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Thread: VJ is BACK :)

  1. #1
    Member VJinTownsville's Avatar
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    Default VJ is BACK :)

    VJ is Back!

    After having a 2 year break and stupidly selling most of my big gear I have decided to come back to mowing.
    I had an operation after a burst appendix, a death in the family, relationship break down and depression which forced me to get out of the game and find a new job.

    I ended up doing sales for solar. Although we were selling the genuine commercial gear, it has and always be a dirty industry. Being ripped off so many times by solar companies (and other sales based companies) and a poor job market in Townsville I decided to put all my skills and knowledge into starting my mowing business again. I did, however, get a lot of experience and life skills doing sales and being always in the deep end and fighting to put food in the table.

    Back then, I was unorganised and reactive to what was happening. It wasn’t totally a bad thing as I can look back and see what worked and didn’t work. Using what I’ve learnt from sales and marketing and a whole lot of professional development resources, I am confident about starting a really amazing business once and for all.

    Basically what I really liked about my old mowing run was that I had a compact run from 3 minutes to 10 minutes max. I see contractors doing 20-30 minute travel time in between regulars. That could add up to extra hours per day using extra fuel, paying for ‘windscreen’ time for offsiders.
    Here is my new plan:
    • 50-100 regulars in my suburb
    • Rename my business that has the suburb name into it to make it more familiar to the area
    • Learn to barter/trade to minimise financial overheads ie for trailer, massage, bookkeeping, marketing
    • Concentrate on mowing mostly by aggressively marketing to lawn only houses (there’s nearly 2000 houses in the area that rarely have trees and maintenance heavy gardens. That means only get the best gear to the best that I know. This is to :

    o Reduce the amount of equipment to bring as other jobs are not in high demand
    o Eliminates rubbish and dump runs
    o Outsource to other contractors in my network who love what I don’t like to do or they are better experience at it.
    o I will however still get a basic hedge trimmer or chainsaw if needed

    • Possibly get a large trailer for dump runs which will be a share ownership between me and a few contractors. My trailer will only carry the self propelled mower and ride on. My ute is a large xtra cab Hilux which has a large lockable styleside tub to keep all the equipment out of sight and my rig looks very neat.

    At the moment, everything is on hold, but possibly be in operation in a week or 2. Everything is set in plan just waiting on a few things like my ute is at the panel beaters (long story), trailer is getting modified to have a tailgate ramp to make it easy to quickyl load/unload with ease, getting all my foundations solid and getting fit again.

    Stay tuned and I’ll update more

  2. #2
    Member Rye Victoria great nature's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    Welcome back, man. Im excited for you and your new focus. Sometimes you gotta hit rock bottom, to come back stronger than ever.
    Youve got me thinking that i need to reassess my operation now! Cheers for that.

  3. #3
    Member of forum ASTRO's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    Welcome back VJ.
    Keep on punching in round 2.

  4. #4
    Senior Member simo's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    Awsome write up, sounds like your head is screwed on..not screwed up.. Best of luck..Happy mow`in..
    ....Nothing like a good whipper....

  5. #5
    Member VJinTownsville's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    Thanks guys, I am hoping to keep in touch with some of you guys. Something about this community that I appreciate having. Got about 10-15 customers in the past couple of weeks, taking it slow because of a rolled ankle while putting out magnet cards. Things have been pretty dry in townsville but shouldn't be an issue plenty of fish in the sea.

    What I really need to do is make as many mistakes all over again (and rectify to improve) in the first 3 months and really get a good picture of how I can stick to my goals AND also see other avenues where I can really make an impact.

    Here are my 2 main focus at the moment:
    1. Establish a "Big fish, little pond" compact run with my suburb I am currently putting as much energy into building up. I've been doing heaps of extras at the moment and really making relationships with each and every single customer in order to expand in the near vicinity. Every one in this zone is only 5 mins away.
    2. Establish being the go to guy for larger jobs like yard clean ups, mainly for deceased estate clean ups, abandoned properties, cleaning up properties for a quick sale etc. I may have to make a separate business name for it.

    How to put my name across:
    * Join a business networking group or breakfast meetings to network with other business people (eg BNI)
    * Deceased estate Clean Ups: Prospect calls to Public Trustees, nursing homes, funeral directors, RE Agencies and Agents.
    * Talk to other businesses who do the same structure and finding out how to get started, establish relationships and how to do a brilliant job

    Ill keep you guys posted, I've been slow but also helping a few guys get going with their business to get me motivated (I've been a bit burnt out by previous dealings so just getting my mojo and health back.
    *

  6. #6
    Senior Member PaulG's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    We have BNI here too. I've been invited to attend several breakfast meetings by various people but haven't been able to yet. Free the first time you go, apart from the breakfast cost, but I think if you join it's something like $1000 per year for the privilege. People I've spoken to say that they've made over 10 times that back throughout the year though.

  7. #7
    member Christine Wharton's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    Good to see you back up and running VJ...you'll do well with your business vision.
    Ciao for now ~ Christine
    senior partner ~ Townsville Lawn Care
    http://townsvillelawncare.webs.com

  8. #8
    Member VJinTownsville's Avatar
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    Default Re: VJ is BACK :)

    Got a few setback from a few old injuries and also insecurities about starting new again. I have to go away for a whole month overseas so there is no point building business up in order to shut it down or palm it off to another contractor.

    Its raining like crazy in townsville at the moment, my original plan of working my suburb has worked well but I have to limit it until i get back from my trip.

    With only a month and a bit to go, I will just look after my initial rounds and focus solely on yard clean ups after this big rain, I wont prospect on Real Estate agencies and body corporate yet until i get back late april, a bit of a curveball but you gotta do what you gotta do.

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