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463 Posts
I know thats a stupid title, but it just popped into my head.
It all started when I was 12, I started mowing my yard. My nieghbor came over and wanted me to do his yard. I charged him $25 per cut, and still do to this day, nearly 11 years later. I went about doing this for the next 3 years, just a YardMachines 22 inch pushmower, a Homelite bent shaft trimmer, and a pushbroom. Charging people $25 per cut in my nieghborhood.
I then turned 15, and I made a friend with a guy that was 16, and had a ratty, junky, Nissan pickup truck with over 300,000 miles on it, it was on its second engine. We used that to haul two 21 inch mowers, two trimmers, an edger, and two handheld blowers around for about a year.
By that time, I had saved up enough dough to buy my first vehicle, I bought it from my Dad, a 1995 Ford F-350 four door with a 7.3 liter Powerstroke engine. I still have that truck. But once I had that, we also went and bought a trailer, and my original commercial mower! A 48 inch Belt drive WB. Boy, I thougth I was really cookin'! I still cant help but laugh at how silly I was...
So he and I mowed, and mowed, and got more people, and more clients, until we had to get a Tiger Cub ZTR. By this time we also had upgraded to top of the line trimmers, edgers, and a our first PB-650 Blower.
He lost interest shortly after that, mowing wasnt a "cool" job. (but apparently making about a quarter as much at Blockbuster was cool, whatever) so I bought the company from him. I worked at it myself for a while, I think I had about 50 lawns a week. Then, I hired two guys to work for me, and I expanded the company from there.
Before long, I had over 100 accounts, and needed to buy another truck. I did so, hired another crew, got more equipment, bought a storage building, and worked my butt off until we had about 200 accounts.
Just recently, I bought out another LCO company, crews, trucks, equipment, accounts, everything, that added about another 200 accounts to my company. We have about 400 now.
I now own,
One huge hangar that I put every thing in.
10 trucks.
14 trailers.
Somewhere around 40 mowers (ranging from the 21's to the Saber Tooth Tigers with 72 inches of cutting power)
I have no idea how many edgers, trimmers, blowers, hedgeclippers, etc I own.
53 employees. (including the workers, my mechanic, my secretary, etc etc)
The usual array of airators, pumps, chainsaws, augers, etc.
Lots of people look at me in disbelief when I tell them what I do, and how well I have done. To those people, I simply explain to them that this is what happens when you work your butt off, dont cheat anybody, do good work, and possess an inkling of common sense.
Really, I think the main reason I have done so well, is all my administration paper work is taken care of by my secretary, Abby. She is the smartest girl I have ever seen, she can do everything! If she was only good looking, heck, I would settle for decent looking, I would probably marry her!
It all started when I was 12, I started mowing my yard. My nieghbor came over and wanted me to do his yard. I charged him $25 per cut, and still do to this day, nearly 11 years later. I went about doing this for the next 3 years, just a YardMachines 22 inch pushmower, a Homelite bent shaft trimmer, and a pushbroom. Charging people $25 per cut in my nieghborhood.
I then turned 15, and I made a friend with a guy that was 16, and had a ratty, junky, Nissan pickup truck with over 300,000 miles on it, it was on its second engine. We used that to haul two 21 inch mowers, two trimmers, an edger, and two handheld blowers around for about a year.
By that time, I had saved up enough dough to buy my first vehicle, I bought it from my Dad, a 1995 Ford F-350 four door with a 7.3 liter Powerstroke engine. I still have that truck. But once I had that, we also went and bought a trailer, and my original commercial mower! A 48 inch Belt drive WB. Boy, I thougth I was really cookin'! I still cant help but laugh at how silly I was...
So he and I mowed, and mowed, and got more people, and more clients, until we had to get a Tiger Cub ZTR. By this time we also had upgraded to top of the line trimmers, edgers, and a our first PB-650 Blower.
He lost interest shortly after that, mowing wasnt a "cool" job. (but apparently making about a quarter as much at Blockbuster was cool, whatever) so I bought the company from him. I worked at it myself for a while, I think I had about 50 lawns a week. Then, I hired two guys to work for me, and I expanded the company from there.
Before long, I had over 100 accounts, and needed to buy another truck. I did so, hired another crew, got more equipment, bought a storage building, and worked my butt off until we had about 200 accounts.
Just recently, I bought out another LCO company, crews, trucks, equipment, accounts, everything, that added about another 200 accounts to my company. We have about 400 now.
I now own,
One huge hangar that I put every thing in.
10 trucks.
14 trailers.
Somewhere around 40 mowers (ranging from the 21's to the Saber Tooth Tigers with 72 inches of cutting power)
I have no idea how many edgers, trimmers, blowers, hedgeclippers, etc I own.
53 employees. (including the workers, my mechanic, my secretary, etc etc)
The usual array of airators, pumps, chainsaws, augers, etc.
Lots of people look at me in disbelief when I tell them what I do, and how well I have done. To those people, I simply explain to them that this is what happens when you work your butt off, dont cheat anybody, do good work, and possess an inkling of common sense.
Really, I think the main reason I have done so well, is all my administration paper work is taken care of by my secretary, Abby. She is the smartest girl I have ever seen, she can do everything! If she was only good looking, heck, I would settle for decent looking, I would probably marry her!
