Cracking the Code to Profit: The Blueprint for Building a Real Business in the Lawn Care and Landscaping Industry - Softcover

Sciamanna, Ryan J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1546225188 ISBN 13: 9781546225188

Verlag: AuthorHouse, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

What is Cracking the Code to Profit?

Cracking the Code to Profit is the complete, start to finish blueprint for building a REAL BUSINESS in the lawn care and landscaping industry. The author, Ryan Sciamanna, shares all his knowledge on how he went from a solo operator to six crews in three years.

Who is the book for?

Cracking the Code to Profit is for anyone thinking about starting a lawn care business to companies trying to break through the $200k to $300k gross revenue barrier. If you would like to, but are not already, making $100k per year as the owner of your lawn care company, you will benefit from reading this book.

Why Ryan wrote the book:

In 2016 Ryan narrowed his lawn care companies service offering down to lawn mowing and lawn treatments only. Prior to that, his company was a full-service lawn and landscape service provider offering all of the typical services including mulching, pruning, cleanups, leaf removals, hardscapes, landscape design and installation, and snow removal. He made the change in his business model to increase profit margins and reduce the amount of time required of him as the owner of the business.

Naturally, he needed to find referral partners for his lawn care customers because they still had other lawn and landscape needs his company no longer performed. He contacted several other lawn and landscape business owners in his area and told them he wanted to send them referrals for the work his company no longer performed and only asked they don't 'steal' his customers for the services they were still providing.

After shooting off the first several referrals, Ryan quickly realized that a lot of these companies needed help and until they improved their business operations, referring his clients to them was only making him look bad! He has since stopped referring work with the exception of a couple companies that proved they would provide his customers quality work at fair prices and actually be reliable.

Ryan says, "I think most lawn care business owners started their business just like I did...they enjoyed the work and were good at it, so they said, why not work for myself. In the beginning, it usually goes pretty smooth, but as they add more and more customers and eventuallyneed to hire employees, they get in over their heads. I did the same thing, but quickly educated myself on how to run an actualbusiness and not just be self-employed."

He organized all of his knowledge into Cracking the Code to Profit in hopes it will save new business owners years of frustration. Ryan read a similar 'book' before he started his business that his father had bought for him online. It was actually just a word document that someone had written on starting a lawn care business and his dad printed it off for him. It cost his father $79.95 for that! Ryan still has that 'book' and even though it was overpriced, terrible quality and a lot of the information was not good, he still credits that book towards helping him get his business off the ground.

What you can expect from Cracking the Code to Profit - How to Start a Lawn Care Business:

The book flows in chronological order from starting your business to your exit strategy. Ryan put every detail he could recall from his own experience. You can see the book chapters in the book preview. After each chapter, action steps are included so you know exactly what you need to do. At the end of the book, you will find the resource section for continued learning and execution. You can expect to have a much better understanding of how to start and grow your lawn care business is a healthy, profitable way. Ryan's contact info is also included in the book. He would love to hear from you after you finish it!

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ryan grew up in Florence, KY in a middle-class family with both of his parents and 2 younger brothers. He I got caught up in the wrong crowd in high school after Tommy John Surgery ended his dreams of playing professional baseball. He still managed to get accepted into the University of Cincinnati's Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning Program which he ended up completely blowing. His uncle got him his first job in the green industry at a commercial lawn care supply warehouse after he dropped out. He bounced around working at a couple restaurants but always ended up back at a lawn care or landscaping business of some sort. When he got hired at a small family owned lawn care and landscaping business he realized that is what I wanted to do. He started his business, Loyal Green, with his parents' lawn equipment and even their vehicle to haul the equipment around. He literally had nothing and didn't have the money to buy it either. He also did not have a clue how to run a business at that point! He kept working at the local business until he built up enough clients of his own...Ryan would do his customer's lawns in the evenings or on the weekends around his full-time work schedule. In March of 2011, he had to tell his boss that he was sorry and could not put in his 2 weeks. He had to handle his customers' lawns full time. After 1 year of running the business full-time as a solo operator, he hired one of his friends and his brother in the second year running the business full-time. He kept adding trucks, equipment, and employees through 2015 which was his lawn care company's biggest revenue year ever. The problem was the profit margins were terrible and the number of hours he was working was not sustainable! So, in 2016 he made several changes to his business model. 2016 and 2017 were the most profitable years of his business and the best part was, he was only working 8 hours a week on his business! The systems Ryan had created allowed his employees to handle most of the daily operational tasks. 2018 is poised to be Loyal Green's best year ever. Ryan just wants to see more people succeed!

