"You'll Never Get Rich, By Digging A Ditch . . . "

"I've been a grade school teacher for the past 10 years, and I love my work. Like all teachers, I have my summers off, and am always looking for ways to make a little extra money. For the past couple of years, I have been mowing lawns for some of my neighbors, without charge because I love the work and love being outdoors. I'm thinking of buying a truck and offering lawn-mowing services for about one-half of what the other lawn care services in our area charge. I'm also thinking of getting a plow attachment for the truck and offering snowplowing services during the winter months, as there aren't too many people doing that in our area. I'm not looking to make a living at this. I just want an extra couple of thousand dollars of 'mad money' each year. Am I wasting my time here?"

Nothing you truly love doing is ever a waste of time. If you want to make even a small amount of money, however, you have to treat this as a "real" business. Right now you enjoy mowing lawns because you do it whenever you feel like doing it — if you don't feel like mowing someone's lawn you can always say "no." That's a luxury you can't afford if you're doing it as a business — your customers will expect service in exchange for their hard earned money, and you had better be prepared to deliver whether you feel like it or not.

Here are some things you should think about before launching the lawn mowing business:

(1) When people buy lawn-mowing services, they will want you to work the entire season from April to October (at least here in the Northeast; the season may be longer elsewhere in the country). You won't be able to confine your lawn mowing to the summer months when you are off from school, so will you have enough time to service your customers while school is in session without having to spend all of your evenings and weekends doing so?

(2) You plan to charge your customers only one-half of what your competition is doing, so make sure that when you factor in all of the costs of this business (payments on the truck, lawn mowers and supplies, maintenance, gasoline, insurance, taxes — you are planning to pay taxes, aren't you? — accounting and legal fees), you are still making a decent profit. Here's Cliff's Rule of Thumb — whenever you are charging significantly less for your services than your competitors are charging, your profit margin should be at least 20 to 30 percent higher than theirs (in other words, your costs should be much, much lower than theirs).

(3) If you advertise this business properly, you probably will get tons of customers looking for the "rock bottom" price. Will you be able to service them all without having to hire employees and doubling your costs? Do not even think of hiring illegal immigrants as a way of keeping costs down! Sooner or later your competitors will catch wind of this and will make anonymous telephone calls about you to the labor and immigration authorities.

(4) How long, on average, will it take you to mow each lawn, pack up your equipment and travel to the next customer? You don't want to spend 70 to 80 hours a week mowing lawns during your precious summer vacation just to make an extra couple of thousand dollars a year. Figure out how much money you will be making, after expenses, on an hourly or daily basis. If you will be making less than minimum wage, or what you make as a teacher, don't do this business.

As for the snow plowing business:

(1) Most people want their driveways plowed before they leave for work in the morning. How do you feel about getting up at 3 a.m. during a snowstorm and driving treacherous icy roads to service your customers? If you get stuck in the snow yourself, do you have a backup plan?

(2) Since you will have to service all of your customers each time there's a snowstorm, will you be able to finish all of your plowing jobs and still get to school on time (assuming, of course, that school hasn't been canceled because of the storm)?

(3) You cannot plan for snowstorms. They happen when they happen, and you may have to cancel holiday, travel or personal plans to service your customers if the weather report predicts a blizzard is coming.

If after meditating on the above you decide against mowing lawns, consider doing something during the summer months that will capitalize on your love of teaching and working with kids — such as tutoring, reading enrichment or college preparation. You probably will make more money, you will have more control of your time, and you will make a lasting impact on young people's lives all 12 months of the year.

Cliff Ennico ([e-mail]) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series "Money Hunt." This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO.

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