In this episode, Keith explored the crucial skill of discernment in business decisions. He shared insights from his experiences in the landscaping industry, emphasizing that saying no can be more beneficial than saying yes to everything. He discussed the importance of focusing on core services, understanding the risks of overextending, and utilizing smart subcontracting. Success lies in mastering what you do best and making decisions that align with your expertise and capacity.
When you narrow down what you offer, you’re not only cutting out stress but also boosting your profits and efficiency. It's about breaking free from those nagging fears and old stories in your head and realizing you don't have to do it all to succeed.
And hey, there's more! Keith’s got some exciting updates on what's brewing with the Untrapped Podcast and other projects that are in the pipeline. So, if you’re here for no-nonsense stories and solid tips to make running your biz a breeze, you’re in the right place! Stick around, and let's jump in!
Check out these episode highlights:
00:00 - Optimize Landscaping Business Strategy
03:19 - Launching a Landscaping Business
07:12 - Transition to Quieter Battery Trimmers
10:45 - Effective Equipment Management Tips
13:57 - Skill Building and Pricing in Landscaping
18:50 - Unlocking Business Success Mindset
20:04 - Commitment Yields Significant Revenue Potential
Key Takeaways:
Market Research and Strategy: Begin by analyzing successful local businesses and defining your service area to target the most lucrative neighborhoods. Use tools like Google to research and map out income per zip code.
Invest Smart in Equipment: Start with affordable, used equipment from places like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. As your business grows, reinvest in new, reliable equipment. Remember, "buy nice or buy twice."
Pricing and Profitability: Ensure proper pricing strategies by charging enough to cover costs and desired profit margins. Aim for at least a 50% gross profit margin by multiplying your cost estimates by two.
Resources and Websites:
Here's the video and story about our Window Cleaning brother in the UK I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_pxfE8A4k
Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7QgzAauFCQ
Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILGSn9Rx8f8&t=0s
The Time William and I climbed 115ft. in a tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVmT_Nhohjk&t=0s
Tree Work and Arborist Videos playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLub0_q7i2mDRR3pk7GpX3k8JhZiE2IvYm
🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇 Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series
Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs
LANDSCAPING BUSINESS How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16
Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs
Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget
Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone
Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower
Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence
Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways
LevelUp Your Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP
Transcript
(Note: this was transcribed using transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Keith Kalfas 00:00:00 - 00:00:48
How to start a landscaping business in 2025. Let's go. So, before we get started, I just got a comment on my YouTube channel. There's a guy who's trying to start his landscaping business, and he found himself on another YouTube channel that talks about how to become a millionaire and wealth and abundance and all that stuff, which is great. He left that channel, and now he's binge watching my videos because he specifically wants to learn how to start a landscaping business right now. So that's step number 1 because you gotta cut all the other fat of all this other information that's not helping you get your business to the next level. Step 2 is do market research. We're gonna talk about the equipment you need in a minute, but this is really important.
Keith Kalfas 00:00:48 - 00:01:41
1st, go on Google and type in landscaping businesses near me and look at the most successful ones and analyze how are they running their business how are they marketing their business. You can learn a ton just by doing that. And I want you to go on Google Maps and create your service area, right? So ours is a 6-mile radius from our home base. And what I also want you to do is go on Google and type in income per zip code in your area and find out where all the money is at, and then you'll know where to market. I like to go in specific neighborhoods, market, and advertise repeatedly. You drill deep in specific neighborhoods, and that's where the most potentiality, the most amount of clients, the fastest is, and make the most amount of money. Let's go to step 3. Step number 3: you gotta get your business legitimized with something like an LLC.
Keith Kalfas 00:01:42 - 00:02:10
And open up a small business checking account, which is exciting because now this is official. You can go online. There's tons of options. I have some in my resources below. What I did was I went to my accountant. How do you find an accountant? You basically ask people who own small businesses around you. You say, where can I find an accountant? And they'll be like, oh, my guy Bill. You know what I mean? And you find an accountant, and I asked him, dude, I need to make my business legit. He's like, oh, easy.
Keith Kalfas 00:02:10 - 00:02:37
Paid him some money, fill out all the paperwork, Boom. I was an LLC, and I went to the bank with that paperwork opened up a small business checking account. I was in business. Now, all the money that comes through your business flows through the checking account, and now you legit, daw. Number 4, you need a truck. Don't despise small beginnings. I don't know where you're at, but I literally Facebook or Craigslist for sale by owner. Look at this.
