[sjessen]

Yes sir

Thanks.

 

[1620cwj]

Started at age 41. 71 and counting now.

I to am 71 and retired but still consult and do minor jobs that are a mess from people not know what they are doing.

 

[TrimCutLawncare]

Its much less of a headache working by yourself, but it is also all riding on you. I started when I was 13, grew it to 150 clients with 5 guys by the time I was 20. Was working 12hr days still and when I got engaged, went just with 1 employee. Makes the day go by faster and as long as you pay them accordingly it works out real well, can actually have a life and can enjoy going in to work.

 

[TrimCutLawncare]

I have found that clients like seeing the owner doing the work and seeing them be in operations. Most people understand both, and I think that as long as you still have good interactions with the clients every now and again they seem to really enjoy knowing who is working on their yard.

 

[Johnny Outside]

Its much less of a headache working by yourself, but it is also all riding on you. I started when I was 13, grew it to 150 clients with 5 guys by the time I was 20. Was working 12hr days still and when I got engaged, went just with 1 employee. Makes the day go by faster and as long as you pay them accordingly it works out real well, can actually have a life and can enjoy going in to work.

How old are you now?

 

[Brucey]

I do, and Alison’s mom has an investment manager she’s been happy with. Yard of the Year is on track to have a decent revenue surplus by years end and it’s not going towards an F350 😉

What are you thinking of buying assuming you have a decent chunk to write off versus sending to taxman?

 

[Hurryupelectric]

What are you thinking of buying assuming you have a decent chunk to write off versus sending to taxman?

Not sure, it’s always a subjective thing “decent chunk” but whatever types of retirement stuff a small company would offer, I want some of that.

 

[HouseofYards]

I am really getting tired of the employee bs. Trying to find good people is almost impossible and the ones I have is trying to keep them happy. I currently run one mowing crew and one landscaping crew. I myself have been on the landscaping side of things pretty much all year so things run pretty smooth. A few of my guys run the grass side of things and stuff just doesn’t get done the way I want it to. A fair amount of complaints from customers during the spring rush. Lots of stress to say the least. I am really thinking about just getting rid of everyone and just going out and doing mowing myself and getting out of doing the mulching, installs etc. I know they are big money, but if I am going to stay with that work it’s going to require at least 2 other guys which I don’t want to deal with. There’s also all the payroll BS as well which gets expensive. Are there any guys on here that run a solo operation? Just trying to get some other thoughts before I make a decision. Thanks.

We never had the mindset of running solo, from day 1, our vision is we won't be doing the actual work, hire others, and our job is to take care of crews, marketing, scaling the business, manage side of things. We grew to 550 recurring clients in a few years. Part of it is luck, we got some very reilable crews, and our business ethics, integrity, and just hard knock hustle.

 

[Tn Turf]

I feel like in today's job market if you want a crew, you need to start by hiring an HR rep or virtual assistant to handle all the employee stuff. Figure they'll stay busy as you'll probably burn through helpers monthly. Eventually you'll probably snag a few good ones that last for 2 or 3 months. Lol

As for solo, It's a change of pace and much slower. 10 average size yards per day is practical could gross about $500 per day. If you go solo, my advice is be extremally picky and groom your customers. Don't accept just any yard and do weekly only. I wouldn't even add yards with excessive landscaping, excessive weedeating/edging, push mows, etc... because you're not going to want to burn yourself out. I've been working solo with one hand (literally... I cut my finger off 3 weeks ago) and I have a 2nd crew that does a great job together. I love working alone. But maybe next season I might try that H2B program or look into going to Texas and pick up some illegal immigrants to save Texas Gov. Abbot from transporting them to Washington DC. I need to look into the legalities of that, however.

 

[brydan]

If you go solo, my advice is be extremally picky and groom your customers. Don't accept just any yard and do weekly only. I wouldn't even add yards with excessive landscaping, excessive weedeating/edging, push mows, etc... because you're not going to want to burn yourself out.

Agree wholeheartedly. This spring I'm planning to cut back my full time job to part time. I've always had pretty good route density even when I was full time but this time I'm planning to step it up a notch and literally only take jobs in two or three neighborhoods that are 5 min from work.

I do 6 yards in one now but there's another 100+ homes I've never marketed to. Want to max this one out since it's always been ideal for me. After that I have yards in a couple other similar neighborhoods close by but there's also a lot of neighborhoods built since I actively marketed to this part of town years ago. Going to make a decision on which ones target and that's it, don't take anybody outside of those hoods and start dropping existing clients outside as new ones come on board.

I recently put a stopwatch (using lap times so no lost fudge time) on my routes, something admittedly I haven't done in far too long. It was an eye opener when comparing it to the select neighborhood model. Based on the specifics of what kinds of yards I'm doing now with the current euipment vs what I would be doing and drive time, realistically I could do an additional 4 yards per week without any other changes.