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Cracking the Code to Profit

The Blueprint for Building a Real Business in the Lawn Care and Landscaping Industry

By Ryan J. Sciamanna

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2018 Ryan J. Sciamanna
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5462-2518-8

Contents

Preface, xi, 
Introduction, xiii, 
Chapter 1 The Potential of a Lawn Care Business, 1, 
Chapter 2 Make your Business Official - Business Structure, 8, 
Chapter 3 Getting Started, 16, 
Chapter 4 Get Some Clients, 21, 
Chapter 5 Business Operations – Scheduling, 26, 
Chapter 6 Business Operations – Invoicing, 33, 
Chapter 7 Business Operations – Bookkeeping, 37, 
Chapter 8 Business Operations – Maintenance, 41, 
Chapter 9 Business Operations - Position Yourself for Growth, 45, 
Chapter 10 Time to Grow – Marketing, 52, 
Chapter 11 Customers, 63, 
Chapter 12 Employees, 69, 
Chapter 13 Services to Offer, 78, 
Chapter 14 Business Finances, 87, 
Chapter 15 Pricing Services, 94, 
Chapter 16 Purchasing Equipment, 100, 
Chapter 17 Cashing Out, 104, 
Chapter 18 Conclusion, 107, 
Afterward, 111, 
Resources, 113, 

CHAPTER 1

The Potential of a Lawn Care Business

Here is the reason I started my business. When I began working in lawn care and landscaping, I was on a 2-man crew, just the aforementioned boss' nephew and me. I asked him questions all day long until he inevitably said, "Ok, no more questions today." One day, before I reached my daily quota, I asked, "How do you guys get paid for doing these jobs?" He said, "We give the customers a quote for the work they would like us to perform, and if accepted, they pay us that amount each time we provide that service." My mind was blown because I was used to getting $9-$10 an hour as a cook or a helper before I started working there. So, I was like, "Are you telling me that it doesn't matter if it takes us 10 minutes or 2 hours to cut this place, they are going to pay the same amount?" He confirmed that is how it works. I was thinking to myself, 'You have got to be kidding me! I am a beast at this and fly through these jobs while still getting everything done perfectly. I could clean up if I had my own business.' And that was the moment it all clicked for me.

Although I don't know your situation, my goal for this book is to benefit as many people as possible. If you already have experience running a business, you may not need some of the information in this book. However, every bit of information in this book is tried and true, so you may find something that you had not considered before. Or you may find something that I overlooked! In either case, please feel free to contact me to discuss any topic in this book, or not in this book. You reach me by going to LawnCrack.com or connecting with me on any of the social platforms @LawnCrack.

As mentioned earlier, the most important thing that you need to define is your goal, or goals. It is certainly okay to have more than one goal at a time. Your goals are critical as you are getting started. Specifically, you need to determine your financial goals. Do you only want to get enough work to provide for yourself? For yourself and your family members and friends? Do you want multiple crews? Or do you want multiple locations in several states? Any of these scenarios are possible. Knowing what you are aiming for will guide you as you make decisions as your business grows.

Although I am not a hardcore business plan guy, I did write a business plan before starting my business. I would highly encourage you to do the same. If you are already in business, it is not too late, you can write yours now. A business plan is a living document, meaning you should come back and add to it over time as circumstances change and you strive to reach bigger goals. Your business plan will reflect your goals. Goals that are written down get achieved at exponentially higher rates than goals that only remain as thoughts. Go to SBA. gov and use their business plan builder. It will walk you through the process and make it very easy to do. Writing your business plan down is going to force you to consider many things you probably would not have otherwise thought. It is also the only way you will be able to come back to it and reference it. An important part of the business plan process is your mission statement. Your mission statement should be a paragraph that is laser focused on the purpose and intent of your business and should let people know why they should do business with your company.

One thing I wish I would have done earlier was financial forecasting. I know ... it sounds intimidating, but it is not really. If you don't have the Lawn Crack Profitability Calculator already, it is free, and you can get it on the resources page at LawnCrack.com. This tool will make it very easy to see how small changes in your business' numbers will affect your bottom line. Most small businesses fail because they fail to understand the basic financials of their business and industry as a whole. What is the cost per man hour to provide each offered service? How long does each service take to complete? What is your capacity per day? Per week? Per Year? How long is the working season in your area? And finally, you must know what your target profit is. Knowing these five things can help you determine exactly how profitable your business will be and get you a realistic overview of how much work, time, and money will be needed to accomplish this. This can change over time as you hire more skilled employees and can purchase more efficient professional equipment, so you need to reassess this from time to time.

Here is what I mean:

Let's keep it simple. Let's start with only offering a lawn mowing service and you, the owner, as the only employee. We will use $50 as the average mow price. And yes, $50 is going to be a very realistic number for your average mow price. I know pricing varies in different parts of the country, but in my area, this is very realistic. In the Midwest, where I operate my business, we average around 30 cuts per year on a typical property. If we use the $50 per cut price, times the 30 cuts per year, we will get $1500. That means for every $50 mowing account you pick up, you can expect to earn $1500 per year from that account. In other words, a $50 mowing account has a gross yearly value of $1500 to your company. I hope you are getting excited! These numbers add up quick!

Now we have the value of an average mow customer per year. Next, we need to know how many lawns you can cut per week. You will be able to cut many more lawns with a 60" zero turn as compared to a 21" push mower. This is why you will need to upgrade your equipment to professional grade equipment as quickly as possible. I will give you two scenarios right now for you to consider. I will reference back to these scenarios a couple times throughout the book.

Scenario 1 – You have a 21" push mower. You can cut five lawns a day, five days a week, and you cut these 25 lawns 30 times in a season. 25 lawns per week at $50 each is $1,250 per week. $1,250 per week times 30 weeks = $37,500. In my area, the season is roughly nine months long, so your gross income in this scenario is $37,500, and you still have three months per year to generate more earnings in some other way. If for some reason, you are satisfied with this amount of money and three months off per year, I would advise you to do business as a sole proprietor and not carry insurance. You are already making more money than most American's with...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: AuthorHouse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1546225188
• ISBN 13: 9781546225188
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 138
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland