I was defiantly thinking of not taking the trailer with me everywhere, mostly just for big clean ups right now. and yes, most of the residential lawns here are small to fair size.
AZ Gardner, I currently work 55+ hrs a week in my current job, also I don't know how easy it would be for me to break a million a year, geez I'd be satisfied to break 100k a year right now. I am just tired of the industry I'm in and I want to make money for my self, I sell 10's of thousands of dollars a week in auto repair and my commission is only a small percent of that. I am just tired of busting my ass for people who are ungrateful all the time and bosses who are never satisfied no matter how much money you make for them!
I've been doing this on the weekends only to supplement my income but I'm wanting to go full time.
Wait, you are tired of busting your ass for people who are never satisfied?
Ummmm you don't want to work in THIS industry either.
You say you SELL tens of thousands a week in auto repairs
does that mean you are the the counter jockey? Or the wrench? I'm assuming counter jockey/service writer.
assume 15k in sales a week (you said tens of thousands) and a 4% commission? That's $600 bucks a week, gross. If you sold 30k, that's $1200 a week gross.
at 600 a week on the low side, 55 hours a week is just shy of $11/hr, but if you sell 30k that's $22/hr.
What you are upset with is pretty vague. But here's what Im getting at.
Lets assume the first year you get filled up 60%, meaning you could take on more work and just haven't found it yet.
So if you work 10 hours a day, 5 days a week (50 hours, 5 less than you are working right now) and you charge $45 an hour to mow. $2,250.00
Woo hoo! score! right?
That's what everyone thinks.
1) you aren't going to get that right away (that's the main reason I used 60%)
2) there are costs associated (this is where the gross goes away, FAST)
60% of $2,250.00 is $1,350.00, multiply that out by the 40 weeks a year you will have work? (I'm guessing I haven't mowed lawns in AZ before) That's a possible 54,000 in income.
Keep in mind even this goal is lofty.
Now apply things like insurance, business license, fuel, repairs, equipment acquisition, and unforeseen expenses and you can take 30% off that and make it go away.
Now you are left with $37,800.00
I won't talk about self employment tax because I didn't take out tax rom your current job, but self employment tax is MORE than taxes taken out of a normal check because YOU pay the tax of your employer AND employee.
now in your current job you have work year round, with this lawn career you want to make for yourself you don't.
In the above example $600 per week x 52 =$31,200.00 (or $62,400.00) it's still unclear how much you actually make there, but Ill assume it's somewhere between that because Im fairly sure your claim of "tens of thousands" each and every week in sales is a little exaggerated.
So now you compare $37,800.00 to $31,200.00, where's this big raise my friend?
Now you have sixty bosses of whom at least 1/3 of them are unsatisfied for unreasonable reasons, what do you do? Get rid of them? If you do you just gave your self a 10 grand pay cut!
Not to mention, in OUR industry, your bills (insurance, taxes etc) are always due in nice BIG chunks, not a little trickle taken out every pay day.
Factor in self employment tax and that little raise is a big pay cut, and now you have twenty people who don't appreciate you instead of one.
Are you sure this is a great idea?
This isn't the "jump on a motorcycle and ride into the sunset and receive freedom plus a paycheck" that people think it is.
It's more work, less pay, and more hassle for at least the first five years.
Of which 2/3 of the upstarts never make it that far.
AND because most are bull headed they will not accept their mistake early enough, so when the do finally fail, they will leave this industry with a big fat debt on multiple credit cards and bill collectors constantly calling.
"small lawns and easy money"
I don't know where that is, but it's not out your front door like everyone keeps thinking it is.
Or they wouldn't all e trying to jam riders onto all those small lawns and/or trying to find employees.
The lawn isn't that small when you have to mow 3,150 of them a year to get paid.
