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Mowing lawns, washing cars, and cleaning houses(to fill the snowy winter months). All rolled into a business?

daivey

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it's his 2 cents, just like anyone else's. It is also his approach, not necessarily a mentality that works for everyone. I respect his way of doing it. It's his unique approach to tackling business. Everyone's got theirs. I don't understand how letting someone else think for you, let alone someone on the internet is even a valid thought to be frank.

My philosophy is to aim for a few objectives: pleasurable customer experience, good value (for price), a culture (focused on serving the community a pleasurable experience/companies philosophy and mission/vision). To obtain that I would need good efficient & effective business model, good profit/grow, good leadership/management/employees. Doing these things to a level that develops a competitive advantage and above average value for price.

My goal/mission from the beginning is to develop a company that is a full service business that serves the household/customer, the community(free community events), and provides local full time jobs for adults, and part time seasonal (summer jobs) for highschool and college students.

My strategy would be to start with one which may be house cleaning, mowing or car washing. Then introducing the rest gradually. The competitive edge is doing things to my philosophy, and my goal/mission which creates a unique and valuable value proposition.


That is the goal to differentiate as a full service business (house interior, car, lawn), and try to cross sell 2 or 3 of those to as many that want it. People are have inherently different philosophies, values, way of being, and only they can bring a different approach to the table.

Problem is, like Jonny pointed out:
House cleaning is a different dynamic than cutting grass and washing cars. They are different niches.

The boys who cut your lawn, are not the same people the average consumer wants in their house cleaning their house. You're not thinking like a customer here. That's why Johnny gave you the hammer/nail analogy.

On top of that, think about how a customer sees this:
Wait, David just cut my lawn. He smells like gasoline and grass. His shoes are wet/green from the grass. There are grass clippings on him... Now he's going to come into my house and clean my house after being in the sun cutting grass? No thanks!
 
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DavidL41

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From this thread, mad respect for @Johnny boy
Great, applicable, useful, actionable advice from someone who has been there and done that.
The OP is in the “I have an idea” stage and already rope a doping with a pro. Back to the boxing analogy to paraphrase: it’s like a Russian pro against an amateur, and the amateur says “your advice is just your two cents, I have a better idea because I read something on another forum”. Reading is not doing. MJ said it “you can read about swimming but at some point you have to get into the pool”.

I used to own a landscaping business with my partner (coincidentally also John and on this forum). We pivoted from landscaping to hardscaping (retaining walls and paving stones) because this focus made us market leaders and profit came with that.
We couldn’t make the lawn mowing and yard care work, profits weren’t there. But we saw that no one wanted to do or knew how to do well the installation of paving stones.

I’d like to read this in a few years again and see what you @DavidL41 accomplish or learn. Please share. Thanks.

Again, your approach is your approach. Even if I tried I can't get ANY value repeating exactly how you uniquely think. I never understood people trying to pass of 'just think how I think, it works for me'.. What, do you let others think for you? I hope not. C'mon.

Directly to the boxing analogy, anyone that knows boxing knows how different a russian style boxer is to a mexican style boxer.

The thing I agree with is that landscaping is not the most hot business in certain areas. That is why I am adding car washing to the business. In the snowy winters both those dry up and I need to add house cleaning. Hiring will probably need to be very exact (more women hires) so I can find people that have the option to fit into house cleaning job or maybe snow plowing, whatever it takes to retain the mowing employees for longer.
 

DavidL41

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100% accurate and why you should listen to him. 99.99% of small business suck donkey dick cause they can't answer the f*cking phone.

I've seen advice from the other side of the coin from lawn mowing professionals that let customers go to voice message. They say it's good enough. Obviously, it's not... everyone's got their opinion. Many in those pro forums say it's fine. I am sure they are losing at least 30% of the potential customers. So, it's always a 2 cents thing... everyone's got their opinions. I believe the people that do the most due diligence, question things, and analyze, test, improve the results are usually miles ahead of the average in the industry. That's it.

The amount of people that say just listen to x, y or z without critically thinking are going to run into so many issues as they crop up. Accuracy is king. Analyzing, testing, improving is key.
 

DavidL41

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Problem is, like Jonny pointed out:
House cleaning is a different dynamic than cutting grass and washing cars. They are different niches.

