Anyone have regrets/joys leaving a decent full time job for starting a business?

[zak406]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

I'll bite back.

I take no vacations ever and work 5-6 days a week each and every year. I don't own a jet ski or a boat or even know anyone with a lake to use those things.

I spend my days off sleeping, playing video games and catching up on paper work and house chores.

I'm the happiest I've ever been.

In that case your vacation is video games. Much like mine is a jet ski. Your video games are like my jet ski... I'm no good at video games so I don't play them

[macgyver_GA]

Originally Posted by Spring Valley Lawn Service

What can I man and a helper gross in 4 days 8 hours a day

What's your average price per lawn?
How many lawns do you have?
Average # lawns per hour (Production)?
Drive time?
Are you actually working all 8 hours?
Fixed costs (shop, insurance, vehicle, licenses, etc)?
Average fuel consumption per hour per piece of equipment?
Vehicle fuel consumption?
Average cost per employee per hour (Wage, UE benefits, work comp ins, etc)?
Both running a mower? or one running trimmer, blower, etc and one mowing?
More mowers running = higher expense
Equipment depreciation?
Equipment maintenance cost per hour?
Saving for new equipment in future (figure this into hourly cost of equipment based on avg life span of equipment)
Don't forget about the law of diminishing returns ("Too many cooks in the kitchen" & fatigue. This basically means the adding each employee doesn't double your production, each additional employee reduces the potential production increase by X %)

As someone else said... WAYYY too many variables. I've built spreadsheet with a lot of these variables in formulas to ESTIMATE this but it's different for everyone and not always the same as real life.