making lawn crew work weekends?

[94gt331]

Originally Posted by BPS##

This is what happens when you have a lot of small thinking part timers populate the site.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be forum members, just that a whole lot of them would do better if they talked less and listened more.
Treated their business more as a business and much less as a hobby.

Some times it almost makes me vomit at the incredibly immature and juvenile comments that get made.
I think to myself.............. "REALLY kids, really????"


If folks don't wish to consider themselves business owners thats fine by me. Keep your mouths shut then when the adults are discussing adult topics.

Lots of part timers and short timers that get into the industry ride it a couple years and then exit stage left because "dang, thats a lot of hard work".
Lawn and grounds care is so much more than just cutting the grass.

Yeah my post deffinately got into a pissing match for sure. That is one thing that iritates me about lawnsite is whenever somebody has a sincere issue or needs advice there's allways a few people that feel they need to attack the people with the problem. Alot of frustrated LCO's out here seems they need to make themselves feel better about there buisiness by attacking others. By the way my 2man crew got 66 lawns done in 4 days and 40hrs so I was very happy with there performance. My talk with them payed off. And there quality was very good also. I want my guys to have off on the weekends, but i just needed them to realize that if there is a rain day or holliday they need to make up for it on the weekends. Everyone still has the same hrs anyway. So everyone wins they get there hrs and my clients are happy that there grass got cut, and that's what where here for right.

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Ron you are seriously distorting what he said. I heard 80 year old business I heard 30 years in it and owned it the last 10. I heard him say he bought it from his father. Did he mention how big he was no, did he mention how much he paid for it nope. But you saw he was handed it, and you saw something small. 70 year old at the time he bought it could easily be hundreds of employees. Price could be in the millions you don't know how long he saved for that or what he had to mortgage to buy it.

Step back for a moment and picture lawn crews doing what they do and a supervisor that deals with the issues that arise and checks quality and signs up new work. If you were big enough and had that middle level of management then yes as the owner you could indeed plan a trip at the slow point in your billing month and not worry about if things would run smooth.

Can I take a trip and leave the business now no not a chance. But that is because I haven't reached the size yet where I have managers in place under me but over crew foremen. But I will and who do you think I will ask for advice the guy that's already done that or the one that says it can never be done?

[BPS##]

Originally Posted by Kelly's Landscaping

Ron you are seriously distorting what he said. I heard 80 year old business I heard 30 years in it and owned it the last 10. I heard him say he bought it from his father. Did he mention how big he was no, did he mention how much he paid for it nope. But you saw he was handed it, and you saw something small. 70 year old at the time he bought it could easily be hundreds of employees. Price could be in the millions you don't know how long he saved for that or what he had to mortgage to buy it.

Step back for a moment and picture lawn crews doing what they do and a supervisor that deals with the issues that arise and checks quality and signs up new work. If you were big enough and had that middle level of management then yes as the owner you could indeed plan a trip at the slow point in your billing month and not worry about if things would run smooth.

Can I take a trip and leave the business now no not a chance. But that is because I haven't reached the size yet where I have managers in place under me but over crew foremen. But I will and who do you think I will ask for advice the guy that's already done that or the one that says it can never be done?

Good points Kelly.
I'm in the same boat. No way in hell I can take time off.

But one day I'll be there.

[BPS##]

Originally Posted by JDGlandscape

Ok that makes more sense, sorry about that I just did not realize you had so many in one area, in that case I do more than 24 in four days.. I have one account that i do in three hours that has 22 lawns alone. I was just looking at it differently. You must have a very efficient route.

P.S- not sure if it was directed at me or not but I am not a part timer at this, this is my sole income and I would say i am living a very comfortable life, quite a bit higher than the state average income.

While we are having a measuring contest lets talk acres in a day.

I've got 3 roughly 3 acre properties my company maintains.
3 guys put in 18 to 20 man hr on each one depending on how much of the non irrigated areas need mowed.

Trimming takes at least half of the man hours spent each week.

[JDGlandscape]

Originally Posted by BPS##

While we are having a measuring contest lets talk acres in a day.

I've got 3 roughly 3 acre properties my company maintains.
3 guys put in 18 to 20 man hr on each one depending on how much of the non irrigated areas need mowed.

Trimming takes at least half of the man hours spent each week.

No measuring contest here, i simply made a mistake and spoke too soon out of line, thats all. I was just thinking with 135 different individual stops it would be pretty dang hard in four days, but it makes sense to me now

[JDGlandscape]

And judging by a lot of the people on this site, i just assumed it was an exaggeration, no offense meant. but there are some people on here that blow a lot of smoke

[BPS##]

JD I wasn't really referring to you as much as I was all the guys throwing out numbers.

And my measuring contest comment was my attempt at sarcastic humor. Not to be taken too seriously.

I know that it won't take long for some guys to come on here and blow my size out of the running. EVERY property is different, every business has the same but different clients and property mix so to throw out numbers and say that if you aint doing 40 a day (for example) you are really slacking off, is just BS.

Gross revenue for a x man team would be a better comparison but even then doesn't mean much. Pricing varies A LOT depending on what part of the country you are in.

[Michael J. Donovan]

ok guys, time to move on