You paid cash for everything when you started,so where you in debt?

[kyles landscape]

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

i also started with a mower my dad gave me, 52" scag hydro walkbehind with probably 3000hrs on it, maybe more. it started right up for the 2 years i used it, until i turned 16 and went out financed a new scag which i paid for on my own in 4 years. and, worked my way up to being able to buy my cheetah and bagger system cash in june, I regret it, because things were tight after that for a month, but more because we had a drought, and I'm not established yet and didn't have many lawns.

lucky you!!! thats a nice starting mower do you still use it at all?

[RSK Property Maintenance]

Originally Posted by kyles landscape

lucky you!!! thats a nice starting mower do you still use it at all?

nope sold it for 1000 dollars in good working order, to one of my dads good friends and put that thousand down on the the 05 scag tiger cub i bought new for 6300 when i was 16, with a loan of course. then I put 980 hours on it and traded it in for 3950 towards my scag cheetah in june of 2012, and that mower was garage kept and dealer maintained, also had two two solid front tires which were upgrades, and it needed a new air filter bracket, and one of the arm rest brackets had cracked, it didn't effect anything but its wasn't quite mint when i traded it in but it was close. I did actually get the 52" walk behind back for free suprisingly, the guy used it for quite a few years, then one day he decided to just leave it outside and not use it for a few years, and then he said i could have it back for nothing, so I took it put about 350 into it and it still didn't run right so i just sold it, surprisingly i couldn't get very much for it. I ended up having to delivery it to mass for 600, and I was happy to see it go again.

[kyles landscape]

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

nope sold it for 1000 dollars in good working order, to one of my dads good friends and put that thousand down on the the 05 scag tiger cub i bought new for 6300 when i was 16, with a loan of course. then I put 980 hours on it and traded it in for 3950 towards my scag cheetah in june of 2012, and that mower was garage kept and dealer maintained, also had two two solid front tires which were upgrades, and it needed a new air filter bracket, and one of the arm rest brackets had cracked, it didn't effect anything but its wasn't quite mint when i traded it in but it was close. I did actually get the 52" walk behind back for free suprisingly, the guy used it for quite a few years, then one day he decided to just leave it outside and not use it for a few years, and then he said i could have it back for nothing, so I took it put about 350 into it and it still didn't run right so i just sold it, surprisingly i couldn't get very much for it. I ended up having to delivery it to mass for 600, and I was happy to see it go again.

spunds like ur doing pretty well in business! how come u chose the cheetah over the vride?

[RSK Property Maintenance]

Originally Posted by kyles landscape

spunds like ur doing pretty well in business! how come u chose the cheetah over the vride?

I would say i'm doing alright, buying the chipper last november really helped me make a lot of extra $$$$$ enough so I could buy the cheetah really. But I chose the cheetah over a vride because I demoed a cheetah when it first came out and fell in love with it and thought it was stupid fast compared to my 48" tiger cub and it was and still is literally an animal on lawns. especially with the 34hp carb'ed and air cooled 999cc kohler engine, not gonna get any more reliable then that, then add a bagger starting in october like I did, game over for leaves....the bagger has paid for itself in a single 5 day work week. I don't think a v-ride would be nearly as fast or efficient as a stand alone unit, which is what my cheetah is for now. I have no push mower or any other machine, so its either my 61" deck or i'm gonna string trim it or not cut it, but so far my 61" cheetah fits everywhere. plus the landscaping company I worked with for 2 years had me do a lot of trimming and mowing with a 72" turf tiger at 3" on some of the most uneven rutted turf i have ever seen, and I didn't scalp at all. I was on sabre tooth which was so old it didn't have the 1/4" increments so I had no choice but to cut a 3" which with a 72" is a low cut. I cut my lawns for the fall time at 2.75" inches which is pretty darn low, but thanks to the training i got with the 72" deck I'm better then most lco's in my area.

[kyles landscape]

Not gonna lie ur spoiled haha I have a bunch of gated yards and my 36 doesn't even fit in some :/ I think I'm gonna get a 48 next year although
Posted via Mobile Device

[RSK Property Maintenance]

Originally Posted by kyles landscape

Not gonna lie ur spoiled haha I have a bunch of gated yards and my 36 doesn't even fit in some :/ I think I'm gonna get a 48 next year although
Posted via Mobile Device

i have gates, in a few accounts but they are big enough to truck through, I refuse to work for someone who has a gated backyard where the gate is only 36" wide or less....and there is a lot of grass behind the gate. if there is nothing to mowing in the back yard then gate it up but if there is a decent amount of lawn it better be wide enough for the industry standard mower up here to get through it at least. where I am is out in the country. I don't really work in any cities all towns, mostly bigger lawns too. but in ct at least the part i live in people have money. like i said I don't own a push mower and don't really wanna buy one, its not that i can't afford to go out and spend 300 dollars on nice shiny new toro push mower with bagger, its just i don't need one....

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by RSK Property Maintenance

i have gates, in a few accounts but they are big enough to truck through, I refuse to work for someone who has a gated backyard where the gate is only 36" wide or less....and there is a lot of grass behind the gate. if there is nothing to mowing in the back yard then gate it up but if there is a decent amount of lawn it better be wide enough for the industry standard mower up here to get through it at least. where I am is out in the country. I don't really work in any cities all towns, mostly bigger lawns too. but in ct at least the part i live in people have money. like i said I don't own a push mower and don't really wanna buy one, its not that i can't afford to go out and spend 300 dollars on nice shiny new toro push mower with bagger, its just i don't need one....

Manchester is out in the country? Must be a different part of Manchester than I'm familiar with.

[RSK Property Maintenance]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

Manchester is out in the country? Must be a different part of Manchester than I'm familiar with.

I guess you got me, but it not like a city at all, its pretty open still the parts of manchester that I work in are in neighborhoods, bigger yards, not really many gates, I do most of my work in bolton, south windsor, glastonbury, andover. bigger yards not as many gates. a lot of farms, and fields. parts of glastonbury like by the orchards are definitely out in country, relatively speaking. from my house in bolton, I have a view of the hartford skyline that is a city. skyscrapers, high rise buildings. we have none of those in manchester.

[Duekster]

I suppose the point is you should be making enough to do 3 things.

Pay for the equipment ( either to buy more if you prepaid or paying loan)
Making about 8% to 15% off that capital investment
Plus a fair wage for your time.

[Sean Adams]

Get credit everywhere you can, max out that credit, buy whatever your business needs and then some.... I'm not kidding.

If you want me to explain I will. I'm definitely not putting anyone down who prefers to buy cash and have no debt, just a different approach.