everyone please read and answer thanks.

[lawnwizards]

just wanted to start a thread to see how long everyone has been in business, what your best investment was, worst investment. how many accounts you have, employess and if you plan on getting any bigger or not.. you don't have to disclose how much you make unless it floats your boat... i'll start.

I"ve been in business for 3 years now me and my buddy are partners. we have 35 residential and 1 commercial. our best investment is a sulky.(sure makes the day go by smoother). worst is an underpowered chipper (5hp). we currently don't have any employees. got some help on the commercial. we are planning on expanding up to 100 accounts within the next 2 years. also we want to get into buying houses and remodeling then resale. thanks for reading all of this and i appreciate all responses.

 

[Gatewayuser]

This will be year 4 for me.
Best investment was a Great Dane Gateway which allowed me to go through a 36" gate but still have a 52" cut and have a competitive edge on other companies.
Worst investment was a echo 200-R I hate that thing nothing but trouble.
I have around 60 accounts between 1/4 acre to 7 acres.
1 part employee
I will be adding 2-3 more employee and running a second crew possibly a third this year.
I am planning on growing to have 50-150 more customers within the next 3 years. My company growth has been 75-200% per year by word of mouth, this year I will be advertising for the first time.
Also this year I want to offer more types of landscaping (patios) and will be going full blast with my lawn treatments last year was a trial run and was a huge success.

Good Luck to you and everyone on Lawn Site this year!

 

[Jpocket]

I have been in business since I was about 14 insured under my fathers name, and have been under my own name legally for almost 2 years. We currently have around 60 accounts 90% of them are Residential. The business owns 4 trucks, 3 60" riders, and ATLEAST two of all the other stuff you can think of that a Lawnservice needs...LOL.

My plans for the future are to get about 2.5 times the size we are now (150 accounts) with about 40% of them being commercial (70% of revenue).
I want to have two crews, one large one with say 4 guys, and one with myself as the foremen. I would like to "tie up" my area as far as high end residential, and mid-sized commercial goes.

Eventually I want to Incorporate my name and run my lawn service as a dba under that name, I will use my commercial contacts to tap into the Waste disposal & container service.

So far for this year looks good, I am hoping to go from 60 to 90+ accounts, and about 120 next year. My goal is to run a "Big" small business, my dream is to dominate the market.

Oh...my best investment was...Heck they're all good!

 

[Jason Rose]

11 years for me! That's what I count "officially" that I started when I was 16 when I was able to then drive... I actually have been mowing for money since I was 11 or 12.

Been solo the whole time, have tried having a little help here and there but it's hard to pay someone for what I'm supposed to be doing, plus it really hurts the bottom line.

The past few seasons I've been cutting 65 to 75 properties. It keeps me paid well enough to keep me happy.

Best investments: Everything I currently have. All the unusable crap has been culled out thru trial and error, at my expense. My 20' trailer has to be # 1. It's so nice to be able to have anything and everything I need during the day with me at all times.

Worst: Everything I have bought and then had to sell because it was not productive, always sold at a loss to me unfortunately. Biggest was the Walker mower. That machine cost me more time and aggravation, then I had to sell it and had to take 2 grand off the list price to get a taker.

I'm hoping to grow this season too, or at least have the same # I had at the max of last year. Had a number of customers move on me and I lost one of my large commercial properties this fall, it will about 4 to 5 regular weekly jobs to replace the lost revenue from that one job.

 

[Ol'time Lawncare]

This will be my 5th year in service.38 residential accounts and 18 commercial.I would like to grow to about 100 accounts! We service all accounts with a 48'' exmark WB and 2 - 21'' hondas. And Echo with everything else. I have to say, my sulky was the best investment also! This year i would like to get my applicators licenses!

 

[PrecisionYardworks]

This will be my 3rd year as a sole proprietor. Looking to be an s corp in 07. I always try to learn more and expand every year. Best investment was a Scag ZTR. Worst Investment a walkbehind. i should have bougth a ztr from the start. I mow 35 residential 2 commercial and will be sponsoring and mowing a little league baseball field. I would love to switch to doing landscape work instead of mowing in the next few years. I feel the money is much better in my opinion, but mowing is almost garunteed income. Hope everyone has a profitable year this year.

 

[zim bob the landscaper]

ok ive been in the biz for almost 2 years.
we have 7 accountsits me my bro and dad that run it and we also hire our cousin for big stuff.
best investment was the bunton worst was my old wheel horse lots of power but spent a lot of $$ on repairs.
and i hope to get 30 accounts and at least 10 fall clean ups by next year.
and hope to get employees when we get older.

 

[The Ripper]

We have been in business for 2 1/2 years. There are two of us and one employee. We started with a 36 Scag belt drive and now we also have 36 Scag Hydro and a 48 Great Dane Super Surfer. We have two trucks, two trailers, and a ton of other equipment. We have 43 residential (we have lost about ten to moving over the fall and winter so we had 53), we have four commercial, and 6 large county buildings that we just got. We have grown by 200 percent and in this area we can expand at least another 100% this year. We plan to expand until we are the only ones left in the industry. Sorry guys but you can always work for us.

 

[jtkplc]

This is my 3rd year of being at it "professionally". I've been mowing lawns since I was 12 (almost 20 now). I work solo and don't plan on getting any employees. The lawn business is going to get me a good financial start in life and pay for college and a starter house, but once I start a career, I will probably only do a few lawns on the side, like friends or something. My worst investment was when I bought my first ZTR and not getting the most powerful engine option. I'm now looking to upgrade, and if I would have bought it originally it would have costed me about an extra $1,500 whereas now it will cost $4-6,000. My best investment was the Dodge Ram 2500 I leased last march. I have 8 residential lawns and one 46 unit condominium complex. I also work for another lawn company 3 days a week.

 

[Grassmechanic]

My best investment was my degree in turf. It's paid back great dividends over the last 23 years.