Keith Kalfas 00:02:37 - 00:03:19
2008 Ford Ranger Super Cab 4 by 4 185,000 miles, $29100. 2,003 Ford Ranger. You're like Ford Ranger. I want a brand new, then go buy one if you can afford it. I don't know where you're at. 2,009 Chevy Silverado, 2,002 Dodge Dakota, 2009 F150. So anywhere from 2 to $7, you can get a smaller series truck used that will get you making money now. Now, when you go to buy a truck, obviously, you wanna pull the dipstick and check all the fluids, test drive it, turn it all the way to the right and to the left, check for any bumps or grinds or vibrations. Anything going on that doesn't feel right that could be an issue, and you might be able to get it fixed cheap.
Keith Kalfas 00:03:19 - 00:03:59
And that's why the person selling it, and if you're mechanically inclined, it's gonna be amazing. But definitely don't buy something that's gonna blow up on you. That's why you wanna take it on the freeway and run it through all the gears and make sure the transmission shifts smoothly, and then you're in business. There's a lot of great trucks out there you can get for cheap and literally go make a $100,000. Real quick, we're about to go to Weingartz and look at some equipment, but I wanna tell you I started my landscaping business out of the back of the trunk of my wife's car with debt collectors calling me. I didn't have a truck and didn't have anything. I was terrified working a dead-end lawn care job at during the day and going out at night and on the weekends to get my business off the ground. I made enough money to dump out change to get a piece of crap.
Keith Kalfas 00:03:59 - 00:04:23
Well, actually, I love this truck. It's called the Blue Goose. It was a 1991 Dodge Dakota with a quarter 1000000 miles covered in rust, and that thing actually drove like a dream. So we started with nothing, bro. It was terrifying, and I pulled it off. Let's go. And the most important piece of equipment you really need to even get started is I'm just playing with you. Step 5: you need equipment right away.
Keith Kalfas 00:04:23 - 00:04:51
Of course. But you can go on Facebook Marketplace and buy equipment used. I got my stuff from pawn shops, Craigslist because I couldn't afford any brand new equipment. The problem with used equipment is it's beat up. It's gonna be gunked up. Like, the carbs, the carburetor inside of it, you're gonna have to pull it 20 times to get it started. Sometimes, you have to do a tune-up by yourself, but you can get lucky. But as soon as you possibly can, you need to get brand new equipment, in my opinion.
Keith Kalfas 00:04:51 - 00:05:22
I'm gonna walk around and show you some of my favorite stuff. I've been doing this my whole life, so I know what all the good stuff is. Now, the new battery-powered technology is amazing, but it's crazy expensive right now, so you probably won't get started there. But my favorite equipment always comes down to, well, steel because it's just a powerhouse. Steel's expensive. It's heavy-duty. This literally could last you 5, 6 years of beating on it. Right? This edger, if you're doing lawn care, everything's steel, by the way.
Keith Kalfas 00:05:22 - 00:06:00
It's just heavy and expensive. The next step that's a little bit cheaper is echo. Check this out. I've actually toured the Echo factory in person. I've seen all this stuff. And the echo power tools, like here, you got articulating hedge trimmers for trimming bushes, and this is a power pruner pull saw. Dude, Echo stuff doesn't have the power of steel, but you can just beat on this stuff for dude, you can just beat the hell out of an Echo trimmer, and that mug will always start every single time. Let me know in the comments.
Keith Kalfas 00:06:00 - 00:06:29
They just keep a licking what? They'll take a licking and keep on ticking, bro. Echo stuff. I have all this stuff, so I never really liked echo weed whips. Some people love them. I don't know why I don't like it, but I really like echo edgers. The reason I don't like an Echo weed whip is I know something about the way it's balanced. I don't like it. Blowers over here, echo blowers are good, they're decent. Redmax are over here.
Keith Kalfas 00:06:30 - 00:07:11
These are amazing. I've had all these backpack blowers. It's a phenomenal blower. My favorite backpack blower again comes all the way over here to the steel backpack blower is my favorite. So the BR 430 is it's like more like a homeowner's blower. I wouldn't get anything less than the BR 600 in any type of landscaping, but I've got the big ones. This is the 800 model. It's the steel is powerful, extremely powerful, but it's also quiet compared to, like, a Shindaiwa, which is that's, like, was the industry standard for a long time because they're so powerful, but they're so much louder.
Keith Kalfas 00:07:12 - 00:07:49
So with steel and all this stuff coming out of homeowners getting upset about loud equipment, that's why they're trying to move over to the battery-powered, steel is a little bit quieter. But when it comes to shrub trimmers, I don't like steel. Ain't that weird? Check this out. The industry standard for a long time, the most common are these are just the powerhouse steel HS 40 fives. They're $300. They've pretty much always been $300. They start right up either they'll mow through anything, but I'm telling you, these things are loud. They're like miniature tanks, and that's part of the reason I don't like them anymore.
