How many lawns to start 3, 5, 10.....

[twins_lawn_care]

Just wondered how some of you guys started out in the first few years.
We are doing this part time now, and for our first year (started in July) we have 4 regular weekly mowing jobs. Doesn't sound like a lot, but we wanted to see how to handle everything first (taxes, licenses, insurance, billing, etc.)
next year we are going to set our goal for 10 lawns.
Most of our work has been in the extras (bushes, clean ups, etc.) and just wondered how you guys started out.

Our goal, long term looks a little like
1st year 4 lawns
2nd year 10 lawns
3rd year 25 lawns
4th year 60....
slowly growing until we can support the business as our full time income.

any thoughts are appreciated!
Yeah, and I know 4 lawns is not much, but like I said, we are trying to only take on what we can handle at this time. We want to do it right, and grow slowly, so we don't over-grow, and fail.

[mtdman]

1st year: 12 lawns part time.
2nd year: 35-45 lawns part time.
3rd year: 85 lawns full time
4th year: 100+ full time

Basically by my 3rd year we were going full blast. I'm now in my 8th year, I had 85 lawns total this year, solo, very full time. Next year I am going to drop down to 65, and try to stay there, unless I start hiring.

[WeatherMan]

1st. year 38 Lawns
2nd year 82 Lawns
3rd year Cant Find the paperwork right now but it was overa 100
4th year 191 Lawns

Word Of Mouth landed most Jobs
80/20 Split resdental/commercial

Twins so your not going full time untill your 4th year

[twins_lawn_care]

Hey weatherman, thanks for the reply.
For a little background, I operate the business with my partner. He will probably go full time first, then myself when able.
We want to ensure we can live off of the income before making any drastic moves. I have a wife and 2 kids (TWINS) and quitting my full time job will be a big decision. So we want to get a good foot in on the business, and be sure we can handle it when we go full time. He is getting married, and has financial needs as well.
We figure we can handle 20 lawns in one day if needed, so until we at least reach that, we'll both be fine still working full time.
We don't expect to go full time for 4 years, just to ensure enough time to experience as much as we can before making such a decision. Until then, we're trying to put as much money back into the business to build it up. We'd like to hit 100 lawns, and hire out some help when the time comes, then have a comfortable pillow to fall back on in a bad season. All a learning experience right now, but loving it!

Let me know what you feel about this plan, if it seems odd, or if you agree with the ideas?

[rodfather]

Number and size really doesn't matter all that much...it's how much revenue they bring in that is most important. 20 postage stamp sized lawns a day may be nothing to some (me included). 10 or 12 3+ acre props each day is something else.

Find your niche and go from there...good luck.

[WeatherMan]

Your Plan Sounds Good you do what you have to do That's my Motto

[ffemt1271]

started in may with 1 lawn. up to 12 weekly and a few bi-weekly in september, already taking accounts for next year too

[Team Gopher]

Hi Twins_lawn_care,

You have a lot of foresight. That is going to really pay off for you in the future!

[tiedeman]

I think my first year I was like around 12 lawns, just by myself with my trusty old push mower...awww, those were the days

[DFW Area Landscaper]

++++Word Of Mouth landed most Jobs++++

I haven't seen that here at all in the DFW area. I started in January with zero accounts. I'm doing this full time and here I am 9 months later with 27 accounts. I'd guess about 65% hired me from a door hanger/flyer or other form of "paid" advertisement, and the balance hired me because they saw me doing their neighbors' lawn.

Only one customer that I know of actually heard about me from a friend...word of mouth.

Yes. I'm starving.

Later,
DFW Area Landscaper

[Lanelle]

If you're starving, are you offering other services such as mulching to the 27 clients that you have? Doing pruning and yard clean-up work is another way to build your income.

[Tbarchaser]

110 first 8 months.......Just my partner and i...two rigs.

A mix of postage stamps up to 14 acre, res/com.

[kutnkru]

Lets say for arguments sake that it wont take you as a solo more than 5 mins of travel time average throughout your day to get between your accts.

If you are able to cut your lawns in about 10 mins and have them trim and blown off in 5-10 addt'l then your looking at almost 2.5 lawns per hr or 19/8hrs or 80 per week.

If you are able to cut your lawns in about 15 mins and have them trim and blown off in 5-10 addt'l then your looking at about 2 lawns per hr or 16/8hrs or 95 per week.

Now if you figure that as the day goes on and with traffic delays your going to lose about 40% of your peak productivity ,,, Id say that your 80 lawn producutivity will dwindle realistically to about 48 lawns +/- per week and 60 lawns for the 95 mark.

I would say that as you become more familiar with your equipment and fine tune your operations a 2 man crew should be able to handle 110-125 accts without killing yerselves yet getting a good days labor in.

[HOMER]

I quit my full time job in May of 98. I started this business in August 96, really late in the year but it wasn't supporting me. In 98 when I went full time I had somewhere around 30 accounts and most were not year round contracts. I took a leap of faith, quit early enough in the season to gather up some more accounts. Probably needed to stay on at the factory another year and convert those 30 to year round........that first winter was a killer. Since then I've been up near 100 accounts and have now backed down to 70 or so. I'd just as soon have 30 well paying accounts as I would 100......numbers don't mean anything as stated above....not accounts anyway....the revenue from each account is what matters. As a better account comes along I'll drop an older cheaper account. I'd really like to trim the business down to around 50 good payers and stay there.

If you have a "partner" then you two could handle more than what you have right now. It does take time to get enough accounts to support one family.......your gonna be trying to support 2.........need to get busy selling your services now or neither one of you will make enough to eat and pay bills.

Question.and just curious. Why do you need a partner this early in the game?

[twins_lawn_care]

Thanks for the advice.
About the partner question,
I did not need a partner this early in the game, nor did he need me. We just felt that one of us could not do as good a job at this as two of us could. We both also work full time jobs, with not so steady schedules, so one week he'll work one morning, and I'll work evenings, etc. which fits our schedule.
Also, we have been good friends for years, and both have the same goals in mind, to be our own bosses. This way, when one of us starts to lose hope, the other can help keep it going. It's going to be rough for a few years until we go full time, but then it will all pay off.
We've also heard on how going into business together will ruin a friendship, but we've agree to end the business before that happened, if it ever got that far. We are both sure it will not though.
Keep the number coming!
We do agree, even though we only have a few houses right now, we see which houses bring in the money, rather than 15 only mowing accounts.
Thanks for the advice everyone:D