Business is bad! What am I doing wrong?

Your business loan is for 2000 a month?

What did you get with purchasing this business? What is the total loan amount, how long is it financed for? I hope to god that loan is for no longer than one year. unless you got a back load of equipment with the business.

Look at selling your business to some other guy, don't go bankrupt. Then when you sell it DO NOT sign a non compete contract. then start again with a couple push mowers that you buy from your local auction. and an edger a blower and couple trimmers. then get rid of the worker and go to town yourself. you will make alot more money this way.

I am doing maintenance this year for 2 days a week just in case my hardscaping doesn't get as much work as i would like too. there will be 20 contracts for residential lawns. Then half way through the summer when i have some moeny in the bank FROM MOWING, i will be purchasing a few more pieces of equipment and bidding on a large townhouse complex. that is up for bid in june that i am already told i can bid on.

See i am starting with no loans what so ever. The biggest loan you want in this business to start is under $5000 That is plenty enough to get you some used equipment and a truck and trailer. then some print outs for advertising.

You say you have 6500 in income every month. i would say you may have around $8 to $10 thousand of equipment worth.

this being said the most i wouldve paid for that company is 10% of the income and get my and $6000 for the equipment. that being only $16900 that is just about $600 a month for three years at %20 interest. At the rate you are paying you are basically paying the 16900 for the company at an interest rate of 155% interest rate. You got ripped off. stop complaining and work yourself out of the situation you put yourself into. and then take it as a learning lesson. that when buying things you should really do your research first.

you know what my business went up and down for a number of years, different problems, at different times, and i to got in over my head in debt.

1. eliminate the debt. - sell waht you dont need. I cant see 2000 per month in a loan payment what did you buy? sel it off tommarow

2. i can mow 10 1/4 acre lawns in less than 8 hours by myself and not even be tired. i can take a lunch, sit in the truck and talk on the phone... so if you only have 40 houese you should be able to do those by yourself. or put your worker on only 1 day per week part time, get what you can done that day, and do the rest your self , but really you should not need to

3. 30 mins for 2 guys to mow a lawn? are you using commercial equiptment? how slow are you guys walking? 15 mins max with 2 guys. i use to have 3 man crews adn we could do the jobs in 8 mins...i told them dont even shut the truck off. 35 houses in 7 hours. thats realistic

4. sell your self as a valuable service. this one took me along time to figure out, set yourself apart from the rest, return every call quickly, be honest, make money , but try to save the customer some money. theres alot of people that are willing to pay more for work just becasue its done on time, correctly and they feel they truely have hired th ebest person possible and they couldnt imagine of switching serivces no matter waht the cost.

5. ditch th ephone book add, what a waste of money , get a wbsite, they are cheap and effective these days

6. if your loosing customers to death or people moving. try this offer the new homeowner 3 weeks of free mowing. they will jsut get use to it, and let you continue on your service. tell them its part of the old owners aggreement. whats it really going to cost you 4 bucks in gas, plus your time?

7 stop being a Pu$$ie - until you work 8 days a week sunrise, to 1 am everyday - your not working hard enough to support having that much debit and labor

8. i hate billing and papperwork too. but try different things to make it easier and faster for you. heres a few tips. insted of creating invoices at th eend of each month and trying look thru a bunch of route sheets or guess the dates... if you use quick books you can use the time tracker feature to record work...each day when i get home i go on it...now i list all the customers jobs as taking 1 hour exact to not mess up th ebilling (unless the job is actually hourly). but basicly quickbooks will complie all the dates for you at the end of the month when you generate invoices. 5 mins per day, with little to know thought required. get window envolopes so you dont have to deal with labels or handwritting the addresses. stupid things like this. billing use to take me all day, now i do it in 1 hour with no hair pulling. QB online, has a great feature that syncs up with your online bank account. balancing the check book takes no more than 5 mins- never did i find an easier way to do it-

Gas per week me & wife $80
pocket money me & wife/wk 50
garbage 8
newspaper 5
groceries 125
electric 40
taxes(property & school) 125
car ins (2 kids on policy 85
house ins 15
xmas club 25
heat 40

