Just curious on what you guys started out with. When I was 12 years old I bought a used 21" Lawnboy. The mower cut great and made great stripes, but it was slower than molasses in January. Shortly after that I bought a crapsman push edger and a k-mart weedeater. By the time I was 14, I had 20 lawns in my neighborhood and I would walk to all of them still using the same equipment. That was 22 years ago, and now I have every top notch peice of equipment imaginable. When I look back to what I started with, it really makes me appreciate what I have now along with good health.
Well since I am still newer I have those first items. Mower 48" Land Scaper Supply mower, belt drive 15hp kohler Land Scaper Supply 2 wheel sulky Ryobi blower Ryobi quick change trimmer/edger (lasted two weeks) upgraded to and Echo 31cc trimmer trailer- don't laugh too hard, is a free old pop-up tent camper, converted to a trailer (my pastor gave it to me, $150 in wood to get it safe!!)(guys at the fire station called me Sanford and Son mowing So is stared out last season pretty cheaply, but better than some I guess LOL.
Wow! That's a history in the green industry I can really respect. Like you I started with a push mower, a Rally from Walmart, and homeowner weedeater, but that was only about 8 years ago, and I was already 46. I just needed a little work to make up for the overtime my employer took away due to management spasms--a Tyson Foods tortilla plant where I was a mechanic. I expected to do a lot of landscape maintenance and very little mowing, because it looked like there were already too many outfits mowing in this area. In a couple of years I was seeing things different and bought my first zero turn. I had already got so busy I quit Tyson after doing lawn maint part-time for about 15 months. But probably I was so busy because I was way too cheap, and not nearly selective enough about what I did or who I worked for. Now after 8 years learning things the hard way, I'm making a living. But have to face the fact a guy in the green industry better get out of the sweat work and into managing others by the time he's my age. But mostly I do this because I get satisfaction out of it--I like to look at work I've just finished and say "There! Don't that look great?"
You gotta start somewhere and if you don't have rich parents to buy everything for you, you have to improvise til you have the $ to buy the commercial stuff.
When I started mowing lawns 18 years ago, my dad bought me a Montgomery Wards 21 or 22" front wheel drive,cog driven,self-propelled,big bird yellow,200# solid steel push mower.Man, that thing sure felt like it weighed 200#, but it was a tank.It lasted four seasons.I also had a Green Machine brush /grass trimmer that was just as heavy.My dad had to take me around in his truck on the wekends to service 12 lawns each week.The I got smart and started hitting the townhomes above our development.I could do 10 without having to load any gear on days after school.
1 goat, scissors, and a pooper scooper. LMAO I still remember pushing a reel mower when I was a kid doing my first lawn. And the best part is I remember exactly how much I was paid $1 bought a lot of candy and a magazine Mac
I started out with a John Deere stx38 12 hp 38 inch cut, Homelite trimmer and blower, was back in 1995 a very wet year, people didnt have time to cut there grass and i was looking to get some of my money back on my new mower purchase, what started out as a hobby is my job now since the factory i worked at closed and went to china
