How to find investors for my lawn care company

[million$$$smile]

The problem isn't getting the business. The problem is KEEPING the business.
Been there. Done that.
And I have been there.
@Johnny boy, I know the biz, and I know the 'systems'. And I know your market.
My lawn care business ranged from University Place, Lakewood, Puyallup, and Tacoma.
I ran it for years. I ended up selling it, for several reasons.
First and foremost was labor. It is tough to keep good or great help. Anyone that learns enough to figure out how to mow a lawn(and believe me, it is an art) will try to do it themselves as it is so easy to get customers (keeping them is another thing). Anyone, that has smarts will realize that a mower, a blower, weedeater and edger is all it takes to 'mow and blow'
Heck, I started out in a Honda Civic with an electric hedge trimmer in Tacoma and from there built a small landscaping/lawn maintenance business in 2 years. It paid the bills.
But I didn't get rich either.
Why?
Low barrier of entry and weather. Mowing in the wet sucks.
Big time.
Labor hates it. Slows the work down to a snails pace. No one likes the rain. And the help are no different.
Again, no problem getting the jobs.

But the jobs are not the business.

The help (labor) is.

And of course, as you scale, the weather in your neck of the woods affects everything.

I know on paper it 'works'.

I know on a bright, beautiful August day running a mower around a house on Lake Steilacoom, with the Cascades in the distance or Ranier is awesome, and great.
Been there.

If you want to make this work, it has got to work for everyone.
Otherwise, you will constantly be fighting a revolving door of employees. Good help is hard to keep.
Show how you will be able to 'man' the job rather than get the job could make all the difference.

Not trying to throw a wrench in your fire, but if it was as easy as it sounded, there wouldn't be a need to ask for investors.
They would be finding you.

Make it extraordinarily good for your employees, and you will most likely have a winner.

Think about McD'ds, Burger King, and most of your franchises have in common?
Processes.
Ok. no problem. So they got the processes down.
Great.
Their biggest problem?
Keeping labor.
Anybody can flip a burger.
Or mow a lawn.
Retaining them is a whole 'nother story....

If you are talking to investors that have an inkling of the biz, they will understand that.

Create a business plan (VISION) that shows WHY the employees want to stay and you just might sell it to those that understand the business enough to invest.

Good luck!

 

[million$$$smile]

After a year of managing it I can unequivocally say you’re dead wrong.

Well. ok then.
Been wrong before.
I hope you find that investor(s) that believes in your plan.
Sounds like you have the 'experience' to take this to where you want to go.
Some of those' losers' with no front teeth have been making a living longer than some here have been alive and yes, they are not fastlane, but I definitely wouldn't regard them as losers.

Again, good luck on your endeavors building your business.
I'll not waste any more of your time,
-nor mine.

 

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[Johnny boy]

OP, what makes you think that someone would buy a franchise of your business? What is unique about it?

Your business is not profitable. It is easy to take a marginal business and make it very lucrative by scaling it to infinity...until you start bumping into reality.


Wow.

Someone with lengthy experience in your business in your geographic area gives you good solid advice and they are "dead wrong". This is almost comical. You even went so far as to insult him.

The"dead wrong"advisor is 100% right. I started a post explaining that labor will be your problem, but I deleted it . You want validation, not advice. If you actually want a fastlane business, take this lawn care business back behind the barn and shoot it. Then find something else.

You have a lot to learn. Please promise us that you will come back in 3 years and fill us in on your fastlane lawn care business.

Write it down, sign and date it, and I’ll give you the address to send it to. I want to frame it so I can post it back on here for you in a few years

 

[constant]

This quote comes to mind:

"And remember that adults are boring and retarded and have shitty lives so listen to your gut at all times" - @Johnny boy

 

[Johnny boy]

OP, what makes you think that someone would buy a franchise of your business? What is unique about it?

Your business is not profitable. It is easy to take a marginal business and make it very lucrative by scaling it to infinity...until you start bumping into reality.


Wow.

Someone with lengthy experience in your business in your geographic area gives you good solid advice and they are "dead wrong". This is almost comical. You even went so far as to insult him.

The"dead wrong"advisor is 100% right. I started a post explaining that labor will be your problem, but I deleted it . You want validation, not advice. If you actually want a fastlane business, take this lawn care business back behind the barn and shoot it. Then find something else.

You have a lot to learn. Please promise us that you will come back in 3 years and fill us in on your fastlane lawn care business.

