What do you guys make?

[Bob_McNaughton]

General question, I know.. But I really want to know this to get a better idea for my business model I am building. So my questions for everyone are:

1) What do you net each year, after taxes, payroll, expenses etc. Or if LLC, what do you pay yourself in salary?

2) What is your business makeup? Fulltime? One Rig? Snow Plowing or just mowing? Give me an idea what you do to make what you make.

3) How many residential/commercial accounts do you maintain? How many per day? How many days per week?


I know these are pretty personal questions, and I would greatly appreciate any responses to get a general picture. Accurate responses too, I know everyone likes to exaggerate. =p

Thanks

[MATTHEW]

Better do a search on the income thing. Lots of comments posted. Not too many guya are going to flat out tell you.
Remember that where you live will cause the # to fluctuate.
A gut making $20,000 profit in West Virginia may be better off
than the guy in Virginia right on the coast.

[CSRA Landscaping]

I'd like to make $20k profit. ;)

Bob, right now, after a year in biz, I keep my maintenance accounts to the last three work days of the week. I don't work all week like some of these guys do, but I manage to keep things growing. :) My expenses are much lower than a lot of others, so I don't have to work like mad. We've been grossing between $2-4k per month here, lately and it looks like things are going to keep growing, at least one would hope. I have 2 townhouse communities, a couple residences, a gas station, about half a dozen or so small business sites, plus whatever incidentals happen to trickle in, from existing accounts or otherwise. Hope this helps.

[kutnkru]

So far this season we are at around 38% profit.

Gotta be happy with numbers like that:D

Kris

[Richard Martin]

I won't tell you how much I make but I will tell you that my pretax business expenses including fuel, maintenance, insurance, mower purchases etc. runs at 15% of gross receipts averaged over 6 years. I am a solo operator so I have no workers comp.

[carl28]

I hate to tell you all this but I strongly encourage you all to seek financial advise from a professional accountant. In 12 years we have never turned a signifigant profit and if you do uncle sam will have his greedy paw out to take it and more away from you in regards to the LLC question as for the LLC question we grossed 1.6 million last year and as senior V.P. I took home a sallary of 45k before production bonuses

[thelawnguy]

Originally posted by carl28
In 12 years we have never turned a signifigant profit and if you do uncle sam will have his greedy paw out to take it and more away from you

In another post you indicated you had 150 lawn accounts serviced by what? seven trucks 5 trailers and 23 mowers. With that much overhead vs. accounts its a wonder you are still in biz at all. Unless you happen to have a Phd (Papa Has a Dealership).

[Fantasy Lawns]

Carl I'm with you ....... we do not have 1/3 that gross (some day) but our company makes very little "profit" .... as my salary is small compared to most ...... but I haven't made a truck payment or paid for gas in years, my insurance, cell, work cloth's, many other such "items" which are "work" related

but most operators are non corporate ..... I'd say a very well run operation should be in the +35% range ...

[carl28]

Not to make you feel bad bill but no one ever said they were all 25$ lawns I have 1 account that requires well over 150 hrs a week just for turf maintainence with several other cliests that require a a full day of mowing we have a 3 man residential crew that handles 84 weekly proprties and nearly a dozen more as neededs.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

Im with "THELEVEN"

The "perks" add up to alot I may not pay myself much in cash each month but if I added up all the "perks" I get I probably make good money.

Whatever I can run through the business I do.

[Runner]

Bob,

Where abouts in Michigan are you? I'm in the Flint area.:)

[Bob_McNaughton]

Royal Oak Michigan.. Ye land of 700 square feet, 200K housing. Hehe ala Silicon Valley.

[geogunn]

this wont help with your biz-plan but I make enough as a solo to keep gas in the tanks, food on the table and to take my lovely spouse out on the town at least once a week.

she carries the major medical which is a great situation.

I run a high quality operation with low overhead so my profit ratio is high for my investment. if you have vacationed here in ROCKY TOP, TENNESSEE, you have probably seen me at work. lots of personal contacts in my area leads to great opportunities.

GEO