landscape lighting

[johnseafood]

Ok lets go kill some fish. Enough with all this

[pitch bait]

John my question is you are doing side jobs for family members but you have so much work that you could give this guy some, but your family members are not willing to hire outside contractors that are certafied and insured. Im lost...........

Gettinwet, dude I totaly encourage you to go out on your own. I have been in buisness for myself for five years. Its not easy, you will struggle, work hard, stay motavted, there is light at the end. It is even harder to do it right by paying taxes, having insurance, but one mistake could ruin alot more then that couple thousand that you put out for insurance.

[hotrodmarlin]

John- I don't know you but you shouldn't have to defend yourself in this thread.
How can someone be so quick to judge someone else without knowing the entire situation??
What's with all the bad attitudes on the site now? I ain't liking it.

[johnseafood]

No its got to the point that people have drove by and seen my work and they talk to people about it and the neighbors talk about it and it just grew. Do I want to do it for the rest of my life? No I need sometihng with benifits and stabilaty in my life.

Do I do it to piss other contractors off because i'm doing it for less. No I do it to past time and its something for me to do to keep in shape and help my relatives out. I'll be the first person here to get off my ass and help you out.

Hell I worked with admin all freaking summer bringing you guys video coverage of every tournament known to man last year for what? Not a penny in my pocket if anything I just dug and dug and dug out of my pocket so you guys had stuff to look at and a reason to come to this great site day in and day out.

Am I asking for you to give me a pat on my back or money? No i've never taken money from anyone, hell I was going to give a man 10 blue/crystal seawitches so he can go to carolinas and tuna fish. All of this money is taxed and recorded so its not like i'm cheating the system.

I'm done with this thread and i'm sorry I was trying to help someone out with passing on business so he can start his OWN business

[MjMarti85]

Gettinwet ,
Congratulations!! You are going to be taking up a career that will be fun, and also very rewarding! I've been doing landscaping since I was a little kid living in PA. I printed up a 1 page flyer with my "company name" lol , M & M All year ground scaping! lol. Not bad for a 10 year old kid. Every winter/fall/summer, I was out there snow blowing sidewalks, raking leaves, and cutting grass. I was making really good money, and when I moved to FL I got a job with the City cutting grass for the summers during high school. After I graduated in 2003, My parents approached me with an idea of starting a landscaping company here in S. Florida. I jumped on it in a heartbeat!

To say the least, it has been very challenging, but landscaping and landscape lighting is a billion dollar industry, so obviously there is alot of money to be made.

Don't worry about people complaining about undercutting other guys. I dont do that, and you shouldn't either. You always should let the customer know that they get what they pay for. If you do quality work and always give a good level of customer service, your customer will know that their money was well spent, and you will referred to others and get tons of jobs! (Psst. Its also good advertising and its FREE) lol

Also remember that when dealing with landscape lighting and even landscaping, your dealing with peoples homes, and obviously there is an emotional attachment. Always be very detailed about what your plans are for their property, what you think looks awesome, they may not like at all,(Trust me, its happened to me).

Last but not least, PROFIT! Profit is not a dirty word, if there was no such thing, then why would anybody be trying to work!? People also need to know what your time is worth, you will always hear "but its just this little job".. O yea, well then why did they not do it themselves. haha ..

Anyways, enough of my rambling! Good Luck!!

P.S.- Here is a tip that is simple but it took 2 years to figure out. If you want the big commercial jobs, Companies usually require $1,000,000 liabilty insurance and also workmans comp. (you probably know that already being that youve been doing electric work, but I figured i'd say it just incase)!!

-Matt

[Chasin_Tail]

John, what happened? I thought we were talking about fishing? Keep up the great work brother!

If you ever get another chance to make up some of those awesome Sea Witches hollar at me. I'll pay you double and you can put half the money towards gas & a digital card for the tourneys!!

BTW, just to get off the fishing topic for a moment, I live 30 minutes south of Middletown and I have about 400 feet of paver type bed edging I want down. Do you come down this far?

We can fish the middle bay early, and then off to work???? Think about it! I have an extra room if you need a place to crash! Wife won't mind!

[Gettinwet]

Gettinwet ,
Congratulations!! You are going to be taking up a career that will be fun, and also very rewarding! I've been doing landscaping since I was a little kid living in PA. I printed up a 1 page flyer with my "company name" lol , M & M All year ground scaping! lol. Not bad for a 10 year old kid. Every winter/fall/summer, I was out there snow blowing sidewalks, raking leaves, and cutting grass. I was making really good money, and when I moved to FL I got a job with the City cutting grass for the summers during high school. After I graduated in 2003, My parents approached me with an idea of starting a landscaping company here in S. Florida. I jumped on it in a heartbeat!

To say the least, it has been very challenging, but landscaping and landscape lighting is a billion dollar industry, so obviously there is alot of money to be made.

Don't worry about people complaining about undercutting other guys. I dont do that, and you shouldn't either. You always should let the customer know that they get what they pay for. If you do quality work and always give a good level of customer service, your customer will know that their money was well spent, and you will referred to others and get tons of jobs! (Psst. Its also good advertising and its FREE) lol

Also remember that when dealing with landscape lighting and even landscaping, your dealing with peoples homes, and obviously there is an emotional attachment. Always be very detailed about what your plans are for their property, what you think looks awesome, they may not like at all,(Trust me, its happened to me).

Last but not least, PROFIT! Profit is not a dirty word, if there was no such thing, then why would anybody be trying to work!? People also need to know what your time is worth, you will always hear "but its just this little job".. O yea, well then why did they not do it themselves. haha ..

Anyways, enough of my rambling! Good Luck!!

P.S.- Here is a tip that is simple but it took 2 years to figure out. If you want the big commercial jobs, Companies usually require $1,000,000 liabilty insurance and also workmans comp. (you probably know that already being that youve been doing electric work, but I figured i'd say it just incase)!!

-Matt

cool thanks for the encouragement!