We have 4 locations now. I never received the signed document. I have an open space on the wall in my office for it.

 

[heavy_industry]

I've bookmarked this thread and will use it as future reference.

Never let anyone talk you out of taking action. Not even yourself.

If you use the right strategy, and execute the process consistently, success is the unavoidable consequence.

With this knowledge in mind, let's see where we will be in 4 years. Someone please bump this thread in 2027.

How that day will look, depends entirely on us. We are the creators of our own destiny.

 

[Johnny boy]

Summer of 2018 I was selling cars going nowhere.

I made a post on here about starting a lawn care company.

GOLD! - HOT! - Starting (and Fastlaning) a lawn care service business

21 and currently selling cars at the moment. I’ve got some money to throw at something. I just bought a used trailer and have some lawn equipment. Got a pro website, branding, and I have decent copywriting skills for posting ads. Started with craigslist, Google AdWords and I’m on yelp and...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

During the summer, fall and winter of 2018, I learned a lot of lessons about management and how to actually run a business.

This spring, I signed up a full schedule of customers for recurring services only for 12 month plans.

This year, I moved out, got my first place, managed the business, had an amazing time, and kept things going strong. As we go into the winter, I will have the same monthly revenue since customers signed up for 12 months plans.

I want to grow the business and am looking for investors that want a place to park 20-30k and see it grow much faster.

A single crew can bring in 8 thousand a month while costing 5 thousand in expenses. This year that paid for my living expenses but with another crew it would make things much easier.

I can easily manage many crews because of the scalable nature of how I set up my business. We perform simple, recurring services. Which makes it easier to higher low-skill laborers and with less mistakes. We only sign up customers with recurring scheduled maintenance, so our scheduling is extremely efficient, and there are no gaps in our schedule.

And since I am signing up each customer for a 12 month time frame, I'm not out bidding jobs all day, allowing me to manage more effectively. We have GPS tracking for the truck, so I can see which jobs they are at and what they have left. Everything is handled remotely. All customers have a card on file that is charged automatically at the beginning of the month and we have cancellation fees if they want to cancel. We are not busy chasing invoices and have 0 accounts past due.

I am confident that 5+ crews would be easy. Our costs are nearly variable, so we only have expenses when we are working (biggest costs by far are labor and gas). If I had 10 crews working, and the economy crashed and we had to downsize to 3 crews, it would be easy to do. There is little risk for being overexposed, which makes it much more of a safe investment.

I can put up collateral. I own a truck and trailer with equipment. I also own a 1977 datsun 280z. I also have a kidney that I don't really need. I will put all of them up as collateral for a loan. I am more sure of my business than I am of the sun coming up tomorrow.

I want help in finding investors for this business of mine. I want to have at least two crews working next year, and more as the year goes on.

If you know anyone, or know good places to look, let me know.

Thank you.

 

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[Bertram]

Puyallup Washington.

Local small business development centers offering grants and loans:

Home | SBDC

Helping Washington Businesses Grow and Succeed Contact us for confidential, no-cost business advising. Contact An Advisor You’re the expert on your business ...

wsbdc.org

New Small Business Development Center Open in Puyallup | South Sound Business

The Washington Small Business Development Center opened a new location in Puyallup. This is the SBDC’s second location in Pierce County, with another center in Tacoma.

southsoundbiz.com

Edmonds College: Entrepreneurship - Small Business Development Center (SBDC)

www.edcc.edu

Business | Puyallup, WA

Business

www.cityofpuyallup.org

Here's the federal funding source for state-level support of small businesses, the Dept. of Commerce:

Washington State Business Grants & Loans

Washington offers a range of business grants & loans to help fuel growth and expansion in communities statewide, including Fund Local and Craft 3 loans.

www.commerce.wa.gov

Find local assistance | U.S. Small Business Administration

www.sba.gov

You're so close to Seattle what a great trajectory that would be. I'd put that in the grant/loan application. If the grant program is exclusively about Puyallup economic growth then maybe not.

Also if you hire unskilled labor, you can sign up locally to offer on-the-job training (subsidized) for dislocated workers. You hire good people laid off from jobs and receive compensation as well as tax breaks.
Apply for a small business grant because you're going to provide steady jobs and training and also offer jobs to dislocated workers. You could thus write in the half or full costs for 3-4 vehicles and equipment for 3-4 crews for this first round. Also request funding for a skilled dislocated worker to do your booking, accounts, office admin.
If you do a little work to tell your own meaningful story in the grant application and then add half a dozen data points about the local need for workforce development for the 18-23 year-olds (there is local data) or about job insecurity in the area, you application will be 10X stronger than expected.

