Newbie getting started

[Stephen]

Hi all

Been lurking and learning for a while, have become an Indi member and finally putting up my first post :)

Currently full time employed in manufacturing but looking for a change to something outside of the factory environment which I can adapt to suit our lifestyle (two young kids).

I'm based in the Macarthur, NSW area and have been getting together all the necessary equipment (ie: ztr, sp and push mowers, whips, multi tool, blowers and trailer). Just need to make the jump into actually doing some jobs! :laughing: Is anyone interested in some free labour so I can learn the ropes?

My initial thoughts are to do jobs on weekends and after work until I build up some regulars and then make the move to make this my full time job. Any thoughts on what the minimum number of regular clients should be in order to make a living out of this? I guess it's always going to be difficult to judge when to make the break from a steady paying job out into the unknown but it's something I really want to make a go of.

What are the most effective ways to advertise when starting out? Do you find fliers bring in much work?

Looking forward to getting out there and mowing.

Thanks for reading

Cheers

Steve

[luketud]

Hi Steve

Hard to say how many lawns you need depends what there worth and how many hrs you want to do in a day.

Its good that you have already got the gear you just need to work out what area your going to target.

I moved from the southern highlands to port so im starting my business from scratch i feel like a newbie all over again.

Advertising wise you just have to work out what works where you are. I'm trying flyers at the moment I've never done them before but for the price their cheap and you get to see the house. I just made one up and took it into officework's and got them to photocopy 4 to a page and it works out quite cheap i got 800 for $20. I'm trying gumtree as well its free so you cant go wrong.

Hope that helps
Cheers Luke

[Stump]

My advice is to leave your work now and take advantage of the early spring. You just need a couple of thousand to spend on a decent drop of flyers ( at least 20 000) and you will be to busy to worry about anything else. Just depends what kind of work you plan on doing. Resi work is very easy to come by where as the commercial stuff is harder to get. Commercial jobs are not as easy to replace if you lose one either. My mate recently lost a 30k per annum job. Huge chunk of his yearly income gone overnight.

[Scooby Steve]

Welcome Stephen advertise everywhere mate when your new you'll need all the leads you can get. You can back it off later thats if u can afford to do so.

[simo]

My advice is to leave your work now and take advantage of the early spring. You just need a couple of thousand to spend on a decent drop of flyers ( at least 20 000) and you will be to busy to worry about anything else. Just depends what kind of work you plan on doing. Resi work is very easy to come by where as the commercial stuff is harder to get. Commercial jobs are not as easy to replace if you lose one either. My mate recently lost a 30k per annum job. Huge chunk of his yearly income gone overnight.

My daughters wanted some extra pocket money and delivered 200 flyers, which I got 6 calls out of and I got 2 regular lawns and 1 big pressure cleaning job
And I still expect more work from those that are holding on to them....
I think I`ll go another 800 over spring and will be easy pickings...