I'de like to get some advice for a few friends

[Ecoscape01]

Here's the dilema. My girlfriend's two brothers have been given 40 small residential accounts by their neighbor who owned the business and is moving to Florida. The guy is taking his equipment with him but giving away his customers to my girlfriend's brothers. Doesn't make much sense to me. I don't know why he isn't selling them to an established LCO but that's another story. The problem is that these guys are both 18. They have experience but they have no equip, no vehicle, and no start-up money. Their grandmother is loaded - I mean this old hag is a millionaire but she's greedy as hell. What I told them to do is send out their renewal letters this week. Next, they should take whatever contracts they get through their renewal letters, come up with a solid business plan, and then approach their grandmother for a loan just like someone would a bank. They were just gonna do it now and I told 'em to wait. I'm jealous cuz these guys have a goldmine opportunity and they have experience mowing but they're not exactly business savvy and worst of all they have no credit or equity to tap into to get this thing going. I told them that if they can't come up with the money to buy a vehicle and equipment soon enough, that I would sub for them to hold them over but I expect 100% of the profit cuz their closest account is an hour drive for me. What do you guys think I should try to do for them, what should I expect in return, and what advice should I give them?

[jinx 88]

Sounds like they should size up the yards they were given and decide what equipment they would need and try to get a small bus. loan from bank, if that don't work they could go to grandma. If they can't get the $$$ soon enough then maybe they could work WITH you on them so they could get familiar with the lawns and earn some $$$ until they get the cash flow going.