Once you "Make It" in your lawn care business, what happens next? Do you go into a holding pattern for the next 20 years or do you have a plan in place to make sure you can stick it out for a long time?! What are you guys doing?
I run marathons and ultra marathons! Crazy, but hey it helps me stay in shape! Btw we run at Spencer Field every weekend. You should come join us a weekend! 🔥🔥
This is my 36th year of doing landscape maintenance. My advice is to open a retirement fund and put money in it faithfully. So when is time to retire because your body can't do it anymore. You will have the money to retire. And always keep your equipment maintained and your truck maintained. That is what makes you your money. You can do it. Be your own boss it's pretty cool.
I enjoy the monotony after 10 years of doing it. You just get more efficient every year and the new guys can’t compete with you. I’ve never figured out how to hire quality people for a lawn business so I’ve given up on that aspect. No one will ever work as hard as the owner and non productive people stress me. I just pray I can physically continue for a long time but nothing is promised. When I let customers go they beg to keep me, so there’s job security. I’m holding out for the next 25 years, charging as much as possible along the way. I try to upgrade my clients every year, weeding out the low payers, raising prices on the wealthy and giving them amazing service, because they will always need us. Living below my means and saving for retirement and a mountain home. Maybe one day I’ll splurge on a new truck or something.
It takes time a patience to develop a new hire. I get the frustration… one thing that helps me during the trainer time is to repeat to myself “it’s ok if the lawn doesn’t look perfect this time, just as long as it’s not majorly damaged. (Windows, ac wires etc.)” I say this to myself a lot while training a new guy. The absolute worse thing that will happen is you get a call or text from the client and just explain the situation- he’s brand new and learning and will get better. 99% of them will be fine w that. Is it worth investing into a helper- YES. Once they get it, and you see your efforts producing fruit- life is easy. Sharing the load is huge w this work. Anyways I hope you try one more time for help. And pay them good. They will stay around, especially after you develop them to your ways to doing things… keep cutting, and keep saving/ investing bro
I really enjoy your video, I started my business, full time in November of 2017, yes I know it was a crazy time of the year to start, and My Lord has blessed throughout all my seasons. This November will complete 7 years, what a great number. I am blessed to have my grandson working with me. My what next is to teach him the business and hopefully watch him grow with it. He will be 16 next month, and I can tell you, that he is a true go getter, this evening he pushed me to go that extra mile. He examines all the equipment, he does excellent hedge jobs, and he knows exactly what to do when he steps out of the truck . Thank you Johnathan for doing what you do.
I just started lawn care services on the side as a part-time gig to have something to do me personally I do it for fun and to make extra money, but I have a regular job as well I know I’m not going to do lawn-maintenance forever so I just enjoy it for the time being.
I did this for 6yrs got a steady hand full of yards I would service biweekly. Got so busy I couldn’t even cut my own yard as much as I wanted. I now only do landscaping jobs and I would charge 40$ per lawn minimum. Just sold my 30in xmark with a for sale sign in my driveway. Cash on hand for my home projects now.
water, cricital, I drink 1 to 1.5 gallons purified, distilled water each day, and I generally add the "Vitamin-Mineral-Fusion" product to it, keeps me hydrated well. I distill the water, and then put it thru an AlexaPure Gravity Filtration system, makes for great tasting ultra purified water.
Mate I've been in the industry a long time, i never plain on retiring. In future I'll step back and over see my guys and plan there work schedule,plus have a site manager,if you pay and look after your guys well you'll never have a problem, stop thinking negative.
The freedom and autonomy of owning my own business far outweighs any question about monotony. Plus, i see tremendous opportunities for ministry through this business. Besides, at 61, i probably don't have too many more years of "monotony" to worry about. Maybe 10 or 15?
Been in this industry for 5 months John, and loving it. My schedule is almost full, and our routes are tight. I do find things to stay motivated and it helps to set (realistic) goals. Wkth us right now, calls have significantly slowed and it seems like i hit a customer plateau. I see chucks with trucks everywhere getting business and weve been hanging 5 arounds and posting all over social media evey other day. Did you (or anyone else) experience this also, back when yall started?
