Striping and new 36" Viking

[mowerbrad]

You have quite the business going for only being 17!!! I'm all for working plenty, but wow...I'm pretty ambitious myself, but not near what you are. I'm a little older than you, I enjoy working and all, but I also enjoy my time not working. I'm stressed out as it is between mowing and school...but I guess most of my stress is a little different than your's. Keep up the good work....but don't burn yourself out too early in life.

BTW, Good luck with your schooling at MSU, they have great ag and turf programs there.

[93Chevy]

I agree with Brad, you have quite an operation going on. Good for you man. You got a lot more balls than me taking on so much work and whatnot. I'm only running my business part time for now because I'm such a sissy, but dang man, good for you. Good luck this season.

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Lazer Cut

wow man that's great, my school offers cad also but I took business classes instead and few computer graphics classes... signed 5 more residential customers and bidding on a car dealership this up coming week. Its going really well in my mind, up to 34 customers I believe or 37 can't remember, when I bill ill know for sure. Id like to be at about 50 customers by the end of this year and next year be at a solid 65 and keep that number or maybe few more till my junior year of college. Or if I grow bigger than that just hire a full time worker(s) for when I'm at my classes.

I graduate may 14th and that day can't get here sooner lol... this upcoming week is senior week so its just a week of wasting time till next week of exams. Its pouring the rain past two days which is great but I hope it stops tonight so it doesn't push me behind again, last week I got 2 days behind and my part time guy and I busted a$$getting them done one day after school, if I gret behind like I did ill probably skip the end of my day at school to start work early.

How many days outta the week do you mow? Also, how did quickbooks do? I have to do all invoicing today fun but time consuming... fun part about paperwork is seeing all the $$$$$$ that'll be coming in, if people pay and pay on time
Posted via Mobile Device

congrats on the new accounts i am in the same boat as you, i lost a couple because i dont want to be stuck at a property with a 21" mower for an hour. I didnt want to by another mower to put on the trailer so i just dropped three customers with small gates and gave them to my neighbor who is trying to start, he is 15.

Quickbooks equals AMAZING. I am so much more organized, my invoice looks so clean and proffessional. Beside the 10 hours or so i was on it this week and trying to set everything up and input 65 customers, it was the best investment i have ever made. I took my labtop to kinkos and printed all the invoices on 100lb card stock paper for around 20 dollars. These invoices would have emptyed both of my ink cartrages quite a bit and when they are 40 dollars each its stupid just to not go to kinkos. Also, with quickbooks you can print out the lables for each customer so you dont have to write 65 addresses on each envelope when you send them or make a return envelope for them to put a payment in. I tallyed all the billing up to be 12,553 dollars for this month and i hope to be doubling that in the next two months. My plan is to pay off my truck fully and save at leased 25,000 before i spend a penny. I always seem to spend all my money on equipment and putting all my money back into the business but i feel like this year i am all set with equipment until fall.

I work tuesday thru thursday about 6-9 hours per day. and then i do side jobs early monday and early friday, I go to school until 12 because i take my last 2 hours off because i am so far ahead of everyone. ha. They are two business classes and they both have everything i need online. So if i have an assignment due friday i finish it monday and work the rest of the week.

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by mowerbrad

You have quite the business going for only being 17!!! I'm all for working plenty, but wow...I'm pretty ambitious myself, but not near what you are. I'm a little older than you, I enjoy working and all, but I also enjoy my time not working. I'm stressed out as it is between mowing and school...but I guess most of my stress is a little different than your's. Keep up the good work....but don't burn yourself out too early in life.

BTW, Good luck with your schooling at MSU, they have great ag and turf programs there.

i completely understand what you are saying about free time and thankfully if i am not designing a landscape plan or talking to a person on the phone i usually have friday, sat and sun off completely. I go up north and with my girl the whole weekend. I dont want to burn my self out and honestly if i have another 45 customers i think i could handle it just fine with working all day from 8 a.m. - 5 or 6 p.m. in the summer. 3 days per week. My helper i am blessed with, he is built and knows what the helll he is doing THANK GOD, it is SOOO HARD to find good help around here and i tried 4 other people before and i lost 2 customers because they said they didnt like how the employee trimmed everything to a scalp and edged so crooked. THANK GOD I FIRED THEM. ha. My advise to anyone my age is to have a good billing system/ accounting software, it takes the stress of paying bills, getting to jobs ontime and organizing your life from 40 hours a week to 20 minutes after you work each day. Also, dont take on to much work, because it makes you stressed when your rushing to get work done before it gets to dark to work and you wont like working when customers are upset.

