When starting out. Should I get a business license?

[Steve]

I wish you all the luck You can make it happen! Keep us posted on how all this turns out.

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[psparaco]

Lawn care business tips

Well i went out saturday to shovel and plow my driveway and sidewalks only which was about 12-15 inches already. Since it was still blizzard conditions, no one wanted their property shoveled until it stopped snowing. The next day the road wasnt plowed until mid day and on top of things my car was buried in snow from the county trucks. So i spent 2-3 hours digging out my car to be able to do any properties. those i left messages for, none called back. I ended up doing 3 properties. So i made the money back i spent on the snow blower which is a plus and then some. I had to plowe another foot of snow that day on top of it at my place. i would have been happier with just 6 inches but 22 inches and drfting snow is overwhelming. I have plenty of salt to last the rest of the winter which is a good thing. so maybe next time we wont get as much snow. the snow blower works great even though its 24 years old. When i looked up the model number it was manufacturered in june of 1985. not bad for 40 bucks huh. Well i dont expect the snow on the ground to be gone for another week or so. We may be getting more snow the end of this week so i may get another 2-4 more storms before the end of the winter. in the meantime. i'll keep plugging the door to door flyers and hope for the best. until next time. paul

[Steve]

I heard you got an amazing amount of snow over there. Did you take any pictures of it?

[psparaco]

no but i can take a picture of the wanna be igloo i helped make for my daughter in my backyard. its still semi intact. hasnt caved in yet. the temps have been over 35 degrees all week.

paul

[Steve]

Let's see it

[psparaco]

Sorry for such a huge delay in posting these pics.

1. I forgot to download them off the camera until spring.
2. by the time spring hit, i was far to busy to post them.

Sometime this week I will post all my triumphs and pitfalls i experienced this year.

Until next time,

Paul

[psparaco]

Well i got a few minutes before i must start the day.

This year i have accomplished quite a few things.

I got in a bad car accident in late winter/early spring tragically resulting my car being totaled. But as fate had it. I was able to get a truck as seen in the below post.

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=11234


I managed to market 3 neighborhoods with about 300 total flyers distributed. I also marketed the business through my daughter's soccer club she joined.

Overall we maintained and serviced 30-35 properties we week. Remember on one of my posts on this thread about a leaf cleanup i got a call for who when i ended up calling her back had someone there already doing the work. Well we got a call in the spring for a hedge trimming and they ended up hiring us for weekly lawn care.

Several services we have performed include: bush/hedge/shrub trimming, bush removal (due to snow destroying the plant), gutter cleaning, pressure washing, garden weeding, spring cleanup, bare patch reseeding.

New additions this year include the use of my dad's tractor, purchased low end consumer mowers, a new trimmer, a new blower, hedge loppers, pruning shears, a used 1990 3000 lbs gvw utility trailer as shown below. Overall we have 3 mowers in operation but only carry with us 2 at a time either in the trailer or bed of our truck. We have 2 mowers that we mainly use for parts as customers handed them to us to dispose of and we kept to retain them for parts. 1 trimmer, 1 blower and several gas cans to reduce trips to a gas station but once a week if that.
Trailer pics located on this post below.
http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=12505


We did manage to hit a slight issue with the trailer that will require the hitch and main beam assembly being replaced so the trailer is out of service at the moment but will be fixed sometime this week.

Fall services being offered are Vinyl Siding Cleaning, roof cleaning, gutter cleaning, leaf cleanup, deck cleaning and pressure washing. The lower temperatures are perfect for such services. Vinyl Siding Cleaning and roof cleaning are new services and thanks to several posts on this site along with literature from several members, i am able to educate myself and perspective customers on the need for cleaning algae and mold/mildew off their homes to extend the life of the exterior of their homes. I have done all this week before for my parent's home in the past before, just never thought of offering it to others. $$$$ is everywhere. As lawns are slowing down on growing. Why not offer other services in need. Roughly 30-40 homes in my parent's neighborhood have lawn care guys who only do mowing/trimming/edging/cleanup type service. When asking around if they do anything else, most tell me that's all they do. I intend to educate them all on the importance of having the algae removed off their roofs and mold off their siding and offer a small discount if they sign a 2010/2011 weekly lawn care contract. Since i am moving this fall to my grandmother's house who recently passed at the ripe age of 97. It makes sense, i store all my equipment anyway at my parent's house in their huge shed. My parents live next door to my grandparents for the past 51 years. I currently store our trailer in my grandmother's driveway. She has a huge 10,000 sq.ft. yard that we can use to dress up and show off our work. 99% of the homes in that area are all homeowners who i can market "other services" to.

So as this lawn cutting season slows down, we currently have 25 customers. My fiance and i do all the work and have no intention of hiring anyone until we get over 60 customers. Roughly 45% of our clients are rental properties and the other 55% are home owners who we can or have done other services to. We didnt get the amount of work i hoped for but last year we ended 2009 with 18 customers. This year we increased our work by 39% more customers. Our goal was 50 customers. For most of the spring/summer we maintained a 200% increase in client base. We lost roughly 25 clients due to people moving, or getting their own mowers. None left us for another company and did express would call us back when they can afford the service.

I have not gone legit yet unfortunately. I felt why spend the money on a piece of paper for licenses/insurance when i could buy better equipment to get us more work, ie: trailer, additional mowers, etc. All equipment additions were purchased with cash. Hopefully with additional clients next year with our existing client base, the additional funds will net us the ability to get the licenses/insurances.

Well enough ramping. time to head out to my shop to pick up the equipment and come back and wake up my fiance lol. I let her sleep in. ( a very rare thing).

Until next time,
Paul

[Steve]

You have accomplished a lot this past year! What are the goals for 2011? Have you planned that out yet or no?