Baby steps, lots to learn

Well hello everyone, I'm a 17 year old kid with a thing for snow and plenty of ambition to get things going . I'm currently in the works of piecing together a plowing service, right now I have an atv with a 4 foot blade and have access to a vehicle capable of plowing , it's a 2002 dodge ram 1500. I'm only focusing on residental accounts right now so I don't need a professional set up, just something that's worth the money and reliable. Any words of wisdom are appreciated.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome to our forum! That is fantastic! What have you been doing so far to promote your services?

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As of right now, its word of mouth, i am going to put some fliers in this and near by neighborhoods. Its a work in progress, but i really would like to plow with my truck, i don't have any knowledge about plowing nor the set up. I only know what i leaned for installing the plow on my atv. Any brands too look at , stay away from?

[Steve]

I'd say, what ever you got to work with, I'd work with.

What kinds of responses have you been getting from others once they know you are offering snow plowing services?

[arthur712]

Welcome to the forum!!

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by RedmondSnowRemoval

Well hello everyone, I'm a 17 year old kid with a
thing for snow and plenty of ambition to get things
going . I'm currently in the works of piecing together
a plowing service, right now I have an atv with a 4 foot blade
and have access to a vehicle capable of plowing , it's a 2002 dodge ram 1500. I'm only focusing on residental accounts right now so I don't need a professional set up, just something that's worth the money and reliable. Any words of wisdom are appreciated.

Plowing doesn't necessarily fly when it comes to people choosing snow removal services.

The best you could do with a plow is push the snow further into a driveway, or with your ATV, you may be able to push the snow out & onto the street, but then where does it go?

Depending on some of the storms we have in Canada, shoving the snow against the curb will just not work.

As for an ATV, there are laws against driving them on certain roads. If that may be the case in your area, you'd have to haul it job to job by the means of another vehicle.

If you do snow removal in the more open parts of town or country, an ATV would probably be legal, & you will most likely have more areas to push the snow. Not guaranteed.

If you would be able to find a reliable snow blower, & be able to transport it by truck & ramp, you would be better off.

The things you have to look at are;

Efficiency, Expenses, & profit, vs working for another company (McDonalds).

With the way you tackle a job, is it going to be more profitable & maintain it's security, or will you have to really lose sleep & stress out to make the money you want.

When I started off with Lawn Service, I thought I was doing so much & receiving so little. I wasn't even making minimum wage. Though the problem wasn't anything other than finding customers.

The problem with snow removal revolves around time, & the lack of it. Snow removal is a time for rushing & getting the most done in the least amount of time = profit.

It's hardly worth it if you have to sacrifice your health.

Even at my young age, from doing strenuous work I have felt my heart tense up & cause me grief.

Labor is 20% of the problem, 80% of it is stress. Gaining & maintaining a customer base that I can profit from, paper work & scheduling, keeping everyone happy while sacrificing my own happiness, sleep deprivation, having too big of a work load. It's possible to eventually manage, but it's not something to be proud of.

I know I can manage 50 customers, though I always think about how much more work am I doing just to beat having any minimum wage job?

Running a business means sacrificing everything you once knew, & leading almost a double life inside of the business. You will have to do everything, become 2 people in order to make your business take flight.

You are not hired to do labor alone like other jobs, which takes the fun out of the business for the first little while. Though being independent for most is almost worth the cons we will all face.

[M&A Lawn Care]

Originally Posted by RedmondSnowRemoval

Well hello everyone, I'm a 17 year old kid with a
thing for snow and plenty of ambition to get things
going . I'm currently in the works of piecing together
a plowing service, right now I have an atv with a 4 foot blade
and have access to a vehicle capable of plowing , it's a 2002 dodge ram 1500. I'm only focusing on residental accounts right now so I don't need a professional set up, just something that's worth the money and reliable. Any words of wisdom are appreciated.

I am eighteen years old and have been doing lawn care and landscaping for several years. I took some time off last winter to go exchange ideas with my brother inlaw who owns diamond in the rough lawn care and snow removal. He lives in vermont. From my experience with him and helping him with snow removal. I would suggest looking at walkbehind snow blowers if you are just doing driveways.

[Steve]

When I started off with Lawn Service, I thought I was doing so much & receiving so little. I wasn't even making minimum wage. Though the problem wasn't anything other than finding customers.

Can you tell us more of what you mean by this?

Plowing doesn't necessarily fly when it comes to people choosing snow removal services.

The best you could do with a plow is push the snow further into a driveway, or with your ATV, you may be able to push the snow out & onto the street, but then where does it go?

Depending on some of the storms we have in Canada, shoving the snow against the curb will just not work.

As for an ATV, there are laws against driving them on certain roads. If that may be the case in your area, you'd have to haul it job to job by the means of another vehicle.

If you do snow removal in the more open parts of town or country, an ATV would probably be legal, & you will most likely have more areas to push the snow. Not guaranteed.

If you would be able to find a reliable snow blower, & be able to transport it by truck & ramp, you would be better off.

The things you have to look at are;

Efficiency, Expenses, & profit, vs working for another company (McDonalds).

With the way you tackle a job, is it going to be more profitable & maintain it's security, or will you have to really lose sleep & stress out to make the money you want.

When I started off with Lawn Service, I thought I was doing so much & receiving so little. I wasn't even making minimum wage. Though the problem wasn't anything other than finding customers.

The problem with snow removal revolves around time, & the lack of it. Snow removal is a time for rushing & getting the most done in the least amount of time = profit.

It's hardly worth it if you have to sacrifice your health.

Even at my young age, from doing strenuous work I have felt my heart tense up & cause me grief.

Labor is 20% of the problem, 80% of it is stress. Gaining & maintaining a customer base that I can profit from, paper work & scheduling, keeping everyone happy while sacrificing my own happiness, sleep deprivation, having too big of a work load. It's possible to eventually manage, but it's not something to be proud of.

I know I can manage 50 customers, though I always think about how much more work am I doing just to beat having any minimum wage job?

Running a business means sacrificing everything you once knew, & leading almost a double life inside of the business. You will have to do everything, become 2 people in order to make your business take flight.

You are not hired to do labor alone like other jobs, which takes the fun out of the business for the first little while. Though being independent for most is almost worth the cons we will all face.

Thank you very much for the tips, as far as driving on the roads with my atv; I live in a "quad friendly" town where the police will not bother you if your driving responsibility. But i do use my pick up to transport the atv to out of neighborhood places. I live in a rather rural connecticut town, sidewalks are un unheard of peice of landscape. There for theres always plenty of space to pile up the snow. The snowblower is a good idea, matter of fact i do have a small 2-stroke single stage blower, its decent and clears a 16" path.
I Recently read an article on the site that explaned how offering "free" services can help build a network of customers. Where do i start with this, i mean its a small town? The hardware store were i work does attract alot of town folk,i could ask my boss if he wouldnt mind letting me put up some fliers.

In reality i would like to stray away from the quad becasue its somewhat cumbersome to operate and unconfertable in cold weather. My goal is to either purchase a plow set up for my dodge, or buy a vehicle that is designated "just for plowing" possibly an old chevy or ford?

[Steve]

I Recently read an article on the site that explaned how offering "free" services can help build a network of customers. Where do i start with this, i mean its a small town? The hardware store were i work does attract alot of town folk,i could ask my boss if he wouldnt mind letting me put up some fliers.

What kind of things were you considering to offer? Like possibly offering free plowing to a certain amount of seniors? Or veterans or something else?