Jackman wrote:Thats a discouraging post and just an opinion ,
I started 1992 just weekends for lawns and a full time truck driver job during the week (quit the full time trucker job in 1996 went seasonal) rain or bad weather yeah it happens but its not a tombstone for your weekend business idea , just go for it you will do fine.
. if you work full time as an employee your tax deductions is minimal at best, start your weekend business get an CPA and write off your equipment at tax time , chances are good that you already own a pick up truck and its not a right off for a regular job but it will be for a weekend business, same with the mowers that you already have write them off at tax time, truck gas write it off, mower and trimmer gas write it off and also get a refund on any road fuel tax that you paid at the pump, the tax write offs go on and on,call a CPA get the whole deal and think out your business.
Do the math what do you make at your full time job and what will you set as your goal for the weekend mowings that info alone will be a yay or nay eye opener.
mine looked like this in 1992, 10 dollar an hour truck driver = 400 a week before taxes, my first year weekend lawns 7 customers 30 dollars a cut 210 dollars on a Saturday or basically half of what a full time job paid in less than 6 hours time.
big plus most people like writing their own pay check its a real good feeling you might like that part of the weekend work.
I agree with what others have said, it's kinda like my friend who first got into farming--he bought an ancient JD 3300 combine with a 2 row corn head. After 2-3 years he moved up to a 6600 with a 4 row head. Then several years later he got a late model JD 9500 with an 8 row head! The point is, keep expenses low as possible until you are established and making money.
As far as zero turns go, When the time comes, I would consider something like this:
I know a couple landscape guys that run mowers like these and they won't even consider a zero turn. With the deck out front you can get into places and cut that zero turns can't. They save a lot of time and labor on weed eating.
Al