The boys who cut your lawn, are not the same people the average consumer wants in their house cleaning their house. You're not thinking like a customer here. That's why Johnny gave you the hammer/nail analogy.

On top of that, think about how a customer sees this:
Wait, David just cut my lawn. He smells like gasoline and grass. His shoes are wet/green from the grass. There are grass clippings on him... Now he's going to come into my house and clean my house after being in the sun cutting grass? No thanks!
Workers in my area on the riding mowers are 50% women. I would likely be hiring 50% women, and 50% men that can do the house cleaning job as good as the women. The area is a more wealthy neighbourhood. The hiring pool consists of people that are more well behaved. Just how it is. I also control the hiring so I can spot who has the aptitude to be good in both environments. These are not even real issues.

Only during the winter is when workers transition to house cleaning. That is when the snowy months cut away the mowing jobs. There isn't a time when they do both mowing and house cleaning in the same day
 
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Again, your approach is your approach. Even if I tried I can't get ANY value repeating exactly how you uniquely think. I never understood people trying to pass of 'just think how I think, it works for me'.. What, do you let others think for you? I hope not. C'mon.

Directly to the boxing analogy, anyone that knows boxing knows how different a russian style boxer is to a mexican style boxer.

The thing I agree with is that landscaping is not the most hot business in certain areas. That is why I am adding car washing to the business. In the snowy winters both those dry up and I need to add house cleaning. Hiring will probably need to be very exact (more women hires) so I can find people that have the option to fit into house cleaning job or maybe snow plowing, whatever it takes to retain the mowing employees for longer.

What on earth are you talking about?

I look forward to your REAL LIFE updates, not this theoretical rope a dope you seem to enjoy so much.

Go do, handcuff lightning, throw thunder in jail and come back and show me how great you are.

;)


F23676CC-DC72-47C6-BBFF-6B4CAC7B35C8.jpeg
 

DavidL41

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What on earth are you talking about?

I look forward to your REAL LIFE updates, not this theoretical rope a dope you seem to enjoy so much.

Go do, handcuff lightning, throw thunder in jail and come back and show me how great you are.

;)


View attachment 39279
what is with all these quotes you people like putting up? You are not Muhammad ali because you read a quote you know? Regardless, Muhammad ali was overrated and his quotes are asinine to be frank.. The current slightly above average pro fighters would beat him. It is the same in chess as a random example where the best champions from decades ago are losing to 15 year olds now. That way of doing things is the past.

At the end of the day you gotta use the best standards. Critical thinking/analysis, testing, doing things in systems & processes and improving results. It's not the 1980s where people just winged it and the one that was less bad was the winner, because no one at the time knew anything about anything.

Realistically, it's building a business with the right strategic management process(ceo role), and business model(coo/general manager role), plus effective departments (marketing, manufacturing, etc) and making sure the business and strategy is optimized(monitored and improved results, resources, and capability in a systematic way). There are already established standards and precedence in place for you to use to aid in optimize a business and it's results. If you winged everything there will be bottlenecks and issues all over the place leading to critical failure in one or many place in the business. Everything is done in a systematic way with leaders in each area, for instance a marketing firm that is accountable for marketing strategy and results. Otherwise you are gambling.
 
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Varlenheit

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what is with all these quotes you people like putting up? You are not Muhammad ali because you read a quote you know? Regardless, Muhammad ali was overrated and his quotes are asinine.. The current slightly above average pro fighters would beat him. It is the same in chess as a random example where the best champions from decades ago are losing to 15 year olds now.

At the end of the day you gotta use the best standards. Critical thinking/analysis, testing and improving results. It's not the 1980s where people just winged it and the one that was less bad was the winner, because no one at the time knew anything about anything.

Realistically, it's building a business with the right strategic management process(ceo role), and business model(coo/general manager role), plus effective departments (marketing, manufacturing, etc) and making sure the business and strategy is optimized(monitored and improved in a systematic way). There are already standards in place for you to use to aid in optimize your results.
I think what he means is basically go out there and actually DO SOMETHING , get REAL LIFE feedback and then we can actually discuss because all we're seeing right now is mental masturbation based on no real actions.

The people who gave advice on this thread actually did the job and based their conclusions from real life experiences not just assumptions, it's not just their "2 cents" as you said.. It's their advice with all the experience they've accumulated.

Just my 2 cents.
 

