A dump is a must… I have a 12 yard 1 ton dump truck. It’s a life saver
Your in a great location though. It could be a good market for your location.
Yes. I never got that “big” but i work for a guy that had one. If your going to go all in a dump is a must lol.
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I’ve got room in my warehouse for another trailer but I’m definitely leaning towards the enclosed. That way I can keep in backyard part of the time. Can store most my equipment in there. Thinking 16’ should be plenty for what I want to do. They’re only about $1500 more than a comparable open trailer. I’ve already got a lot of my equipment. Got a scag and a small Toro walker. About the only other thing I’d like to pick up is a 36" stander for some of the smaller yards.
Plan on limiting my area I service to about a 3-4 mile radius of my place. Plenty of potential customers. Going to limit it for the most part to just routine cutting, edging, blowing, leaf cleanup.
Been doing some market research - just today talked to some of my regular wash customers. One’s paying $310/mo for just the routine stuff. Has another company that does plantings and bushes. Another pays $200 every time they come, but she has about 6 acres she has cut on a rotating basis. Several of my neighbors paying over $400/mo.
I’m not looking to make a huge business out of it. I’m simply looking at as ROI. Heck, if I can build it up to just 10-15 customers relatively quick,say 6 months, I’ll be happy. That will pay for all the equipment costs in first year. I don’t have to make living money off of it. I don’t see my wash business dropping off a lot and I can either pay a big chunk to Uncle or invest in equipment.
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You didn’t have the right customers though. I can take my time and be selective.
Ya thats true back then it was getting as many houses as possible. My customers were in the $30,000 -$50,000 working class. Took me a year and a half to get a steady route. In your area they make double that and more. Im sure they would want in done more often too. Some would complain at me for requiring to cut thiers every 2 weeks.
I have been toying around with the idea of residential complete exterior care services.
Landscape - tree trimming, lawns, bushes, etc. Basic care year round.
Power washing - quarterly concrete, twice yearly house wash.
Window cleaning - quarterly cleaning
Maybe through in A/C Filter Changes monthly and Water Softner Salt maintenance monthly as well.
Maybe it is mix and match services.
Annual contracts - calculate what it would cost for all services annually and divide by 12. Collect a check every month even though work might be spread out - in summer mowing every 7-10 days but then in winter 1 time per month and not really mowing at that.
Any thoughts on this kind of a service? I feel their is a market as a lot of people have lawn services and then get other guys to do the power washing. Competitive advantage wrapping it all up into one company, spreading the cost out over 12 months, creating continual monthly payments.
I also do exterior painting (interior too, but prefer exterior - just a lot easier) with a full pro airless spray gun set-up, etc. Maybe offer discounts on painting for contract customers? I can do a 2500 sq ft house in two days. Pepper those in between power wash days when spaces are open.
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Thats pretty quick i suck at painting. I have been meaning to paint the outside of my house. I have wood siding on it. Its one of those rough cut wood sidings where its alittle flakey. Seems like a roller or paint brush with not work. I bought one of those electric paint guns from harbor freight. Have you ever used one of them? Are they ok just to do your house with?
Stay away from the 10 day mow routine people hate it and it’s not good for the grass when it’s really growing… you should only be cutting 1/3 the blade height. I do an average of 40 cuts per year it’s every week April through mid October and bi weekly back to April. I figure what I need per cut and multiply it by the 40 visits and divide it into 12 monthly installments. You can add hedge trimming in there too usually that’s a one time per month deal… Depends some like hedges trimmed every 3 months. …My plan was to do something similar total home services and include interior home cleaning as well.
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That’s kind of my idea too, is too offer several services eventually. I think as people get older that there is a market for a complete maintenance. I don’t care about interior stuff though sure there is a market for that too. Kind of like an exterior contactor so to speak. Services I don’t do I could have taken care of for them. Plus, even the younger wealthier clients I have, just want to have someone take care of stuff for them, kind of like a personal assistant, except my specialty would be the exterior. Just brainstorming.
Good info there Doug.
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Using one of those little electric sprayguns to paint you house is possible however you will need to thin your paint as they are usually too weak to pump decent coatings, and refill cup approximately 5000 times.
Also maybe buy a couple of them as some give up after 5 min.
Kinda like using a baby homeowner pressure washer to wash a house-not fun.
Graco make a good handheld battery gun,excellent for small jobs but still gets tedious refilling cup of you try a large area.
Paint coverage 12-16m2 per liter, cup size 800ml.
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Thanks aussie. Ill try this little guy out. If it fails on me ill grab that graco. The reviews on the graco are pretty good. Seems like a good around the house spray gun.
No worries at all Grizz , if u have any dramas let me know I’m happy to help with any painting queries or problems.
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Hire a couple of cute girls for the home cleaning…
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