Landscaping Business Startup Struggles
Landscaping Business Startup Struggles
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I Remember, several years ago, when a good friend of mine and I, we were both getting our landscaping businesses off the ground at the same time.
So he told me the story of how he had gone to the ATM that day to get out like a couple of hundred bucks or something. Also, the person before him had forgotten their ATM receipt, and it was just hanging out of the ATM flapping in the wind. So he took it, and he looked at it, and he said it had like 19,900 and something dollars on the checking account, you know, 20 grand. So he called me up, and he sent me, I don't know if he sent me a picture of or something.
So he said, Wow, like Some people have 20 grand in the bank. So what he was saying was he didn't have 20 grand in the bank. Neither did I,
We were lucky to have a couple of grand in the bank, right? We're trying to get this thing off the ground; we are struggling, bad dude hustling, doing anything for a nickel.
When he said that, to me, I was right There with him on the phone. So I'm like, wow, 20 grand is So far away. So he was saying he was discouraged. Because it seems so far away. He that the feeling in his voice man was like,
"that person's life must be gravy. That person's life must be gravy. So I'll never forget that day. So thus I want to talk about a couple of things."
Getting a small business off the ground, if you've never had a small business before, is it is the most exciting Experience ever. Because the breakthroughs that you have the breakdowns, the fears, the tears, the not knowing the feeling alone, the frustrations, having to deal with your family thinking there's something wrong with you. So you're crazy because you're like a dog on a bone. I get that saying from my buddy Brian Fullerton, you have to set a dog on a bone, and I started laughing because you're like a dog on a bone. Like, you're up here down, you're up, you're down, your emotions are all over the place. You're just you're working yourself to burn out because there are so many mistakes and so many lessons that you don't know, and you haven't gone through yet.
So only to a guy who has 20, 30, 40, 50 Grand in the bank or a six-figure plus business, right? Who would look at those challenges you might be going through? Like, of course, like that's why-why would you even have those issues? Right? However, to you, this is all new. I mean, I think having your own small business is like it's like $100,000 college Degree in the real world. You gotta you get a Ph.D. in the hustle. Right?
So that's what a small business owner is. You're a licensed, insured, hustler, an ethical, moral, customer loving client serving the heart of service, working your ass off to the bone hustler and having a service business in the services industry. I mean, do not lie, it's a blue collar lifestyle. You look at even like the husband, wife teams or family businesses that can do very well. Right? Very well. Good to go.
Don't be mistaken some of these guys that you see on social media. So that brings me to my second point. The first point is getting a business off the ground hard. I'll talk about that more about my second point. It's my night video here.
My second point is that some of these guys you see on social media and Facebook and YouTube, that, you know, Their fingers are dirty, and they're out whatever their landscaping, they're cutting down trees, and I don't know what they're doing. They're installing patios, and some of these guys are making some serious loot.
Some of these guys are making more money than people who have college degrees, who have cushy, six-figure jobs, when-when they've been in the business for a while, and they've been around the block. So they define their niche. Some people are making outstanding money, but some people are full of crap.
they're pulling the wool over your eyes. So they're acting like they have more than they have. However, if you like, you know, Laying it all out on the table, they're just showing you a highlight reel.
So the reason I'm bringing that up is that if you're trying to get your small business, off the ground, or to the next level, which is like the phase one small business owner, right?
That's the nightmare. It's hell. Now getting your business to stage two, is that's where you've got a sustainable business, you've got Minimum Viable systems, the things working, you're not freaking out on whether or not you're going to get work or not like how do you get the job? How do you market your business? How do you keep the company? How do you make this thing work? Right?
What one of my neighbors is loud. So that stage, so that's what you know, a few years after you kind of get it figured out, right? However, phase one, this is the thing as hell; stage two is like heaven to stage one. Like, you want to get to the point where you get this thing figured out. So one of the most critically, one of the most destructive things that you can do to yourself is going on social media and look at other small business owners who might have it figured out. So they're authentic about it, or V small business owners, who are showing you a highlight reel only showing you the good stuff and making you feel like how does that guy do that? How does that guy do that? That's impossible for me.
