Lawn & Landscape mag. Pro Magazine

[AVRECON]

I've been receiving 3 or 4 of these publications for quite awhile. They always have these lco's making million+. My question is do we have any millionaires posting here? I personally don't know anyone making that kind of $, do you? These cats are always dressed in suits or nice CLEAN clothes. How many of you are THEM? You know, ride around in your air condition truck checking on your crews and pricing jobs, not doing the dirty work? Not me and not many folks that I know in this biz.

[Indiana]

I have wondered the same thing. How does a guy turn over a million in mowing and maintenance?

I bust my rear and bearly break 80K gross. What am I doing wrong?

I suspect your market has alot to do with it but 1,000,000 in gross sales would be hard to achieve even with crews, more trucks, and equipment.

I am so dirty and nasty by the time I get home, I probably wouldn't even look like a crew member much less the owner. My wife says I can't stay clean five minutes. Bad thing is she's right.

I love to work, mow, and make money. I would love being a millionaire, but I would still work. Of course, the low end residential customers would not be getting my services. I would do serious customer weeding.

[fivestarlawnken]

That kind of money would be nice, is that 1 million profit after truck payments,taxes,wages etc,etc. Oh well back to dreamland.:D

[LAWNGODFATHER]

It is possable. i have done it. But you can't do it with ameriacan labor. (not going to get in that arguement)

I have seen the guys doing 5 million + in revinue. but your not going to do it on low income res. or low paying comm.

That is the high end market with thousands of hour spent selling and making sure you get the accounts you bid on.

Example: you bid on 20 million dollars worth of account at a fair market rate how many will you close on. Maby 1 million. but you will have to have the labor to go in and do the work expected of you in a very time orrented fasion. If not they will say bye real fast.

What those guys say is true but it takes time and not riding around in the truck mowing. That's impossable, I know from experiance.

I could go one for a long time on this one but I'm not going to

LGF:blob1:

[strickdad]

i have a competeor near me in one of the larger towns in n.c. and he does about 3.8 millon in gross sales a year he has 100 full time employees ( 4 full time mechanics) he is into strictly maintance no heavy landscaping etc.

[mdb landscaping]

i of course am not the millionare in the magazine, but one person featured in one of the publications was. it was actually lori speigleman landscaping from CT. i think she was making a large amount for her small business. she got into the top ten i think. so if she can do it here, i guess its feasible for somebody else.

[dmk395]

I think its possible. The key is setting up the right sytems, for which you are merely the director, not the mule. Nonetheless 1 million in gross sales is impressive, but lets remember gross income and net income are two totally different animals.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Yes that is right. If you are grossing over 1 mill a year doesn't mean netting a mill.

This year I had to cut back fast and not look back. Money and Labor was a big key issue, but there were various other things. Never the less it can be done and done well.

LGF:blob1:

[turfman99]

gross 250K and net out 20% with a lot less hassle???

It can be done quite easily.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Yep me to

I'm back to the old $200,000 + a year gross but I miss not having to get up every morning and not have to get dirty all the time. I wish I could have subbed it all out but would miss mowing. i've gotten a few big breaks over the years and used them well, but you can't rely on American employees to keep you going.

LGF:blob1:

[John Allin]

Hmmmm...............

Should I be embarrassed by my clean clothes ??

[HBFOXJr]

Your right on with your numbers.

One thing I do when I read that stuff is divide annual sales by the number of employees. Then subtract out what you pay a guy for the year and do math on materials and equipment as a percent of sales plus overhead and there is not much left for the angst and investment.

Give me a decent % on Hundreds of K any day.

[Dochere]

I've always believed that, to own /operate a company, one had to have a general understanding of marketing and procedures, and a good deal of sales background or training. You need marketing to get the leads and sales ability to get the customers. If you can market correctly, you will be able to produce a plentiful amount of quality leads and if done properly, your cost per lead average should be a very acceptable #. If you back that up with an aggressive sales ability, you should have no problem securing accounts and be heading on your way to 1+ million a year. Now, there are allot of other variables in this, like, business management, quality control, correct # of employee's to handle work, etc. Being an LCO at 250,000 a year, most of you legitimately operating in this range have these ability's locked down. Operating at a million plus utilizes these same abilities, only on a larger scale. I moved 1.2 million in home improvement product last year with the break being averaged at 44%. This was a combined effort of a great marketing program and sales ability that was honed over the course of 6 years. I've increased my numbers over the last 6 years dramatically, the first year I was in sales I moved 350,000 in product. Trial and error was the best teacher I have ever had. I killed the marketing programs that did not work, I changed my presentation and approach, I tried new things all the time, and it works. It works better now than when I started, it will work better next year than this year. There are crafty and clever ways the LCO's that " dress in suits or nice CLEAN clothes" use to get to where they are today. Most of them started pushing a mower just like most people here, but, they utilized other talents they had, with trial and error, and never giving up, and trying the idea that sounds quirky but why not, and look, they are now being written about in industry standard magazines. Allot of business owners I know in this range owe it to their marketing and sale ability, I bet the ones being written about, do as well.

Just a thought.

If anyone here would like more information on marketing ideas that I have used or sales pitches that I have found to be useful, please email me, and I will be happy to share the knowledge I have gained and my imagination for the future.

