Vacation

Ok, I'm not in the business, but i did 1 leaf removal last week and I've been thinking about starting when my unemployment checks stop coming in. So, my question is do you guys ever take vacation during the summer? if so who covers your route while you're gone? at my old corporate job you take the time off and everyone else just covers you while you're gone. i'm thinking of going solo with lawn mowing but wonder if i'll ever be able to take 3 or 4 days off in a row to go camping or anything.

 

Winter = vacation.
Plan on working 5 days a week and you will get weekends off.
Welcome to the world of self employed

 

I work myself into one three day weekend and that is for fourth of July other than that it's non stop here comes the fun.

 

you should be worried about surviving and making the mortgage and not starving......i may get a vacation after the third or forth year, no days off in the summer except for holidays, and im still busting my butt and its december....

 

First, why wait till the unemployment stops? Maybe it's different where you are but here, self employment income has no effect on unemployment compensation.
Second, if you work it right you should be able to take a vacation after 2 or 3 years. You just need to schedule it when your normal slow time (and you WILL have one or two or three) occurs. You need to get well established first though.

 

During the summer work every day that ends in Y. During the winter work six days a week. Thankful for every day that I have booked.

 

I work 4 1/2 days a week throughout summer now, since I rid myself of all most of teh employees, take 1/2 December and 1/2 January off (save plowing) and take it easy the rest of the winter.

 

you can work four 10 hr days and still make 40 hrs. if you jump in and find so much work the 1st year that you cant go for being busy CALL AND HELP ME! now can you afford it NO cause no one can. when we plan a long weekend etc int he summer I just work harder those days leading up ( some people here make it sound a lot harder than it is) in the summer be a the job site 10 til 8 and work till 8 again and you can get finished you have to WANT to get done .

 

I've never sacrificed my vacations. I have several friends that own their own lcos around here. I split my route into 3 sections and have it covered by these guys for a week so that it's manageable. On top of that we did an 80-20 split. I still made a few hundred while on vacation. Of course, I do the same for them when they need the help. But, I'm probably really lucky. I'd say that most guys don't get a vacation as a solo operator. If I were you, I'd make some friends you can trust who are in the business. Ideally, I want to grow the company enough to hire a couple of guys who can handle things by themselves. That might happen this upcomming season (year 3). We'll see. I'd really like to have 2 or 3 vacations in a year. As for the 3-4 day weekend, you can probably make that happen in your first season. Second season might be tuff. Try to plan that stuff around late July-early August when the grass is as slow growing as it's going to be all mowing season.

 

Hallelujah Brother jasnnau Very well put.

John