Homer,<p>My friend who has the other lawn care I was telling you about, he had an out of town emergency yesterday and had 7 pallets of sod coming to be installed. He called and asked if I could do it. I got a crew together and went and did it. <p>The point is the monetary arangement was for to bill him as sub with my own labor prices. Once again I know what he charges and it is the same as me so it worked out well.<p>Maybe this might help with the "Merging" post. I know it really isn't merging but it did help in a pinch. I don't know what he would have done if he hadn't been here or if I couldn't have done it. The biggest help was that I had to employees to help and he had none.<p>As far as working together on the same yard I haven't thought long enough yet to come up with any ideas.<p>See Ya,<br>Adam
We talked again last night. Still haven't worked out all the details yet, probably help each other on the bigger properties. He has one employee, he wants to get rid of him but really can't afford to. I have no employees and need one but really don't want to tie myself to one. I thought we could split this guy and keep him fully employed between the 2 of us. I could stand the help sometimes when he didn't need the man. We might work something out soon, just need to keep thinking about it. I'm glad you could help your friend, sounds like ya'll could work out some bartering deals also. Problem in this industry is the fact that everyone is so concerned about their own interests they don't look at the big picture. We could all be making more and paying out less if we structured things in the proper manner, and could somehow get along!<p>Homer
Just a word of encouragement, Homer. My hubby has worked out an informal arrangement with a part-timer to share equipment, leads and labor from time to time. They keep track of machine time and labor time and whoever works a laborer, pays him. Most of the time its been pretty smooth. You just need to have some gentlemanly agreements about bidding and lead sharing. It helps if you don't both do exactly the same services. For example, one does tree work and rototilling as well as drainage work and mowing. The other does mowing, aerating, dethatching, landscaping. They work together on larger jobs such as building retaining walls and drainage projects. They will sometimes decide which one is going to bid a job and the other will decline to bid. That keeps hard feelings from developing. Good Luck!<p>----------<br>Lanelle<br>
