Franchising Jim's mowing franchise

Hi
I been working for this guy now for 3 months doing mowing and pruning and just seen his invoices.
Holy crap. He gets paid alot. I do about 10 jobs a day and about 2 or 3 jobs pay my wage lol and the rest goes into the business.
Considering this there are 4 company cars but I have to use my own and all the tools like 3 of power tool lol. I dont want to see the maintenance bill for all that so lot of over heads.

I'm looking at buying a Jim's mowing franchise and just wondering what people thought?
Is there any current franchisees or ex ones that can shed light on cost to buy, daily running costs, amount of work available, weekly income, etc?

Any info will be appreciated

 

My neighbor bought a courier delivery run. Makes 1500 a week out of it. 50 hours work though.

He is looking at another run which is a lot less work because its more industrial, just parking and having others load his van up with a heap of stuff. Says that run earns 3500 per week and costs 150000 to buy.

 

Most of the Jim's mowing I looked at cost 20 to 40k. So want to know more before investing that much

 

what does he charge and what do you get paid?

add these up and compare, but you must compare over a week minimum, not one day
with businesses there are a lot of costs that most people either dont know about or neglect.

having your own business can be very expensive

 

Just compare the cost factor for all the equipment from "X" mowing franchise ..Then price the gear up yourself
there will be a big difference in the start-up costs ,as all your buying is a name..imho..

 

This jim is a smart guy. He's into everything nowadays.
....But a smarter guy is your boss is he covering fuel and vehicle costs plus the tools?

I think you're just buying a wage with jim.

If you're keen go diy. I couldn't imagine the money being so great. But to make it great you need to be quick and efficient. Then train up youngsters and pay them peanuts to do the same

 

I know there's alot more then that involved like insurance, WorkCover, office fees, addmin fees, the 2 new company Ford rangers, etc

Just seeing if it's viable to go out on my own.
I make 180 per day but on average I bring in over 900 to 1000

 

Also think about whether that is going to be consistent all year round...does it drop off over winter/summer...what about if you want to take holidays or are sick, etc.

 

Like a pizza shop, don't buy a franchise, you'll just be working to make their system wealthier. Just do some research and set up your own, it's not rocket science.

 

I know two former Jim's Mowing francisees. The good thing was you are ready to go day one with equipment and a confirmed list of regular customers. You also get good leads (at a cost!) which help build your business. Though over time word of mouth becomes the primary lead generator at which time the franchise fees become less attractive.

Both ended up selling (with Jims and the area manager both getting commissions) and continuing under their own steam.

Oh, and business is slow when the grass doesn't grow...like mid summer and all winter.

 

True true

Copy paste from them! study them and the skills you don't have you can contract out

 

The main reason I like Jim's is there work garentee so even tho I have to pay a service fee I will have a known income

 

I started a lawn mowing business to help save my first deposit. I had a friend in the police force that was making more money from his lawn run than he was on the beat, having said that he was smashing out 20+ lawns 2-3 days a week.
I had a full time job as an accountant so I only wanted to work half a day on the weekend. It quickly became a full day with all the other gardening work being thrown at me but I could usually clear 400 from a half day on Sat. Wound it up after I achieved my goal.

Great flexibility and limitless opportunity but hard work and can be seasonal. Also fairly one dimensional mentally.

100% back yourself and don't pay for someone else's entrepreneurial flair.

Be insured and also read the e - myth by Michael Gerber

 

So sound like I should pay the 700 for insurance 1500 to 2000 for a decent mower, whipper snipper, blower and Hedger and advertise on gumtree and start working lol

 

Yep.

Do you like working outside in the searing summer heat? If not, give a school kid a job for the holidays helping you get everyone's places looking good for all those parties.

When the grass is not growing much, it is time to mulch and prune and find other handyman jobs to keep busy and to keep your clients happy.

 

That's what I do now. Now 2 days and prune / rubbish removal 3 days.

 

Also consider what happens when there is a total sprinkler ban and everyone's grasses die - it's no fun being a lawn mower guy then. But then you just buy a spray gun and some green paint and make everyone's lawn green again.
There will be peaks and troughs in every industry so take today's earnings with a big grain of salt. I would go it alone rather than with a franchise

 

Have a mate who owned one years back, from memory when we were talking he said his returns were around 60-70k. I imagine there were A LOT of cashies that never made their way into those books though.

I think there is enough economy sharing sites these days that you could probably go it alone and whilst harder at first it would be much more beneficial in the long term.
- Advertise on Gumtree
- Bid for jobs on AirTasker
- Bid for jobs on ServiceSeeking
Then do your standard local advertising of letterbox drops, council advertising, shop flyers if they allow it.etc

If you can mow a lawn for $30 and do 50 lawns a week (Say 8 a day and a couple of extras) your on $1,500 gross which isn’t bad coin for the hours you would be working.
It’s not going to make you rich but hey it could be better than working for the man

 

get a ride on
we had a guy do our lawns while we were renovating. i cant recall how much we (wife) paid but once we cleared out the side of the house he could get the ride on mower out the back and he could get the front and back done in no time
that's where you make the money - being efficent, plan you jobs close to each other to reduce travel time and simple setup/packup
i did some landscaping years ago and the boss had one of these dinsaurs. i loved fanging around on it chomping down overgrown lawns.... that were meant to be done fortnightly but we did >monthly. im sure he charged fortnightly to one of those property investor types
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