Yay to being his own boss

[Lamingtons]

Thank you to the OP who started a thread on SS coffee lounge a few months back about buying a Jims Mowing franchise. I told my other half that he should do this (not buy a franchise but start a biz) a few years ago. I got him really angry for whatever reason.
Of course a few years later, he thinks it is a fantastic idea now. He researched and has purchased an existing business. He bought over clients and equipment for a little more (think a grand or two) than if he was starting from nothing. And he has traded for one week now - fully booked and cannot take on new clients. He now makes more in 4 days than he did in 5 days working for someone. He has been getting calls already from referrals and we are not sure how they are calling as it is a new phone number. His clients own million dollar mansions and are not the come mow my knee high weed garden sort. More importantly he's feeling much better about his 'worth' and ability to 'look after his family'.

Thanks SS!!!

 

[cu@thetop]

Thank you to the OP who started a thread on SS coffee lounge a few months back about buying a Jims Mowing franchise. I told my other half that he should do this (not buy a franchise but start a biz) a few years ago. I got him really angry for whatever reason.
Of course a few years later, he thinks it is a fantastic idea now. He researched and has purchased an existing business. He bought over clients and equipment for a little more (think a grand or two) than if he was starting from nothing. And he has traded for one week now - fully booked and cannot take on new clients. He now makes more in 4 days than he did in 5 days working for someone. He has been getting calls already from referrals and we are not sure how they are calling as it is a new phone number. His clients own million dollar mansions and are not the come mow my knee high weed garden sort. More importantly he's feeling much better about his 'worth' and ability to 'look after his family'.

Thanks SS!!!

Good stuff. Glad to hear you didn't go with Jims or any other franchise for that matter- I get many disgruntled franchisees and I have to tell them not much I can do as a lawyer as they"ve been stiched up in the original documents.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

 

[Lamingtons]

cu@thetop - NO WAY would I allow him to purchase a Jims whatevs. I have looked at jims bookkeeping (I am CPA now, back then I was halfway through) and I was wondering what the provided for $35K plus annual fee. Their guaranteed income was so low, if i was on Accts Payable pay I would earn more. Anyway, I myself am looking at getting trained at bookkeeping to do something in the evenings. I have always been in the industry and in large firms so have not handled end to end accounts for about 10 years.
I am on what I call "project positivity" - job hunting for better $ or been pushing for promotion at work. And visualising the pay that I am after and I will get it. Nothing is gonna stop me now!!

 

[moyjos]

Congratulations ...Lamingtons
It is great being in charge of your own destiny.

My 2c worth of business advice.

1: Set up a ING (or similar bank acount) and make sure he pays himself 9% or more into it very week as "super" whether you transfer it into his real super or uses it as a deposit for a house is up to you both ..but make sure you do it. (if you work for a boss you get 9% more MANY small bus owners forget to pay themselves)

2: Be VERY careful "cashing" jobs. While it is very tempting to do so...if you are planning on investing..you NEED a decent tax return

3: Make sure you have income protection insurance (If he breaks a leg he can't mow lawns..but insurance will help maybe "buy a kid" for a while to help out)

Above all ENJOY!!! Make sure he takes a break and rewards himself for being self employed. Have a Friday arvo off occasionaly "because you can" ..Something that you couldn't do if you worked for the man.

 

[Lamingtons]

Moyjos thanks for the advice!

- re: Super I think he (and I for that fact) would have forgotten this! Thanks!

- Cash nope very low in terms of percentage, because of the type of clients he has a lot of them want invoices as tax deductions.

- Insurance he has this organised a year ago due to the type of work he did and windy roads to his place of work.

For now he's going to as many jobs as he can fit in and will take weekend work because he (well me) want to pay off the bank loan asap. But he has allocated one day off a week to be with the boys.

 

[lizzie]

For now he's going to as many jobs as he can fit in and will take weekend work because he (well me) want to pay off the bank loan asap. But he has allocated one day off a week to be with the boys.

the great part about this is that down the track - hopefully not to long - he'll be able to take on someone else to work with him - one doing edges and the other mowing - charge the 2nd guy out at $x+10 (or whatever) and hour, and pay the guy $x.

bit of cream on top by leveraging his time.

 

[pennyk]

Thank you to the OP who started a thread on SS coffee lounge a few months back about buying a Jims Mowing franchise. I told my other half that he should do this (not buy a franchise but start a biz) a few years ago. I got him really angry for whatever reason.
Thanks SS!!!

Well done!
Agree with moyjos' advice and would add 2 pieces of my own.

*keep up to the date with the accounts/ book-keeping - hopefully you can help with that!!
* remember that your income from mowing/ gardening will decrease significantly in the winter months. So, set aside some money now to cover your costs/ living expenses during the leaner months.

Hope it all goes smoothly.

 

[handyandy]

* remember that your income from mowing/ gardening will decrease significantly in the winter months. So, set aside some money now to cover your costs/ living expenses during the leaner months.

Hope it all goes smoothly.

Very good point.

Maybe think about some lateral marketing by seeing which yards also need bushes trimmed (and the like) and then over to do this and like services in the cooler months.

cheers

 

[evand]

You could send out a mailer to your existing 'loyal customers' mowing database offering a great deal on winter stuff. Like gutter cleaning, window cleaning, tree pruning, etc

Try to get them on a continuity basis for a discount and your laughing right through winter. And take it into spring, summer.

 

[Aaron Sice]

there's a book on how to value your knowledge and drive.

it always makes me happy to see people get paid what they're worth.

even just breaking out of the "full time" mould opens up new and unseen doors for people.

congratulations from someone who did the same thing.