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Workers in my area on the riding mowers are 50% women. I would likely be hiring 50% women, and 50% men that can do the house cleaning job as good as the women. The area is a more wealthy neighbourhood. The hiring pool consists of people that are more well behaved. Just how it is. I also control the hiring so I can spot who has the aptitude to be good in both environments. These are not even real issues.

Only during the winter is when workers transition to house cleaning. That is when the snowy months cut away the mowing jobs. There isn't a time when they do both mowing and house cleaning in the same day

Your HR vision is gonna implode so hard core you're gonna wish you never started this venture. Have you ever managed a person or team before? "Just how it is" doesn't exist with people besides getting rammed in the backside by over 50% of your hires which you wont be able to figure out because you have zero experience managing humans, and in the end HR disaster is gonna be your biggest issue.
 

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@DavidL41 you're getting some tough love but love (and free advice) nevertheless. It may sound like people didn't understand you or think they know better. But all I see is a group rooting for you and hoping to see you succeed.

This forum is a safe space for pillow fights with like-minded people, orders of magnitude easier than the real world punching you (and your plan) in the face. So I also see a lesson in determination, resilience and going for it regardless of how things make you feel.

I do hope you'll take it off the ground, man. And even if you don't succeed the first time, you should come out of it wiser and sharper to strike back and kill it. Devil may care, right?

Think what you want about the comments here, but my takeaways are these:
  • You won't see the opportunity until after starting it.
  • Find your first paying customer and deliver on the promise. Learn your lessons by doing.
  • Go in with one offering and test the demand. By engaging with your market you'll also see other opportunities and figure out your best course of action.
  • Managing one vertical/offering is easier than trying to satisfy everyone with everything. So test/start with one end-to-end journey. Go broader once you build your hook points and systems.
  • Make customer experience your value skew. It doesn't matter if you solve only one of their problems as long as they're delighted with your service.
  • Consider long term customer engagement and how to price your service in that context (annual vs one-off).
  • Don't focus only on how much others charge per hour or visit. You don't want to compete with that (race to the bottom). Instead of saying "I'll mow your lawn this week for $30" reframe it to "I'll make your neighbours jealous of how great your lawn looks all year round for $X".
  • Take action. Plan the next three things you'll do this week to make it happen... and make it happen.
Can't leave the last bullet point without this great video from @GravyBoat:
View: https://youtu.be/7F4zzw02dX0


Good luck!
 
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DavidL41

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@DavidL41 you're getting some tough love but love (and free advice) nevertheless. It may sound like people didn't understand you or think they know better. But all I see is a group rooting for you and hoping to see you succeed.

This forum is a safe space for pillow fights with like-minded people, orders of magnitude easier than the real world punching you (and your plan) in the face. So I also see a lesson in determination, resilience and going for it regardless of how things make you feel.

I do hope you'll take it off the ground, man. And even if you don't succeed the first time, you should come out of it wiser and sharper to strike back and kill it. Devil may care, right?

Think what you want about the comments here, but my takeaways are these:
  • You won't see the opportunity until after starting it.
  • Find your first paying customer and deliver on the promise. Learn your lessons by doing.
  • Go in with one offering and test the demand. By engaging with your market you'll also see other opportunities and figure out your best course of action.
  • Managing one vertical/offering is easier than trying to satisfy everyone with everything. So test/start with one end-to-end journey. Go broader once you build your hook points and systems.
  • Make customer experience your value skew. It doesn't matter if you solve only one of their problems as long as they're delighted with your service.
  • Consider long term customer engagement and how to price your service in that context (annual vs one-off).
  • Don't focus only on how much others charge per hour or visit. You don't want to compete with that (race to the bottom). Instead of saying "I'll mow your lawn this week for $30" reframe it to "I'll make your neighbours jealous of how great your lawn looks all year round for $X".
  • Take action. Plan the next three things you'll do this week to make it happen... and make it happen.
Can't leave the last bullet point without this great video from @GravyBoat:
View: https://youtu.be/7F4zzw02dX0


Good luck!
everyone's got their 2 cents on it and their opinion. In my opinion, which again is my take is doing things by the highest validated industry standards, and developing an optimal business model, strategy, value proposition, operations. The results are measurable (and are improved in a timely manner), the business is organized, managed and led properly(and can be systematically improved). That IMO is the key to it. Optimal organization, effective leadership, effective management, effective department(marketing, manufacturing, etc), effective (and motivated) workers, and measurable results that the leadership at the helm of the company is uncompromising in his pursuit to improve the position. I really see it as an organized organization, or an army set out to dominate the market.

