How much time do you plan on recovery

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by Brucelawns

Often times I do not buy any new equipment if it isn't going to pay for itself in a short period of time...
What are everyone else's thoughts on the matter???

If the equipment isn't paying for itself in a short time would mean that you aren't charging enough when you use it or you aren't using it enough to justify the purchase. That would be your thoughts. Right?

That is my thinking on the matter as well... if the equipment isn't going to pay for itself, then it is likely something you don't need... always been my rule...

We are thinking the same way...

However:
Now that I'm winding down the career and mowing isn't even my main thing at all, I still want to buy a mower that will do a better job with all the forest lawns I do... But I really can't charge more for it... it will just do a better job...

[cpllawncare]

For me it's an issue of downtime I buy new commercial grade everything, blowers trimmers and such don't cost enough to risk the downtime of a used one, I started out buying cheap stuff I guess like everybody, but it always was used up within a season so I made the decision to go commercial grade on everything haven't regretted that decison yet.

[Florida Gardener]

I think it depends. I just bought a verticutter that was a HD rental. It was used once as told to me by the rental dept. I paid $392 out the door for it. I don't have any jobs yet, but will soon enough. But I can have it sit for now and it's not that big a deal. Now, if I were going to buy a new one for 3-K and don't have any jobs lined up, different story...I think it depends on the equipment, cost, and if you will have the work to justify the purchase. I wouldn't buy a sod cutter if I did one sod install per year, but if I was doing 5-10/yr, it would make more sense to buy it...
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[cpllawncare]

Obviously there's a big difference between a 3k sod cutter and a $300 trimmer or blower, that's going to get used and abused daily, I would love to have an aerator but we don't do enough yet to justify one, so we rent, hopefully that will change this year but even then I probably won't buy a new one, I would love to have a brush cutter also but again we're not quite ready for such a large purchase so we rent.

[Smallaxe]

I agree that we are talking about the most business sense,,, that makes sense...
I cringe every time I hear about people going into debt just to buy the 'TOYS' they think that every pro. should have...

[RSK Property Maintenance]

well for something like my lawn mower which was over 10000 i give it a year, for something like a backpack blower i plan on it paying me back in a days time, same with a trimmer, my bagger system which was close to 3000 i planned on it paying me back within a few months. my plow within a single snow storm, my 12" diesel wood chipper within a weeks time. so pretty fast, for everything i buy, if It's not gonna make me the money back within a years time i probably don't need it.

[cpllawncare]

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

well for something like my lawn mower which was over 10000 i give it a year, for something like a backpack blower i plan on it paying me back in a days time, same with a trimmer, my bagger system which was close to 3000 i planned on it paying me back within a few months. my plow within a single snow storm, my 12" diesel wood chipper within a weeks time. so pretty fast, for everything i buy, if It's not gonna make me the money back within a years time i probably don't need it.

So if you pay $500 for a BP you expect to make $500/day profit, WOW!

[Smallaxe]

For my $500.00 BP Blower I charge only $10-$15/hr to run the machine, besides the other charges... so my exa. would be 40-50 hours to pay for the blower...
My smaller blower that I got about 10 yrs ago I only charged $5/hr to run...

Now I'm in a quandry about buying my new lawnmower, because I WANT a certain one, but business wise it will not increase revenue at all... so I don't NEED it...

[cpllawncare]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

For my $500.00 BP Blower I charge only $10-$15/hr to run the machine, besides the other charges... so my exa. would be 40-50 hours to pay for the blower...
My smaller blower that I got about 10 yrs ago I only charged $5/hr to run...

Now I'm in a quandry about buying my new lawnmower, because I WANT a certain one, but business wise it will not increase revenue at all... so I don't NEED it...

Exactly! You not going to pay for a piece of equip in a day normally.

[RSK Property Maintenance]

Originally Posted by cpllawncare

So if you pay $500 for a BP you expect to make $500/day profit, WOW!

yes, I have days doing fall clean ups where I can gross 1000-1200, no way do my expenses for the day come close to half that even, probably not even a 1/4 of that including taxes. even on a bad day of fall clean ups i'll profit 4-500. my only problem is i only have about 20 clean ups maybe. that's probably stretching it, but my bagger system paid for itself pretty quick still just doing clean ups with it. something like the new cheetah i bought which actually cost me 7300 because i traded in my 05 tiger cub towards it will take a little longer to pay for itself but still relatively quickly otherwise, It wasn't worth buying and it didn't need it.

I charge by the job for clean ups. usually if I price it right and things go smooth i'll end up at 140 hour, with myself and 2 other guys. the reality is if I charged 50/hr 60/hr per man per hour i would make more but i think my customers would have trouble with that. even if told 30 or 40 per man per hour they would think i'm crazy, so i just give them a price for the whole job start to finish, i'm usually pretty accurate on clean ups