Hey everyone this is my 3rd year as a legitimate business. I am 18 years old and now am fully licensed and insured. I started off in grade school mowing for people here and there using their equipment. When I turned 16 I took my dads cub cadet tractor and troy bilt push mower, converted his jet ski trailer and worked with my friend. I now own everything pictured below and has been fully payed by me. I've always sat on here and looked at all of your set ups and can't wait to hear from you all!
First pic is of my worker tilling for lawn install. The rest are just basic mowing pics. All were without stripe kit until last pic which was first day with it and was loving it!
First 2 pics are of a 1.5 acre property that also has a lake to keep trimmed up. 3rd pic was just a test after putting on the striper, no blades turn on.
Just some random pics I found laying around...
1 cheap elec chain saw I saw walking out of home depot one day... $13!
2 the ole truck that got me on my feet. Loaded up with a bunch of crap
3 The "new to me" truck!
4-6 just some mulch jobs
Lol ya its about as low as it gets ha but I picked it up so cheap that i figured even if it craps out right away I would still get my money worth out of it ha. Would like to get a Stihl saw sometime soon Posted via Mobile Device
Looks great and I was wondering how you became legitimate when you were under 18? Cause I'm 15 and am trying to figure out if I should wait til I'm 18 or not to become legitimate. Posted via Mobile Device
Hey thanks a lot! I can't stand sitting around watching tv and stuff and would rather be out trying to make money haha. Friends make fun of me for having all these lawn pics on my phone but I have a lot of pride in it lol Posted via Mobile Device
Hey thanks a lot! I can't stand sitting around watching tv and stuff and would rather be out trying to make money haha. Friends make fun of me for having all these lawn pics on my phone but I have a lot of pride in it lol Posted via Mobile Device
Heres some more pics this week. Forgot to take more at other properties but will try and get em next week!
1&2 just some stripes
3rd.. a landscape job. Under the tarps is a mess of ivy and weeds that we have been working on killing off for past year. Tough stuff doesnt die so we had to go hick way of covering with tarps and cover with rock lol Bobcat isnt mine... had to hire someone to do that part:hammerhead:
4-6.. nothing to do with lawns but got to take a trip up to South Dakota with one of my friends to take three mopeds out to a friends house up there. Nice little vacation while waiting for the lawns to grow lol
5th pic is me spraying fire hose with a friend. Competition on who has best aim.
6th is when I got to drive their car up a narrow little road up a mountain at 6000 feet elevation. Something i dont do everyday ha
Looks great and I was wondering how you became legitimate when you were under 18? Cause I'm 15 and am trying to figure out if I should wait til I'm 18 or not to become legitimate. Posted via Mobile Device
I never really became legit until this year. Basically was just taking last step and becoming insured and all. I never did all that much work the past couple years to really worry about becoming legit. I guess what I'm getting at is look at becoming legit once ur doing large amounts of business unless u are already. I could be wrong but just what I did Posted via Mobile Device
Basically my story is I started at ur age with about 7 weekly. The next year I hit flyers hard and had alittle over 30. I then started to get my name out there and now have 50 weekly and 2 apartment complexes. Also I got big into landscape so between those two growths I became legit with taxes ins etc. hope it helps! Posted via Mobile Device
Thanks man. Your a great inspiration for me I hope to be similar in size to you someday. I hope to expand alot for next season since I will have my liscence and will be able to have a larger service area. What worked best for advertising so far for you? Posted via Mobile Device
You'll be there soon doesn't take much just will power. I don't see myself all that far yet. I'm lookin forward to try and expand more next year too. The one and only thing I have done for business is flyering. I just targeted middle class and elderly neighborhoods. One thing to do is once you have a client focus on their neighbors. Most of our lawns are set up to where we park and do 2-3 lawns in one sitting. You would be shocked how much time you save doing that. Which gives you more time to do another lawn that day Posted via Mobile Device
Speaking of Flyers and advertising, Have any of you tried door hanging? or even direct mail? If you are interested in that you should check out A'Deas Printing. (www.adeasprinting.com) We have different specials for those. If you would like any more info or want some pricing let me know My name is Glenda and my number is 1-866-778-4254 or my email is glenda@adeasprinting.com
So when it starts to dry up like this I assume you all go every other week unless the lawns have irrigation. So when you do go biweekly do you raise the price to and every other week price since they are normally weekly or keep it the same? Haven't had this bad of a drought in my couple of years Posted via Mobile Device
We are on contract and get payed by month, so most of the customers pay regardless of how often we are there.
With that said, we have some really good customers that are always paying for extra's, paying on time, or doing other things to make our job easier and I often give them a bit of a break if there grass is dead and we;re doing less work.
Another note, every account has a day that it cuts, and I go on that day. Even if I know it may not need a cut, there are nearly always weeds that come up and I show my face to do trimming at the very least. Not many accounts get skipped because there is nothing that needs to be done.
If their grass is dead and you have nothing to do as far as maintenance, I'm sure that your customers would absolutely love if you offered to do some other type of service that would take around the same amount of time/effort. Instead of just leaving it for next week, offer to do a little weeding, pruning, cut some branches, etc. If they are paying every week, they'd love to see you there doing something, that is a good way to keep customers happy!
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