Hello,
I'm in my mid 20s and recently closed my lawn mowing and gardening business than I ran successfully for nearly three years. Made this because I'm bored, and thought that someone might have questions - not that it's a super interesting job!
Cheers
It was too successful
Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you.
I was seeking a change because of the below reasons, and I just so happen to stumble across a great opportunity in a different industry that let me expand my skills and also let me move to a new location which has been great.
a. I struggled with a work/life balance, I regularly found myself working 14 hour plus days out in the field. If I wasn't out and about, I'd be at home on the books and admin.
b. The industry is really dependent on the season, rainfall, etc. I feel bad for the guys and girls at the moment with all the rain fall.
I'll try and write some more on this too for you.
Did you ever cut your neighbours grass?
I did not, I lived around ~15 minutes from the closet town so I never had any clients that were my neighbor, or really even within a few kilometer radius.
woosh
.
I presume this was a joke :P
Good man.
Play dumb.
Solid strat.
Ever get offered payment in kind?
I did not, disappointing I know.
Sounds like the grass was greener……..
Interesting question, I'm happy with where I am now but I do defiantly miss being my own boss and being in the lawn biz from time to time.
Was the grass greener on the other side?
Godammit.
I'm cut.
Disagree. cashless made an observation, while Drakesy asked a question for the OP's opinion. Invalid report, closed without action.
Why did u close it
Whats next for you
What are the top 1 or 2 things you learnt from that experience
Please see my response to Hybroid in why I closed it - I'm still writing it at this stage.
I'm currently working in the IT field, and plan to continue that for the foreseeable future.
I learnt a lot running the business, I certainly learn a lot about gardening, lawn care, etc but the biggest thing I would have learnt was all about running a business. I made a lot of mistakes, and had a lot of wins. These skills are really transferable into any business, or even working for someone else.
IT is nice but I would have thought you'd see more growth in the lawn mowing biz, at least in the summer months
Your right - plenty of growth in the summer months. I can have clients that have there property mowed fortnightly or even weekly. Winter comes along, and those same clients can drop off for several months.
Why would you close your Business rather than sell it to someone?
Are you planning to go back to it or reopen it…
Ultimately I found that a gardening business itself isn't worth a whole lot of money - at least in my case. I was able to sell the majority of my clients to several other business in the area and sold the majority of my equipment, just keeping enough to do my own lawn at home.
I'm not planning to re-open the business, but I may start another similar business in the future.
What's your definition of 'successful'?
I think everyone's definition of success is slightly different, but for me I would consider the business successful in that I achieved my initial goals which where;
a. Run the business full time (as I started part time)
b. Complete works for a large commercial client
c. Have the funds to purchase some 'cool' equipment
d. Earn more money than I would working for someone else
While I do believe the business to be successful, that doesn't mean everything was perfect. I'll try and expand on that in my why I closed the business response.
Do you see electric gardening tools being used for commercial gardeners within 2+ years?
They've already started! If you're looking for contractor grade you can't go past the Husqvarna and Pellenc gear. The Pellenc mower is probably a major stand out.
Plenty of good gear from Stihl, Ego, Makita and even Milwaukee that you see contractors using.
Bunch of new battery powered zero turn mowers too which are coming. Also some with AI, some very cool tech in (hopefully) the not to distant future.
How do you handle lawn that has quiet a bit of weed? Question as owner who diy your own lawn. You pickup those weeds first as mush as you can manually before lawning?
The majority of my clients didn't do and/or have anything done to manage their weeds. I'd just mow it as is, maybe pull out a few if it doesn't take any extra time.
If your lawn isn't too large I'd defiantly have a crack at pulling some out by hand, you can checkout the 4 prong Fiskars weeder at Bunnings that'll keep you off your hands and knees. Plenty of chemicals too, but I would suggest really looking into this as the wrong chemical and cause you more problems than its worth.
What was your final year's revenue and profit?
How many hours per week did you work?
Do you have any qualifications such as landscaping?
What was your favourite part of the job? Mowing, gardening, manscaping?
Do you have any electric tools or are they all petrol?
manscaping
Looking forward to this reply
Revenue of around $140k - $160k. Profit more around $100K - $120K.
Would average 60 hours a week easily. Not all of those hours billable (ie. Travel, Bookwork). More hours in the spring / summer and less in the winter.
No qualifications.
I really enjoyed mowing, in particular ride on mowing of large areas. I found my equipment to risky for man scaping.
I had a battery sprayer, but that's about it. The tech is great these days, I would of battery gear I think if I did more work in urban areas.
did you ever find yourself in a position where a hot lonely housewife claimed she couldnt pay your bill..and ask to settle it via other methods?
