Business Question for The Author

[Steve]

From Watkins Lawn & Grounds, "I started my LCO this year with some ok results so far. My wife has a residential cleaning biz that does well, but I want to expand it for her, hire employees and start a commercial division. I would also like to add other home and commercial services to the lineup, such as driveway sealcoating and pressurewashing. My question is, would you run these businesses as seperate companies, or combine them as one conglomerate? Right now we have Watkins Lawn & Grounds, and Susies Cleaning Service. I could just include these add-on services under the Lawn & grounds biz or startdifferent companies for each one. Or I could just combine it all into a one-stop shop for property services. What do you think?"

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[mowboy]

Lawn care business tips

Hi Watkins Lawn and Grounds, Your quite the entrepreneurial family! Well done! Your question is a good one. My response is that it makes a lot of sense to try to run the companies under one company. Think of the savings you could realize by not duplicating certain work like bookkeeping/accounting and general overhead. Perhaps you could call yourself Watkins Property Maintenance or Watkins Home Services to cover all the bases. Having said that I would caution you to speak to local professionals to be clear of the implications of running your companies under one roof. For example: - Speak to an accountant about the tax implications. - Speak to a lawyer (or perhaps your accountant) about potentail legal implications. - Speak to a professional insurance agent to be sure you are covered in all situations for all your companies. Overall your idea is good, you just need to check your local laws and regulations. I hope this helps. Thanks for your question.

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Joel LaRusic
Consultant/Author, Start & Run a Landscape Business
www.mowboy.com