Keith Kalfas 00:07:49 - 00:08:13
It's just they're almost overkill for doing residential shrub trimming because they're so powerful and so loud. For instance, come over here. I've used all different types of trimmers. My favorite are the Redmax trimmers, and it's different different brands for different things. These trimmers are amazing. I actually got the shorter ones. I bought all of them. I don't like echo trimmers, by the way.
Keith Kalfas 00:08:13 - 00:08:47
I don't like them at all. These are the best because the way that they're balanced. It feels like a gyroscope in your hand, so it's easier on your back. RedMax, not the homeowner versions. Anyway, is this a I bought both, and they're both great. So these are my favorite. So I've owned tons of chainsaws by all different brands from Husqvarna to Stihl to Eko, And the best chainsaws, in my opinion, are steel. But here's something you have to know. When you look at all the prices, I'm not gonna get into the different models.
Keith Kalfas 00:08:47 - 00:09:10
I don't wanna overwhelm you. Any chainsaw that's, I'm saying, any chainsaw that's underneath $250, don't even waste your time buying it. Don't buy it. Like the cheap homeowners might, oh, this is a good saw. I'm gonna use this. Don't buy it. Trust me. You're better off spending 1 to 200 extra dollars and getting a pro series.
Keith Kalfas 00:09:10 - 00:09:28
It's a completely different machine. You'll find out. You can find out the hard way. So buy nice or buy twice. So this is the MS 194 T Top Handle Ergonomic Saw. You could take it up in a tree, which you probably shouldn't do in the beginning. And it's got all the safety switches and bar and lever and everything. I mean, this is a phenomenal saw.
Keith Kalfas 00:09:28 - 00:09:53
And over here, the 251, it's all locked into place. I mean, these things are just, they're beautiful saws. So steel is the way to go with the chainsaw and make sure you pick up all the safety gear as well. Don't operate a chainsaw unless you're wearing all the safety gear. Alright. So, if you're getting into lawn care, which I did lawn care for 15 years. I started out my business with lawn care, and it gets you access to tons of property maintenance installs. Lawn care is the bread and butter.
Keith Kalfas 00:09:54 - 00:10:24
You probably won't be able to afford if you're just getting started. You might not be able to afford an expensive, beautiful dream machine like this. I actually have a Radius X 48-inch riding mower. It's their tanks. These things can cut grass, suck up leaves. They're almost indestructible, and they're expensive for a reason because: they make you money, and they last for years, years years like the BMWs. But get a mower anywhere you can. Used off Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, you're gonna start out with a walk behind, but I think Exmark's really the way to go.
Keith Kalfas 00:10:24 - 00:10:45
The top brands, like Exmark. When it comes to doing snow removal, I plowed snow 15 years. Toro makes some of the best snowblowers you can ever get your hands on. These things are beasts. Now, they're not indestructible if you beat on them. They will need parts. I mean, snow is really tough, but get a Toro. They're phenomenal.
Keith Kalfas 00:10:48 - 00:11:45
Look at this over here, a quick tip. You can get a couple of these with a couple of guys. You don't even need a blade for doing residential, and you can literally take these in a couple shovels and just bang out residentials and make a ton of money without an actual snowplow. But when it comes to stuff like this, like all these cool ergonomic things, they might have upgraded the technology by now, but sometimes if there's all these cool bells and whistles on a snowblower, just know you gotta be extra careful when loading and unloading onto trucks or anything because that's more stuff that could get broken and compromise your equipment. So keep it simple. Here's a quick tip that served me really well when growing my landscaping business is don't ever buy a piece of equipment until you are on the way to that job, that morning where you sold that job, where you need that piece of equipment to do that job. Right? Don't just buy pieces of equipment cause it's nice to have. And that way, you're making your ROI, your return on investment, back immediately.
Keith Kalfas 00:11:45 - 00:12:12
And when it comes to loppers and pruners, like, these are $20. That's good. There's pruners by Felco. You can spend $200 on a pair of crazy expensive exotic pruners. And if you lose them on a job site, because it's easy to lose them or an employee loses them, it's not fun. I've done all this stuff. So I try to just. I'd rather buy more pairs of just decent pruners for 20, $30. But when it comes to loppers, you definitely get what you pay for.
Keith Kalfas 00:12:12 - 00:12:47
You should be spending 60, 70, $100 on a pair of good loppers because the cheap ones suck. Don't buy the cheap ones. You will just trust me. The powerful tip to protect your investment: I only put premium fuel in all of my 2-cycle power tools and use the proper mix, and I only use steel oil. If you find something better, let me know. But whatever you do, do not use cheap 2-cycle oil, and always use the proper mixture to protect your investment—learned that the hard way. And also with, the gas cans have different gas cans.
