Buying a lawn maintenance company
RoseAnn
about the right price to pay. Example: A person selling
50 customers, plus all equipment for $6500.00. Is this a good deal
or not? Need help with this!
Also, I need to know how is the best way of getting customers.
Thank you,
RD
hoffman
Oooh, this is one of those fun questions to answer which is open
to wild speculation.So here is just my opinion, you may get others
who say the very opposite.
(1) Paying for a "Customer Route" is "unwise". Let me elaborate.
First, I am not in any way trying to say that you wont make money
or suceed. On the contrary, you may very well become sucessful.
What I'm saying is that buying customer routes is kinda like......
hmmm.... like buying so-called winning lotto numbers from somebody
in hopes theyre numbers are luckier than your numbers which you
could have picked yourself...... perhaps a bad analogy, but I cant think
of a better one..
Buying a customer route is great for the beginning landscaper,
in fact.. it may very well be better than "starting from scratch"
because there is so much less work and hassle involved in
getting new customers. Some landscapers have spent the
first few years just trying to get 50 customers.. Other
landscapers may have gotten 50 customers in their first
3 months in business!! So you see, its all a bit of luck combined
with a bit if skill.. Some landscapers are good at getting customers
and other business aspects, some at better at customer relations,
while others are better at doing the actual work. Everybody has a
different skill.. I dont know where your talent lies.
Alot of landscapers tend to overprice their customer routes
because of sentimental value. Its your decision, but I would
say that its probably not wise to pay more than $1,500 for
any customer route... especially since there are no
guarantees that you will get anything. You might be pissing
$1,500 down the drain when half the customers decide that
they dont want you or when they simply get pissed off that
their old landscaper left them. Its likely that you will keep
80 percent of them for the first year. You will probably keep
90 or 95 percent if the 50 customers initially, but you may
very well find that 10 percent of them may discontinue
your service with them after trhe first few months. They
may fire you in the middle of the season after they have
found a replacement, or they just may let you finish the
season out and replace you next year.
You likeley WILL lose some customers, I've seen it
dozens of times. (I sold a 30 customer route once,
and the new guy I sold it to got a 80 percent dropoff rate.
He must have really pissed the customers off for whatever
reason....) and then sometimes it may be your fault,
sometimes it may not be....its all luck. Dont take it too
hard if a customer dumps you, you'll find new customers
soon enough.
(2) Secondly, you did not give us a list of equipment. We
cant tell you what kind of deal your getting without the
equipment list. But I suppose its likely everything that
you need for the route.
From my experience, here is what you need for a 50
customer route (depends on size of houses of course).
WORKERS: 2 MINIMUM (PREFERABLY)
You can do 50 houses yourself. I've seen guys who
work by themselves. I've seen 55 year old guy do it
which is AMAZING! Doing 10 houses/day is ALOT
(for some people.. you get used to it after a while)..
But working by yourself is a living nightmare for
most people.. Its a great stress on the body and
is also an "emotional drain". You can go nutzo
real quick and get "burnt out" doing 10 houses
a day by yourself. Even 5 houses by yourself can
be an emotional drain, and its also a physical
drain. But like I said... I suppose you can get
used to it.. some people do.
Also, you wont do as good of a job with just 1
person. You will be too rushed for time, and will
do an inadequate job. Find a helper. Its really a
must.
DO YOU NEED 3 WORKERS???
No, you dont. Not for 50 houses. But some people
have used 3, even 4 workers for 50 houses. I would
say very strongly, that if your only doing 50 houses;
and especially when your first starting out, 3 or
4 employees is going to be a big drain on your
pocketbook (especially when you start realizing
that customers often dont pay you for 2 months!!)
How do you pay your employees when customers
wont send you your money for 1 to 2 months?
You will see that this is VERY VERY VERY VERY
true!!! This is the truest thing that you will ever
encounter in landscaping..
EQUIPMENT?
[2] LEAF BLOWERS.. If your doing 50 houses, you
definately need 2 blowers. You can get away with
1 for a while, but it will seriously slow you down,
and you will quickly realize that the crew is standing
around doing nothing while the other guy is blowing.
[1] 32 inch commercial lawnmowers is definately is all
that is needed for 50 houses. if you happened to have
2 of these, all the better (I suspect you wont get 2
commercial mowers for only $6,500). You dont need
a second big mower with only 2 employees.
