Never had a chance at something this big

I am going over tomorrow and I am going to walk the place. Rodman I think you just may be right on this one. I would maybe talk to them about just the section behind the school???

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[Steve]

This is really an interesting point to discuss. Just to share my thoughts on it, I have seen many new businesses over expand too early and crash.

I prefer the slow and steady wins the race viewpoint. It's more stable. It allows you to make course corrections as you go.

You don't want one client you need to scale up for too fast because if they pull out, you could collapse. I don't think you should ever have one client that can make or break your business. It's better to spread the risk out to more clients than fewer.

You don't want to go into debt to buy equipment and have to rely on one client to pay it off. Because if they pull out, you will still need to pay this equipment off.

I haven't seen Troy on here lately, but if he were here, he would tell you how he got into debt buying equipment that took him over 5 years to finally pay off. For work that never materialized.

Please share with us your thoughts on this?

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Little's @ Oct. 25 2007,11:58)]I am not sure I would pass on this one. Opportunities like this don't come very often. Take a risk and go for it (or Gopher it!) You will never know if it is something that may make you a lot of money, or not. Say you pass, you will always wonder "what if I bidded and got that huge job?" But if you go for it, then at least you could say "it worked out awesome" or "it didn't work out, but I tried". The richest people are rich because they took those risks!

You mean "it didn't work out, I go BANKRUPT. Hey little, Do you have any understanding what it would take to CUT this much ? I mean any ideal at all? She will have to go invest right off the bat at lest $25,000 in equipment, Then have Capital to hire full times employee for least 30 to 60 days. Depends on how they pay. You just looking at BIG place to mow not looking at the financial aspect of this whole operation? what happens if these people dont pay, miss payments? Now she said they looking for new LCO cause other company not doing there job well. I always say there is 2 sides to every story. Maybe there not paying , Who knows , Im sure every client you have ever had always paid you ontime.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]I am not sure I would pass on this one. Opportunities like this don't come very often. Take a risk and go for it (or Gopher it!) You will never know if it is something that may make you a lot of money, or not. Say you pass, you will always wonder "what if I bidded and got that huge job?" But if you go for it, then at least you could say "it worked out awesome" or "it didn't work out, but I tried". The richest people are rich because they took those risks!

I don't want to come out as if I am promoting go for broke when I say 'Gopher it.'

I have had plenty of friends who shot for the moon on a single venture, went bankrupt and swore off business forever.

That doesn't do any of us any good.

Scaling up, building up infrastructure, step by step. Is a better way. You can catch even Donald Trump at times saying 'don't bet the ranch.' He says that because he has had friends that bit off more than they can chew and couldn't make payments on something because they didn't have the infrastructure to handle it.

I want you all to be in business for a long long time. It is rough getting started the first few years but you can make it through that time with a lot of base hits. Step by step, build your business and scale it up. Allow yourself time to mess things up. To figure out what went wrong and survive that mess up to live another day and to grow another day.

This thing we call business is a life time adventure, let's enjoy the journey.

[Little's]

Why are you guys so sure it will fail? Can you be a little more negative?
Think about this.
Lets say the account would pay $10,000 per month. You make an agreement with the owner to pay 3 months up front with the remaining 9 months to be held by an escrow company to be released on a monthly basis for the remaining 9 months.
She gets the $30,000 up front to pay for the necessary equipment, some employees (30-60 employees is not necessary), etc. And she is guaranteed to continue getting paid monthly for the next 9 months.
Agreements like this are not unusual in situations such as this. I think it can be done if you use your head, a lot of common sense, and some positive support.

$10,000 per month would not cover her expense. Lets do some simple math. Is $10,000 just number you threw out,why you say that? Just shot one out? Lets say she needs 12 workers. Now they get say 9 hr. x that by 8 day.that is 72.00. per day x that by 6 days week, that is 432. week per person. NOW thats not say CREW Leader get paid more. now x that by the 12 employs comes to 5,184 dollars week. X that x 4 weeks 20,736 month. Now you say why she need 12 people. Did you see size that place? Just keep up that would min she need. NOW on top all that 12 people pay roll taxs workmans comp.

Shall I say anymore?

Oh BTW not to forget, All the headaches that come with a major project like this, Home owners bitching , didnt do this did this wrong. Just will be one big pain in the ***.

[Little's]

That wasn't my point. The point is she can make sure the money is there by using an escrow service to hold the money. You said- what if they dont pay, she'll go bankrupt-. There are ways to avoid that.
Of course she would have to take a close look at the properties to get a clear picture of the work needed and employees needed. No one, including myself can bid a job like this accurately using google earth. 10,000 was just a number, just like you guessing 30-60 employees.