[Remsen1]

I need a carreer change. The corporate rat race has worn me down very far. So much so that I don't have the energy to pursue my dream of financial independence through operating a lawn and snow business. And I feel trapped. My lawn business is not nearly robust enough to support my families financial needs. I am considering seeking employment with some of the highly professional well established LCBs in the area. I need to be operating machinery, not playing office politics if I am to be happy.

Have any of you started by working for another LCO? I think that there could be some opportunity for me to benefit from the experience. Some of them would be, estimating how long it will take to do jobs. Which equipment works best. Hone my skills.

Some of my concerns though are will I make enough money to support my family, will the work be steady, should I be upfront with my longterm plan of growing my LCB (considering that I am not in the same league to be able to compete with them and I would like to focus on a different region.)? In order to quit my job, I need to take home a minimum of $350-400/week to start. This would be a pay cut for me but I could survive it, and I will love my work and it will show, hopefully my raises will reflect that.

Have any of you taken this path? Would I be better off in going about it in another way?

 

[Angelo]

Well to answer one of your questions I wouldn't tell the company off the start that you are looking to learn from them then leave. There is a lot of wasted time in training employees and if you tell them this they may not want to hire you.

 

[awm]

i fully appreciate and sympatise with your
burned outness ,,in the corporate world..
but the lawn care buisiness is experiencing a glut ,no offense ,of people getting into it ., there may be better buisinessesto get into at this time.
not to discourage ,jmo.
in any case get out of the corporate world while u can. it ll kill u,, at the pace u are keeping ,trying to keep up. again jmo..

 

[Remsen1]

Thanks for the replies so far. AWM, I'm concerned that they would think that even though I would be planning to work for them for at least one full year, probably 2-3 years if the work is steady and I get raises based on how good I do.

I agree that there are alot of LCOs, but I also think that there is a high failure rate and a lot of niche's to be filled. I think there are a lot of people getting into it that don't love it like I do.

 

[Team Gopher]

Hi Remsen1,

I am sure there are local LCO's around you that need help and would be very lucky to have you!

Go for you dreams

 

[John Allin]

If you like the snow business, and think you may be able to do it full time year round.... email me your resume.

No promises, but good people with smarts are hard to find....

 

[GeorgiaGrassMan]

On one hand you are saying:

Originally posted by Remsen1
My lawn business is not nearly robust enough to support my families financial needs.

and on the other hand you are saying:

I need to take home a minimum of $350-400/week to start. This would be a pay cut for me but I could survive it...[/B]

My question is, how hard have you tried to make your business "robust"? I mean, I'm part time (right now) and this is my first season and I'm making over $400.00 per week working 8-10 hours. Granted, I won't be making much in the winter, but we don't plow snow down here. My point is, if this business is really your dream, don't give up on it so easily. Working for someone else would help you learn the business faster and if that's your reason for doing it then maybe its a good thing, but seriously, this ain't rocket science. Hard, honest work yes - rocket science no. Think about this - why do you think that working for another LCO is going to be any better than working for a big corporation? It will be different and you might enjoy the work more, but at the end of the day, somebody else will still be calling the shots. Believe me, I know how working in corporate America can wear a person down and I understand about being burned out and demoralized. I'm just trying to encourage you to gather the strength and the will to get out and make the permenant solution work for you. You CAN do it!

 

[GLAN]

John Allin..............you with SIMA?

 

[dvmcmrhp52]

Take a job anywhere you want that will give you enough money to survive,but 400.00 a week ain't much,so you can sure build well beyond that with lawncare in the spring of next year with a little effort.
Good luck,I too know about corporate burnout.(almost divorced a second time because of it)

 

[bobbygedd]

$350-$400 a week? u could do that if u spent half the day at the bar

 

[John Allin]

I am a member of the Snow & Ice Management Association, Inc. (SIMA). I am not "with" SIMA as I am not an employee.