[1] Small mower. The less experienced employee
uses the small mower. Dont ever let an inexperienced
person operate the large commercial mower. Last
thing you need is some guy smashing into somebodies
car or mowing down a flower bed.
[8] Assortment of handtools is a must for landscapers.
You can buy them yourself, but hopefull it will be
included with your package. Heres what you need.
SPADING SHOVEL
REGULAR SHOVELS (preferably several different shapes)
CULTIVATORS to do flower beds (pref 2 of them)
2 foot GRATING RAKE (if you ever do sod work)
AX (choping out small roots and trees)
PICK (chopping out small roots and trees or digging irrigation
ditches for sprinkler systems.)
Etc.. etc..
[2] WEEDWHACKERS. You definately need 2 weedwhackers
if your doing 50 houses. 2 whackers is even more important than
2 leaf blowers. So if you dont have 2 of them, get another one,
you WILL need it.
[1] THATCHER. Hopefully youd be getting a thatching machine
in the deal, otherwise you probably should buy one, as its
really necessary for fall and especially spring clean-ups. Most
but not all landscapers make thatching a necessary routine
in Spring clean-ups. You can get away with not using it
the first year if you cant afford it, otherwise you can rent it
for a several days during spring clean ups season.
[1] Groundblower. You dont really need this, even though
many landscapers have them. I've always used two blowers
for fall clean-ups and it works nearly as good as a high
powered ground blowers which can be expensive. You can
do without a ground blower for the first year or two should
money be an issue.
You probably wouldnt be getting a ground blower either for
the $6,500 your paying for the business.. but should it
be included.. all the better.
(3) BEST WAY OF GETTING CUSTOMERS...
ohh, thats a fun one that we can argue forever with..
Usually, a landscaper gets 50 percent or more of
his customers via "word of mouth". Or more typically,
for instance the neighbors might come over and say
"how much, when can you start doing my house?"
etc.. HOWEVER, this probably wont happen very
often during your first few years in business because
you already have an established account. Assumably,
this guy has already gone through that process
where the neighbors come by and ask you to do the
lawns..
another form of advertising is the "local town" paper.
Every town has these little 'local' papers, where you
find tons of classified ads and service ads. If you
advertise in there, you'll get alot of responses.. definately,
but be aware that with advertising, especially in these
little local papers, you get alot of "bargain hunters"...
you know.. people who want you to do their lawn
for $18 or $20 when the going rate is $35 or $40, and
then when you think you give them a reasonable price of
$25, they yell at you and tell you how "another guy" was
quoting only $15 (a typical bullshit, oldest trick in the book
scheme, to haggle your price down). Your going to get
alot of AHOLE customers from advertising, who are always
going to be "riding you" and "nickel and diming" you to death,
asking you to do free stuff and to spend an hour at their
house each time, even though they pay you only $20..
This just goes with the business.... my theory has always
been... "I dont take no shit...I try to to the very best job
that I can possibly do, and will go out of my way to accomodate
people... but as soon as they start 'treating me like shit'
I draw the proverbial line and say "to hell with this" and
they get a nice discontinuation of service notice in the mail
explaining I'm not dealing with their bullshit anymore."
YELLOW PAGES ADVERTISING.. This happens to
be, I think, the best way to get jobs, or at the very
least you will get TONS of inquiries.. Advertising
always gets you inquiries, and the yellow pages is
by far the best way since its viewed by the most people.
But... your likely to get your share of AHOLES and
bargain hunters from the yellow pages also.. there
exists no way to get "perfect customers".. no such thing.
If your going to run a yellow pages ad though, it has
to be of a decent size, and make it very informative
explaining what you do or will specialize in (maintenance,
landscape design or construction, etc..).. this attracts peoples
attention and is simply better than showing your logo and
a phone number. Nobody pays attention to 1 line ads
as follows : Joes Landscaping miami, 744-2306
You need a picture ad. It will cost you alot.. but if you ever
have the money, its a good investment.
Gregg Catanese
his good clients for something like three months billings, i.e. if client
pays $200/ month , then account is worth $600. Then a lot of lower priced
competition came in and changed things.
Vietnamese (and other southeast Asian) gardeners, new to the business and
the area, were sending out lots of fliers listing "2x / month for $28, 4x /
month for $48" for an "average size yard", often wrapping these flyers in a
plastic bag with a rock inside and throwing them onto people's driveways.