There are at least 3-4 local unskilled worker agencies in the vicinity who you might want to partner with. They'd find, process, screen and send you job applicants and take care of the entire bureaucratic side of your giving job opportunities to laid off workers. It's likely that this partnership would add some punch to the grant application also. They'd receive more funding to be the bureaucrats and you'd receive funding to buy trucks.

 

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[Johnny boy]

Raising 20-30k you're going to be dealing with mickey mouse investors who can't afford to lose a dollar. I promise you that it will be just as easy to raise 500k as it would be to raise 30k. I'd urge you to consider the former. You've proved the concept, now is the time to scale it out across a greater geographical region.

You are right. Took me too long to have the balls to scale up and think differently. This was great advice back then and I will not make the mistake of only thinking small.

 

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[Dan_Cardone]

Summer of 2018 I was selling cars going nowhere.

I made a post on here about starting a lawn care company.

GOLD! - HOT! - Starting (and Fastlaning) a lawn care service business

21 and currently selling cars at the moment. I’ve got some money to throw at something. I just bought a used trailer and have some lawn equipment. Got a pro website, branding, and I have decent copywriting skills for posting ads. Started with craigslist, Google AdWords and I’m on yelp and...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

During the summer, fall and winter of 2018, I learned a lot of lessons about management and how to actually run a business.

This spring, I signed up a full schedule of customers for recurring services only for 12 month plans.

This year, I moved out, got my first place, managed the business, had an amazing time, and kept things going strong. As we go into the winter, I will have the same monthly revenue since customers signed up for 12 months plans.

I want to grow the business and am looking for investors that want a place to park 20-30k and see it grow much faster.

A single crew can bring in 8 thousand a month while costing 5 thousand in expenses. This year that paid for my living expenses but with another crew it would make things much easier.

I can easily manage many crews because of the scalable nature of how I set up my business. We perform simple, recurring services. Which makes it easier to higher low-skill laborers and with less mistakes. We only sign up customers with recurring scheduled maintenance, so our scheduling is extremely efficient, and there are no gaps in our schedule.

And since I am signing up each customer for a 12 month time frame, I'm not out bidding jobs all day, allowing me to manage more effectively. We have GPS tracking for the truck, so I can see which jobs they are at and what they have left. Everything is handled remotely. All customers have a card on file that is charged automatically at the beginning of the month and we have cancellation fees if they want to cancel. We are not busy chasing invoices and have 0 accounts past due.

I am confident that 5+ crews would be easy. Our costs are nearly variable, so we only have expenses when we are working (biggest costs by far are labor and gas). If I had 10 crews working, and the economy crashed and we had to downsize to 3 crews, it would be easy to do. There is little risk for being overexposed, which makes it much more of a safe investment.

I can put up collateral. I own a truck and trailer with equipment. I also own a 1977 datsun 280z. I also have a kidney that I don't really need. I will put all of them up as collateral for a loan. I am more sure of my business than I am of the sun coming up tomorrow.

I want help in finding investors for this business of mine. I want to have at least two crews working next year, and more as the year goes on.

If you know anyone, or know good places to look, let me know.

Thank you.

You can use google to search for an angel investing network.

I have a friend that did something a bit unconventional when he wanted investors. He sent direct mail pieces to business owners in his state. I believe he sent each one a small information packet that acted as a quasi-pitch and invited all of them to call him if they were interested in investing.

He did manage to get an investor that way.

You just have to find ways to get your pitch in front of people with money.

EDIT: Small business investment company (its a .gov) Investment capital

 

[SteveO]

I know. Those lending companies don't differentiate between good businesses or bad businesses. They just run credit and make a judgement based on revenue and time in business. Nothing to do with metrics that will actually determine growth. So they HAVE to charge 100%+ APR. My strength is I actually have a profitable business with lots of consumer demand. I need to leverage it with private investors who know what to look for instead of a monolithic online calculator that tells me what I "qualify" for.

"
When I wanted to start in the multi-family business many years ago, I found that "NO" answers came easily from banks and lending institutions. The thing is that you need to be persistent. Not everyone has the same philosophy about lending. Nor do they all have the same beliefs. Sometimes you can find a place that believes in the business owner.

Ask 100 places and you will likely get a couple "YES" answers. It would be a much better option than private investors.

