Working full time job-When to get help and when to

I Need your help and experience. I work Mon - Fri , Our small LCO is growing faster than I thought. I have been mowing on Saturdays and Sundays but I figure people dont want their lawns serviced on weekends. I have 15 lawns and just picked a property with 40 townhomes(lawns and landscape job). There is not enough time in the day for me to get all this done. I want to get a helper and mow on weekdays, however I only have one truck and one trailer. I use the truck to get me back and forth to my full time job. Have you been in this situation when you were working full time? How would you/did you get it done? I would appreciate any advice you can give me. Thank You

[musician/lawnman]

Lawn care business tips

Greg, It's all a matter of your own personal situation, needs, & a little faith, plus ahhh intestinal fortitude! (guts). Depends what your own personal financial situation is like, how much over head do you & your growing business have collectively? I ran into the same problem & decided to jump in head first & ran a ton of advertising in various locations to get the phone ringing & hoped for the best. I would kinda recomend waiting til the busy season is coming , which is soon depending on where you are located. I would say this: 1) Make sure you have some kind of financial reserve ... unless every customer you get goes annual for you, no matter how busy you get the 1st summer there probably won't be enough cash flow to go around the 1st winter. 2) Advertise! Try small adds in many locations & track where your business comes from! I know it's hard to spend money when your just starting out but the fact is they can't call you if they don't know you exist so you have no chance of earning their business! Try sevral different avenues.... Newspapers, phone books, flyers, door hangers, business directorys, leave business cards at your barber shop etc. Tell everyone you know what you are doing & ask for their help! Good luck sir , hope this helps!

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[Steve]

Hi Greg,

Do you have an idea of how many customers you will need to cover all of your expenses now? How far away from that goal are you?

Well Steve I figure I need about 15-20 more weekly customers to supplement my full time job income. With working full time and wanting to mow on the weekdays , how do you suggest I take on an employee/employees and having him work on thursday or friday while i am at work. I use my truck for my full time job. The employee would have to have their own truck and that is probably going to be hard to find?

[Steve]

Hi Greg,

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]how do you suggest I take on an employee/employees and having him work on thursday or friday while i am at work. I use my truck for my full time job. The employee would have to have their own truck and that is probably going to be hard to find?

I have heard a lot of talk on this topic in the past but I haven't heard of anyone on the forum pulling this off. I think this is a very difficult concept.

The concept seems logical but it is tough to actually do.

From what I have seen in the past, the best way has been to maximize what you can do on the weekends and evenings and then when you can't do it anymore, make the jump to doing your lawn care business full time.

What's your thoughts on this?

Thanks Steve. I agree with you trying to do all I can on the weekend and then make the jump. Only problem is that with this new townhome community I just landed (which will be a full day just mowing, edging, trimming, blowing) not to mention landscape maintenance. If I did that on Saturday I would not be able to get to my other customers all on Sunday. I guess I could pick up some help on Saturday morning take them to the townhomes, drop them off, and go do the other customers? Problem with all of this is still not enough to supplement the full time jobs pay. I will figure out something and make it happen somehow. And then when it just gets insane take the leap. I might suffer as far as income but I know it will be well worth it. I'll be doing something I love vs. the full time job just for the money.

[Steve]

Another thing to consider is, could you quit your full time job and pick up a part time job as a supplement?

That's what Chuck is doing. He is working part time at a local auto lube store and he is even advertising his business to the customers of the store there.

What's your thoughts on that?

[musician/lawnman]

yeah... About that. I intend giving them my 2 week notice tommorow. I've picked up 2 commercial accounts, 2 more anuual residential accounts, & 4 more per cut residentials in the last 2 weeks & the phone is ringing. Time to go back to my business full time & dedicate to building it bigger & better.
I did help me survive the last few months though!

Not sure why I never thought about picking up a part time job . Thanks for the idea. Now I just need a part time job that offers benefits. My wife and I just had a new baby four months ago. She is not working with watching him full time, doing the office work and helping me on the weekends. I hear insurance is pretty pricey going at it alone. Im pretty there are some places out there that offer benefits with part time work? Thanks for the idea and I will start looking for some. I really appreciate this site and how helpful everyone is.

[Steve]

The one p/t company that offers health insurance I think is UPS. But maybe there are a lot more of them out there.

You should also check around and see what kind of rates you would need to pay for health insurance.