starts getting all busted up. With mowing, it's just not that lucrative to do with several crews and such. Way too much overhead, and it costs around 9ish an hour to keep good help. At this rate, they can eat up your profits in a hurry if you got two guys out cutting and taking up a whole bunch of road time. I am ALWAYS seeing crews out working with one or two guys standing around the truck. They may not ALWAYS do that, but 10 minutes here and there, especially times two, can really add up at the end of the week. Most guys that run the multiple crews don't do it for the income as much as for the steady cash flow. Bigger LCOs make their money off of total maintenance, fert. apps, landscape installations, plowing and salting, etc. Most solo operators, I believe do the mowing for the profits. If a solo operator can pace himself, and do fert. and small installations too, then he can make a BUNDLE. Ask these guys, THEY'll tell ya. Of course, there ARE some variables, but for the most part, that's how these guys out there are doing it.

[jeffyr]

You can't be a solo forever in my opinion. Your body will get old eventually.

[PrimeGreen Lawn]

Currently have 3 full-time, 2 part-timers
full time gets around 45 hrs/week
parters get about 15-25

Scott

[Pauls Mowing]

Just my wife and I for now. We will be adding more help next year as we grow.

Paul

[97Stroker]

Currently running a 4-5 man crew, to cut 160 lawns, 3 days a week. It is a pain in the tail, alotta hours, the guys get burned out. We cut about 40 - 50 lawns a day, and there are some pretty big ones we do. If I were the boss, I would just have 2 guys, maybe 3 and cut down to the 60 big lawns we have. Just the customers that we do applications and hedges for. That way we always have something to do on our off days.