Newbie from Lake Macquarie

[Morisset Lawn Care]

Hi there

My name is Brad and I have just joined this site after many weeks following posts on here.

I left my fulltime job last December when a redundancy was offered, as I need to be home this year due to my daughter starting school.
Currently I'm sitting at home being a fulltime sports and racing gambler while my daughter is at school. I only have about 20 bets per week
using a disciplined staking plan and betting bank, similar to share trading without income tax I guess. To cut a long story short, due to my gambling
being a long term approach with winning and losing months, I need to earn some money elsewhere on a weekly basis. A normal job is not an option
at the moment, as I have to drop off and pick my daughter up from school, also I don't think an employer would appreciate me betting on the odd horse
race or cricket game during the day.

I have decided I will try and slowly build up a small mowing run and I would be aiming at about 30 customers in about 12-18 months time. I have never
mowed residential lawns (besides my own), but I spent 6 years as a groundsmen at a power station and army base,that was about 14 years ago though.

I have a Shindaiwa Brushcutter, Atom Edger, Atom Blower and my 4 year old Victa Rotary Mower. Obviously I will need to upgrade to a better rotary mower
down the track, but the blower and edger are brand new. In my 6 years as a groundsmen, nothing ever came close to a Shindaiwa brushcutter. Sometimes
we would spend weeks at a time brush cutting along conveyer belt lines and the Shindaiwa was so easy to use without feeling too fatigued. Maybe the Stihl
and Honda brush cutters have improved since then, but I will stick to the Shindy.

To start with, I will just offer a mow, edge and blowing, as well as weed control. I don't even have a trailor, so I can't offer rubbish removal.

I had about 2000 business cards printed out to put in peoples letter boxes and I have ordered some shirts with my business name embroided on.
Even though I don't even have one customer yet, I at least want to start out looking professional.

I will go do some more research and I will be sure to ask plenty of questions in the future.

Cheers

[sterlo]

Hi Brad and welcome.

Good luck in your new pursuits.

As an ex bookmaker I can only hope that you have a very clear understanding of what your up against trying to earn a living as such from gambling.
In my experience, I can tell you that there are more golfers playing off single figure handicaps than there are winning punters. Over the years many people tried and failed using systems sold to them by clever marketing promising such returns that they could live the dream of being a professional punter. The only winners I can personally vouch for are few and they never used such systems (which i'm not suggesting you are) and find it increasingly difficult to find bookmakers to hold their bets as bookies do not like playing against winners.

Anyways, best of luck for the future.

Sterlo

[Morisset Lawn Care]

Hi Sterlo

Happy to hear from you, thanks for your advice, but I do it all very professionally. I work off a $10,000 bank and bet no more than 2.5% of my bank at a time and I only bet when I can get value. I purchase horse ratings off a professional punter who has a long successful track record of winning. As you would know, if you get $3.00 for a horse rated at $2.00, you will win in the long run. I used to rate my own horses for a bit of fun, but when it takes an hour or so to do one meeting its easier just to purchase the ratings off a pro, even though they don't come cheap. I don't touch mass marketed systems or use progressive staking plans. I have been doing this on the side for the last 3 years while slowly building my betting bank. There are a few Bookmakers out there that will take on the pros, but most of my betting is done through Betfair. Why take the over taxed and rounded down odds on the TAB when you can usually get at least 50% better fixed price odds on Betfair. I am very disciplined with my gambling. I used to be a share trader and I take a similar approach in risk management as I did with share trading.

I know exactly where your coming from from what you mentioned, but I'm not one of those guys that bets on everything that moves. I know more than anyone that being a professional gambler is not a glamorous high rolling lifestyle that everyone thinks it is. It's like any business with the same highs and lows.

The reason I want to start a mowing business is so I don't have to touch my betting money. Eventually down the track I hope to build a much larger betting bank and maybe then I will make a living out of gambling.

Can I ask why you decided to give up bookmaking?

Hi Brad and welcome.

Good luck in your new pursuits.

As an ex bookmaker I can only hope that you have a very clear understanding of what your up against trying to earn a living as such from gambling.
In my experience, I can tell you that there are more golfers playing off single figure handicaps than there are winning punters. Over the years many people tried and failed using systems sold to them by clever marketing promising such returns that they could live the dream of being a professional punter. The only winners I can personally vouch for are few and they never used such systems (which i'm not suggesting you are) and find it increasingly difficult to find bookmakers to hold their bets as bookies do not like playing against winners.

Anyways, best of luck for the future.

Sterlo

[GardenGuy]

Welcome, Brad!

Best wishes for every success in the lawn and garden industry.