 

[AdamN]

the great part about this is that down the track - hopefully not to long - he'll be able to take on someone else to work with him - one doing edges and the other mowing - charge the 2nd guy out at $x+10 (or whatever) and hour, and pay the guy $x.

bit of cream on top by leveraging his time.

I would take it even further and say that ultimately he would ideally like to have a "fleet" of mowers doing the actual work day to day, while he either looks to grow the business, or just has more time to himself where the business would still tick over even without him being there. Just like Jim, but without the upset peers.

 

[Lamingtons]

Thanks everyone for their suggestions!! Much appreciated! His clients are based in Surrey Hills, Mont Albert, Kew area. It looks like he will be doing 5.5 days a week when he intended to work 4 to stay with the boys. He's getting referrals from zero advertising and not even having a sign on his trailer yet and it is a brand new phone number he has.

Having a fleet of minions working for him is what happened to the old owner. What she did was had 8 people plus herself servicing most of north, east and north east Melbourne. The problems and stress of hiring, keeping staff got too much for her and she reduced her client base and started selling off her 'runs'. So I am thinking having a fleet of people is not the way to go. Perhaps we need to wait till our boys are older to get some cheap and reliable labour LOL. Or perhaps he needs to source some hardworking vietnamese labourers that he used as fruit pickers back in the vineyard.

evand, pennyk etc - I will have to see what winter is like, might keep a buffer. He seems to think that winter doesn't die down. His clients book 3/4 hrs each fortnight.

 

[Lamingtons]

Another update -> he's had the business for about 3 weeks now.
Clients who are invoiced are paying promptly A++++. No signage, no business cards, he's getting business from people walking their dogs. Calls from the old business for the suburb next to us. And has filled all his Saturday mornings. Woohoo.. Now just to get that job that i want and we're all ok!

 

[motivated 5555]

b uying a business

pls can i ask you how you researched a new
business to know it was a good one

where did you look

could any solicitor and accountant check it out or do they have to have extra knowledge in busnesses

did you have businesses in mind?

what type of business is it pls and

what did you learn along the way pls.

 

[mystery]

Congratulations ...Lamingtons
It is great being in charge of your own destiny.

My 2c worth of business advice.

1: Set up a ING (or similar bank acount) and make sure he pays himself 9% or more into it very week as "super" whether you transfer it into his real super or uses it as a deposit for a house is up to you both ..but make sure you do it. (if you work for a boss you get 9% more MANY small bus owners forget to pay themselves)

2: Be VERY careful "cashing" jobs. While it is very tempting to do so...if you are planning on investing..you NEED a decent tax return

3: Make sure you have income protection insurance (If he breaks a leg he can't mow lawns..but insurance will help maybe "buy a kid" for a while to help out)

Above all ENJOY!!! Make sure he takes a break and rewards himself for being self employed. Have a Friday arvo off occasionaly "because you can" ..Something that you couldn't do if you worked for the man.

Good post and excellent advice Moyjos, ... well done.

Keep up the good work Lamingtons

Mystery ...

Well done

 

[Lamingtons]

Just thought I would give an update on this.

Since the purchase of the business, we have paid off half the loan. We borrowed some capital and put some of our own savings in. Things became easier as well because I received an internal promotion and was able to focus on my career as he had the flexibility when our young kids were sick.

What started out as 4 days a week for one person became 4 days with someone else and one day by himself. High retention of clients that moved across from the old business. In fact continuous word of mouth referrals as far as Parkville from Ivanhoe which he unfortunately had to decline as he could not fit that in his schedule. He dropped business cards once and an additional house on the same street came on board.

There were some promotion activities that I had done this year but to be honest not much was done at the start of the business. I subscribed to service seeking recently and got one ongoing customer from there. We only quote on jobs that says ongoing work as he is at capacity. Referrals also come in from the old business owner and he has made contacts with a large and very popular local nursery that know of the old business.

The hardest thing that we found as anyone with a business knows, is finding reliable staff. So now we are entering the next phase which is getting another vehicle on the road like others had suggested earlier in this thread. And he will start taking a back seat and be the 'fill in' if anyone does a no show. He can also be the 3rd person in the run and do training with the new person.

When that happens I will pump up serviceseeking for him and grab any once off job that I can. I had "cold called" and wrote letters to local REA but not had any response.
Any ideas on generating business from REAs is appreciated as I believe PMs would require ongoing maintenance.

 

[Perchy]

Congratulations glad it all worked bonkers for you and family!

 

[lizzie]

That is great news - in such a short period. I am thrilled that he has seen the light as to being a business owner, rather than self employed.

There is a real shortage of people to do garden maintenance as it seems to be one of the first things people farm out ... good luck finding staff. A couple of young, just out of school types might be best, so they haven't fallen into the "bluge" cycle yet.

 

[Lamingtons]

Thanks all! Lizzie you are right about shortage, he is hearing shocking stories of gardeners that his clients have fired. One person cut down a very rare tree just because he decided too! Client did not request! Tree cannot be replaced as it is so rare. Some don't take their cuttings with them and dump it somewhere under a hedge to try to hide it.

I'm truly shocked about staff issues.
Had a good experienced person who was working for several months then over the Christmas break said he broke his ankle in NSW and disappeared off the face of the earth. Weird, especially if they were working for a few months closely together.

Now we have to advertise for one that has some qualifications and can lead/drive one run. I am saying my prayers for that one!

 

[wylie]

My brother left a stressful highly paid corporate job and is happily mowing lawns. He started off working for someone and after a little while took on some of the clients (no charge) when the boss wanted to semi-retire.

He cannot keep up with the referrals. His oldest son has his own truck and another son is just buying his own truck, so they have three trucks on the road. No signs, no advertising, no franchise. He has to turn work away.

He could easily kick back and do less, but that is not the type of man he is.