Hi everyone new to the forum and the biz

[wgallagher]

Hi everyone, Im Wes, im 29 a unemployed father of 3 from CA. I am just starting out again, although i had 10 accounts at onetime, i was not to good at the biz aspect the first time around either as all my accts were crap yards of customers that didnt care much for their yard to begin with, and they were all bi weekly accts. Eventually i had to let them go due to landing a construction job which eventually had mandatory overtime on saturdays. Now I have a small party rental business which consists of one bouncehouse and tables and chairs, its quick easy cash.....WHEN I HAVE RENTALS! But usually most of that money goes back into gas due to my ol ladys work schedule, i usually load up the rentals take the kids to my grandmas to watch them while i deliver, drive to the customer and set up, drive back to grandmas, go home with kids, to repeat all over again a few hours later to pick up stuff. Plus now theres unlicensed competition advertising my same price for all day!! Any how, i was trying to start a lawn biz up again to support my family. As of now i have 3 bi weekly customers, no city license, a unreliable chevy astro van to pull a small trailer which i carry a echo backpack blower, snapper 22" lawnmower, echo weedeater and a crappy homelite weedeater as a back up. I plan to get the license as soon as i can hustle the extra $120 for the city municpal license, only thing is i will have to give up the party rental biz license, you can only have one biz apparently operating out of your home, even though technically my office is my cell and the van, my home biz garage is actually my storage not my offfice. I have absolutely NO START UP CASH to buy anything extra as back ups or to purchase any books/software to learn how to operate a biz and bid properly so i can actually make money, instead of basically paying for gas and a pack of smokes. I have tons of questions: 1) How can i attract more GOOD accounts quickly without advertising so much that the city realizes im doing biz without a license and get fined? I plan to get the license asap so i can put my name all over my trailer and order biz cards with my license number on them. 2) Does anyone here pressure wash? How much do you normally charge for pressure washing mobile homes? what all is involved in that, material-wise? I have a pressure washer that ive never really used as planned, as of now it just sits in my garage taking up space, i figure i need to make all my tools make me money. I heard when i was doing construction years ago you can make a few hundred easily basically rinsing off a single story home with a pressure washer. Due to the city allowing us to water only at certain hours on certain days (and they drive every where including on weekends handing out fines if they see you watering on a day or time your not supposed to) i was thinking about trying to pressure wash mobile homes in mobile home parks. How easy would a mobile home be, and what are typical prices for such job? would u wash just the mobile home itself, or the porch/patio/outside flooring as well? 3) How exactly do you bid properly to obtain the "dollar a minute" that i hear so much about? Seems i always underbid and cut my throat because it always takes a lot longer than a dollar per minute, for example, i may charge $20 but then find out the yard actually takes me an hour or a little longer I was also thinking about advertising to do guter cleaning, as ive heard you can make really good money cleaning it since homeowners dont want to climb on the roof and clean it out themselves. Any tips, and advice is greatly needed and appreciated. Thanks

[willshome]

Lawn care business tips

Why can't you do both rental and lawn care as one bussiness? You could run a sale mow their lawn and set up the tent the day before their party.

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[wgallagher]

Originally Posted by willshome

Why can't you do both rental and lawn care as one bussiness? You could run a sale mow their lawn and set up the tent the day before their party.

willshome, that is a great idea, but the city had told me when i asked about getting a lawn care business. I figured since they had all my info i should be able to get away with just paying $5 for a printout of the license after changing the name from party rentals to lawn care. After they said i would have to pay the whole $120 again, i asked if i could incorporate the two businesses under one license being as i am using my last name, they said i could only have one biz, i guess because it is a home based biz, i dont know. Always trying to keep the poor man down it seems.

[Steve]

Welcome to our forum!

they said i could only have one biz, i guess because it is a home based biz, i dont know

That doesn't sound right to me. A lot of times, I get the feeling these town hall workers just don't know, so they make it up as they talk.

What type of license is it they require you to have? Is it a home contractor license?

[wgallagher]

Originally Posted by Steve

Welcome to our forum!



That doesn't sound right to me. A lot of times, I get the feeling these town hall workers just don't know, so they make it up as they talk.

What type of license is it they require you to have? Is it a home contractor license?

haha i think the same thing, no just a basic home occupational business city municipal license