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[Realistic Lawn Care]

my name is ryan. i own a lawn care company called Realistic Lawn care. i am 20 years old, i have gotten alot of knowleadge from my father who has been in the industry for 20 years. i currently run a small bussiness that has 20 customers all of my account are full service contract work. i ether cut with a rotory mower or a reel mower, i do the lawn fertilization, bush trimming, weed out beds, core aeration, custom flower bed design. the equipment i have, a 48inch hydrostatic exmark floating deck walkbehind, 48 inch lesco fixed deck walkbehind, stihl weed eater, tanaka weed eater, 2 stihl stick edgers, 4 stihl blowers, br 550, br420, br400, br340, ahve a stihl pole saw, redmax hedge trimmers, 1996 ford superduty truck witht he landscape bed on it, 27 inch tru cut reel mower, lesco aerator and 2 ryan aerators, my dad has a 700 gallon tanker truck for the chemicals. by next year i will have my first employee. i will be buying the gopher software and would recommened it to everyone. thank you, Ryan

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Hi Ryan, Welcome to our forum! Does your father run his own business? What got you interested in venturing out and starting your own business?

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[Realistic Lawn Care]

yes he does run a lawn fertilization bussiness with about 400 clients. i got the drive to do it from him i love working outside and its nice to see the work you have done at a property. ill get some pics of some propertys and equipment soon

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]ill get some pics of some propertys and equipment soon

I am looking forwards to it.

Ryan,

What was your view of starting your own business vs. working with your father to expand his business? Would that have been easier or no?

Welcome Ryan...glad you could join us

Welcome, Ryan!

Did you "inherit" most of your equipment from your dad? Seems like a LOT of equipment for only a one-man operation... but I applaud you! You're already set for when you DO hire employees! =)

Good luck to you!

[Realistic Lawn Care]

well in a way i help him expand also he does all of my chemical work so the accounts i get he takes care of them. yes it would have been easier, all the time it takes to get it where you want it to be, advertising, customer service, make sure everything is right at the property, money, equipment. but the hard work is done i have established a very strong base i have had all my customers for over 7 months and i only took about 10 calls this year from them. it was just hard starting it up.

[Steve]

Do you have any advice you could share with others out there who are new to the entrepreneurial world?

What should or shouldn't they do when they are getting started?

[Realistic Lawn Care]

[Did you "inherit" most of your equipment from your dad?]

a couple of those pieces i have, the 48 lesco walkbehind and the 27inch tru cut. the rest of the stuff i bought over the last 2 years. and the aerators are his.

[Realistic Lawn Care]

[Do you have any advice you could share with others out there who are new to the entrepreneurial world?

What should or shouldn't they do when they are getting started?]

things you should do is, do not hold back advertising, come up with a good logo and a company name, do this especially when you are just starting.

things i wouldnt do is go out and buying the nicest equipment alot of companies go under do to there new mower they bought and there line of equipment, the only way i would go out and buy a new machine is if i had it in cash.