The Green Industry's Resource Center

chadslawncare · #91 10-30-2011, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newjerseylandscaping

Howed you do your first year?

Well it has been 1 year and I did as well as expected. Last fall cleanup was a success. Here in Northern Ohio I paid for the plow the first year (alotta snow) yeehaa and many long nights too. This spring my father was diagnosed with cancer so I only took on 3 customers (1 work day per week) so that I could spend more time with him. Those 3 customers were enough to pay the mower and trailer payments so I did not make much "extra money". Since then my fathers cancer is in remission and I have started my secind year of fall cleanups. I am staying busier than I want to be but looks as though I'll do OK this season as well. I am definitely looking forward to the finish of fall cleanups and for the SNOW to come. With the snow plow paid for, I will be looking towards this winter to help pay off the mower and trailer. I will still have 3 more years of tax write-off for the mower, trailer and handheld's after this years taxes. Then next spring if my father is still doing ok, I will take on 6 mow customers only. That will be about 2 days work per week. That's enough for me, I am still working a full-time job as a sheet metal designer/machine programmer and I am loving that job.
Chad

DLONGLANDSCAPING · #92 10-30-2011, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadslawncare

Well it has been 1 year and I did as well as expected. Last fall cleanup was a success. Here in Northern Ohio I paid for the plow the first year (alotta snow) yeehaa and many long nights too. This spring my father was diagnosed with cancer so I only took on 3 customers (1 work day per week) so that I could spend more time with him. Those 3 customers were enough to pay the mower and trailer payments so I did not make much "extra money". Since then my fathers cancer is in remission and I have started my secind year of fall cleanups. I am staying busier than I want to be but looks as though I'll do OK this season as well. I am definitely looking forward to the finish of fall cleanups and for the SNOW to come. With the snow plow paid for, I will be looking towards this winter to help pay off the mower and trailer. I will still have 3 more years of tax write-off for the mower, trailer and handheld's after this years taxes. Then next spring if my father is still doing ok, I will take on 6 mow customers only. That will be about 2 days work per week. That's enough for me, I am still working a full-time job as a sheet metal designer/machine programmer and I am loving that job.
Chad

Good for you man! There isn't time to spend with your parents once you start working and its great that you sacrificed your business venture for you dads time. Lawn care will always be there but the ones you love may not! Everything looks great and forget all the haters on here. Obviously you are doing this more as a hobby/little extra money and to save yourself personal money(fall clean ups and tax write offs) while pretty much working one day a week to pay for awesome machines to play around with. Your metal fab work is second to none. Looks absolutely amazing! Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

Jason

Greyst1 · #93 10-31-2011, 12:56 AM

Hello Chad,

I'm about 15 minutes south of you but i own some properties up your way. Sorry to hear the news about your dad, but good to hear the C is in remission. Anyhow, i remember reading your thread last year. Work in our area is really saturated, i was wondering how you go about advertising? Also, did you buy your plow at Terry's? I read somewhere because of electronic steering on the new 150's that a plow was not possible, is your truck an 2010, or 2011.

Cleanups this year suck! Wet, cold, and volume is just now started to accumulate.

chadslawncare · #94 10-31-2011, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DLONGLANDSCAPING

Good for you man! There isn't time to spend with your parents once you start working and its great that you sacrificed your business venture for you dads time. Lawn care will always be there but the ones you love may not! Everything looks great and forget all the haters on here. Obviously you are doing this more as a hobby/little extra money and to save yourself personal money(fall clean ups and tax write offs) while pretty much working one day a week to pay for awesome machines to play around with. Your metal fab work is second to none. Looks absolutely amazing! Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

Jason

Thanks for the word of encouragement Jason and the comment about the fab work. Did you check out my custom leaf plow yet? That was my latest work I have done. The link is at the bottom of my signature. Have a great day and thanks again. To may Nay-Sayers sometimes around here sometimes.

chadslawncare · #95 10-31-2011, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greyst1

Hello Chad,

I'm about 15 minutes south of you but i own some properties up your way. Sorry to hear the news about your dad, but good to hear the C is in remission. Anyhow, i remember reading your thread last year. Work in our area is really saturated, i was wondering how you go about advertising? Also, did you buy your plow at Terry's? I read somewhere because of electronic steering on the new 150's that a plow was not possible, is your truck an 2010, or 2011.

Cleanups this year suck! Wet, cold, and volume is just now started to accumulate.

Advertising in the Suburbanite (south of Akron) has not been very good. I have better luck with the Record Courier but that is Tallmadge north up to Aurora and I believe it even goes further north depending on what zoans you choose. They have a south, central and north zoan I believe.
My F150 is a 2010 and I purchased the plow at JTI in Oakwood Village. They were very good at the install, very experienced technicians, and they handled the "mishaps" that occurred with the installation well also. The lights would go out sometimes and would not come on for 5-10 minutes initially. They added a relay of some sort and that problem never came back. Then there was the loss of the plow all together occasionally. That was a bad ground so they re-run the ground completely to the other side of the engine well to a much better location than the installer choose the first time. That problem was corrected also. I would have gone to Terry's but JTI is closer to my place of employment and I figured if I need work done I'd be leaving from were I work more often than I would be leaving from home.
And yea, this was a bad year for mowing, too wet. What a year to start a LCO. The good thing is that with all the rain we had here the grass never did stop growing and we just kept mowing.
Chad

mikeylikesit5805 · #96 10-31-2011, 08:41 PM

Hey Chad! looks like you have a great setup going, you are alot like me, I am mowing about 19 accounts on the side. I mow in Akron/Kent/Stow Ohio.

Maybe we can meet one day for lunch or something.

How much would you charge me to make a leaf plow?

chadslawncare · #97 10-31-2011, 09:23 PM

Hello Mike, 19 accounts on the side? How in the world were you able to keep up with that many properties and work a full time job? Thats not "on the side" thats crazy. This has been the wettest year EVER here in norther Ohio. My hats off to you sir. well done. About the leaf plow, I am not sure yet, I have not added up all of the shop time that it took for my work place to laser-cut, form and weld the plow. There is about 500.00 worth of material plus the shop hours to fabricate it. I purchased the material but my boss pushed it through the shop on his dime. I have been waiting to add up that time and cost. When I get the correct figures sometime soon and let you know the total cost then. Lunch sound great but not untill around Dec. 1 when the fall cleanup comes to an end. I ussually eat breakfast and skip lunch during the fall when I am on the mower.
Chad