Moreover, you can watch some of these people's videos or pictures or anything. So then you're done looking at their Instagram, and you're like, I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot, and I'm never going to be successful. How am I? How is this guy? How is this guy doing this? I'm an idiot like you can become self-destructive. I've done this in the past.
I remember. I don't know a few times in the past, like, you're trying your hardest, and you can't break through, and things are just tough for you. Moreover, then you see someone else's Shit. It's just a highlight show.
Dude, okay, I, Even I can make a video or Instagram posts only showing the highlights. Right?
Now, people who are successful, really successful, they can look great through all that shit. Also, They can think they can see the truth. You can't fool people. Who have been, you know, entrepreneurs, years and years, they can see right through all fluff. Right? However, people who aren't, you know, that are still coming up in the game maybe like you,
You might not be able to have the discernment to see. So you might buy into that shit. Say, Well, he's showing me the proof he must have, he must have 10s of thousands of dollars or, you know, all this shit.
List. Yeah, so to keep it simple. You got to run your race and find your own unique thing. So if you look to someone else for inspiration, and you can authentically learn from that person, that's good when you stay positive. However, if it is, anytime, I think if anything's making you feel negative or doubting yourself, Man, dude, you're better off just shutting it off or on following that person and patting yourself on the back for doing your own unique thing, getting your own small business off the ground. You know, people underestimate what they can do, you know, in six months.
You overestimate what you can do in six months, but you underestimate what you can do in four or five years. I mean, where you can be a few years from now is a wonderful place that you've always dreamed up as it can happen for you. So once you start opening up doors, and taking little risks and chances and taking things on whole new opportunities can open up to you that you never even knew were possible. Right? So excuse me.
There will be those days where you know you finish some project and you get that, that final check. Where you get those that stack of checks in the mail or maybe a customer pays you like I don't know, let's see 20 grand in cash. I don't know what it is for you. So you just spread it all out on the mattress. You go home, and you're like what a Tao
you got this look at my little cat my cat, or he followed me outside. We rescued this kit lm I can't,
Okay, so that's my night video. I want to encourage you. This is your time to shine. This is your time to crush it is your time to get it.
When I started my small business. I had an eviction notice on the door. I was so broke, and I had no driver's license either. So I had like this restricted driver's license PL PD, the cheapest insurance costs me 1100 and $50 a month plus I had to carry high-risk insurance because I had points and shit on my license. So it was another question 250 a month. I had to have my piece of crap $600 rusted out truck, my fingers crossed, it wouldn't break down in my wife's name, and have the insurance in her name and give her the money every month so she could pay for my car insurance. That's how broke we were. So, Dude, I felt like a piece of crap. We would go to her family's house on family events. I don't care, Dude, I love that truck. Dude, I felt like I was bawling.
I had my own little landscape business. However, I started comparing myself to where I thought I should be at that time. So you know, it's funny. The worst thing is sometimes when we judge ourselves, and we beat ourselves up and not give ourselves credit, right?
So and now the tables have totally turned to where you know, I'm the provider, and I'm the breadwinner, and I make sure all the bills are paid and the food is in the fridge and all the things and it's kind of a traditional marriage we have like, I'm so blessed, my wife cooks and cleans unfolds all the laundry, puts all that stuff away. So I'm like,
This is amazing. I'm going off track here. However, sometimes we'll get in an argument that should be like, I can do all your laundry. I'm like, Well don't do it anymore. I'll get extra hampers. Because when I was a bachelor,
I legit, I had like four hampers, I had clean work clothes, dirty work clothes.
So on my work clothes were dirty, I throw them in the laundry.
Out of the dryer into a hamper in a pile. Also, then when I need to close, I just went into the collection. So I just put them on I didn't even if I put them in the drawers, I would stuff them in there and have time to full no clothes.
