Downsizing

[NLALM]

After the events over the last couple of months , I have made a decision to halve the size of my business. It's not a huge business but to much for one guy on his own. My main problem is unreliable offsiders I have two guys each one works two days a week and I work alone on Fridays. One has been with me only a couple of months he has let me down tomorrow the biggest week of the year with a very lame excuse and my other guy can't help tomorrow. This happens to often plus they are both hard on the gear my maintenance costs are huge, also they are both brain dead last week with the new guy we finished a job drove 5ks to the next got out and he says where's the mower,,,,,, The clown left it on the footpath at the last job, how hard can it be you mow the lawn then put the mower away , lucky it was still there when we got back .
Anyway I'm going to flick both offsiders sell my ride on anyone want a walker mb , ditch all my big jobs any on slopes all underpriced ones and put the price up on the rest . This should leave me with a nice run of good quality lawns and gardens close to home. Not as much money but I just can't keep going the way things are,, it's starting to affect my health and I seam to be in a bad mood all the time. I wish I was 20 years younger as I would be killing it this is the busiest summer we have had for a long time, I think the cooler weather has saved me a bit,but I still don't think I will get 60 plus lawns done this week and the forecast is rain tomorrow.Thats why I did a few today first Sunday I have worked in over 10 years.

Has anyone else downsized, and has it worked out? Or should I try and ride out the storm and find better help,?

[63impala]

Yah when looking for off sider look for guy that can take orders and throw a couble test his way if he can handle the test a passes with flying colours he the fella that got your back when the grass is growing....I know the breed.... .

[Antic]

Cheers Mate, I completly understand where your at.I am a few hundred clicks up the road from you at Coffs.
I had the same thing,folks let me down, I was stuck with nearly 90 lawns on my own for a few months.

Same thing with me, buggered,grumpy, not good for the family at all.I went one step further and sold the lot.The guy got it at a good price too.

Now I am back in the business with a slightly smaller run. (it's in the blood..lol) and loving it after a few years break.

If you like what you do then by all means wind it back to the good ones,depeneding on your finacial situation then be fussy with new customers.This will allow you to take the pressure off and take a breath.......you can always build it up next summer if you want to.

Working for yourself is hard to beat but you are not supposed to work yourself to death either.

Now is the time to sell a few customers.

Hope you get through in the meantime whilst you make the decision.

[happymowin]

i downsized my last business; it worked out great. i could make more money alone, everything was done right the first time and no one was stealing from me in materials or time. the biggest thief was my business "partner"

raise your prices and talk to those that are pitas or low proced and explain where youre at.

one thing id say, is dont trim the cust list down too quick - i did that last summer and regret doing it - if you have a dry winter or next summer (touch wood) you may like having those pitas back.

some may surprise you and be happy to pay for extra service (they may never have told you theyd really like vertical edges and poiisoning, and that little shrub trimmed into a dragon shape, whatever)

some may go the other way and say no way am i paying $5 more. theyve picked to be dropped. easy.

having worked both sides; i'd say (for me at least) going solo and staying solo are the best decisions i have made.

sorry to hear youre selling that new MB.

im keeping mine for the ferals the cox wont do (got one this week $155 for 250 square meters)


i wish you luck mate

remember why youre doing this - family time, personal time, control over your work flow, your income etc.

[Stripes]

I was pretty much like you Mark. Sick of being mucked around by morons working for me, and I seemed to be working twice as hard as my offsiders and always cracking the ****s. I'd come home in a bad mood and whinge about them, snap at my kids and had zero patience for my kids. I had stacks of work but couldn't find the help I needed to get through it all without being let down by unreliable people that couldn't care less about my reputation. Initially I culled the small clients furthest away from me- as in jobs that were 20 minutes away for less than $100, and then culled all the irregular payers and next were any lawns that had dog **** or just **** me in general. What was left was a good little business, compacted with good paying clients and nice lawns.

I actually started to enjoy working on them again and was making more money despite being on my own. I could then pick and choose any new work that came in. If I didn't like the look of the lawn, I just told them so. It gave me my mowing mojo back for a few years but in the end my passion for the industry was gone and I needed to change careers. Luckily for me they lifted the ban on sprinklers so I could get back into irrigation.

Go for it mate.

[ian]

just put your prices up first the if you don't loose enough clients put them up again until your getting paid very good money for the work you can handle

[Bluey]

Just going through it Mark. My last offsider was the last straw. It was affecting me the same way. I was getting stressed out because he would ring on a Monday morning with a lame excuse and I had heaps of work booked in. I think the problem with an offsider apart from them not beeing any good is that you feel that you need to work doubly hard to make it all pay. I had to let a few customers go but these were essentailly a pain anyway. I looked at my client list and then knocked off a few more and got a reasonable run for myself. The good part was it was spring so I had quite a few new one turn up. Made sure I quoted a top price and raised the others, A couple left but I replaced them with better ones. I have now got back into the one man routine and I reckon I am actually better off both finacially and mentally. I work to my own pace now not having to try push a lazy offsider. Best thing I did was going back to single operator.