I can only wish! Sadly I had very few clients that would even fit this bill.
yeah if PH has taught me anything its mainly either the pool boys or pizza delivery guys that get all the luck
@Pizza Lover
Is this true?
Loys soft drink run used to be quite "profitable" in this respect.;)
Can you reopen it and come and do my lawn?
The lawns are going wild at the moment! There's plenty of lawnies out there luckily.
Did you charge an hourly rate or a fixed rate based on the size of the lawn etc?
Fixed price for 90% of the work I did. Hourly on some larger rural properties or commerical jobs.
Did you have to trim your finances as a result of the change?
How mulch did you stump up for the business?
Ok I'll stop
I didn't have to trim my finances at all really, I was lucky enough to earn nearly as much in my IT role - but with a lot less hours and stress. I did sell my brand new dual cab ute as part of closing the business (was on finance, so no longer have that repayment).
I didn't stump up much for the business at all actually, I started by spending about $500 on a couple of pieces equipment I didn't have, website, marketing, etc. However I quickly invested in the business (ie. Did the first job, decided the mower needed an upgrade, dropped $1000 on a mower). In total while actively running the business I had about $45k - $50k of equipment not including the ute. A big chunk of this was a tractor I bought, which I didn't really need.
What sort of setbacks happened.
Stolen equipment. Clients not paying.
Injuries.
Sorry I missed this,
I was lucky enough to not have any equipment stolen, but anytime equipment didn't work as intended (ie. Didn't start, blades blunt, etc) were always a set back. I purchased a second hand tractor that decided to stop in the middle of a paddock and was a bit of a nightmare - I replaced it with a brand new tractor, which is probably still one of my worst financial ideas.
Non payers weren't a massive problem but again it's always a bummer. I can count on one hand how many people didn't pay me, and it would be less than a few hundred dollars. A lot of new clients I would have pay a deposit and/or upfront.
No injuries luckily enough. But like anything I did get sick on while working and this caused a fair bit of strain as I'd be laying in bed trying to sort out customers and reschedule them. Lot of added stress you just don't have when working for someone else.
Is there any type of lawn mowing job that you cannot/will not do? maybe a very large field. Do you bring two lawn mowers/blowers for backup? What you do in case of non payer issue?
Not much lawn mowing that I wouldn't turn down, but often got requests for work I'm not qualified/confident/equipped for such as arborist work and pressure cleaning. I did turn down a large fruit orchard pruning job, couple of super large hedges. Sometimes I'd throw a bullsh*t quote out there if I wasn't keen on the work.
Didn't carry spare equipment per day generally as home was never far away, but had several different variety of whipper snipper, blower, etc on board that generally got me out of trouble.
Has a couple of non payers, never a huge amount so just let it go. Not worth the time chasing it. Most new customers or large projects I'd take a deposit/full payment prior to commencing work to avoid a non payer and/or help with cash flow.
How much did you charge?
Jobs were quoted for the particular job, not an hourly rate. I would aim for around $70.00 - $80.00 an hour for most jobs, more depending on if it was ride on work, had a risk to damage equipment, etc.
What are your thoughts on the Jim's Mowing franchise? Did you ever think about joining?
One thing I don't like about Jim's model is the way the franchisee's own certain areas. The Jim's mower guy in my area was extremely dodgy and overcharged 3x. I previously used a very good guy from an adjacent area but Jim wouldn't let me book him.
I had a time where I considered signing up with Fox Mowing (very similar to Jim's) and there are some positives, and I know a lot of people in the industry who are a franchise and have made great business out of it. One thing I liked was a guaranteed incomed per week for the first 6 months (the paid you the difference if you didn't earn enough) and they are a good way to really hit the ground running - in that they heavily invest in marketing, have a name, can provide experience / training, etc.
The downside is they can be expensive to buy into, think $20k - $40k for the territory and name alone, plus any equipment you need. If you have that kind of cash laying around you can have a good sized marketing campaign and support yourself for awhile - I think a lot of people manage to finance the franchise purchase though. I think the main reason why I did not go a franchise, and would not in the future, is the lack of freedom to operate the business how you want (ie. uniform, vehicle sign writing, trailer types, etc).
I think generally speaking the franchise guys like Jim's generally earn more money than those independent, but that isn't necessarily always the case.
The only franchise owners who make money are one's that have more than one territory. Has been this way for 30 years. I know, I investigated it myself being a qualified (TAFE) Groundsman at the time when my contract was running out.
You're not going to even provide information on the main question?
"Why?"