 

[heavy_industry]

Write it down, sign and date it, and I’ll give you the address to send it to. I want to frame it so I can post it back on here for you in a few years

PURE GOLD.

I can't believe I am reading this 4 years later. Congratulations @Johnny boy , this is what happens when you trust your instinct, and do what you want to do in life.


@ChrisK Thanks for finding this.

 

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[Walter Hay]

Think outside the square. Service businesses are ideal candidates for franchising, and if you have a good system in place and it is profitable enough, it is worth considering.

See:
SELL ME SAT Forum Self-Promotion Opp: Offers, Links, Your Biz, More (September 2019)

Walter

 

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[Bearcorp]

I’ve shared this example before somewhere on the forum but check out this guy;

Gardening Maintenance & Lawn Care | Jim's Mowing

Your trusted brand for professional gardening services and professional lawn mowing available all across Australia. Contact us on 131 546 today!

www.jimsmowing.net

Started off like you with one crew, now there’s literally a Jim’s for everything. Jim’s Tool tagging and testing, Jim’s Dog wash, Jim’s office cleaning, you name it Jim can do it!

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

Raising 20-30k you're going to be dealing with mickey mouse investors who can't afford to lose a dollar. I promise you that it will be just as easy to raise 500k as it would be to raise 30k. I'd urge you to consider the former. You've proved the concept, now is the time to scale it out across a greater geographical region.

Nothing wrong with “Mickey mouse” investors.

Capital is capital.

And where’s this multi-millionaire who can afford to lose 500k on Johnny Boy Lawn Co.?

 

[Johnny boy]

Just curious what the paper investors at your local REIA said. No go?

@JScott 's advice is good stuff. People will have to think less if you just say "I'm offering a note, $40k at 12%, 2 year term, to expand my contract lawn services business. <details of business>". You're not begging, you're selling someone the opportunity to make 12% (or however much) on their money. Personally, I think you could get a taker at 7-10% if you're in the right group. Down here at least, some individual paper investors are not all that choosey. They justdon't want their SDIRA money to rot away with inFLATION.

I'm heading to some meetups very soon. I just put together a pitch deck.

Also, I just sent messages to a hundred people on LinkedIn that describe themselves as an angel investor in the Seattle area. One of my customers says he can forward my pitch deck to people he knows. One of my web design and marketing consulting clients said she can forward my pitch deck to investors. She lives down in San Francisco.

 

[The-J]

Your local Board of Trade has people who know the local PE scene, although your company is pretty small. You'd likely be talking to Joe Q. Lawyer, Esq. who has a fair bit of money and wants to see it grow locally.

It's also a good way to drum up commercial business, when I was doing my little marketing hustle locally the Board of Trade led to connections which led to clients + regular recommendations

 

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[Johnny boy]

If you're not looking for feedback, feel free to ignore this post. This isn't meant to be criticism, but constructive feedback on how you can improve your success rate when reaching out to people for money:

- Propose the terms upfront, and be specific. Saying, "I want to grow the business and am looking for investors that want a place to park 20-30k and see it grow much faster," doesn't instill confidence that you have thought about things from the perspective of your prospective lender/investor. Or that you're a serious business-person. I would never consider putting money in based on that, but if someone said, "I'm looking to raise $30K in debt, 12 month term, paying 18% annualized interest on a monthly basis, collateralized by the equipment and receivables from the business," I would keep reading.

- Don't ignore the most important part of the equation in your post -- customer demand. You talk a lot about how you can manage the extra crews, but you've given no indication that you actually have work for them to do. Do you have a waiting list? Are you getting requests that you can't service? How big is the backlog? My biggest concern wouldn't be that you can't handle the crews, but that you don't have enough business to monetize additional crews.

- You should provide more detail on the success of the business, using financials. You said in your post, "A single crew can bring in 8 thousand a month while costing 5 thousand in expenses." So, $8,000 in gross revenue, $5000 in COGS for the crew, leaving $3000 in gross profits. But, does that include operating expenses? And how do those operating expenses scale with 3 or 5 crews? Do you need someone else to answer the phones? Someone to go out and bid? More marketing dollars to drum up customers? Additional legal and accounting costs to manage the business? Technology keep your crews running efficiently? Businesses don't scale linearly, and as you add crews, your gross margins may stay the same, but your operating margins are going to drop (and if you don't know the difference, you need to!). Do you have a pro forma for your scaled up business indicating that you'll actually be making more money with 5 crews? If not, create one and provide it. Believe it or not, you may not make much more if you're running things efficiently. And if you will, provide some substantiation.

