My intro

[mikejw]

Hello all My name is mike I'm from NY State in the catskills. I was thinking about doing lawn care on weekends around here.Right now I'm in pest control have been for 15 years.I do have a commercial lic. The main reason I was thinking about this is because I see alot of folks in one day they talk about this and that and thier lawns. there not happy with it ect. I ask if they feed the lawn or if the person doing it dose it for them. The answer is always nither one of them.(go figure LOL) When I and if I do decide to go into this I would like to do the fertilization part along with the mowing gutter cleaning ect.. But not sure how to do this. I would like to fly under the tax and legal radar for a year or two to see if it will pan out. Any comments for me out there???????? Mike P.S. I joind the course in here and the forum to learn more..

[Godslapper]

Lawn care business tips

Well mike, I have to say that if you want to fly under the tax and legal system then please don't start this business. You will be screwing all of the hard working idiots that have been doing it by the book sence day one. This type of business works and you don't need to fly under the radar to find out if it does. Almost every day I talk to a customer that says the guy that was just here will do it for half of what will will. That's when I have to tell them all about the real cost of doing business and nobody that works for me is payed under the table and so on and so on. I feel like a broken record. I have worked so hard for what I've got and so will you if you do it long enough. You want to be here today and gone tomarrow then start off on the wrong foot right out of the box. You want to learn how to run a business then get with the program and start up ligit. There is no dought in my mind that you will feel better about your biz and yourself if you do. Mike I'm up in Troy. One of my guys lives in Climax I'm sure you know where that is. He loves doing this kind of work but says there just isn't any down by you. Might just be because nobody has a mowing biz there. You might be able to clean up real good there. Sounds like being a bug guy would be a real benifit when starting up a lawn biz. The two businesses are quite simular. The thing is, if you don't play by the rules you can charge a lot less than me and still make money, but you could make a lot more if you charged a lot more. your missing out on a lot of money. The customer doesn't know your not paying taxes and payroll and all the other crap. That way I can at least have a chance to pick up a few here and there so I can feed my family to.

[CHEESE2009]

Being legal takes away the bad stress, but gives you the 'good' stress.

Illegal cons
No contracts.
Clients don't have to actually pay you, ever.
You wont be taken seriously.
Clients will take advantage of you.

You'll have to accept cash only, this means you'll have to chase your clients every week, or month.


Legal cons
Paperwork
Taxes
Responsibility


-

Being legal gives you bragging rights, and more confidence.

[dougcaskey]

I could'nt agree more !! The whole cash under the table thing is not the way to run a BUSINESS !!! Do it right from the start...Uninsured lowballers don't stay in business for long...Be professional....

[Steve]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to our forum!

I was thinking about doing lawn care on weekends around here.Right now I'm in pest control have been for 15 years.I do have a commercial lic.

If you are running one legit business, why not just offer more services with it and experiment? Why jeopardize all that you have done up to this point by trying to run a part of your business illegally?

What's the benefit?

[mikejw]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the info. I should have went a bit futher in my intro I see.
I work for a pest control company.Its not one of the national chain ones you see on tv.

You gave me very good advice. I thank each of you for it.Your points were well taken and taken to heart.I can see you guys take the pride in what you do if everyone in this country did that we would be better off.

So for now I will do the course go into it more indepth give it alot of thought.

How much will I be looking at in cost as far as setting up the tax stuff ect.
Not even thinking about the mowers trailers truck ect. any ball park figure will do.


Once again Thank all of you.

Mike

[dougcaskey]

I agree Steve, It would be easier to just expand your service menu rather than start a new and serperate business...Good Luck to you.....

[wandfsmall]

I would make sure it would be ok from my boss before I started it then. It would suck to get fired for advertising a side business to his customers.

Originally Posted by mikejw

Hi Guys

Thanks for the info. I should have went a bit futher in my intro I see.
I work for a pest control company.Its not one of the national chain ones you see on tv.

You gave me very good advice. I thank each of you for it.Your points were well taken and taken to heart.I can see you guys take the pride in what you do if everyone in this country did that we would be better off.

So for now I will do the course go into it more indepth give it alot of thought.

How much will I be looking at in cost as far as setting up the tax stuff ect.
Not even thinking about the mowers trailers truck ect. any ball park figure will do.


Once again Thank all of you.

Mike

[xandrew245x]

What do you guys think about running illegally just for the first couple of months?

In my situation I would like to make sure I can even get my business going before I go through all the hassle of being a legit company. I do have an estimate to go give tomorrow, but he has some kids mowing it right now and he said hes going to let them mow until they go back to school.

If I do land his job, I plan on picking up insurance before dong work on the property. could go and get an llc through legal zoom for not that much, but would like to steer clear of all the tax business as of right now.

[Mixon427]

All I know is running your buisness under the table will eventually run it into the ground. For 3-4mo I struggled running my business when it was non-legit. However, I was able to slowly grow only because my mind was on a "will not fail" track at that point, but I tell you It was a great day when I became legal**3 days later closed my first commercial account**sky is the limit. Plus its those illegal operators that give the lawn/landscape buisness a bad name.