Mowin' in the Money

[Steve]

Even though there are what seems to be more and more landscaping companies this year than years past, there seems to be more and more work to be done. As this article points out. Even though you are working a lot you have to be ever watchful if you are making or losing money.

Mowin' in the Money (http://www.hutchnews.com/news/local/stories/Lawnmow052306.shtml) - Jason Penner - who runs Penner Lawn Care with his father, Jess - said he's heard Hutchinson has one of the highest concentrations of lawn care companies in the country, a statistic repeated by Rose and others in the field.

But even with the glut of competition, Penner rarely lacks work. Depending on the weather and time of year, he and his father mow lawns eight to 14 hours a day, sometimes seven days in a row.

"We're probably running around 80 to 85 yards a week," Penner said of his mowing schedule.

Staying busy, though, doesn't always mean staying profitable. Rising fuel costs, Penner said, not only increase their fuel budget but also increase the amount of money spent on fertilizers, often a byproduct of oil production.

"Right now, we're starting to look at more fuel-efficient mowers, or ones that can mow faster, to cut down on costs," Penner said.

[kc2006]

20 listings in their phonebook and they think they have it bad? *I counted 70 some in ours, and probably 25% of legal companies don't advertise in it. That's for the whole county though.

I agree though it is rough, almost daily I talk to someone and they say "Oh yea I started doing lawns" or "Yea my XXXX started a mowing business"

Everyone automaticly thinks, "wow only work 8 months out of the year, make huge money at it, everyone needs their lawn cut so it's easy". *One guy I know, had a very successful gas station and garage, always had cars in the lot to get worked on, and he had a very expensive drag car to promote it and show he had big money. *Saw him one day and he said he sold it all off, got a part time job somewhere and is in his words "doing lawns". *I was shocked, go from a business that is making big money and you have less competition (not everyone is ASE certified or has the money to start a garage) for the green industry.

[tiedeman]

I have it pretty bad here too

There are approx 5,000 people here in my city, and 7 lawn care companies here. That is only about 700 customers per lawn care company. That does not include the number of fly by nights or lawn care companies that come in from out of town