Though all they really knew how to at first was "mow, blow and go" they soon
got into other tools...like going at (formerly) nice Japanese maple
specimens with a power hedge trimmer.... saw one happily pruning ivy and
escallonia with a chainsaw the other day.
A lot of Mexican, Salvadorean and Guatemalan employees of larger commercial
maintenance firms have side jobs on their weekends, sometimes growing into
full time businesses. Their low pricing has had a downward influence on the
general price of maintenance services, even when they don't know what
they're doing.
I've talked to a few clients who had tried either of these guys for the
apparent savings, but dismissed them within a short time, due mainly to
communication problems.
I got out of maintenance business altogether, selling that part of my
business to two loyal former employees (mix of 30 or so commercial and
residential jobs varying from about $140 to $700 / mo. totaling about $8.5K
/ month) complete with used vehicles and equipment for $10K. They kept about
85% of the jobs, eventually splitting up and going their separate ways, each
taking half and adding new clients along the way.
The last time I got accounts form other people (gardeners moving out of the
area or retiring) I worked out something where I paid between 5% and 10% of
the annual billing as sort of a "finder's fee"
Gregg
Gregg Catanese
hoffman wrote in message
<01bdb01d$4065de80$f4ab...@northeast.northeast.net>...
>(3) BEST WAY OF GETTING CUSTOMERS...
>ohh, thats a fun one that we can argue forever with..
>Usually, a landscaper gets 50 percent or more of
>his customers via "word of mouth". Or more typically,
>for instance the neighbors might come over and say
>"how much, when can you start doing my house?"
>etc.. HOWEVER, this probably wont happen very
>often during your first few years in business because
>you already have an established account. Assumably,
>this guy has already gone through that process
>where the neighbors come by and ask you to do the
>lawns..
IMHO, this is the best way to get new jobs... talk to your customers and ask
if they'll recommend you to their friends and neighbors... however it
sometimes backfires if they talk a lot and compare prices or get together
and want a "group discount."
>YELLOW PAGES ADVERTISING.. This happens to
>be, I think, the best way to get jobs, or at the very
>least you will get TONS of inquiries..
Probably the worst way to advertise. Tons of inquiries is right. Lots of
people price shopping and wasting a lot of your time.
ecdm
over the winter. I have thirty accounts billing about a grand a week.
However, I never see this grand. This line of work is entirely dependant on
the weather, and that's no good (just ask any farmer). For that's what this
is: suburban farming. I work in central NJ, where we tend to have a lot of
shale right under the topsoil. We're lucky if there's three inches of
topsoil over it. Since there is nowhere to collect water, if we don't get
rain every three or four days, the grass browns out. These are very bad
odds. It doesn't matter how hard you work (I do it all myself, for three
years now), w/o that rain you're SOL. In the spring, it rained for thirteen
days straight. I lost almost two full weeks pay, then when it stopped
raining, I got to work twice as hard for the regular rate I charge. (It's
not the customer's fault I couldn't cut, right?) Do you know that two weeks
later I was skipping lawns that didn't grow because we didn't have enough
rain? Ridiculous.
Hoffman's right, get ready for slow paying customers and scammers. The first
don't care that YOUR bills are due on time, they "just forgot" to pay
theirs, "they'll send it right out". Screw that, I started charging a 10%
late fee. The second are only out to get the lowest price. Don't fall into
this trap. Set a price and stick with it, because there is always someone
who will do it for cheaper, believe me. Your work is worth more than that.
Anyhow, I'm getting the hell out. Maintenance begone, I'm going with design
and installation. So I'm selling thirty accounts, a '97 Ex-mark 60"
zero-turn, '96 Bobcat 36", Redmax trimmer, assorted tools, a '98 6' by 12'
single axle trailer, and I won't take less than $8000. I'm 27, and I'm going
to go to school for landscape architecture while I'm still young. Please
somebody tell me there's a future in that?
P.S. If you're really going into this business, don't ever get an attitude
like mine. And good luck, seriously.
Eric Morana
proud almost not owner of EM Land & Lawn
http://home.att.net/~ecdm
Jason Dyer
> RD
When I first started in the lawn maintenance business,I put an ad in
the local news paper.For two weeks
I did not get any response. After that calls started slowly coming in and
then all of the sudden I was overwelmed. I had to take the add out of the
paper because I could hardly keep up. Of cousre I still
got referals and the people who were just driving bye and asked how much.
Hope this helps
Jason Dyer