New to site, been cutting for long time

[FloridaBoy]

Hello to all, My name is Geoff, owner of Special F/X Grounds Maintenance, i am an old timer in the cutting world, only 35, but have been in business for 15 years, and still love it. My self and my family ( Wife ( hot one) haha , and beautifull daughter) love camping, anything outdoors, hiking, canoeing, fishing, etc. I was a one man operation for about 8 years thjen went big, well, atleast big for me, 3 trucks < 9 employees, and large apartment complexes, hated it. To much BS, kissing asses to keep the work. I have been doing this along time and dont have to operate that way to keep work. So i slowly let work and employees go, untill i was back to myself, much, much happier, and back to loving my job, and gettin up in the morning to go to work. Starting to branch out into diiferent aspects of the cutting and landscaping industry. Hope all is well with you and your families, drop me a hello, or a haul ***. Doesn't matter to me, haha. Advise welcomed, Comments incouraged, and keep on cutting

[musician/lawnman]

Lawn care business tips

What part of Florida are you in Geoff?

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[FloridaBoy]

Central Florida, Polk County, just outside the home of that big eared mouse everybody loves to waste there money on, haha.

[arthur712]

Welcome to the forum Floridaboy!

I am here in cocoa not too far from you!!

Good to see you here!

Thanx!
Artie

[Steve]

Hi Geoff,

Welcome to our forum!

You have a very interesting story! What do you think made you want to go big and have three trucks?

What advice would you have for others who are looking to take a similar route? What pitfalls should they look out for and how can they keep it still being fun?

If you could do that part over again, would you do anything differently?

Welcome to the forums.

[FloridaBoy]

Actually, yes there aresome things i would have done differently, first of, not grow so fast, i picked up 4 Luxury Apartment complexes, smallest being 14 acres up to 22 acres for the largest, all within a 4 month period, plus i had all my other residential, and small commercial work to keep going. I am a loyal person to my loyal customers, over time my attention to those residentials went down the drain because i was constantly driving around to all the large commercial doing damage control, kissing butt to property managers. I personally lost the love for the work, that was a big downer for me personally. So a little advice might be to go slower when growing big. i am now in the process of starting to add more services to my business, but doing it one thing at a time, do it right then add another service, and find TRUSTED, HARD WORKING, people to work. ( Thats tough ) But most of all, don't loose the love for the work, bust your *** doing it, and you will want to get up in the morning to go to work, and you will feel proud when you come home at night.

[turfmaster]

Welcome to the forum Geoff.

[Steve]

Actually, yes there aresome things i would have done differently, first of, not grow so fast

What do you think would be a good growth rate if there is such a thing?

Should a newer lawn care business owner wait 1 or 2 years before they start getting into commercial accounts?

find TRUSTED, HARD WORKING, people to work.

Do you have any advice on handling employees now when you look back on your experiences? Also any thoughts on the ideal crew size? And how best to supervise them?

[lawnman3fl]

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