Small Business Start-up.

[Anderson1712]

Good evening,

I am currently a firefighter in North Central Florida and I am looking to start a business in land clearing I'd like to start up with some small tractor work and bush hogging and work into growing and doing more work. Looking for any advice on Tractors and Equipment to get started. Note: there was a lot of debris clearing work in my area after the hurricanes last year. I also live where there is a lot of horse and cattle farms. I am also interested in marketing and business tips. Thank you.

PS I have been looking at the L series and MX series tractors.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Forget a tractor for that type of business work.
Look at a skid steer or a track loader, they both will hold up much better!

 

[DuckDog]

Check out a Tracked skid steer w/ a forestry mulcher if you’re clearing woods. Things are sweet!




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[shootem604]

All of my buckethead buddies run landscaping businesses on the side. Around here that means more maintenance type work than what you are doing, but for some reason all of them run green equipment.

 

[MadMax31]

I vote for a skid steer as well. Its like a swiss army knife.

Anyone doing commercial work up here in NY has a Skid Steer chained to their trailer. And by commercial work, I mean they are making money.

 

[virginiavenom]

skid without a doubt, add a mini ex with a thumb at least a 2.5 ton if not a 3.5 or 5.5 ton and see what you can really do. I personally thought the 3.5 ton was extremely efficient for it's size. gotta spend money to make money.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

don't know about the machine aspect but as to the 'office and paperwork'....
Open ONE bank account for the business. 100% of the expenses and income goes through it. That alone will shed days off doing the taxes at end of the year. Download the 'fiscal' numbers from the bank, import into a SIMPLE spreadsheet, within seconds you'll know the basic 'bottom line'.
After fighting battles with several of the popular accounting systems, I created a 2 page excell spreadsheet based upon Visicalc, and do my corporate taxes (T2) in about 3 hrs.
One of the best KISS things as YOU don't make a penny spending hours,days,weeks trying to do the books If you do hire an accountant,see IF he'll be LEGALLY accountable for DOING the books ! Odds are , no. If he says 'yes', be sure it's in WRITING !!

 

[johnjk]

I would take the steps to get the shell built first. Are you doing this as an LLC or other entity? Get that straight and protect yourself. Depending on your local laws there may be tax breaks for purchasing equipment for your business.

 

[Elliott in GA]

Not advice about the machinery (but I would agree that a Skid/Trac Loader would be best) - although you may want to create an LLC or other entity, do not rely upon it for any type of liability or financial protection. For liability, carry the proper and extensive insurance; you are the operator of the equipment which equals personal liability regardless of any corporate structure. Financially (unless you fully capitalize your entity), you will be signing personally on all loans/financing.

You can start off for free (still need to have a business license) with a DBA (doing business as) with the proper insurance, and then you can change as you grow.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

Start small. Get the legal aspects worked out and grow from there.

Running out and buying $ 300,000, or a million dollars of equipment, and hope the work shows up, is not the way to go.

Buy the equipment as the jobs are won and the equipment as needed. Sub it out until then.

We want to buy the cool stuff to do the work we want to do, its normal. But it'll bite you on the ass when you have to pay for equipment that you're not making money with.

From your post I'd humbly suggest a skid steer or track excavator. Include a trailer and truck to haul it. You'll be upside-down 70 to 100 grand just to start but you'll have equipment to start.

If you have connections to build on, talk to them.

 

[PortTackFarm]

Here's an alternate thought - start out renting what you need to complete the job most efficiently. The equipment rental is completely expensed. The rental company maintains it and stores it. If you need a mini-ex one day and a skid steer the next, no worries. Probably need a big truck to pull the equipment on a trailer.

 

[Benhameen]

Lots of good advise here but keep in mind that the OP started this thread in 2018 and hasn’t made anymore post. He must have taken the advise and bought a skid steer.

 

[mikester]

Check out a Tracked skid steer w/ a forestry mulcher if you’re clearing woods. Things are sweet!




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Start buy renting a CTL with forestry mulcher for your jobs. If you are lucky and make too much money then you can decide to finance you $5k monthly payments for a new machine.

The money saved on an old used machine will be spent on repairs and downtime. The forestry mulcher will beat your machine to death.

Running with dull/broken teeth is like running a chainsaw with a dull blade. You work harder and are less productive.

Doing the work is the easy part. Finding the jobs and getting paid in a timely manner is the hard part. Don't forget the government wants their cut. Don't quit your day job.

 

[SteveBX23]

Start buy renting a CTL with forestry mulcher for your jobs. If you are lucky and make too much money then you can decide to finance you $5k monthly payments for a new machine.

The money saved on an old used machine will be spent on repairs and downtime. The forestry mulcher will beat your machine to death.

Running with dull/broken teeth is like running a chainsaw with a dull blade. You work harder and are less productive.

Doing the work is the easy part. Finding the jobs and getting paid in a timely manner is the hard part. Don't forget the government wants their cut. Don't quit your day job.

That last line….

One thing I have learned, is that the work comes and goes. Jobs will come in handfuls, and then vanish like smoke in the wind.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

Lots of good advise here but keep in mind that the OP started this thread in 2018 and hasn’t made anymore post. He must have taken the advise and bought a skid steer.

It's an old thread, folks.

 

[SteveBX23]

It's an old thread, folks.

And?

 

[Missouribound]

Positive word of mouth references and time.

 

[DustyRusty]

Hard work, patience, devotion to the business, and learning to live very frugally in your life until you start making enough money to survive on. Most people give up after a few years because it is such an uphill battle. When I started out in business, it was 10 years before I could start to take time away from the business. If you are expecting instant success, then you are either delusional or have a very special talent that can move the needle from 0 to 100 in a very short time. How many years did it take Amazon or Tesla before they started to turn a profit?

 

[jyoutz]

Steady work and a growing customer pool.

 

[mikester]

Hard work, patience, devotion to the business, and learning to live very frugally in your life until you start making enough money to survive on. Most people give up after a few years because it is such an uphill battle. When I started out in business, it was 10 years before I could start to take time away from the business. If you are expecting instant success, then you are either delusional or have a very special talent that can move the needle from 0 to 100 in a very short time. How many years did it take Amazon or Tesla before they started to turn a profit?

Don't forget luck plays a big part in your success.

There's a lot of good, hard working people doing multiple jobs that never catch a break.

Tesla is a great example - the guy who started the company and designed the cars got screwed over and his work stolen by his angel investor - Elon Musk.

The company is named after Nikola Tesla who died penniless and in obscurity because he got screwed over by his business partners White-Westinghouse.