I run a printing shop and see a lot of the same thing. A lot of people thought they could get rich quick during covid and bought a huge commercial printer they know nothing about running and have no graphic design skills and just undercut everyone else. Very much a race to the bottom situation. I've been raising my prices and getting more customers than I know what to do with because I have the knowledge and expertise unlike the other companies.

The biggest difficulty I've seen in service businesses is the small competitors that don't operate like a business, they undercut because they think they just need to pay themselves to do the labor without a margin of profit.

Same in the dump trailer/junk removal business. No license, not legit, no taxes, and can undercut me all day. It is tough.

Thanks uncle Dave

Get some mulch trucks. Every spring all the towns are paying for new garden beds.

I have a friend in South Texas who stopped the maintenance side of his business and only does installations. Instead of mowing grass for a couple bucks he’s getting contracts for hundreds of thousands of dollars with the same staff of 16 or so!

It seems like the big day to day issue is that the wages in the area are high and the help isn’t as good as she’d like. A pointed suggestion to improve the day to day: hiring some young guys and spending some serious time training them. Then be willing to do the hard thing and let them go if they aren’t up to your standards. It can feel like all the help is bad if you don’t take the time to show them what good is. Also, be ready to bring their wages up to market when their skills improve. That’s a major mistake from employers these days. They think they can get away with below market and 2% annual raises and keep the good ones.

If you’re a year out on jobs, your prices are too low.

Yeah; I usually go for whoever cost the least.

Retail is no good, service is good

Focus more on learning in the business areas you are doing. Don't bother if you are not certified or don't have licensed as long you negotiate there's a contract or conditions and they want your work because they like your talent or the price you offer you don't need to worry. Use social media as a part of marketing. Share your work by taking a video. Social media is a powerful marketing tool to beat other businesses like you. People need to know you and recognize your work so start using social media marketing.

Sounds like two from the landscraping will need training in the construction . Also one or two more Constuction hires.

There are plenty of mosquitoes out there that will make money because either they’re the ones doing the work themselves, or their overhead is way lower than a large business. That being said, there are only so many of them, so it shouldn’t concern us as business owners that run things well.

@JacobsNews

28 күн бұрын

Landscaping can be really tough my uncle is one of the largest Landscaping businesses in New York but he has a connection to the illegals and they get a second social security card so they collect benefits and they don't mind being paid $15 an hour

He's not listening to her. He's jumping to conclusions in a business he's never operated. It's entirely possible that the environment for a landscape vs. construction business are apples and oranges in regards to demand and profitability.

@8literbeater

Ай бұрын

Nope