Total $598/week.My net from my check is 700 per week.Now my truck has 90,000 miles on it.My drive to work escort has 160,000 miles,and my wifes cobalt has 75,000 miles.Our vehicles are not wild,just basic.We use a $129/yr Tracfone for cell sevice since we only carry them when the kids are not with us.Also I forgot our luxury cable/telephone/internet is $136 a month.You also notice that there is no mortgage.Never had one but no way could I afford one on my pay even though I make good money(I have 17% taken out for 401k)I do not know how Walmart employees make it.Oil changes,car repair,and clothing is not even figured in.Granted we do save my wifes check or at least try to but do use it to pay bills.We may get pizza once a week or dinner once a month.We buy fish from the market for Friday dinner instead of going out.Birthdays,money to give to the kids etc.I mow to make a little bit of extra cash.I have a good retirement along with 401k will be OK.So I basically need $2400 a month to live.Somebody show me how to budget better.I went out on a limb and bought a 3100z ferris with bagger and a 12' dump trailer for 0% for 3 years,but only after knowing I would at least have the work to cover it($19,000.
I see no problem for someone using homeowner equipment for a few lawns per week.But it has to be fairly new and also knowing he will eventually have to upgrade to better equipment if he plans on expanding.

Eureka,

First, hopefully some of the brutal advice hasn't kept you from reading each post. I just read this whole thread and found everyone's unique take on your situation and the new business environment to be educational.

Second, you say your gonna get "one of those books". It is THE book. I heard Dave Ramsey on late night radio and got hooked. In fact, scrape up the $40-60 for the "Total Money Makeover" CD set which is on my desk as I type, or find it for less on ebay. This guy will get you fired up. At the very least, scour his website. Your main problem is the same as mine -your cash flow is going to service debt. We are indentured servants to the banks. I just completed Dave's baby step number 1. It may sound like pennies to some, but stashing away $1k as a safety net will keep you from running to credit for your next breakdown. If you use some, pay it back immediately.

Third, I agree that you gotta' ditch the YP ad. That $140 per month will go a long way to building that safety net and working on the debt. Older folks are online more than you think, so get the cheapo website going now. It has opened doors for many commercial jobs for me. You can still work the guerilla marketing tactics to stay in front of the older folks too.

Fourth, mine your clients for referrals. Create some group purchase plan with a small incentive. You need cash flow, and if a small discount will help you get back on your feet, then so be it... it doesn't have to last forever.

Lastly, you said the other half of your market are the tweakers. Do they have cash for that 1-2x per month mow? There is no sense driving by tweakers willing to pay something if they are on your route. Swallow your pride temporarily and create an "economy" program which is distinctively different than your current customers so that you can explain why their lawn looks worse than your full price customer across the street and visa versa. You can dump them when things get better.

Good luck!

Good luck.

Sorry, been having problems with my Outlook account that I set up last week. I got it fixed and saw the flurry of responses on here. Anyhow, a lot of response here. I dont know where to start. I already have in the works a website, new signage, ordering door fliers, downsizing our car, selling a few pieces of unused equipment, advertising on craigslist...sure there's more. I have been working 8-8 every day its been dry these last 2 weeks and then quite a bit on the wet days work providing. So, I get a good amount of response from my phone book ad here, Im NOT cancelling it, but thanks for the advice. To everyone chastising me and telling me Im a pu$$y. Get over it, I'm not answering your foul mouth replies. I'm not complaining, its called asking for advice. I have a rather large business loan. It is for an unspecified amount of time. You say I got ripped off, I say, too late to do anything about it. It is a loan through my bank backed by the SBA, if I default and declare bankruptcy, they will still come after me because I owe the GOVERNMENT money. I have about a 750 credit score and so does my wife. I mow as fast as the mowers will cut without clogging, leaving "stringers", or making skid marks. Any faster, my quality would suffer. I CANNOT GO ANY FASTER! My mower is on the lowest speed when it is soaking wet grass, and on the fastest when it is dry. I return all calls and usually answer them as they ring, or I return the calls in-between properties via bluetooth (to be legal in Cali). Equipment alone was worth used when I bought it around 20k. Things are way overpriced here in California, especially where I live. I get as good of a deal on everything as I can. I price shop everywhere, craigslist, ebay, classifieds, and every store that sells those items within a one hour radius. Someone hit it on the nose, I have a cash flow problem. I cant catch up with the credit card debt I incurred last winter and a little here a little there, it adds up. Business is not as bad as you guys are making it sound for me, its just bad for what I am used to. I came on here looking for some tips, I got them. I am going to go with what I learned and go from there. I already have made money off of the ideas I have gotten here and it has helped! So thanks a million! Meanwhile, business is up through the roof for me and I am good until next winter rolls around, I am to the point of hiring a second guy a day or two a week to keep up.( I CANNOT stress enough of how bad the weather is here, I cannot do this job by myself!) We will see!

EDIT to the last post, I cannot compete with the guys who mow tweekers yards here. I have tried, they work for 20$ an hour with a craftsman push mower...no insurance...no nothing.