The only bloke I know who makes a living gambling has been booted out of every casino in Las Vegas, and pretty much everywhere else, owing to being sprung for counting. Either way, good luck with that endeavour if it's your heart's desire and you can do well at it. You're a braver man than I.

Cheers - GardenGuy.

[sterlo]

Can I ask why you decided to give up bookmaking?

Sure can mate..

Basically, as you know the majority of racing and sport is carried out on Saturdays and public holidays. This time became more valuable to me to spend time with family. You can never go on family outings, hardly ever get away for the weekend and basically the job was starting to own me.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my job, but at the end of the day it had become my life.

Glad to hear that you making a decent fist of it, my only advice would be to ditch the staking plan and concentrate on the big overs and remember that if its shorter on bf than the track its winning and forget the fact you're missing a little bit of value. Same goes for when bf is massive overs than on track and your form likes it, bet down on them as the real smarties are laying, therefore prob not the winner. But you prob already know this ;-)

Sterlo

[Morisset Lawn Care]

Hi Sterlo

I imagine it would take up alot of your family time. My wife used to hate it when I was share trading, as I would spend all night doing research and it also started to own me. I didn't give it up by choice though, my neurologist more or less told me to give it up after I had a moderate stroke at the age of 30 :) As far as my staking plan is concerned, I don't bet 2.5% every race, that is just my limit. I bet to win 5% of my bank, for example if it is rated at $5.00 I bet 1 unit and if it was rated at $2.00 I would bet 2.5 units. I actually love the massive overs if they are good value, for example last Thursday at Kilmore, Elite Jewellery was rated at $6.00 and therefore the bet was 0.83 units ($83) I think the average price I secured on Betfair was about $11, and it actually blew out to about $14 a couple of minutes after I secured my price. It went on to win nicely and I received great overs and won much more than 5% of my bank. The only time I bet slightly under the odds is if I back a saver. I usually shop for prices as soon as I receive the rated prices, because 80% of the time they are well under the rated price a few hours later.

I respect everything you say, as you would know 1000 times more about the racing industry than I would. I'm happy these days just to receive my ratings and place my bets, I don't even listen or watch 90% of the races I bet on. Actually the last four Saturdays I have lost alot of tight races and lost a couple of units each Saturday, but because I wasn't watching or listening the races it didn't bother me. The month before I had a few Saturdays where I won 20+ units, so the odd losing month is just part of the slow accumulation.

I guess we better start talking about lawn mowers and brush cutters now, because we might get kicked off the forum lol

Cheers

Brad



Sure can mate..

Basically, as you know the majority of racing and sport is carried out on Saturdays and public holidays. This time became more valuable to me to spend time with family. You can never go on family outings, hardly ever get away for the weekend and basically the job was starting to own me.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my job, but at the end of the day it had become my life.

Glad to hear that you making a decent fist of it, my only advice would be to ditch the staking plan and concentrate on the big overs and remember that if its shorter on bf than the track its winning and forget the fact you're missing a little bit of value. Same goes for when bf is massive overs than on track and your form likes it, bet down on them as the real smarties are laying, therefore prob not the winner. But you prob already know this ;-)

Sterlo

[HPM]

G'day Brad.
Welcome to the forum and all the best getting your new customers.
If you see me around (Nissan Patrol ute) pull up and give me some cards as I'm always giving jobs away to other indies that I can't do.
I'm based in Sunshine but 90% of my work is in Newcastle.
How far from home are you going to travel for a job?
Look forward to seeing you around and having a chat.
Dan. Hunter Property Maintenance.

[Morisset Lawn Care]

Hi Dan

That would be a great help, I will be sure to say hello if I see you around. I will be looking to travel about a 20 to 30 kilometre radius, probably as far as Doyalson, Wangi and Cooranbong to start with. Is there a reason you do so much work in Newcastle? Or is that just where the bigger jobs are?

Cheers

G'day Brad.
Welcome to the forum and all the best getting your new customers.
If you see me around (Nissan Patrol ute) pull up and give me some cards as I'm always giving jobs away to other indies that I can't do.
I'm based in Sunshine but 90% of my work is in Newcastle.
How far from home are you going to travel for a job?
Look forward to seeing you around and having a chat.
Dan. Hunter Property Maintenance.

[HPM]

I just ended up with more customers in Newcastle and do a full day in a few different suburbs. I've got 1 day in the local area and 4 days in Newcastle each week.
The trick is to try and keep the jobs close to each other to minimize travel time.
I try to keep the jobs under one hour and over $50 to fit in as many as I can for the day,about 8 is a good day.
See you on the road...Dan.