What Do You Guys Make A Week $$$

[walters lawn]

JUST WOULD LIKE TO KNOW . I AM PART TIME AND WOULD LOVE TO GIVE UP THIS JOB THAT I AM AT AND MOW FULL TIME . I JUST NEED TO KNOW IF THE MONEY IS THERE . I HAVE DONE THE MATH AND IT LOOKS LIKE I COULD MAKE MORE THAN I DO NOW . I CANT TAKE ON ANY MORE YARDS AND KEEP WORKING AT THIS JOB . WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DO? GIVE ME A RANGE OF WHAT SOME OF YOU MAK A WEEK. I WILL BET YOU ALL OUT GROSS ME AND I MAKE ABOVE WHAT THE NORMAL PAY IS AROUND HERE. AFFTER A FUE POST I WILL TELL YOU WHAT I AM MAKING AT THIS JOB.

[kerr lawn]

on average i make about 2,000 wk with side jobs. Now i have done more work in a week to make more money.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

Not enough :D

[David Gretzmier]

my brother does lawncare full time and makes 2000+ per week by himself with ztrs and hydro walkbehinds. unfortunately with helpers he only makes 2400-2600 per week. but then he only works 30 hours a week... Of course this is only from april1 -mid nov. Dave g

[Brickman]

I am with Greenquest. Not nearly enough. What you gross and what you get to take home are worlds apart. Too much over head. One thing to keep in mind with working for your self, there is no benifits unless YOU pay for them. No retirement, no health insurance, you get the picture.

[Pro-Lawn]

Never enough. Never will tell. LOL
Good rule to follow in this business also.

Eric Goodwin
Pro-LawnCare.com

[parkwest]

Originally posted by walters lawn
WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DO?

How about turning off your caplock?

You might want to be more specific when you ask how much a lco makes. A lot of guys on here think their gross equals their net or their salary or their cashflow. Had one lady tell me she thought cashflow was what went through her checking account.

Does anyone know the conversion rate of sacks of potatoes versus dollars?

[perfection lawn care]

I am averaging around $500 wk part time, I also work a full time job at the post office. It takes me around 12 hrs to do 15 yards by myself give or take a little. Hope this helps!

[KirbysLawn]

Most of the above is correct but how would it help you? The above post says $500...before or after taxes, insurance......??

Also each market and operator will vary greatly. While I may say I make $5000 a week, is this good advise for you? No, because you may bid less than I and work twice as hard. Or you may bid higher and work much less. Do a market survey at your local level, find what most make per hour or lawn, get figures on insurance, equipment cost, fuel, figure your taxes then see what you have left.

If that number looks good then go for it.

[perfection lawn care]

Sorry, that is gross before overhead at years end it will come out around 40 per hour average minus overhead.

[David Haggerty]

I've got to earn every cent.

It's tougher here than on a job. Especially when you can earn extra money mowing lawns on the side.

But if you can see a profit from wherever you are in Tennessee, go for it. Welcome aboard!

If you're looking for assurances everything's going to be OK, you aren't going to hear it from me.

You reallly didn't give us much info to go on. What do you mow with? Married?



Do I make good money?
Yeah, it's OK!

Do I think you will?
Kind of hard to say.

Dave

[HOMER]

Not enough but a lot more that I used to make. But then again I used to not have all the payments I have now.

I was lulled into this false sense of securtiy ya know. Making more than I ever made-made me spend more than I ever spent.

I think I screwed up somewhere along the way.:)

BUT I STILL DON'T HAVE TO PUNCH THAT CLOCK..........(intentional yelling)

[Toroguy]

Originally posted by walters lawn
I AM PART TIME AND WOULD LOVE TO GIVE UP THIS JOB THAT I AM AT AND MOW FULL TIME . I JUST NEED TO KNOW IF THE MONEY IS THERE . I HAVE DONE THE MATH AND IT LOOKS LIKE I COULD MAKE MORE THAN I DO NOW .

Take the calculator and try some algebra.

If you have three PT customers and you gross $100, then you should figure you will need 30 similar customers to gross $1000.

A calculator wasn't even needed.

Good luck.

[LawnLad]

Your question is answered in greater detail in ALCA's Operating Cost Study. Buy it and read it. It deals in percentages for a reason - because that's what matters when you look at various companies when comparing one company to the next.

Your service mix will affect your profit. Your overhead structure will affect profit. A typical LCO might be at 4% profit margin, while a high profit company might be at 12% to 16%. What is a high profit company? Buy the Cost Study. Does this include owner's salary? Is equipment an overhead or direct expense?

These percentages don't mean anything unless you compare apples to apples, which means you need to classify things similarly or be able to break your numbers down into a similar format to compare with industry numbers so you can accurately benchmark.

Frank Ross developed a chart of accounts for the indusry at ALCA's request. This chart of accounts is available in his "Pricing for the Green Industry" book (also available through ALCA).

Use this chart of accounts - it's very thorough. You won't need every account he lists - but he lists most of what you'll need.

Your question about how much people make can be interupted in so many ways - it's impossible to answer the question without 150 qualifiers. Short quick and simple answers cause more problems unintentionally with misleading information because the reader doesn't know the basis for comparison. Hence the reason for comparing apples to apples with standard formats.

Walters - just remember you may very well hurt yourself if you're deceived into thinking that gross numbers are what matter in this business. You'll very quickly get yourself into a volume type mentality - not paying attention to pricing on the job and pricing for a profit. One of the reasons so many people flock to the industry si that they see $$$ BIG NUMBERS $$$ in gross sales - and think that the cost to operate the business is small. Why then are companies making on 4% on sales? Can you live on $1200 from $30,000 in sales?

[lasher66]

I cut by myself about 30 to 35 hrs per week and do about $1050 a week. BUT!! That number is only good depending on how much rain we get through the summer because if customers lawns start to die then some of my customers are bi-weekly cutting then that cuts down the profit.

Lasher66

[tlcservices]

very good homer it f---king sucks down here