I see it as building for traction in the marketplace by being more accurate in the value proposition(which builds more value), effectively implementing/executing the strategy, and then company building, and leadership to build to a distinct advantage.

The advice I am hearing on here are so vague and unstructured that it's just not all that accurate or critical. I believe it is in having a good philosophy, and the right set up that allows a business to go over and above the average competition to improve the odds of success. Otherwise, it's all gambling like the other 80%. I simply don't see it any other way.
 
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DavidL41

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Your HR vision is gonna implode so hard core you're gonna wish you never started this venture. Have you ever managed a person or team before? "Just how it is" doesn't exist with people besides getting rammed in the backside by over 50% of your hires which you wont be able to figure out because you have zero experience managing humans, and in the end HR disaster is gonna be your biggest issue.
Doesn't have to be. There is a process to make it 99.9% run reasonably well, and 0.1% of the time it requires a manager, and 0.01% it requires someone more senior to that role.

For example, to make it 99.9% it is in the hiring process that you pick people that are have mentality that is right for the role, and can be onboarded, trained, developed and incentivized. So, there must be a strict process to make it clear what is the optimal process for them to have a good time working, what is good and incentivized, what is bad and will be punished. The other thing is to have that done to the manager so he can provide pressure AND leadership to get the employees doing the job well, consistently and efficiently. Even beyond that the process in how they take the orders, handle money, and the process further restricts bad behaviour depending how strict you make it like how they cut the grass can be designed and trained in a way that they can do the job faster and easier but it is trick. They will follow that strict way of doing it because they know it's better for them. That results in the job done to the right standard.

In other words, it is designing it in a way that is more or less designed, monitored, enforced, for a high predetermined standard. Basically, choose the smarter kids that have that serve the customer first, do it in the most strict yet optimal process, and be gracious and kind with customers. Then add in the processes to enforce that. The work process(checklist, double checking, strict working guidelines)The manager has the respect of the employees, worker incentives and decentives. Then promoting to further incentives good behaviour or firing the ones that don't make the cut.

Everything is in the leadership, organization, systems and process to ensure a high standard. That standard can improve (as a result of effective leadership, effective management, employee effectiveness) and quality and profit can go up as a result. I believe everything is in building an optimal organization to get unreal results which go beyond the price customer pay. High results is making things more accurate, consistent, more effective, more efficient which a organization does.
 
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ZCP

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go get punched in the face @DavidL41 !

what are your next three specific ACTIONS to achieve your goal?
 
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@DavidL41 There is an old saying “When a person with money meets a person with experience, the one with experience ends up with the money and the one with money leaves with experience.”

Go get the experience!!! Stop posting copies of your business class textbook to this thread and start DOING THE WORK. Then come back and tell us how you did, what problems with HR you faced (in the Real WORLD, not some fictitious 99% la-la-land you keep describing).

I am genuinely curious to read AFTER you start doing the work.

What did you do last week? What are you doing this week? Do you have your fist customer? How are you getting your next customer? What worked so far? What didn’t?
 

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I simply don't see it any other way.
The discrepancy comes from looking at business systems from different maturity stages. Even the CEO's role looks different in a startup, scaleup and large enterprise.

You seem to come from the place of a good understanding of change management, process optimisation, continuous improvement, six sigma, SOPs, PMO, scaled agile, product lifecycle management and what else is relevant at a CERTAIN maturity level of a scaled company. This is great because it's a must down the line and not many people know how to step up from solopreneurship to this level of complexity.

It's just overkill when you haven't started yet. Even knowing the lean startup process could be in the way if there's no action. As I see it, the guys here are sharing how to trim this weight of knowing too much, set things in motion and quickly validate any assumptions you choose. Traction over a theoretical set of procedures.

And you know what? It doesn't really matter. It's just us humans making noises. Who cares which tool you'll use, how we'll label what we see or who's the loudest in the room.

At the end of the day, what matters is if you go out, kill that mastodon and bring it back home.

Good luck!
 

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Doesn't have to be. There is a process to make it 99.9% run reasonably well, and 0.1% of the time it requires a manager, and 0.01% it requires someone more senior to that role.

