first time business owner

[tandotech]

Hello everyone. This site has been a great resource for me and I would like to hear some advice for a first time business owner. In 5 days I will be giving my current employer my 2 weeks notice to start my own pest control/ fert company for L&O. I live in s. Florida and I am CPO, certified arborist, and BMP licensed for fertilization. I have been spraying for three years and feel that it is time to start something. So ask me any questions about my scenario and here are a few I have:
Insurance...who should I use and approximately how much will it be with me being the only employee with one truck equipped for service.

Best beginning marketing strategy yellow pages, where to post business cards and such.

Good website for cheep embroidery for uniforms

And when do the butterflies in my stomach go away?

I have most of my equipment paid for: 200 gal lesco sprayer w/pump motor and 300 ft of hose, couple back pack sprayers, arbor jet quick jet, and next week I will be ordering a basic inventory, all I want now is the newz-spray 36r (cost?) and the hitch mount for it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.0

[Dylan's Lawn Care]

Don't know how much the hitch mount is but the 36r is 7,999.

[GreenI.A.]

for the hitch mount I would look into having one made. I had one made at a fab shop for the fraction of what the dealers and manufacturers wanted. It is a lot sturdier than any of the others I have seen as weel

[tandotech]

$8k isnt to bad, I should be able to make that back with in the first year. I will probably have someone make the hitch mount because of that reason. Friday is my last day and then next week I begin the adventure of owning a business. Thank you for your input.

[Lawn132012]

Originally Posted by tandotech

In 5 days I will be giving my current employer my 2 weeks notice to start my own pest control/ fert company for L&O. I live in s. Florida and I am CPO, certified arborist, and BMP licensed for fertilization. I have been spraying for three years and feel that it is time to start something. So ask me any questions about my scenario and here are a few I have:
Insurance...who should I use and approximately how much will it be with me being the only employee with one truck equipped for service.

Best beginning marketing strategy yellow pages, where to post business cards and such.

Good website for cheep embroidery for uniforms 0

Send me a PM and I will send you a link to a embroidery website (Queensboro) that I use. If you send me your email I get a referral and you get to order T-Shirts for 99 cents for your first order.
It works great as I can buy just 4 shirts at a time instead of a dozen, along with hats, marketing stuff, and jackets, sweatshirts, etc.

As for fertilizer stuff I have been using Sumagreen Turf (No fert license needed). I use about 85% less fertilizer during the year and next year I am only going to use one fert application of 1/8 for the first application. I am noticing some other small things like better growth in shade and will know more once I use on a few lawns this Fall with seeding.

For Insurance it would be best to ask someone in Florida as I have a local company that handles my insurance. My suggestion is shop around as the Insurance prices I got originally were WAY off base. I mean like a $1,000 - $1,500 difference between companies.