- You don't want to make it sound like you're living on the edge. And you don't want to make it all about you. You said, "This year that paid for my living expenses but with another crew it would make things much easier." My first thought after reading that was that you're still having a little trouble paying your living expenses, and my money might actually go towards that instead of towards the business." In other words, you haven't convinced me that $30K is going to allow you to add a second crew *and* fix your cash flow problems.

- Provide some indication of customer satisfaction. This is huge. If you're running a service business, you should have reviews for your business somewhere. If you were to link to a review site showing consistent 5-star reviews, that's going to make investors much more comfortable. It would certainly make me much more comfortable. I want to know that when those 12 month contracts expire in a few months, most of your customers are going to renew. If you don't yet have a year in business to provide that data, it's your job to give some evidence that this will be the case. And customer reviews are a great way to do that.

Again, I'm not meaning to criticize. Just giving some feedback from the other side of the equation -- the potential investor.

Thank you for the honest feedback.

1. Specific terms: I did not request specific terms because beggars can't be choosers. What do I want? 300 thousand dollars at 1% apr. What will I take? I'll take 20,000 at *almost* whatever interest rate I can get. Because I know I can make money with it. There's 500 different combinations of funding terms that would be an instant "yes" from me. I assumed it would hurt me more than help me by being overly specific.

2. Customer demand: Our marketing spend was close to $1000 for the entire year. We still had to turn away dozens of people totaling about $40,000 of missed revenue. Customer demand is absolutely there. Also, because nearly all of our expenses are variable, even if there were 3 trucks and we only had 1 or 2 crews working, it would not decrease our profitability.

3. Business metrics: Yes, that includes operating expenses. And the way I have set up the business is for scalability. I can easily manage more crews. I only bid a customer's property once a year, so I don't need someone to bid jobs until there are more than 5 crews working. Also, I don't need anyone answering the phones. Our entire sales process is extremely automated, utilizing auto-respond emails and a great website. No I do not need to spend more that what I've already spent in technology for managing the systems in the business. I know that businesses do not scale linearly and mine is no exception. That is why I built my business with scalability in mind and have simple services that allows being able to hire low skilled workers with little training and little oversight necessary. It still works. All jobs are sent to Ipads bolted into the truck and can be tracked and managed easily from a laptop. With 5 crews there is still no need for any support such as management or secretaries. At 5 crews it would still have the same profit margins.

4. Personal expenses: 30k would be PLENTY for a second crew and cash flow. 20k would be fine too. I don't know what else to tell you. Perhaps I should just word it differently.

5. Customer satisfaction: We have 4.6 stars on google, and have a 90%+ customer retention rate this year (they can cancel just if they pay a cancellation fee).

Whatcha think?

 

[c4n]

In the meantime, I’m going to offer 15% off to customers who want to pay in full for the next year. Same thing as a 15% loan.

Not quite the same though because growing $85 to $100 (discount) takes 17.6% instead of just 15% growth from $100 to $115 (loan). That's why it's so much harder to gain back losses from investments (after a 50% loss you need to grow the remainder 100% to break even).

Some math (your numbers may vary):

To get the 2nd team operational you need: $20k
One customer is worth: $1k

Example with a 15% discount:
+ to raise $20k, 24 existing customers need to pay $850 = 24 x $850 = $20,400
- investment in 2nd team = -$20,000
+ you get 23 new customers x $1,000 = $23,000
----------------------
Result: $23,400

Example with a $20k 15% loan which you invest in the 2nd team:
+ same 24 existing customers x $1,000 = $24,000
+ same 23 new customers x $1,000 = $23,000
- loan repayment = -$23,000
---------------
Result: $24,000

Not a huge difference in this case, but something to keep in mind.

 

[perchboy]

Write it down, sign and date it, and I’ll give you the address to send it to. I want to frame it so I can post it back on here for you in a few years

Lol

 

[Johnny boy]

You can use google to search for an angel investing network.

I have a friend that did something a bit unconventional when he wanted investors. He sent direct mail pieces to business owners in his state. I believe he sent each one a small information packet that acted as a quasi-pitch and invited all of them to call him if they were interested in investing.

He did manage to get an investor that way.

You just have to find ways to get your pitch in front of people with money.

I like that idea. Also planned on walking up to the courthouse steps friday at 10am when they have the foreclosure auctions and getting some phone numbers.