[AJD Mowing]

After the events over the last couple of months , I have made a decision to halve the size of my business. It's not a huge business but to much for one guy on his own. My main problem is unreliable offsiders I have two guys each one works two days a week and I work alone on Fridays. One has been with me only a couple of months he has let me down tomorrow the biggest week of the year with a very lame excuse and my other guy can't help tomorrow. This happens to often plus they are both hard on the gear my maintenance costs are huge, also they are both brain dead last week with the new guy we finished a job drove 5ks to the next got out and he says where's the mower,,,,,, The clown left it on the footpath at the last job, how hard can it be you mow the lawn then put the mower away , lucky it was still there when we got back .
Anyway I'm going to flick both offsiders sell my ride on anyone want a walker mb , ditch all my big jobs any on slopes all underpriced ones and put the price up on the rest . This should leave me with a nice run of good quality lawns and gardens close to home. Not as much money but I just can't keep going the way things are,, it's starting to affect my health and I seam to be in a bad mood all the time. I wish I was 20 years younger as I would be killing it this is the busiest summer we have had for a long time, I think the cooler weather has saved me a bit,but I still don't think I will get 60 plus lawns done this week and the forecast is rain tomorrow.Thats why I did a few today first Sunday I have worked in over 10 years.

Has anyone else downsized, and has it worked out? Or should I try and ride out the storm and find better help,?

Hi NLALM When I was bricklaying I went through the same thing as you with unreliable offsiders the main problem was there was only a couple to start with and when someone didn't show for what ever reason we couldn't handle the work load. Things changed when we grew and had like 4-5 people so it was easier to cover other people when one didn't show. But it is stressfull cz every worker is 1 headache and it is not their business so they are just there for the money so they just don't care. I found the best workers were the ones who were maried with kids and had comitments. I think to have a business that employs staff you have to have a desire to succeed that is greater than the headaches that go with it lol
I am working alone now with my Lawnmowing/Gardening business and not sure if I have what it takes anymore to have staff if and when I get to that stage but probably will as I can't help myself LOL
All the best mate
Dean

[Stripes]

I have heard of one company that has a lot of staff that had this issue, so as part of their wage they paid them $15 a day in overtime just to turn up. (one hour overtime each day) If they missed one day in that week, they got nothing for the week and only got their base wage. It reduced the amount of this rubbish a fair bit, but then you still have the issues of finding staff who can actually work hard and do a good job.

[AJD Mowing]

I have heard of one company that has a lot of staff that had this issue, so as part of their wage they paid them $15 a day in overtime just to turn up. (one hour overtime each day) If they missed one day in that week, they got nothing for the week and only got their base wage. It reduced the amount of this rubbish a fair bit, but then you still have the issues of finding staff who can actually work hard and do a good job.

Mate thats the best idea I have heard for a long time!! maybe $10 a day an extra $50 a week would be ok, I am going to put that in my memory bank for a later date...

[Stripes]

It is a way to pay them above award wages but if they call in sick then they just get the award wage. He used to pay above award wage anyway but was sick of blokes not turning up because they had a big night or whatever, so instead of giving them a base wage above award, he just pays them the award wage with the overtime incentive and they know they will cop a $75 hit if they call in sick. Makes them think twice about having a sickie.

[Scooby Steve]

Sounds like you blokes r catching on to what us old timers have known for years more often than not you'll make just as much money on your own without the stress. Though i do like working two up for clean-ups in this case you just subbie someone in and add there wage into the quote but stay solo for your reg work.


Works well working two up if you can find a good offsider but how often does that happen and when you do they will either leave or want a wage thats unaffordable to sustain. If you've got one give em a nice Christmas present because they r a rare find.

[geoff]

Still reckon unless you have a big round or heaps of garden clean ups to justify an employee is something you need to think long about....Watching a guy mowing next to me today and he had two others , two with mowers and the other with a whippy, for the lawn of 45 bucks they got in each others way and took 20 mins , so not sure if theres a great profit margin there....the benefit i guess is at the end of the day you wouldnt be as stuffed like us sole operators perhaps....then again i can just go home lol

[AJD Mowing]

It is a way to pay them above award wages but if they call in sick then they just get the award wage. He used to pay above award wage anyway but was sick of blokes not turning up because they had a big night or whatever, so instead of giving them a base wage above award, he just pays them the award wage with the overtime incentive and they know they will cop a $75 hit if they call in sick. Makes them think twice about having a sickie.

I think it is a great idea Stripes. What we found we would pay on Friday then half would not turn up Saturday so we canned Saturdays and worked 10 hours Mon - Thur and 8 Friday and still got 48 hours with Sat and Sun in the bag

[Bluey]

Good idea but really why should we have to do it. Bribing blokes to turn up for work. It is a sign of the times. Many peoples work ethics as employees is shocking.