For example, to make it 99.9% it is in the hiring process that you pick people that are have mentality that is right for the role, and can be onboarded, trained, developed and incentivized. So, there must be a strict process to make it clear what is the optimal process for them to have a good time working, what is good and incentivized, what is bad and will be punished. The other thing is to have that done to the manager so he can provide pressure AND leadership to get the employees doing the job well, consistently and efficiently. Even beyond that the process in how they take the orders, handle money, and the process further restricts bad behaviour depending how strict you make it like how they cut the grass can be designed and trained in a way that they can do the job faster and easier but it is trick. They will follow that strict way of doing it because they know it's better for them. That results in the job done to the right standard.

In other words, it is designing it in a way that is more or less designed, monitored, enforced, for a high predetermined standard. Basically, choose the smarter kids that have that serve the customer first, do it in the most strict yet optimal process, and be gracious and kind with customers. Then add in the processes to enforce that. The work process(checklist, double checking, strict working guidelines)The manager has the respect of the employees, worker incentives and decentives. Then promoting to further incentives good behaviour or firing the ones that don't make the cut.

Everything is in the leadership, organization, systems and process to ensure a high standard. That standard can improve (as a result of effective leadership, effective management, employee effectiveness) and quality and profit can go up as a result. I believe everything is in building an optimal organization to get unreal results which go beyond the price customer pay. High results is making things more accurate, consistent, more effective, more efficient which a organization does.

You are partaking in some serious crack smoking if you think 99.9% is attainable with anything when dealing with humans, but I respect your optimism and will be the first to buy your HR management book when comes out on how you pulled this off. I just hope you are incredibly well funded or you are some magical promoter that has the ability to charm all and get them to follow you into through the gates of hell.
 
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everything is 99.9% in the classroom

from wikipedia
1627920662741.png

1627920695254.png
 

DavidL41

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@DavidL41 There is an old saying “When a person with money meets a person with experience, the one with experience ends up with the money and the one with money leaves with experience.”

Go get the experience!!! Stop posting copies of your business class textbook to this thread and start DOING THE WORK. Then come back and tell us how you did, what problems with HR you faced (in the Real WORLD, not some fictitious 99% la-la-land you keep describing).

I am genuinely curious to read AFTER you start doing the work.

What did you do last week? What are you doing this week? Do you have your fist customer? How are you getting your next customer? What worked so far? What didn’t?
A quote is just a saying.. it does not reach a sufficient standard that should be used for a basis of an argument. So, I reject that quote as it is just an inaccurate way(a tiny sliver) of looking at a nuanced in-depth topic. You based your entire argument on that quote so I realistically can't spend time on the details of a botched assertion. I will just debate the argument. Your entire argument is 'go to the pro league against multiple year professionals that have obtained bigger scale, higher capability and expertise' and don't train and develop fundamental knowledge beforehand when I start a business. Just jump in the deep end of the pool without learning to tread water if you die you die.

The failure rate of businesses within a short time span of opening is 85% or higher. You are proposing to do the same as them. It is like asking someone to jump of a bridge and there is a 15% of survival. That's literally gambling. Why not just go to a roulette table and dump it on red. To go even further, a scenario can look like this: that TYPE of coffee shop at THAT location is dead on arrival. If they built up knowledge beforehand they would know how to do proper market research, and which experts to talk to in order to do solid due diligence. They accrued terrible debt from that, and made every rookie mistake in the book as expected. Let's say they even messed up beyond that by wrongly incorporated it as a sole proprietorship and own that $200k in personal debt.

It's the same with any skill. You develop the knowledge, and the go through a slow development process to further improve knowledge, expertise, and execution skill. This is in the form of amateur school league, after school leagues, and college leagues in terms of sports. There is a structured process in which a person is slowly and systematically brought up through a developmental process to have basic fundamentals and intermediate and advanced skills to compete in the pro league. At this moment I am putting together the systems and processes from widely accepted industry standards, to create that entire developmental process. Once I get past developing the fundamentals (basic general business knowledge up to industry standard, strategy management, business operations, marketing & sales, logistics and manufacturing, etc). From that solid base I would start in an business opportunity that I could safely and slowly develop the skills in practice. Then develop fundamentals, expertise, knowledge up to above average and then build a business and strategy that is above average.
 