[paul]

John, don't worry about the clean clothes, It's the Green Feet that they have to worry about.
Yes it is possibile to do a million or more a year.
Things you need, a market large enough for your million.
People to do the work.
Equipment to do it profitability.
Sales and marketing staff that understand profit.
The ability to handle all facets of landscaping.*
*With out the last, customers will use other firms opening them up to sales and marketing!

[danthemowerman]

It's not hard,
A crew of three in residental can groos 100k easily,
A five man crew on condo's, 25 man hours = 5 hours at a condo can gross 240k.April-2nd week in Nov.
Just get 5 to 10 crews, might take some years and loans, but it'll pay off!!!

[hustlers]

lawngodfather

I agree it is hard to get quality american workers
for even 10 $ an hour that will do the work exactly
the way you tell them but
I Go to mexico every winter for 3 months and work
at an mexican orphanage
When we have a work project we tell them exactly
what to do and they do it after that they will just sit
there but they do it the way you tell them and
when your working for them i do it exactly the way
they tell me if it takes twice as long (they arent big
on new ways to do manual labor)
jason

[Nathan]

There is an outfit around here(probably many more but this one I know personally) that is a million plus. The owner does very little except a little bidding and lots of putting out fires. The surprising thing is that the crews run around in pos trucks with poorly mainained equipment and minimally trained personnel. No company identification, etc.
So be aware, that next scrub you see could be part of a huge scrub ring.

[David Gretzmier]

Ok- were close to 600k, we will do a million in 2 years or so. 2 million in 5 years, and regular growth after that. my reality is a town with 50,000 folks and we have easily 100 back yard bobs with trucks and trailers. there is no one like us here, and in uniform, with great work, super lawn trucks and mostly new equipment ( with for the moment AMERICAN workers running it lawngodfather) we pick and choose our work, concentrating on high end residential and commercial, it will happen for us. In this field, if you show up on time, show up regularly, and do a good or better job, you honestly, around here anyway, are at the top 2 % of lawn care companies before you even price your work. and it must be priced at the top. people pay more every day of the week for premium clothes, food, cars and furniture. we convince folks to step up to the plate and stop using backyard bob. even if we just eliminate 10% of the scrubs, that puts us over a million in sales with 90% of them left.

we will probably do some h2b employees next year, and maybe do split shifts to handle additional volume with the same equipment and trucks ( 1 crew goes 5:00-1:00, another from 1:30-9 with sharpening and cleanup at the end of each shift. ) backup mowers are essential and continuously needed. computerized routing and invoicing must work. 3 separate divisions for chemical, installation and beds, and mowing are essential. I could go on, but we are still learning and will continue to improve. it can be done but I don't ride around and point. I work. Dave g

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Thats good David but i've paid upwords of $15 an hour and it's like baby sitting. I put an add in the paper and get the guys who want a boat load of money and no work ethics. Then you put them in a new truck with new equipment, and they come back at 12:00 and say i'm tired today. I have to go to the DR.. whatever.
I've had the jobs and the equipment and every thing that goes with it. Every thing was in place even employees. I could go on and on. But the fact is we are in different areas with a different labor pool to choose from. Hell McD's is starting pay at $9 an hr now they cant get help either. So I guess it stands in St. Louis, Mo are workers SUCK!

LGF:blob1:

[wallzwallz]

Around here,SE Massachusetts,there is enough work to do a million a year easy.Problem is not enough help. We don't really have non americain labor in large enough numbers to make up a work force.For 4 yrs now i've been trying to make a 3 man crew into 2 2man crews.I have plenty of work,my 2 present employees are more than capable of running another crew,have equipment + trucks.I haven't had a helper make 2 weeks last 2 yrs. Stopped trying this yr, too much aggravation taking add out ,interviewing, start to train ,they either quit or are incompetent and you know why they don't have a job. McDonalds up the street $10 an hr to start,they can't find help.Lasr year i hired 3 diff3rent times over phone{read desperate] never evan showed up, don't know what to do:confused:

[turfman99]

Start with hopefully a mature adult Hispanic around 45 to 50. Pay him well, take care of him and then tell him to start bringing his family to work for you. Brothers, sons, son in laws, cousins, tell him you'll hire his whole family. The culture pays respect to the "Uncle" figure and every one he brings will be obligated to him and respect him and what he says. It turn, they will show you the "patron" respect, because you are the benefactor that is helping and concerned that the "family unit" get ahead and do well.

There will be intense peer pressure for the family unit to succed and make the patron money,because the patron will take care of them and there familia.

Everything will run through the Uncle or "hafee" ( field boss) and he will take care of all work ethic and displine problems, because they will all defer to his leadership and guideance.

Honor "Cinco De Mayo" with a big festia, and be prepared to have more than your work force there. The Hispanics without family in the area, will bond to the company and co workers as extended "familia" and will bring other similary unassociated HIspanics to any social event your compania puts on.

Work (trabajo') is a central thing in the Hispanic culture, when theycome to El Norte'. Hispanics prefer to know at least 3 days to a week in advance what they are doing.

One thing we teach in COMPASS, is that the Hispanics are REQUIRED

[wallzwallz]

when i said non americain i was saying we don't have hispanic, brazilian or any real immigrant help, high rent + house market. I know of big landscaper that buses them in from the city, but i'm not driving 40 miles each morning to pickup 1 helper