Average Startup costs?

[Steve]

How much does it cost on average to start up a business? $70,000 !! WOW that is quite a bit as an average. How does that compare with your start up costs? 7 great ways to finance a startup - Entrepreneurs spend an average of $70,000 to start a business, according to William Bygrave, the Frederic C. Hamilton professor of free enterprise at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. And most of that money is provided by the small-business owners themselves.

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[JP Landscaping]

Lawn care business tips

well for me taking into consideration I was mostly a lanscaping biz: Truck 5000 Trailer 1000 Advert. 120 equipment 700 (rakes, shovels, wheel barrows, etc.) Truck ins. 300/yr company reg. 100 comp. ins. 700/yr Truck reg. 120 Trailer reg 70 So about 8000

[MountainViewGreenskeeper]

Hmmmmz I really havent added it all up
02 Dodge Ram 2500 8.0L(way to much truck to start but great deal) $4000
Custom built trailer from my dad Free + 4ft sides Free material + extras $200
Equipment: $1600 2 of everything
Advertising: $200 so far
Truck ins $1200/yr
Truck reg $120
Company reg $300
Lap top lol $350
Soooo... 7970 roughy feel like im missing something

not mine, but a realistic bottom line LCO start up

used pick up $1500
used 21" mower $75
used string trimmer $50
used blower $50
used edger $50
business license $80
1 mil. liability $478 (yearly)
truck insure $150 (monthly)
gallon of 2stroke oil $10
5 gallon fuel can $10
2 gallon fuel can $8
7 gallons of fuel $19 (89octane)
so roughly $2480 could put you in business legally and grow it from there.

[psparaco]

Now your making me think. Lets see

My car i own and pay on monthly. i use the trunk for my lawn care. Sucks but its better than nothing.
So....

Used Car-$60.00/week
22" mower $75 (bought off season) in season its $150
string trimmer (FREE) giving from a friend. Sells for $70 at walmart
New blower $100
car ins. $18.75/week
2 gallon fuel can $5 (mower)
1 gallon fuel can $2.50 (Trimmer) 40:1 ratio oil/gas
1 gallon fuel can $2.50 (blower) 50:1 ratio oil/gas

so roughly $400-600 put me in business but i still need to go legal and most of the equipment i had already for my own yard. i just use it since i already have it. when i get more money i'll buy what i need to expand with cash only. so there is not borrowing.
theres my 2 cents.

paul

Originally Posted by psparaco

Now your making me think. Lets see

My car i own and pay on monthly. i use the trunk for my lawn care. Sucks but its better than nothing.
So....

Used Car-$60.00/week
22" mower $75 (bought off season) in season its $150
string trimmer (FREE) giving from a friend. Sells for $70 at walmart
New blower $100
car ins. $18.75/week
2 gallon fuel can $5 (mower)
1 gallon fuel can $2.50 (Trimmer) 40:1 ratio oil/gas
1 gallon fuel can $2.50 (blower) 50:1 ratio oil/gas

so roughly $400-600 put me in business but i still need to go legal and most of the equipment i had already for my own yard. i just use it since i already have it. when i get more money i'll buy what i need to expand with cash only. so there is not borrowing.
theres my 2 cents.

paul

under 4 digits AWSOME!!
my estimate would be lower if you broke the truck into payments, but I was just trying to give people a realistic cash out of pocket bare boned start-up

truck 89 gmc long bed full size $750
toro proline walk behind 52" $1300
husky weedeater$199
husky backpack blower$199
new 16' trailer$1175.........soo thats $3623 plus your monthly bills

how many of you guys are riding dirty? (no license & insurance) seems foolish as they are very cheap.

[psparaco]

dirty for now. Cant afford or justify coughing up $200-$600 to go legit when it doesnt get me more business . just a piece of paper. spend the money on better equipment to get bigger jobs. go legit when you got the extra. my guess within 1-2 yrs running, i'll be legit. have to start somewhere. this is only the start of my 2nd year in operation. I opened my doors so to speak on april 1, 2009.

Several proposed equipment purchases i am looking into are as follows:

5X8 open trailer - $599.00
hitch and all accessories and have it installed on my car****$200-$300.
license for trailer and insurance****$300

additional mower - $150.00

total needed $1350.00

I plan to save up as much as i can and purchase them with cash. that way i dont have any more debts than i need to. If i dont have the cash for it. then i dont need it. all a trailer wil do for me is allow my loading and unloading to speed up and allow me to carry a 2nd mower.

my fiance will be helping april til the end of the school year ( we have a 6 yr old at home) and sept til end of october. i may hire my neighbor for june-aug unless we can get a sitter for 5 hours or make my days longer to support the workload. my hours of operation are 9am-2:30pm with 30 minutes for lunch. on average it takes me 30 minutes per lawn to do. including travel time, load/unload. if i have my fiance helping it takes about 20-25 min per customer. so we can easily knock out 10-15 lawns a day and 50-75 lawns per week. so 50 is my goal for the year. 75 is the max i will accept unless i hire more but by than. i'l have enough to go legit and have my trailer.

the reason for such a small trailer. its 350 pounds empty. my car's towing capacity is 1,000 lbs. so 2 mowers, trimmer, gas, blower is about 500lbs which includes weight of the trailer too. that means if i can get a commericial walk behind mower under 400lbs. i am golden. oh it needs to fit too which i layed out on autocad and tried different patterns. I have autocad a graphic design software cause thats what i did for an office job for 12 yrs. computer aided drafter. i drew the trailer footprint. all equipment footprints and played with it til everything fit. now if i wanna save a few pounds, i can put the trimmer and blower in my trunk.

again all this is up in the air. winter(off season) allows me to do tons and tons of research and planning.

well time to put the little one in bed. be back soon.

paul

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

How much does it cost on average to start up a business? $70,000 !! WOW that is quite a bit as an average.

How does that compare with your start up costs?

For lawn care that is in the ballpark for me, landscaping/excavation it would be about 1/2 of what I put into the company last year but if the demand is there I say grow it.