Weed control/fertilization is where it’s at!! Mowing for the majority sucks. 14yrs in it. I loved it but it became redundant. Hard to keep quality employees and it’s not really scalable!! However weed control/fertilization and mosquito control, what an upgrade and a blessing!!!
This is my "what's next?" 10 years ago, I retired after 32 years of law enforcement and now I do this 2 or 3 days/week. My question is how long do I do this? Do I hire people and expand or just sell it off when I've had enough? Life is adventure.
I personally prefer the monotony, I want each day to be the same (though each day is different as in the route / properties ya do so that’s the variation you have).
I am in Marietta, Georgia and I'm seeing a slow down here nkt to bad but I see painters picking up mulch At landscape yards, I see tree companies now offering retaining walls ibsee established hardscape businesses now offering lawn maintenance. Seems like another 2009 is on the way. Is anyone else seeing this?
I have to say, once one has the "next thing" mentality, it is hard to just relax and enjoy life because there is always a next thing. When is enough, enough?
This is a great point, and I tend to agree with you. We have a tendency to keep moving the goal post forward and just put of reach… it’s almost unfair to do this to ourselves. May need to elaborate on this topic in another video.
Dude I'm so there, I'm making enough money, I'm solo, I want some help because I'm so bored. I'm also 57, and this is my Semi retirement dream. I love it, but what's next.
I gave it a shot, but to be honest, I hooked it up to my dump trailer, and there was just no way it was towing a load of dirt so I had to get the next best thing which was a three-quarter ton work truck.
Johnathan, not being negative I love your videos and that you’re a spreadsheet numbers guy but in your previous video you where giving advice you where clueless on, saying things like just run the f150 with upgraded suspension and now you have a new Chevy 2500 but justifying it by saying it’s a WT package or a few years ago you said don’t buy the luxury truck and you bought a tremor or praising the ford ranger but then going with f150’s years ago? Again I love your content but I think folks can see through some of the BS you’re attempting to speak on with no real experience, maybe just stick to the numbers and spreadsheets.
@@devinjones9123 so this is actually a super weird comment, so I’m just going to try to respond with grace… when I started my channel I just began sharing the things that work for me at that time. If you go back and look at my first videos, I talk about how I used a residential grade hustler raptor to get going. I’ve had many trucks over the years including basic half done trucks super nice decked out three-quarter ton trucks, a Ranger with a custom bed, and now a Chevy 2500. All those trucks were perfect for me at different seasons of my lawn business… but It always amazes me how upset people get when I get a different truck, use a different mower, switch brands of weedeaters I use, or even the dad gum pants I wear. It’s honestly crazy to me that folks are so caught up in what I’m doing. The truth is, I’m always just sharing what’s working for me and what I’m doing at this time. There are 1 million ways to do it, and I’m just sharing what works for me. I’d suggest putting into practice what you think would work, and what you think wouldn’t just think for yourself.
@FloridaTurfPros Hi Sir. Quick question. When you're giving a lawn cutting estimate & there are lots of trees shedding lots leaves do you factor that in your quote if it's more than a reasonable amount?
@@clbo9878 I do, and I just have an honest conversation with the client about what their expectations are with the leaves. If they expect the leaves to be mulched down every service, then obviously that takes extra time, and we have to account for that in our pricing. But if they say they don’t care, just cut the line normal and whatever happens with the leaves happens, then we can give them a regular lawn maintenance price. I will also say that I absolutely hate magnolia trees, and a factor in a headache factor for having to deal with those yards.
@FloridaTurfPros Thank you for the response. When you say mulched down you mean blowing the leaves somewhat together on the grass & mowing over them until their gone? What if they want them ranked up and bagged?
You confused your intro with pressure washing hahaa in the last 4 years everyone selling you something is talking about how you can make 5k a day. Been doing it for 9 years I ain’t seen that yet lol