Partnership or solo

[Southern Greens]

Starting the business on your own will be much easier. You will no have partners to deal with, but a single member LLC would be a good idea to protect you from personal liability.

[daddy03w]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Steve When such situations happen, could you either try and get the customer to pay upfront for materials or simply look to take on smaller jobs right now? The mulch jobs i had were not that big they were small in comparison to some i have seen done by some of the big lawn care companies around me. I have seen some where they are bringing in 3-4 1 ton trucks with stake body or dumpbeds to do mulch. I had one job that was topsoil and mulch replacement but everything else was smaller jobs that would've been maybe 1-3 yards of mulch. my stepdads issue was that we didnt have a truck that we could use for the business to haul mulch so we would have to have it delivered. See in total i lost out on almost 20k in jobs because of the mulch issue. I had several potential clients that wanted mulch and yearly mowing but to get the mowing i had to do the mulch also. i have attached 2 pics of what i was using this year. i will be using the escape still but not the same trailer and mower. plan to buy a truck by the end of next year My stepdad has now locked me out of the garage where he put the equipment and i had to tell 3 clients i could not mow for them anymore this year. but i did tell them that i would be able to work for them next year as a new business. I have also toalked to all my clients and reassured them i will be back next year, and they have all agreed to hire me next year on my own..

Attached Images

	2012-04-20 16.15.43.jpg (313.1 KB, 11 views)
	2012-09-14 18.39.33.jpg (79.2 KB, 18 views)

---

Last edited by daddy03w; 11-18-2012 at 08:07 AM. Reason: missed info

[daddy03w]

Originally Posted by Indy Plants

Steve brings a very valid point and very reasonable. In most cases I expect the customer to pay for materials in advance and they have never questioned it.

I would have to agree with sprinkler buddy about discussing this with your step dad, especially since it sounds like he has an interest in yours and his daughters success

around here we really dont ask for upfront money.


i think you are thinking about father-in-law by saying "his Daughters" when neither my wife or myself am related to him except by marriage he married my mom..

[Organic Ken]

Originally Posted by daddy03w

Hello my name is Shawn. I have been trying to start my mowing business for a few years now and was finally able to get my step dad to get a loan for me. when we talked about it we were doing a partnership but im the one doing all the work, only because my step dad is in maintenance for some apartment complexes. do you all think since i am doing all thus on my own anyway should i break our "partnership" of the business and do it on my own

It sounds like you already have a partnership and your loosing money. Why are you wanting to dump your partner who put his neck on the line to get you $$ to run the business and now you want to walk and leave him with the loan? Talk about awkward Thanksgiving dinners from now on.

I would sit down with him and ask his advice on how to turn it around and then, once you are profitable, make a plan for buying your way out of the partnership.

Now you see why partnerships are never good. IMHO

[daddy03w]

Originally Posted by Organic Ken

It sounds like you already have a partnership and your loosing money. Why are you wanting to dump your partner who put his neck on the line to get you $$ to run the business and now you want to walk and leave him with the loan? Talk about awkward Thanksgiving dinners from now on.

I would sit down with him and ask his advice on how to turn it around and then, once you are profitable, make a plan for buying your way out of the partnership.

Now you see why partnerships are never good. IMHO

he has decided to shut the business down and come to find out from my mom that he never had plans to continue more than just this year. Some other things are in the works that i have found out that my mom may be in the process of moving to Tennessee and my step-dad is thinking about trying to start his business down there. I told my mom dont bet on it because with the prices he has he will not get any clients. he was giving me prices that you only would see on luxury mansions, $100 for 1/2 acre lots something that would take 20 mins.
i lost several jobs because of that.
when i finally got him to look at reality he was pissed and said that its not worth it for him around here unless we could get into some really high dollar sub-divisions, but yet i was the one doing all the work.

he had issues that i never came over to wash and WAX the trailer and mower after i finished at the end of the day.

i have already talked to all the clients i had and all of them are gonna stay with me next year when i get my own equipment.

this is just some of the issues we had but I am starting my business next year and will continue with all the clients with no problems.

[Steve]

Looking back on all this, what top 5 lessons do you feel you learned from it all that will help you into the new year?

[daddy03w]

1. partnerships are bad
2. working with family bad

i thought i would give it a shot and see what happens, thought i could get it to work.