I own a landscaping business which i opened one year ago when i was 19. i started out on a limb with no money, no customers. I had a few options.... 1) buy all equipment with a credit card and get charged high interest rates or 2) sell my brand new atv (which i still owe on) for about 4k. I sold the atv for $3800. Now the reason i could sell something that i still owed money on was because polaris finances their atv's with what is called a star card. It is basically the exact same thing as a credit card but for polaris products only. So technically i did own the atv. With $3800 cash in my pocket i started looking for people who were maybe getting too old to run their landscaping business and were selling their equipment. I lucked out and got 2 38 inch walk behind mowers (retail about 5k). These mowers never die, and one is brand new, so pretty good deal. Also i got an 85 F-150 (I've moved up to a new truck since then), with 14 foot trailer hitch and plenty of extras.
One word of advise. DO NOT OPEN A BUSINESS WITH A PARTENER IN MIND!! My partener and i split up before the start of our first season! Do not expect a partener to work as hard as you plan on. Why split your money with someone who isnt up to par with you? Or split your money with anybody at all? Oh yeah, you guys will disagree about everything too.
The hardest thing about starting up would have to be getting enough money for the legal part (INSURANCE, sales tax downpayment, etc.) and find enough accounts to make it worth while. I passed out about 10,000 flyers to high income and middle class homes in my area, and only got 20 of them to set up accounts with me :flame:. A little discouraging huh? DONT GIVE UP!! word of mouth and meeting new people is the best advertisement money CANT buy. One of my customers was very impressed with the work that i did with her house week after week. She had a sister who worked at a bank and she set me up with 60 accounts. All foreclosed homes, which means cut, weed wack wam bam thank you mam, pay up.
This year I have enough money for advertising, and people are calling everyday for estimates.
And for your last question. I started my own business because all my jobs growing up i never felt secure, knowing that i could get laid off or fired at any day. if i was 40 years old, what would i do then? Owning your own business is an incredible peace of mind. Evander, if you work hard you will be succesful.