I never I tended to run a business but as when I started doing side jobs, I found people wanted to pay me so here I am. Here's my quick biz history.
Started doing landscaping. It was enough to live off of, but then became decent money, but I really was just winging it and took some classes to feel confident.In one year I took a ton of design and maintenance classs and people started wanting design/builds and my clientele base grew. I used to weld so then I got some people wanting gates and I added that to what I did. Welder/landscaper sounded stupid so I turned my business into a landscape design/build operation but understood that I would have to put a lot of time into getting more licenses and experiance to become a legit company, and don't want to go that route. Now I'm billing myself as " the only small landscape design company who specializes in steel ornamentals"… I mostly do very ornamental trellises, arbors, and garden related things like awnings with ocotillo ribs.
I feel like the steel fab for plants/garden is a good niche, but I have 60-70 percent of my work as landscaping and it's reoccurring work.
Here's where I'm stuck.
1. I don't know what to call myself, it's always weird to explain
2.i feel like I need to pick a focused niche and drop the other or I'm just a guy that does two things
3.im afraid to let go of the landscape stuff because it's easy money but I'm in Arizona and it's hard on the body, I'm not planning on doing this for forever and I'm also aware that trading my time for money is a terrible way to make money. Also hiring other people is not something I would want to deal with for THIS specific business
Starting this business has really opened up my eyes to how much I love business, and I feel like I have learned so much about marketing psychology, personal ambition, and the reality of money that eventually I would like to start an online business and get the hell away from services, or at least a service that relies on me.
Thoughts?
My business is dumb and I don’t know what to do
byu/Terandter inEntrepreneur
Posted by Terandter
7 Comments
All I know is that you can never go wrong by focusing on one thing and then when you scale it up enough you can then bring the failures, the mistakes to not do again and most importantly the knowledge accumulated from those business ventures into doing something new.
If I may ask how long have you been doing landscaping for?
You could setup a website and socials to market the services you want to offer, gradually building a customer base within this specific niche. Once this part of the business becomes sustainable, you could transition away from the landscape work. This approach allows you to pursue your ultimate goal while preserving your current income stream.
Two businesses.
you need a partner. 60/40 split. 60 for you since you already have the maintenance clients and 40 for the labor. you can definitely scale that. if you know your numbers you can do 80/20 but that’s up to you and your partner.
so you can do something like “landscape designs.” you are going to need to grow. get a couple employees to do the labor, you manage and do the skilled stuff. get a one man accountant, will help you set up your business and do payroll. you are on your way to bigger things.
Do the one that a lot of people want. That is demand, and the more of it there is, the more you can charge, upsell, create reoccurring business etc. just because you can do stuff, doesn’t mean you should. If most of the work is landscaping, become a really great, premium priced landscaping company.
As for not hiring people even though it’s physically hard on your body – you do you, but entrepreneurship starts with leveraging the time of other people. Otherwise you’re just self employed, which means you have a job, not a business.
It’s impressive how you’ve developed your landscaping business into something unique with steel fabrication. Your niche in steel ornamentals is a standout.
While juggling multiple services can be challenging, consider gradually transitioning to focus solely on your specialty. Your insight into the limitations of trading time for money and your desire for an online venture show entrepreneurial vision. Trust your instincts and prioritize what aligns best with your long-term goals. Good luck!