Thanks.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

-How much money are you looking for?
-What specifically would you use the money for?
-What is the projected ROI?
-What's keeping you from self-funding either through profit or your own credit?

Some things to ask first

 

[Boo]

Raising 20-30k you're going to be dealing with mickey mouse investors who can't afford to lose a dollar. I promise you that it will be just as easy to raise 500k as it would be to raise 30k. I'd urge you to consider the former. You've proved the concept, now is the time to scale it out across a greater geographical region.

 

[Johnny boy]

Hi, I have no direct answer to your question, but when I read about your project, I began to calculate.

For the situation here in Germany I found out, doing that job myself is quite rewarding.

But having another team without me, doing, what you expect, will barely bring profit.
Why: The taxes (vat) take their part, health insurance and social security take another.
In best case I have 6 € profit of every hour a worker works for me. Are 3,5 € after income tax.

Maybe my calculation has mistakes, but what I want to tell: calculate and calculate with your tax consultant, before taking that money with that promise of return!

Good luck; enjoyed reading your story of success!

Well I hope you fix your business model to be more profitable someday. My enjoyment comes from running the company, not mowing lawns.

Thank you for following.

 

[Johnny boy]

Also, I would avoid kabbage and similar short term cash services. I looked into them, and they tell you the interest rate is say, 10%. When you look over the payment schedule and contract, which I hope you do, you find out that 10% is not annual. It's over a month, or week or something. Add it all up and you'd might as well do one of those 1000% payday loans. You can definitely find better terms.

I know. Those lending companies don't differentiate between good businesses or bad businesses. They just run credit and make a judgement based on revenue and time in business. Nothing to do with metrics that will actually determine growth. So they HAVE to charge 100%+ APR. My strength is I actually have a profitable business with lots of consumer demand. I need to leverage it with private investors who know what to look for instead of a monolithic online calculator that tells me what I "qualify" for.

 

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[Matt Lee]

@ChrisK you're a real damn MVP for bumping this.

Write it down, sign and date it, and I’ll give you the address to send it to. I want to frame it so I can post it back on here for you in a few years

This quote comes to mind:

"And remember that adults are boring and retarded and have shitty lives so listen to your gut at all times" - @Johnny boy

I think we should have a separate thread for Johnny's badassery. I can't be the only one to get a spike in adrenaline when I read these lol

 

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[Johnny boy]

-How much money are you looking for?
-What specifically would you use the money for?
-What is the projected ROI?
-What's keeping you from self-funding either through profit or your own credit?

Some things to ask first

1. I'm looking for 20-30k

2a To buy another truck/trailer/equipment
2b To have enough cash to avoid being spread too thin and having cash flow problems the first few months of building up the schedule in the months of February and March.

3. The return on the 20-30 grand? I could easily provide 15% yearly returns on that, if not more. All while putting up everything I own as collateral. Each crew profits about 35-40 grand a year. So that's why I am eager to have more crews.

4. I don't have the personal credit. I've tried. I already self funded this thing for one crew. I'll be able to grow it naturally without any debt eventually. But that is not what I want to do.

 

[Stargazer]

If that is all you want then I 99.9% guarantee that you already know someone who will have the spare money to invest.

You just don't know it and they don't know you are looking.

It is 1 or 2 of your existing lawncare customers.

Let me know if you need any clarification.

Dan

 

[Mark Trade]

I didn't know he had a book. I'll have to see if I can find it.

Dang!! And he has his own group! I knew he was big in the mowing business but I had no idea about his other ventures. Good for him.

Jim's Book: The Surprising Story of Jim Penman - Australia's Backyard Millionaire: Moolenschot: 9780730368151: Amazon.com: Books

Jim's Book: The Surprising Story of Jim Penman - Australia's Backyard Millionaire [Moolenschot] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Jim's Book: The Surprising Story of Jim Penman - Australia's Backyard Millionaire

www.amazon.com

 

[Rabby]

Just curious what the paper investors at your local REIA said. No go?

@JScott 's advice is good stuff. People will have to think less if you just say "I'm offering a note, $40k at 12%, 2 year term, to expand my contract lawn services business. <details of business>". You're not begging, you're selling someone the opportunity to make 12% (or however much) on their money. Personally, I think you could get a taker at 7-10% if you're in the right group. Down here at least, some individual paper investors are not all that choosey. They justdon't want their SDIRA money to rot away with inFLATION.

 

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