How to fail in the lawn business by someone who did it.

[PROCUT1]

Originally Posted by djchiodo3

"Trying to figure out how to get rich and not leave my bed". I have an answer for you PROCUT1. Become a very expensive male gigolo. That way you make your money and never leave your bed.

Unfortunately Im too ugly for that.

Still trying to figure out why my wife married me.
Aint the looks and sure as hell aint the money.

[coolluv]

So where ya going?

Dave...

[cms289]

Yes, it is call diminishing returns. To a point you make more money per unit, but then you peak and you make less for every addition unit. The successful business finds the peak and that is the goal, not more or less. But that is the trick. That is where good management comes in. Learning your profit curve and sticking to it. I am very sorry that happened to you, but you did learn from it and face it, education is not cheap or easy!

[THIESSENS TLC]

Very good information PROCUT1, my dad always told me to stay small...never really believed him. But the past couple days of thinking and then reading this has really got me thinking. SOLO for me and im going to keep my full time job with 100% benefits and 3 weeks holidays! Thanks for the heads-up, and sorry to hear.

[GreenT]

Originally Posted by coolluv

So where ya going?

Dave...

Warm temps, no income tax..... either Texas or Florida.

.

[PROCUT1]

Haha Florida is too hot and texas, well.....

Tennesee

[Surf'n'Turf]

Originally Posted by PROCUT1

So, Im staying ahead of "really bad times" and another potential crash and Im pretty darn excited about it.

good for you, i'd love to get out of nj myself. i always enjoy reading your posts, i wish you much success!

[gasracer]

Originally Posted by PROCUT1

Haha Florida is too hot and texas, well.....

Tennesee

It was 8 degrees here in Nashville this morning. We have had more snow this season than we have had in many years. If you have not had to deal with it yet you will,That is our friends from the south working for peanuts allowing companies to bid things so low others can't compete.

[ConnerM]

Originally Posted by PROCUT1

Like I said we can pick apart individual things all throughout the story.

If it wasnt 1000 shop it would be something else.

This board is full of guys right now that have a trailer and mowers in their driveway and a dream.

Guys everyday posting that they are quitting their "regular job" and going full time into this.

Guys that have no idea what awaits them.

IDK im not trying to say i would have done anything different because im just trying to start a lawncare company and idk what it takes and i cant imagine what will happen but i think that saving up money to buy a shop is smart ecspecailly if you are making good money in the mean time. I would like more details on your story? I think it is important that people not rag on your story but why not try to find out what went wrong and what could have been done differently. thats why i come on the forum to learn from others mistakes so i dont have to go through them myself

[ConnerM]

Originally Posted by humble1

This is a great thread. Before I go on to me- You also left out employee theft- they mow lawns on the side w/ your equipment and you still are paying the overhead.

You may think I'm full of it but here goes. I used to have 9-10 full timers.45-60 hours a week, plus Sat P/T guys. We had a mowing crew, installation crew, brick drives,walks patios, irrigation, design and plant installs. 2 guys would hydroseeded 5 days a week. One summer we installed over 600 residential lawns. I was in my mid 20's and cocky as hell. Before I got married I was looking at buying a $130,000 dollar boat, yep I would have financed that too. I thought I was king chit. Thank God I didnt. I got married in mid 90's. One Aug I had about 100,000 in my checking account, I was going to get rid of our 4500-5K a week mowing route because we were making so much in installs. My new wife said are you crazy- that is dependable income. So after much discusion( or in my mind her giving me shite) I kept the mowing route. So moving forward. One Sun in Aug we go into the Ford garage I figure what the hell I got about 100K in the bank, I will buy this mustang for $35K. My wife talks me out of it, more like a fight, I was pissed. She thought things might not be this good blah blah blah. So a few days later I sit down to do paperwork, because now all I did was put out fires, do estimates etc. I wasnt working in the field as much. I wrote over 100K in checks,payroll, suppliers, quarterly's, truck and equipment , yard rent, etc. I went down to my accountant almost in tears. I couldnt believe that I didt have payroll for the following week. He said "You learned a lesson that no buisness college in this country can teach you" I said whats that? Its the first hand knowledge of knowing what it feels like to not know your operating costs. He asked what my labor rate was? $X per hour we were on the higher end back then. He says what are your fixed costs per hour. I had no clue. I had to lay off everyone except 2 guys. I put equipment for sale. I then was out doing the mowing route. I started getting calls why we wernt there etc. Turns out my trusted foreman was mowing accounts on the side using my other 2 guys as his labor. I was paying all 3 guys time and a half over 40hours, plus the gas and equipment, all the overhead. I had no idea how long the lawns took to mow. I never time tracked anything.
I bought clip, got back to basics. Ran a smaller crews. Big enough that I could keep my thumb on them. Bigger isnt always better.
I did get a better plan and have a full understanding now of costs. I always try to help friends in the biz. I own everything I have, except my house, I put 20% down on that. Things are looking up for once. I got out of landscaping and into fert/squirt with lessons learned. Yup I will say it my wife was right!!

I like that all this is the truth and that you are able to come on lawnsite and tell us you failed procut. As for the post above at my old company that was huge and were i would like to be one day they made all the crew leads fill in the paperwork filling in how long it took us to do the job and how many crew members there were