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AnachitlPut

AnachitlPut

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San Antonio
Hey I have been working for a friend as his "lawn dude" for a while and I wanted to see what tips I could get from y'all.
He pays me $50 to mow and $10 per hour for everything else. Oh and I use his lawn mower his gas and my gas in my weedeater. Oh and I am 16.
 
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Luke Putman said:
Hey I have been working for a friend as his "lawn dude" for a while and I wanted to see what tips I could get from y'all.
He pays me $50 to mow and $10 per hour for everything else. Oh and I use his lawn mower his gas and my gas in my weedeater. Oh and I am 16.
Click to expand...
Congratulations ! You have a job. What kind of tips are you looking for?
 
Hmmm

Don't let any of your friends meet him - they might offer to do it for $40. And to think, at 16 I mowed with a push reel mower and my customers complained about the prices "going up all the time" when I charged a dollar and a half.
 
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I believe he's looking for some serious thoughts.

Look at a few things.

Enjoy some of it. Go to the movies with friends, etc. that"s what working helps provide.

Look at investing some of it.

Invest in education. An education helps provide for a better way of life FOREVER. Education can be as simple as a course at the local community college or a full-time university,

Invest some for the future. This is where I and many others didn't plan early enough. Save for the things you want to do like maybe a car, place to live, or dozens of other things. Every young person thinks about living on their own some day. Just think about what the cost will be to do that.
 
I know times have changed, but, when I was 16 I mowed a very large yard using the owners mower and gas and got $5. The minimum wage was $1.10 then but it took 4 hours to mow. It sounds to me that the pay rate is about right. If you don't think the pay is enough, you could ask for more, I wouldn't, or decide that you didn't need the $50 a week and quit mowing.
 
When I was in high school a friend of mine start this way kept adding more customers eventually had to hire helpers. When he went to college he sold the company at a large profit. just rember I assume you are getting that $50.00+ cash, so no taxes etc are being paid. If you start doing a lot become an LLC so the state & Fed don't come knocking
 
You might be more specific on what kind of tips you were looking for. If they havent covered them already. Your time is worth nothing until someone pays you for it. What we dont know is if thats a better rate than someone else gets or if its the lowest paying of the mowing jobs available. Have you compared what you would get for your time if you went to work elsewhere? IF you you can even find work elswhere.
Also if this is paid in cash you would be well advised to work as many hours as you can and start saving money like mad.
 
Rule of thumb

When my children were your age and received money we had a simple set of rules. 1/3 they could spend as they liked - you should enjoy the fruits of your labor.

1/3 went into long term savings toward their education - you should plan for your future, you will probably live a long time so you won't be able to do everything today.

25% went into short term savings that they could use for special things they might want or want to do. We had to approve of them using that money. Again don't spend it all today because you might want a new hat tomorrow.

The rest went to charity - we are told to care for the widows and orphans.
 
Give 10% to those less fortunate
Put 10% in the bank for the future
Spend the rest wisely.

PS Be glad you have a job. It sounds like a sweet arrangement to me.

Are you paying your taxes? :wink:
 
Luke Putman said:
Hey I have been working for a friend as his "lawn dude" for a while and I wanted to see what tips I could get from y'all.
He pays me $50 to mow and $10 per hour for everything else. Oh and I use his lawn mower his gas and my gas in my weedeater. Oh and I am 16.
Click to expand...

  1. Save some of the money to buy a lawnmower.
  2. Print out a flyer that lists your services and distribute them to other homes in his neighborhood.
  3. Think about additional tangental services that you could offer. Little things like painting house numbers on the curb are easy to do and worth a few extra bucks. Bigger projects like mulching and aerating are worth more money and will drive new business (that will be repeated annually).
  4. If you end up with more business than you can handle, hire your friends to help out.
 
To add to Steve's great tips, other opportunities include pressure washing, caulking cracks in driveways and patios, pool vacuuming, and trash removal.

Invest in yourself by getting the right equipment. Offer niche services that aren't being met by others. Learn about plants, and when and how to plant them. If you think in terms of taking care of the customer and what he is looking for, you'll need to stay focused on that because the business may soon grow exponentially.
 
Hmmmm

Good advice if you want to be in the lawn mowing business. I could be wrong but I suspect that for your next couple of years your main job is going to be school followed by college. I'd concentrate on that if I were you.

Going by my own experience as a teenager, (I caddied one summer at a golf course, washed dishes at a summer resort the next year, waited table at a summer resort after that - great money, worked as a house painter for my dad one summer - could have taken over the business and spent one summer doing mostly lawn mowing and other odd jobs) I didn't end up doing any of them for a living even though a couple of them worked for other people, one of my waiter buddies did that all his working life and loved it.

One other thing that has not been mentioned. At least in Delaware, lawn mowing is a highly competitive business. If there are a lot of retirees in your area, you'd be amazed at how many of them will take on lawn mowing jobs (at least until they get that John Deere D100 paid for) and as fast as one gives it up another steps in.
 
Tithe off the top, save for a foriegn mission trip, it helps you more than you help them. alot of good info has been given already. Talk to the guy you are working for and see if he can reccomend others for you to work for. 1 yard a day makes alot of spare money.

Phil
 
All the advice on saving money is spot on. I would advise that you compare the time spent doing each job now vs. what you are making per job. As your equipment gets better, the time spent doing the job will decrease. This means that if you continue to charge by the hour, you will make less money. At some point you may have to go to the employer and agree on a set rate for your services per job.

The most important advise is to work hard and give the cutomer great service and "product". Remember that when the job is done, your name is on it. When people see the yard or any other job you've completed, and the ask who did it, you want the impression to be that you are an honest, hard working individual that makes sure the job is done right. Word of mouth is a very powerful reference.
 
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