A while ago, I wrote a guide on how to start a business with zero risk. I am not in your industry, but if you think you have competition, wait until you try doing what we do. I have 10,000 verified competitors and I know their names and addresses.

I am reading this site and joined it because we have similar requirements for marketing and business models are also similar.

Since you were kind enough to list your license number, I looked up your business.

With that said, some tips:

1. Keep the phonebook ad. It is making you enough money to pay for itself, so why the heck not. For those wondering, you can see it here: http://www.realpageslive.com/?BookCode=hbt09htm&SectionIndex=0&PageIndex=129 It has a picture. Nice-looking ad and probably has been running for a very long time at a locked-in rate from long ago.
2. Any marketing method that makes more money than it costs is always worth it regardless of its cost.
3. You need to work on differentiating what you offer from everyone else. For example, I offer unlimited productivity support. No one else does this.
4. Be aggressive about acquiring new business. Have a 15-second speech for your customers to use when they are talking about you. Have an 8-second speech to use when you are talking to someone about your company.
5. Offer a referral incentive. "Our next visit to your house is free if you tell your friends about how happy you are with our service" is a pretty powerful one.
6. Talk to people directly connected to your business. How many real estate agents do you know? Someone needs to keep landscaping in order while the house is on the market. Pest control companies deal with properties that need care. In my area, you can be a weekly marketing meeting of all local Realtors for $3/morning. I have my flyers on the table, I talk to people etc. 200 prospects in the room. As a platinum affiliate of my local association of Realtors, which costs me all of $180/year, I have access to these meetings.
7. Building on top of the previous tip, this is a little more interesting and more in line with what I do. Print up some doorhangers and put them on the doors of realtors, pest control companies etc. Unlike generic residential marketing, these should be laser-targeted at the needs of these companies. "You will sell the house faster when you use our services". Realtors love incentives from their vendors and they are the first point of contact for a new home owner in your neighborhood. You'd like to be mentioned before they even buy, right?
8. You can "scrape" data from AT&T's yp.com website very inexpensively to get the addresses of every office or resident in your area. You are not supposed to, but... My door hangers are personalized much like I would for an electronic marketing campaign.
9. Once your revenues are in decent shape, consider working with a marketing professional to get your marketing collateral to the point where doing business with you is the only logical choice.
10. Oh, and get a website. Don't JUST get a website, however. Work with someone who knows what they are doing when making websites with SEO in mind. These days websites are built on a CMS platform. I personally love to build them with Wordpress or Joomla. If your webmaster starts talking about graphics and custom work, that's a wrong person. Today, they are built on top of easy to manage web platforms like the ones I mentioned. Can be done in 20 minutes. Don't even think about doing it yourself. Do invest in the services of a copywriter instead of writing your own website. Find a friend who loves making videos and get some video testimonials from your customers to post on your website. I can tell you from experience, it's hard to argue price when you see happy feedback from 20 customers with choice quotes like "He's good. He's not cheap, but he's very good".

OK, so this should get you started somewhat...

Notice that I am not mentioning anything about debts? Bring up your cashflow, and it won't be an issue.

By the way, used color laser printers are cheap (if you know how to buy them so they don't cost a ton in consumables, that is). I bought one for $120 last week. It prints 12 pages per minute in color (36 hangers in my case) and still has enough toner for another 2000 door hangers. That particular deal was exceptionally good, but there are plenty of other good deals out there.

Cheer up and don't forget to have fun.

If you are curious about the guide I mentioned, it's currently published and available for free at http://wiseleo.com/startup

I'll turn it into a video course later on and it'll be sold at $497 or so.

Good luck!

" My wife is pregnant and cant exactly wait for me and my employee to come home to go get groceries or take the baby to the doctor. "

Ok, take a step back and look at your situation. Sometimes it's hard to do this when you are running a million miles per hour every day. As much as you want this to work for you, you must consider an exit plan. With a pregnant wife and family consider your long term financial needs. Is this business going to provide you and your family with the financial support that is needed. It sounds as though you have a large debt load from the business up to this point. Think about possibly selling the business and finding a job. I'm not sure of your educational and professional background, but this may be the answer to your problems.

Utilize the money from the business to pay down some of your debt, this will be a huge burden off your shoulders. I know that the freedom of working for yourself is wonderful, but it sounds as though you are experiencing more stress in your own business then if you were to find full time employment.

I would really take a step back and critically analyze your situation: Working 70 weeks to barely make it is simply not worth it. The lack of working capital combined with large amounts of debt will most likely prohibit you from expanding. Realistically you will be working countless hours for low pay.

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