So then I had my clean whites and dirty whites. Soon my dresser was just a big pile of clothes. I don't know, and I don't know anything about that stuff.
Sounds like don't touch my laundry, then I'll do it myself. She's now I'll do it because you don't know how to do it. Anyways, I digress.
So the last thing I want to say, I think that when you go through the night of the soul, really, really, really hard and terrifying times in life where you feel like you're not going to get out and by the grace of God by the skin of your teeth, you make it through and you pull through by just working your guts out.
To instill this fear inside you this healthy fear that says like, Oh my god, I don't ever want to go back to this horrifying place ever again, I work as hard as I have today in day out. I don't care what it takes until Just so I know that I know that we don't ever have to go to this back to this again, right? Now the thing is some things in life, and you don't have any control over some things that are beyond your control, you might have to go back to the game. However, you have this resolution inside of yourself that you will never let that happen again. However, a critical thing to pay attention is, is being in service survival mode isn't healthy, physically, mentally, spiritually, it can cause traumatic damaging effects to you where you can become a neurotic person where you're always on edge.
Do you know anybody who's like still unstable and stressed out because they had a hard life, and they just can't let it go. So they're always afraid, you know.
So I think getting into personal development listening to audiobooks and stuff like David R Hawkins power vs. force, the book letting go. Books by Dr. Wayne Dyer, spiritual books, looking to things that Really help you reset the neurons in your brain, reset your emotions, let go of old baggage clean up your Shockers line yourself up, get close to God, anything you got to do to develop that sense of inner peace and know that the past is the past. So you've gone through that, and you've earned your stars and stripes in your badges, you got to put on your war paint right now and go out and do this, but after you accomplish it, then it becomes a stepping stone to a new stage in life. You've passed that year in the latest chapter and to not hold on to those fears.
Because the very same things that you had to use as energy and fuel to get yourself out of hell to get yourself into from stage one to stage two. Let's say stage one business, running around like a chicken with your head cut off doing it all by yourself stressed out having a panic attack meltdown every day, trying to keep your composure together, stage to business where things are smooth, and everything's working, and you have minimal viable Minimum Viable systems.
Then neurotic, crazy you who's keeping it everything to live in that state of consciousness. The very same things that helped you then are the very same things will hurt you here. So you have to learn how to prune. Take a breath, prune look at the numbers. It's an emotional thing for you. It could be systems it could be whatever it is below let go because the ship will be like it'll be a lead weight on you. This is different stages of consciousness like what worked here while we're there which got you here won't get you there.
If you're writing a mountain bike right and you're peddling your ass off in first gear, and you're getting nowhere You don't even know second gear is this you're looking for a second gear or second gear and then one day you if you're finding that this is called stable data comes I talked about this on my channel I am ability might have a YouTube channel a stable Dave stable datum, I will get to, and it's it's an the neurons in your brain creates synapses, synapses that fire together wire together.
Okay, I'll leave it at that. You find stage two seconds here. Then you see you go oh my god, wait, wait, oh, I could pedal a little bit slower now and get a little bit more results. Get better clients, and I can raise my prices. Okay, I'm Okay. Okay, this is going to work because it seems impossible. Certain things do you see not even graspable? However, the proof is, is that there are people that are doing it, right?
So. being able to develop the discernment of what's real, and what's in stable reality? Versus what's the conditioning and what's in your head? Alternatively, what's your head trash just because of what you experienced? It feels so real to you. That it's like the matrix, right? So you have to learn to trust. Sometimes other people but watch out, you know, Okay, I'm going to leave it at that — my friend.
Honor. Honor the fight. Honor the struggle because of These are the good old days. So trust me, they're the good early days, and when you look back on these times, I bet you wish one thing I bet you want to it wasn't so damn hard on yourself. I bet you want you had a little bit more fun, and you smile a little bit more honor these times because these are the good old days. All right. I love you. I mean that.
Peace out.
P.S
Check out my free landscaping business startup video series here
