Business Owner Age

[Steve]

How important is a business owner's age in the customers eye? Do you feel they take a younger owner or an older owner more seriously? How does age effect your interactions with a customer?

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age is huge I never tell my age unless I am asked. Even then I try to avoid the subject and if they ask ill say mid 20s which isnt a lie because im 23, but if i said my age it might cost me the job, people look at age as experience. Its why its so tough staying in this game if you start young. Where actually planning an episode of the landscaper around this concept next season. The fact is, I dont care how knowledgable you are, age is a huge handicapp if your under 35.

[Steve]

Is age more of an issue for design/build or maintenance.

more for design/build, but it is still a problem for maintenance as well. See the thing is the amount of money invested. Generally, your common maintenance account (residential) could hit maybe 3grand tops for the year, for mowing, thats the whole year. people wil ltrust a young guy with monthly payments adding up tp 3000 way before they hand him a $15000 deposit for a $30000 construction job. Its all about trust, and its tough to make a person trust handing out such large sums of cash

[Steve]

Have you ever had anyone say to you how impressed they were with your accomplishments so far at your age?

I would think anyone spending $30,000 on a construction job might be someone who started their own business when they were younger and would appreciate someone doing the same.

Or have you found business owners you are served to be even worse?

it all depends, sometimes, someone will say, we trust you because at your age your hungry to make a name for yourself. but others just dont want to be bothered. It doesnt matter how someones life was, if they went through the same thing or not. they tend to forget what they went through when there doing business with you. age is a real big problem in the design/build end. its very difficult to get established.

[kc2006]

I agree, if your younger you have to almost prove yourself to some.

I get the little hiden quizes from customers. I recall one job last year, it was a rather big commercial maintenance job, there were 3 older men that I had to talk to about the grounds maintenance. They were drilling me with questions of basic cultural practices.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]They were drilling me with questions of basic cultural practices.

Like what?

[kc2006]

Simple questions, mowing height and how it effected the turf, reasons the turf would die out in the summer, reasons dieseases formed where water would lay in a low spot on the property.

I used to mow the property when I worked for a company so I didn't even have to look it over, I already knew all the problems.

I shocked them when I went into detail about the advantages of cutting the turf at 3"-3.5" due to the longer grass not allowing as much light into germinate the weeds. them

Oh I didn't get the job because another guy underbid it. I know the guy and talk to him now and then, I just asked what he bid on it and didnt tell him I bid. His bid $125 a cut, my bid $260. And the previous guy that had it for almost 20 years but had to get out of the business (the one I worked for) $245

hey guys, I am really diggin into this idea of age in the industry. I put up a poll that I would like you guys to participate in
here is the link
age poll