One man show?

[steveair]

Hello,

As this year is beginning to come to an end, I now am in the process of beginning to think where my company is going to be next year.

One question I have is what kind of expectations can I have for running a 1 man opearation, performing mainly landscape construction, with the occasional mulch/pruning/etc jobs, but no mowing, trimmming, etc.

When looking at what I did this year as a part time business, I'm starting to think that a gross in the range of 250-300k would be a realistic goal (with no plowing), and that a 400k gross for a year seems like it would be possible if I really set my mind on it, of course my life would consist of 7 day work weeks for 44 weeks.

Any input appreciated, or anyone out there who is solo can surely be of some help too.

by the way, I'm single, so that means a lot in what kind of dedidication I have to reach my goal.......LOL....no wife to nag me about not seeing me for 2 weeks because I leave at 5 AM and get home at 9 PM
steveair

[paul]

Are you planning on having a socal life?

[rats5656]

making 250 k how is that possible as a one man shoe hoe ?

[rats5656]

making 250 k how is that possible as a one man show how ?

[steveair]

too maybe clarify a few things:

I plan I could Gross 250k-300k, and then maybe profit 30-40% of that for my self. So far this year, I am on track to hit the 70k gross mark, with a average profit of 30-50% on every job. Of course, there's taxes involved here too, so that 'in my pocket' money is far less.

I have been working my business around my full time job. I work 5 days/40 hrs a week, 6-2 m-f, and had took one of my vacation weeks to do a job. This is what I am basing my prediction on. I figure if I were full time, I could get jobs done A LOT faster than i have been. When you start a job a 3 pm, and work till dark, you can get a lot done, but things like all the supply yards closing at 5 and what not really have slowed me down.

As for a a social life........none now. I figured the 5 years I spend guzzling beer with all my buddies in college had to catch up with me sometime, and the time is now. Now I got to face the music and get things going before I'm fifty years old and still doing the same thing/making the same money as I do now.

Besides, what more of a social life outside of lawnsite does one need......................LOL

steveair

[Edited by steveair on 10-16-2000 at 01:09 AM]

[Ocutter]

I too want to go as far as I can go with a single man operation. I cant imagine doing what you do. God bless you. Just stay healthy and dont burn yourself out.

[Lanelle]

Remember that is takes time to grow a business. Do you have lots of pent-up demand that will allow that much expansion in a short period of time? If not, you'll need more marketing, advertising stratigies. Also, managing growth is a little harder than it looks, sometimes.

[PRapoza451]

steveair,
I would look at this another way. Most people shoot for higher gross sales #'s. This doesn't necessarily mean anything. I like to look at things in the opposite direction, I’ve found this works better for me and lets me focus on what’s more important which is my compensation. If you start out with the dollar figure you want to make (has to be reasonable) you can set your rates, markup, hourly rate, etc., around that #. For instance if I wanted to make $70K and I sold primarily hours and I could work 2080hrs. (40hrs/week x 52weeks/yr.) That would tell me I need to charge $33.65/hr. and I need to sell 2080hrs@$33.65/hr. in a year. However if I only wanted to work 1600hrs/yr. then I need to charge $43.75/hr. This is a very simple example and other things need to be factored in (overhead, taxes, insurance, etc.) You get the idea. You can do this factoring in everything else too, material markups etc... Good luck!
http://www.rapoza.com

[Edited by PRapoza451 on 10-16-2000 at 11:55 AM]

[Toddppm]

Well if ambition has any part in it , you got that licked.

[jaclawn]

I am in the same boat, so to speak. I thought of being a one man show doing landscape work. There is money in it, more so than mowing. The main reason that I didn't decide to do landscape work alone, is the fact that it is often heavy and hard work. Those timbers get awefully heavy to move alone. That wheelbarrow gets heaiver as the day goes on. Oops, that hole for the tree is not deep enough, and the tree has to come back out of the hole... You get the idea. On many projects, it is nice to have another set of muscles around.

[Stonehenge]

To add to what Jaclawn said, suppose you're working on a new construction home, nobody living there yet, you're in back and a 3" tree ball lands on you. Unless you can gnaw your legs off, you won't be going anywhere for awhile. Or, like me today, working on a 5' retaining wall on a hillside - I almost rolled me and my skidloader backwards down a 100' long hill. If it wasn't for the bumper style weight kit on back to stop my momentum, I may have gone over (then again, if I didn't have the weight kit, I may not have tipped in the first place).

Hard to ask for help when your out cold upside-down in a skidloader.

