The Joys and Pitfalls of Working for Yourself
There may be lots of reason you had when you began to start your own yard care business. It is a natural way for you to take your skills at creating masterpieces in the yards of your customers and turning it into a business. It could be that you work for a yard care company and after watching them bumble the business side of things, you just know you can do a better job.

One of the biggest reasons that people of every discipline give for going into business for themselves is that they can get rid of the boss and finally call the shots on how the business will be run. One of the great joys of running your own yard care business is that when you are a success, that sense of accomplishment you get as you see your business prosper is a thrill that you could never experience if you spent your career working for other people.

You also get to set the tone and the “corporate culture” when it is you that owns and operates your yard care business. How many times have you worked for a boss who wanted you to work hard making his yard care business a success but that boss didn’t know a thing about yard care and did not get in there and do the work with you? You can correct that by getting the best from your employees by being just as hard a worker as they are. And by creating a genuine spirit of teamwork and cooperation in your employees, you will get so much more from them than the failed management practices of your previous employers.

There is an old joke about working for yourself that you will have a fool for a boss and a lazy staff. That joke points out that when it is you who is in charge of the business, all of a sudden, how things work takes on a new perspective. Now it is you who notices the failings of the workers you are paying to make your business a success. Now it is you who cannot always go out on every job and work shoulder to shoulder with them because you have marketing to do or you have to meet with the investors or stay back and work on scheduling or taxes.

The paperwork and management detail that it takes to run a successful company is often one of the hardest things to take when you are the one running the lawn care company. The one thing you love about lawn care is being outside, working with nature and turning lawns into things of beauty. So when you suddenly have to spend work time doing duties that go with managing a company, you actually find yourself doing what you love to do less than before and doing what you hate, paperwork, a lot more. That is a serious drawback to owning your own lawn care business that you should be aware of before you launch the business.

You will also work much harder then you ever knew you would be able to work when it is your business on the line. When you were an employee, you might have had to work overtime every so often and when you did, you may have gotten extra pay. When you own the business, you will live and breathe that business. It will come home with you sleep with you and you will work overtime virtually constantly.

That kind of commitment goes with the territory when you are the boss. Because the business is “your baby”, it is easy to get obsessed with success and to take problems that come along hard. Many small business operators get ulcers or get overworked easily. You should be prepared for the demands of owning a business so it doesn’t hurt your family life because those demands are real and you should be ready for them in advance.

It is very exciting to own and operate your own business. But success comes with a cost. Talk to others who have started lawn care businesses so you get a feel for the tough road that lies ahead. If you do that, the pitfalls of the job of being the owner of your own lawn care business won’t surprise you and you will learn to be a winner and to guide your new business to great success.