when u started did you have support? or backlash & every 1 thought it was a bad idea?

Hey all i was just wondering when you guys first started out how many people backed you and believed in you and what you wanted to do? How many of you have had people tell you that owning a lawn care biz or doing lawn care isn't your calling? I'm going in my 2nd year of doing lawn care and i have very little support and have had people say its not my calling and stuff like that so i was just wanting feed back from people that have been told that but have went on to prove them wrong. thanks for your feed back

 

Go read my Tale of the Underachiever. No one gave me any kind of support, which made me more pissed off and determined to succeed. I hate it when people tell me I can't do something.

 

It seems to be peoples nature not to support others. When I left my "secure" job people thought I was crazy. They would ask how I was doing and I knew that wanted to hear that I was failing. People in secure jobs are for the most part miserable and want to get out but fear stops most of them. When they see someone with enough courage to step out into the unknown finally do it and succeed it becomes an indictment on them. They see your success and realize that they are failures because of fear. People can't understand how a person can live not knowing how much money he will make the next week. I like not knowing, because I also know that there is no limit to how much I can make next week or next month. Sure it is comforting to know that a paycheck will come every week, but it always the same amount. I used to make around $40,000 a year, $800 a week. Now, a slow week for me is $1000 and a good week is $4-5000. Don't listen to all those people telling you it can't be done, look foward and have faith that you will succeed.

 

Yea, when I started this business, the only one that was supporting me was my wife. She was the only one that mattered. My brothers were very skeptical, as everyone else. Well I showed them, not doing too bad right now. Now I think my one brother is a bit jealous now. He realizes that I am making it as my own boss and that is priceless to me.

 

Alot of people are pretty supportive of me right now. I'm still in the process of starting up and even though its late in the year they're standing behind me, the one that shocks me is my dad, out of everybody i know i figured he'd be the one that would say i'm stupid for trying it. I get the normal "oh theres no business left in lawn cutting, theres too many already" that puts me down for a second and then i think about getting a "secure" job and i say no way. Stay determined and you'll make it.

 

Sounds like a lot of similar stories!

I started years ago to pay for college and then quit once I got the degree, working "secure" jobs full time and still doing 10-15 lawns on the side because I have always loved it.

About 3 weeks ago I signed a contract for an 80 lawn community and guess what, here I am again...back to doing what I love! My girlfriend always just says I should do what I want and of course my dad always says it isn't practical, until now.

Now he sees the potential! Went from a net take home of about $3,000 per month to $12,000 per month and doing what I want to do, working for myself.

 

Although people thought I was crazy, (in-laws think that anyways) I did get support. Obviously the wife is most important and I wouldn't have quit my good paying managment job if she wasn't in support of it. The in-laws thought I had lost my mind BUT have been very supportive and even pitched in on some equiptment. Father in-law said, "I think your nuts but if anyone can do it you can.let know how I can help" I didn't need any financial help cause I had a lot savings and sources from my last job left over but my in-laws really wanted to help. Blew me away. They probably just didn't want to see their daughter and grandaughter starve to death! LOL. It's truly been a blessing all the support I've had. Some of my friends looked at me kind of cockeyed but see now it's working well.
It was clearly something the Lord wanted me to do (with wife's blessing). Whether anyone supported us of not wouldn't have mattered.

 

I'm sure that alot of people thought I was crazy when I made the decision to leave a very secure career and pursue landscaping but most were generally supportive.I discovered that there are ALOT of people out there who literally despise their jobs and want to make a career change but, for a variety of reasons,can't...or won't.
Many people who criticize you or tell you that you can't do it are probably jealous because you have the courage to go for your dreams while they wallow in their misery.Ask them,"How do you know I can't do it?".
Good luck!

 

im 16, i have 40+ accounts. i started with 6 in may. ALOT of people told me what a waste it was and how there wasnt any money in it. but now that i have 40 accounts and they see how much money is in cutting lawns + landscaping, they dont backlash me anymore! I picking up more and more landscaping jobs and the lawn cutting is starting to become more of a way to advertise and money to pay bills whereas landscaping im getting to profit ALOT of that money because the lawn cutting is paying for bills.

at least for me its been like that, where lawncutting is a way to advertise for landscaping services, and lawncutting can pay the bills.

 

Dang Mark! How did you get so many accounts in that little amount of time? Please show me the way. Anyways, congrats and good luck.

Vince