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You are partaking in some serious crack smoking if you think 99.9% is attainable with anything when dealing with humans, but I respect your optimism and will be the first to buy your HR management book when comes out on how you pulled this off. I just hope you are incredibly well funded or you are some magical promoter that has the ability to charm all and get them to follow you into through the gates of hell.
The persons that works at a movie theatre when they finish their training only needs to talk to their manager for guidance 0.1% of the time. That equates to roughly once every 10 hours they ask for guidance. Or every 2 shifts. It all is pretty much straight forward because they look into their guidelines, processes, and their learnt experience on the job. It becomes even less as their experience grows. Many things they do they seen before or are very similar to what they seen.

Do you think average, above average and high functioning businesses just wing it? They use systems and processes. This is just basic business sense. They rely on well developed and ever improving systems(departments), processes, inside and outside consultants and chain of command(with well chosen and developed employees). There is an entire organization that creates the consistent high level results. And is looking to improve that organization and it's results year over year.
 
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Please stop responding to this thread. It's a waste of time - he asked for feedback when all he wants is an argument.

@DavidL41: You're received plenty of good feedback and have taken issue with all of it. I'd be listening to @Johnny boy pretty closely; if I ever consider a lawn care business, I guarantee I'll reach out, humbly ask for his input, and NOT argue. I'll model the hell out of a successful person whenever I have the option - it's a huge benefit to learn from others. If you're at zero, not sure where you thought you could take issue with the feedback shared by others.

You seem like a troll at this point. I'd like to be more polite, but I hate when someone asks for comments and then acts like a know it all. Just be humble, shut up, listen to feedback, and get to work. You're in your own way at this point - and you're burning all your bridges here.
 

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The persons that works at a movie theatre when they finish their training only needs to talk to their manager for guidance 0.1% of the time. That equates to roughly once every 10 hours they ask for guidance. Or every 2 shifts. It all is pretty much straight forward because they look into their guidelines, processes, and their learnt experience on the job. It becomes even less as their experience grows. Many things they do they seen before or are very similar to what they seen.

Do you think average, above average and high functioning businesses just wing it? They use systems and processes. This is just basic business sense. They rely on well developed and ever improving systems(departments), processes, inside and outside consultants and chain of command(with well chosen and developed employees). There is an entire organization that creates the consistent high level results. And is looking to improve that organization and it's results year over year.

Sounds good, please update how your manuals are working and your percentages six months after your first hire.
 

DavidL41

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Please stop responding to this thread. It's a waste of time - he asked for feedback when all he wants is an argument.

@DavidL41: You're received plenty of good feedback and have taken issue with all of it. I'd be listening to @Johnny boy pretty closely; if I ever consider a lawn care business, I guarantee I'll reach out, humbly ask for his input, and NOT argue. I'll model the hell out of a successful person whenever I have the option - it's a huge benefit to learn from others. If you're at zero, not sure where you thought you could take issue with the feedback shared by others.

You seem like a troll at this point. I'd like to be more polite, but I hate when someone asks for comments and then acts like a know it all. Just be humble, shut up, listen to feedback, and get to work. You're in your own way at this point - and you're burning all your bridges here.
I incorporated the small amount I believed was good info into my way of thinking , and I disregarded the rest I didn't agree with. That is fine. If everyone listened to everyone then they would just be winning in businesses if they have a natural instinct for it.. which basically means gambling that you will get lucky.

If I burn bridges from people that insist I must listen to every word I am clearly talking to a forum that only know how to do things that work specifically for them and only them. I haven't heard too much quality advice. It's not like you are business coaches, or board of advisors that's skill is in systematically developing people's capability. Y'all are so serious about this your aren't trained or deal in...
 
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ZCP

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for those coming behind that might seen some quality advice or business coaching provided in this thread, feel free to post / ask questions / dm. in the end, hopefully everyone succeeds!
 

WJK

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In my area it doesn't seem all that much demand to mow lawns, and the winter months there any demand to mow lawns or wash cars. I need to diversify to thrive in this area. So, the idea I have is to have employees and myself offer all 3 services. Some are dedicated house cleaners only, and others can mow and clean cars. I was thinking $28 to $35+ depending on the service to cut lawns. $28+ to do a basic wash cars inside and out, and $65+ to clean a house in under an hour. I believe it is beneficial to have multiple services so my logo can be seen driving around town a lot on the cars. I can try to cross sell people the different services. I can also upsell on different premium options, and get customers on a regular basis.

