Equipment list for next year

[Steve]

Whats on your equipment wish list for next year and how is it going to help you grow?

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[swstout]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Steve Whats on your equipment wish list for next year and how is it going to help you grow? Mowing is only about 5-10% of my busieness and with everyone with a mower and a pick-up doing it the profit margin is minimal. I have 3 riders and 2 walk behinds. I'll be keeping one rider and one walk behaid and taking the deck off the smaller of the riders and usintg it for OTJ transport. I admire Andy and his marketing so I plan on getting the John Deere X749 for it's versitility and add ons (over 40). It's expensive but I think it will be worth it. I have already started marketing for next year for a broader range of services and not even mentioning mowing. The interist I am generating indicates I can pay for it in half a season. I plan on getting more equipment for the liquyid lawn care products and services and will need more storage. As far as mowing goes, I have found a retired veteren who wants to do just mowing. I'll promote him, and he will promote me for soil treatment and amenities, stump removal, tilling, lot levelingm etc. I feel the economy here at least will improve next year. Two manufacturing concerns are building facilities in the imediate area and will be offering 700-800 jobs next spring. These I feel will crate external jobs to further help the local economy. Steve

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[justin_time]

DR leaf vac
Plow truck

Basically explains it, I will be able to go full time all year long

[Steve]

Mowing is only about 5-10% of my busieness and with everyone with a mower and a pick-up doing it the profit margin is minimal.

I guess the focus will be on organic fertilizer applications?

[swstout]

Originally Posted by Steve

I guess the focus will be on organic fertilizer applications?

Plus:
Organic fertilizer
Bio Activated Dethatching
Soil Bio life enhancement
Bio Activated Aeration
Top Dressing
Humus Building
Tilling
Lawn leveling
Trunk Removal
Mulching
Pressure Spraying
pH Adjustment (Liquid)
Others to be investigated

Using liquid lawn care products the various solutions can be mixed together and applied simultaneously cutting overall costs to the homeowner or commercial entity

Steve

[picframer]

A few things, a 3 pt hitch 60 gallon boom sprayer driven by the PTO. this will allow the guys to get into tight spots rather than using back packs, either a 250 or 350 diesel truck, 35D excavator and trailer, this will allow us to do septic fields and one more tractor with a loader that will work with the 35D excavator, probably another 2520 as I love this series and that's it hopefully for two years.

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

I guess the focus will be on organic fertilizer applications?

The X749 Steve is looking at is four wheel drive, all wheel steer and I can tell you it will will climb mountains and the stability on grades is like I have never seen. In short it blows our ZTR away which is the Deere 997, their biggest.

The big advantage is it's PTO and Three pt hitch, it can run a 48" tiller and the results are stunning, I can do a 1/2 acre yard in under an hour and get paid $250.00, a 4" landscape rake for spreading turf dressing and a hose of other items, a box blade to level driveways and spread new products, it will even run a wood chipper. As Steve noted there is a massive list of attachments and it sips fuel, we can run our full speed for two days on a tank, holds around 25 Liters, 6 gallons. I have even attached the generalor which is run off the PTO and rented it out to clients or jobsites where the client can't get power into. You can mount a snow blower on the back and plow on the front, put a heated cab on and go to it, air conditioning is also an option.

If you buy one Steve, make sure they throw in the comfort ride seat, it's like riding on air no matter how rough the terrain is, OMG I have never had such a nice ride.

You can attach a boom sprayer to the three point hitch so you can not only cover ground fast, you can get into tight spots, it will elinimate 90 percent of our back pack spraying and cut time but 70%, thus profit and the number of jobs we can do will increase.

You can put a small loader on it to move top soil and any other product, it's an amazing tractor and Deere has a smoking deal, first year no payments or zero percent financing, I opted for the one year no payments with the option to pay down, I put all profit it makes towards the debt, it's almost paid for and I only bought it I think two months ago.

[swstout]

Originally Posted by picframer;

The big advantage is it's PTO and Three pt hitch, it can run a 48" tiller and the results are stunning, I can do a 1/2 acre yard in under an hour and get paid $250.00, a 4" landscape rake for spreading turf dressing and a hose of other items, a box blade to level driveways and spread new products, it will even run a wood chipper. As Steve noted there is a massive list of attachments and it sips fuel, we can run our full speed for two days on a tank, holds around 25 Liters, 6 gallons. I have even attached the generalor which is run off the PTO and rented it out to clients or jobsites where the client can't get power into. You can mount a snow blower on the back and plow on the front, put a heated cab on and go to it, air conditioning is also an option.

If you buy one Steve, make sure they throw in the comfort ride seat, it's like riding on air no matter how rough the terrain is, OMG I have never had such a nice ride.

You can attach a boom sprayer to the three point hitch so you can not only cover ground fast, you can get into tight spots, it will elinimate 90 percent of our back pack spraying and cut time but 70%, thus profit and the number of jobs we can do will increase.

You can put a small loader on it to move top soil and any other product, it's an amazing tractor and Deere has a smoking deal, first year no payments or zero percent financing, I opted for the one year no payments with the option to pay down, I put all profit it makes towards the debt, it's almost paid for and I only bought it I think two months ago.

I checked it out after Andy showcased it. I must admit, I was floored by the price! $13,000.00 just for the tractor. But, after reading more about it (I went back to the sight many, many times) and talking to the dealer (who doesn't stock it - Small town), I started putting out feelers for potential jobs for next year. I was amazed by the iterest.

The going rate for Tilling a 10k lot here is $275.00. Andy gets $250.00 for a half acre (22k). Another big interest was stump grinding. Big interest in lot leveling also.

I'm looking to expand the services I offer and this seems to be the most versital machine out there. Gasoline is cheaper here but I can live with that.

New construction here is requiring above ground septic systems. For the time being, I think I will steer clear.

Steve

[picframer]

Originally Posted by swstout

I checked it out after Andy showcased it. I must admit, I was floored by the price! $13,000.00 just for the tractor. But, after reading more about it (I went back to the sight many, many times) and talking to the dealer (who doesn't stock it - Small town), I started putting out feelers for potential jobs for next year. I was amazed by the iterest.

The going rate for Tilling a 10k lot here is $275.00. Andy gets $250.00 for a half acre (22k). Another big interest was stump grinding. Big interest in lot leveling also.

I'm looking to expand the services I offer and this seems to be the most versital machine out there. Gasoline is cheaper here but I can live with that.

New construction here is requiring above ground septic systems. For the time being, I think I will steer clear.

Steve

Diesel is more that gas there? Here its about 60 cents a gallon cheaper and you will burn far less, I forgot stump grinding, it plays with that and yes it is a big business here also, I am going back to school in January to get certified for septic systems, it's a license to print money every contractor tells me but requires a big investment in equipment and I am told the fail rate of the course is almost 50%, I will pass it I am confident.

[turfmaster]

I will be purchasing a 7 x 16 enclosed v-nose trailer for sure as we are adding another crew.
I would also like to purchase a atv that I can rig up with a sprayer and broadcaster for my fertilization accounts. Seems to be faster than what I use now : A John Deere tractor with a pull behind sprayer.