Thanks for the compliments and keep up the business, i love mine and cant wait to grow to an even bigger company in the next 5 years

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by 93Chevy

I agree with Brad, you have quite an operation going on. Good for you man. You got a lot more balls than me taking on so much work and whatnot. I'm only running my business part time for now because I'm such a sissy, but dang man, good for you. Good luck this season.

I am part time too but i would love to go full time and school part time and free on weekends, thats my ideal world. I think education is more important right now though and i am paying for college myself. ha. It doesnt take much to grow a business, dedication and good marketing is the only thing you need to get customers, and to keep them you have to do great work to make them call you and say what a great job you did.

When you ge more work, the expenses get higher but the income also grows. ITs scary having to pay for 300 dollars in gas per week when thats all i made last year per week. Ifeel like im not making any money becuase the overhead costs so much, but when i see at the end of the month when i print invoices, it all is worth it.

Dont low ball, and dont work for free. And you will be successful at what you do. thank you for the compliments and i will try to get some more pictures of work up as soon as i can.

Good luck to you, and good luck this season

-Jason

[Lazer Cut]

Hey delong. My billing is a 3rd of yours LOL... rift at $4200 which is great to see much I've grown since last year... I had the same amount of customers but I lost a 5 or 6 due to price shopping, dropped two, and one lost their job. Also, I've picked up 5 commercials and hopefully adding few more. My billing should be $5k a month, it took me two hours for book keeping last night with a few distractions from my girlfriend and baby boy lol... but all in all its great... I'm about $100-$130 a week in gas but I also drive to my dads and 30-40 min one way to school. I will be adding quickbooks pro probably next month lol. I hope to grow next year and continue to grow this year, hopefully this time next year ill be at 10 commercials and 50-60 residential.
Posted via Mobile Device

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Nice job, I will prob have a monthly billing of around 6500 dollars for mowing, maybe a little more, I just do a lot of other side jobs for each customer that makes it a lot higher. And that landscaping job is helping out a lot too. I love quickbooks and I would definitly get pro if u can. About the gf and kid, I can't understand how much responsibiliy it would be to have that in your life ontop of a business. If you could, could u pm me the costs of having a family. I have an amazing gf and I always think about having a kid, but not too soon I just wanna get my financials in order. I think having a mini-me running around my house would be awesome and I'm sure your blessed to have ur little guy with you also. Great work and I look up to you. I don't care how many customers I have, being a dad would be the greatest accomplishment for me. And I commend you for holding it all together.
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[teamgreendude]

delonglandscaping, I'm very Impressed on how far you've come I'm also 17 and bill maybe about 1/3 of what you have. Right now I'll be buying my first truck soon along with a new 6x12 dump trailer and a new 18hp billy goat leaf vac.

[xclusive]

Originally Posted by delonglandscaping

Quickbooks equals AMAZING. I am so much more organized, my invoice looks so clean and proffessional. Beside the 10 hours or so i was on it this week and trying to set everything up and input 65 customers, it was the best investment i have ever made. I took my labtop to kinkos and printed all the invoices on 100lb card stock paper for around 20 dollars. These invoices would have emptyed both of my ink cartrages quite a bit and when they are 40 dollars each its stupid just to not go to kinkos. Also, with quickbooks you can print out the lables for each customer so you dont have to write 65 addresses on each envelope when you send them or make a return envelope for them to put a payment in. I tallyed all the billing up to be 12,553 dollars for this month and i hope to be doubling that in the next two months. My plan is to pay off my truck fully and save at leased 25,000 before i spend a penny. I always seem to spend all my money on equipment and putting all my money back into the business but i feel like this year i am all set with equipment until fall.

Just a recommendation instead of going to kinkos to print up bills purchase a hp or ibm laser printer with a high yield cartridge (these kind of cartridges can print like 3000 pages before needing to be replaced) and it will be cheaper for you in the long run. Then you can purchase windowed billing envelopes from staples and fold you invoices so the address appears in the window. Then just have staples or kinkos print up 1000 or so return payment envelopes with you info on them.

[T.Brandon]

How do you like your new redmax blower?