It is a bit of a blitzkrieg approach, with a bit of strategy behind it. Trying to establish myself in my area, grow presence, and client base. Is this a good approach?

How would you go about gaining a foothold, steadily profiting, and growing a client base in this type of business?
Can you clean a house in under 1 hour? I can't and I have a lifetime of practice. Or are you going to have a crew cleaning that house?
 
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DavidL41

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Can you clean a house in under 1 hour? I can't and I have a lifetime of practice. Or are you going to have a crew cleaning that house?
Sure thing. There is someone I know that gets their house cleaned by 2 people in 45 minutes. Very basic job, but the cleaners move super fast, and do the bare minimum for a competitive price. Good value for a specific customer. A small <1500 sq house can be done in an hour a person give or take, an even smaller apartment can be done in 45 minutes by one person. A deep clean they call it which is to clean every little nook and cranny is 2 hours give or take if they are good for a typical house. You can also develop a simple process where the client chooses which rooms they want cleaned, and what they want done. There are lots of ways to optimize in order to create a more compelling value proposition(high value, customer experience, good quality). Usually it means being so efficient you can offer the lower price and make the same profit, being more effective so you can charge a premium(for more profit per job), a bit of both, or if you are innovate you can do both.

optimization/performance limit is very high when a person's talent is slowly developed and they follow an optimal strategy and execute optimally. It is the same in sports where you can see the level of output is 10x or 100x from one athlete to another athlete. Even if you look at high school talent you can see this.

The name of the game is how optimally can you lead(ceo)/strategic management, how optimally can you manage an organization(coo), how well can your head of marketing, head of sales, head of manufacturing/operations lead and manage their department. How well are the employees doing. How optimal is the company running, how competitive is it, how good is quality, value and experience. All this can be dramatically improved to an unreal level if done in an industry standard way. To achieve the highest quality, highest value, and highest customer experience, and highest efficiency, consistency and profit is hard to reach which gives a lot of room for growth.

At the end of the day how optimal can you be to get the most optimal end result(s).
 
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ZCP

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WJK

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Sure thing. There is someone I know that gets their house cleaned by 2 people in 45 minutes. Very basic job, but the cleaners move super fast, and do the bare minimum for a competitive price. Good value for a specific customer. A small <1500 sq house can be done in an hour a person give or take, an even smaller apartment can be done in 45 minutes by one person. A deep clean they call it which is to clean every little nook and cranny is 2 hours give or take if they are good for a typical house. You can also develop a simple process where the client chooses which rooms they want cleaned, and what they want done. There are lots of ways to optimize in order to create a more compelling value proposition(high value, customer experience, good quality). Usually it means being so efficient you can offer the lower price and make the same profit, being more effective so you can charge a premium(for more profit per job), a bit of both, or if you are innovate you can do both.

optimization/performance limit is very high when a person's talent is slowly developed and they follow an optimal strategy and execute optimally. It is the same in sports where you can see the level of output is 10x or 100x from one athlete to another athlete. Even if you look at high school talent you can see this.

The name of the game is how optimally can you lead(ceo)/strategic management, how optimally can you manage an organization(coo), how well can your head of marketing, head of sales, head of manufacturing/operations lead and manage their department. How well are the employees doing. How optimal is the company running, how competitive is it, how good is quality, value and experience. All this can be dramatically improved to an unreal level if done in an industry standard way. To achieve the highest quality, highest value, and highest customer experience, and highest efficiency, consistency and profit is hard to reach which gives a lot of room for growt
There is no way 2 people can do a good job in 45 minutes on a 1,500 square foot house -- that's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathroom on an average... or maybe my idea of clean is different from yours... I have hired help for the last 40+ years. I know how long it takes to do the job and do it right. I'm glad that we are intersecting here on the forum. We'd mix like oil and water IF I was footing your bill.

You can talk all the platitudes you want about "optimization/performance limit". The bottom line is that I've been the Cinderella character since I was 11 and my grandma died. That's 56 years of on the job experience -- including raising my younger brother and then 2 different families of kids as an adult. What you are saying here doesn't make any sense to me. It's all just talk from someone who hasn’t been there and done it!
 

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