Financial Ratios

[miltthemower]

Are there an available website from where i could get industry standards' financial ratios based on a lawn care company?

[Military Lawns]

Are there an available website from where i could get industry standards' financial ratios based on a lawn care company?

Please be more specific! Some free services are Yahoo!Finance or Bloomberg.com, only if we are on the right page.

DJ-

[miltthemower]

I am working on my business plan. In doing my (Important Assumptions Section) I have to come up with Financial Assumptions. I am looking for a site that can tell me what a Lawn Care Company my size which is small (30) clients finacial should look like.

There are certain margins I should fall into. There is a FAASB standard measure for all companies based on information gathered. Needed to know where my company falls into play. Making my business plan more realistic within the financial section.

I hope this answered your question.

[Az Gardener]

Don't loose sight of the objective. I hope this business plan is for you to have a plan. Not for a bank to get financing. I would not worry so much about what everyone else is doing but rather what you want to do. Then reverse engineer to figure out what you need to do to make it work.

Rather than saying I can only afford 1-K per month for office/shop payment. Envision what you want your office/shop to look like, how much will that cost? How many crews will I need operating to be able to afford that? What can I do in the mean time to function while still working towards my goal? Don't let others limitations dictate your future.

Industry averages are OK to look at just for curiosity sake but I wouldn't let them set the tone for my business plan.

Check PLANETs website they put out an annual report. It is divided by regions of the country and the type of work you do as well as size of your business. Its not free though and some of the numbers are suspect in my opinion. Not because I believe the contributors are lying but I don't believe enough are contributing to give true averages.

[miltthemower]

Thanks for the info. Also, I did find myself being indulged in looking for this info. Six hours yesterday. I was told it was imperative to do the research and make sure my figures closely resemble those. Not fudge the numbers but get an idea of what a financial institution would be expecting from a company my size.

Appreciate the info.

[bohiaa]

Not trying to be a butt head, But are you doing this research to get a loan?

I have found that some guys loose sight of the issue.

sure it's cool to have a GREAT website, But Remember the botton line is Go Cut Grass.

your already 6 hrs in the hole

[miltthemower]

Yes I am attempting to get a small loan 20K.

[qwerty]

Your local library should have access to subscription services that will have the information you need. Dunn and Bradstreet as well as others are commonly used for business stats.

[MacLawnCo]

PLANET, www.landcarenetwork.org , has operating cost studys from various sized companys broken down by which segment of the industry they specialize in. Its basically a best, average, and worst case I/S from across the nation. It is exactly what you are looking like.

here is the direct link for those who are search impared: http://www.landcarenetwork.org/do/productView?id=1349