Even if the other guy is a no-account, he can probably dial 911.

[steveair]

While at the airport, I see pilots take off solo all the time.

I figure thats me. Flying solo, and if the *hit hits the fan, only I can help myself out.

Someday, when I get the time, I hope to learn. Until then I'll just stick with performing 'aerial' acrobats on my dingo instead....

steveair

P.S. Jac, as I reply, that is a VERY strong point on why it is nice to have that extra person around. That is why I got he dingo. I hate to brag on about it, but if you are a one man show, it is the absolute best thing since hiring two spanish laborers. What it has done for me in the 3 weeks I have had it I figured has postponed me from having backpains a couple months later on in life when my body is old and withered. There's only so many bends in one knees, and so many lifts in ones back. I don't want to use them all up yet!

steveair

[osc]

Steveair:

I can see why someone would want to fly solo and I've done it quite a bit myself, but I must say that IF you can find a valuable employee or two, it's a very rewarding experience for your business. It's taken me a few years to land upon some good people to work with and I am more profitable and having a lot more fun as a result. Bad employees can make you want to fly solo again for sure but I cannot personally acheive the numbers you are talking about without the good ones.
I'm on track to gross 140k in lawn and landscape, mostly lawn care. I do have a pretty high profit margin as my expenses are around 30-40k. I don't think I can grow much more without seriously changing the way I do business. Right now I stand over everything that is done but I cannot be everywhere at once and that is holding me back. If you acheive your goals next year, please tell me how you did it.

[tpirobert]

Stevair:

Don't know your age, but I'm 42. Been full-time with my bus for 12 years. Did alot solo and my body reminds me everyday. Only need to pull your back out bad one time to have problems thereafter. Make best use of your equipment ( wish I had a Dingo! ) and get a helper. If your happy being Solo, great. As long as Lawnsite is online, there's always support. Just wish this pooter could lift stone, dirt, mulch and get that 100lb Hemlock out of the truck bed!

[jay]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tpirobert
[B]Stevair:

I'm with this guy, I've been in business for almost five years now and I am practically solo all the time and my bodies so sore everyday I don't know how long I can continue. I've never been anywhere close to the income your expecting but it seems where I'm at pricing is alot cheaper than what most of the people in here I read has discribe. How long did it take most of you to build up enough work to create a small crew.



Jay
25yrs old,C.A.

[Stonehenge]

It took me about 1.5-2 seasons. But an important part to me generating that kind of work was setting that amount of work as a goal. While it may sound like simply a clerical task, I mapped out how much I needed to do in sales each month to hit the target (and accounted for seasonal fluctuations in customer interest). That way I could see how I was doing in plenty of time to react and change plans/gears. My second season, in about June, I saw that I was really falling behind. So I placed more newspaper ads, started doing other marketing things I'd been neglecting earlier (because I was too busy), and was able to pick up sales for the rest of the season to finish on target.

It'll get hairier as you add employees. The more people you have, the faster they can chew through work, so your timelines are shortened. I started running a second crew this season, and it put me so far ahead of schedule after only a few weeks that I was really scrambling to get more work.

As for how much you need in sales to justify hiring people, that really depends. Paul does a ton of business with only 10 guys. I have almost 1/2 the guys, but right now do only about a fifth what he does. I curse him every pay period (sorry paul :) ). For me, I decided it was time to add employees when:

* I had work scheduled for myself alone for about 2-3 months from that day's date.

* I was losing bids because the customers didn't want to wait that long to get a project installed.

* I was charging enough and making enough to afford hiring (too many small companies, me included, start by charging too little for their services, and end up having a hard time affording new hires).

Hope this helps.

Oh, one more thing. If you hire people, never, never, never, never, never be late with payroll, or forget to generate checks. Nothing will start them looking elsewhere faster than knowing you're unreliable with payroll. Something my mother taught me.

[paul]

At some point you have to make a decision, are you doing this to make money or are you doing this for the love of the work. I like the work, but I'm doing this to make money!
Do my hands get dirty, sometimes but I make more money spending time with my clients and bidding work than doing the work myself.

I'm an old man now and I still can do the work my guys do but nowhere near as long or as hard as they do, I watch them time to time and inspect their work daily (or at least I try) :)

My father taught me a long time ago you will get more work done by being on the ground than in a machine or doing the work yourself.

One more thing sometimes fresh blood (labors) will teach you new ways of doing things, and by you being out selling more work and scheulding material and supplys more will get done. Means more money in your pocket.