Survey... Average gross for solo LCO...

[Bassman]

Informal survey question... regardless of what part of the country you are located, would 50K be a reasonable yearly GROSS figure for a solo LCO? I realize this is a loaded question. There are infinate variables that come into play with every biz. I'm not talking about 70 hr. weeks or doing tree work or installations, just normal LCO work and an average hr. work week year round. PLEASE leave ego's at the door, not asking any posters what they are grossing, just comments please.
Thanks to all.
Bassman

[carl28]

I think for a solo guy 50k is very reasonable just be careful that you realize that you will only net about 30-35 percent of your gross so before yu go make a huge investment evaluate if 15000-18000 is a satisfactory income for yur self and realize that you will be workin twice as hard and twice as long as you intially think

[LoneStarLawn]

Lets see...

$50,000 gross with $45,000 in expenses (not including salary) is not good compared to $40,000 gross with $20,000 in expenses (not inlcuding salary).

There was a good article in Lawn & Landscape magazine about a company that at first was looking towards gross not net..at one point was $100,000 in the red (1998 I believe) Someone stated that "You are not a non-profit organization. You are a profit organization" ...I would worry about my net income than my gross income.

[Mark]

cari28 im grossing in the 60s and i net in the mid to upper 40s thats well over 35% if i didn't make over a 35% profit id be doing something else for a living. Im very conservtive with my expenses. Marks Mowing Service

[Bassman]

Thanks LoneStarLawn... Exactly what I was hoping to hear. Met a guy who ran a succesful LCO and decided to expand. He went from grossing 60K and netting 40K to having 10 employees with a gross of 600K and a net to him personally of 10K. I understand the importance of the bottom line. Still want to hear from posters regarding GROSS revenue regardless of the huge importance of "net" income. If I threw that into this informal survey, "that dog would not hunt". Just to many variables involved there.

[bruces]

I'm just getting started, but I would think that if you are primarily mowing you should be able to gross 50 and net 35-40 if you dont have any other labor cost. Should be possible to gross 1200 to 1500 per week X 30 or more weeks.

Hopefully this is realistic.

[carl28]

speaking for myself with 12 fulltime field employees and a gross maintainence income in the mid 6 figures we are quite satisfied with a 30% profit margin. I can however see that being a solo operator with no overhead your expenses are less and your margin higher I was speaking for my self and sis not mean to offend any one who is making a higher margin. as long as it wors for you i say go for it just remeber you wont always be able to follow that walkbehind and sometimes its better to lead thatn follow.

[LoneStarLawn]

If you are making a decent profit and decent living than yes 50k is fine.

[Bob_McNaughton]

I would certainly hope a guy grossing 50k would take home more than 15k. At 15k, I would think he needs to seriously take a look at his books, and figure out what he is doing wrong.

I've talked to alot of guys running around my area with trailers and mowers over the last few weeks. They all seem to average around 50-90k gross for solo operations. One guy I talked to today, did 78k last year solo, and plans on doing 100-110k this year with a fulltimer working with him.

Remember, thats 50-90k over summer, or an average of 7 months of mowing with 5 months of downtime during the winter. None of the guys I talk to plow. Thats a HEALTHY income for a summer only job. Much more than most teachers make.

Net is too complicated of a beast to discuss, because everyone has different overheads. My overhead will be somewhat higher when I start next year, because i'm a "All out" kinda guy. I don't like to do anything half assed. My major expense will be my truck, and probably my other other payment will be a 52 or 50ztr on payments. Everything else, including the enclosed trailer will probably be cash.

Without looking at figures indepth, I would assume that a net margin of 45-55% should be obtainable to the average guy. If not more..

15-18k a year is NOT a satisfactory income for anyone. After looking over some figures, I honestly don't see how someone doing over 50k a year in lawns can only net 15k. The math just doesn't add up that low.

[Lawn-Scapes]

Bassman,

I was solo down in West Palm Beach area and did 50-60K. You can count on 50-60 hours in the summer, but kick back in the winter. I'm hoping to do 50k in my 3rd year here in MD... in 8 months time.

That guy you mentioned did something very wrong...

[brucec32]

Gross can be a misleading figure, since a lot of the people here must be referring to landscaping, not just maintenance. Planting a $300 tree for $350 nets you a gross margin of only $50. Mowing $300 worth of lawns might yield an actual profit after expenses of $250. You can gross $100,000 and lose money landscaping.

Mowing work is seasonal, but in the south, it's a 9-10 month a year job. $360 a day is sustainable for a young man alone, with experience and good equipment, in the right market, based on a 4 day work week, 10 hours a day, with one day a week for bad weather, maintenance, billing, breakdowns, odd jobs, etc, etc. That's $1440/week, peak season. You can fill in in spring and fall with cleanups and shrubs, leaf removal, etc. Over 9 months, that's a "gross" of $51840. Expenses for a owner-operator might be $8000-$10,000. Factor in the "free" use of your work truck for personal use, and you've got a pretty decent job. That's about $42,000 for 1440 hours of work, or $29.17/hour. And that includes your commute time!

The typical low/middle-manager office worker who makes $42,000 has to work more like 2000 hours a year to earn his money, plus an additional 300 hours sitting in traffic. That means he has 2300 hours of his time invested, for a hourly total of $18.26. Plus, he has to PAY some guy to mow his lawn cuz he's so busy working.

The negative to this rosy story is that it's hard work. Very hot, hard, dirty, work. Only very well organized, smart guys can be efficient enough to produce on this level w/o working weekends. Also, Chicks don't think it's cool, you won't get many offers to join a country club, and you will feel older than your years after a while. But I do enjoy it when some of my snootier customers see me drive up in a bmw to collect a payment on the weekend. You should see their jaws drop.

[strickdad]

ladys and gentlemen carl and bruce are right!!! 10 YEARS AGO I WENT FROM MAKING 12,000 DOLLARS A YEAR TO MAKING 200,000 THOUSAND A YEAR I WENT FROM A 1 MAN PART TIME OPERATATION TO A 3 MAN FULL TIME(PLUS 1 PART TIME) OPERATATION. I WENT FROM HAVING PLENTY OF CASH IN MY POCKET ALL THE TIME TO LOOSING 20,000 DOLLARS IN LESS THAN A YEAR .... IF YOU DONT DO ANY THING ELSE, KEEP YOUR OVERHEAD IN CHECK OR YOU WILL END UP BROKE !!!

[Bassman]

Thanks to all posters for your response, as usual there are always many people on this forum who volunteer info pertaining to just about anything to do with the biz. (And most times without it being in a condescending or satirical fashion, no matter how dumb or overly simplistic the question is). Mucho class.
I am starting my second year and hope to be in the 50K gross range over the next 12 months with app. 7 or 8 K expenses to manage somewhere around 40K net,(pre-tax of course). Needed some of you guys out there thru your responses to let me know if this was in the ball park for a fairly young, well run solo LCO operation.
Thanks again, much appreciated.