Keith Kalfas 00:12:47 - 00:13:20
If you got 2-cycle or regular gas, make it incredibly obvious that you don't ever put regular gas in 2-cycle. I made that mistake, too. It blows up your equipment in 2 seconds. And final tip, this is so important. Like, this is a sod cutter machine. You might get jobs doing sod, and you can make really good money ripping up and replacing sod and doing lawn repair. But are you gonna go out and buy a multi $1,000 machine when you don't do that every day? No. Find a local equipment rental place.
Keith Kalfas 00:13:20 - 00:13:56
I have done the math, and I have actually saved and made more money by renting equipment and renting dingoes and stuff like that. So you can rent all the equipment that maybe you can't afford to buy right now, and you can go make money today by renting equipment. Really smart. Step number 6: build your skills and your knowledge. Now cutting grass, trimming bushes, pulling weeds, spreading mulch, that's all easy stuff. You never wanna do anything that would dishonor your client, and don't bite off more than you can chew. But there's a saying that I heard that this is powerful. Make a big promise and then grow into that promise.
Keith Kalfas 00:13:57 - 00:14:38
So you can take on jobs that are bigger and outside of your comfort zone, and that's good because now you got time to close the gap by making phone calls, watching videos, and doing the research, and learning how to do that job the right way. Or you can make friends with other landscapers who are doing jobs you don't know how to do and go work with them for free or offer to work for a day or two and learn that. So now you're really proactive in those bigger jobs. And when you start getting bigger ticket jobs, that's how you're gonna learn and build your knowledge and your skill set. Let's go talk about pricing. Step number 7 is pricing. How much should you charge to do landscaping services? Well, check this out. Let's say the absolute bare minimum you wanna make is $25 per hour.
Keith Kalfas 00:14:40 - 00:15:30
You wanna times that by three and charge $75 per billable man-hour. Right? So let's say something takes you 2 hours. You should charge no less than a $150, just labor to do that. So there's something called t and m. That's time and materials. Right? So if something takes you 2 hours, 75 times 2 is 150. And let's just say you got a $150 in materials like overhead to your kind of cost of goods sold. You should charge 150 times 2 is $300 to do something that'll take you 2 hours. So if you wanna make $25 an hour pure profit, which is gonna be pretty low, you're gonna make a lot higher than that if you're just by yourself solo.
Keith Kalfas 00:15:31 - 00:16:16
You times whatever you wanna make by 3. You don't tell your customer it's $75 a man-hour. You just give them a price in a line item. And then you add the materials. Let's say there's mulch or whatever it is, and you put those two numbers together, and that's how you get your price. That's called a 50% gross profit margin, or 50% GPM, or a 100% markup. What that means is you figure out all the costs of what it takes you to do this job to the best of your knowledge, and you want to get a stopwatch and start clocking your jobs. And say if something's going to cost you about $500 to get this all done, you wanna times that number by 2, and that's what you charge is $1,000.
Keith Kalfas 00:16:17 - 00:16:43
So that way, when the job is all done, you made half a 50% gross profit margin. And something that's really cool there's a software that'll help you do all this stuff in your billing and invoicing. I'm an ambassador of a software called Jobber. You can get a huge discount after a free 2-week trial. Plug it into your business, and my exclusive link is getjobber.com/kalfus. Click the link in the description below, and you can sign up for Jobber. That'll help you tremendously.
Jobber Ad 00:16:44 - 00:17:35
More of the untrapped podcast right after this. Hey. If you're looking for what is probably the greatest software ever to run your business on, go to get jobber.comforward/Keith. You can create proposals, invoices, collect payments, even track your entire business directly on the Jabber smartphone app. And if you wanna get a totally free trial of Jabber right now, open your browser, type in get jobber.comforward slash Keith. And if, after the trial, you decide you wanna sign up with Keith's link, you'll automatically get 20% off your 1st 6 months. So what are you waiting for? Go to get jobber.comforward/Keith. This is untrapped with Keith Kalfas.
Keith Kalfas 00:17:36 - 00:18:00
So rewind the video if you have to and, watch this, and make sure you're charging properly. Let's go to the next step. So step number 8 is you have to learn how to market your business and you have to learn some advertising. I've written books about this. This is my latest book. This one's all nuts and bolts; how do you get more landscaping customers? This book these are on Amazon and Audible. You can listen to this while you work.
Keith Kalfas 00:18:00 - 00:18:50
This will help you overcome a lot of the challenges as sticking points and grow your confidence in your business. And then also, there's a lot of free information on the internet but you can also get really specific by getting into group coaching or online courses. I just launched the untrapped alliance where you can get on Zoom calls with me and a tight knit group of people that will literally walk you through the sticking points in your business and help you get to the next level. But, nonetheless, I want you to get out there and crush it, and I wanna hear about your success. Leave a comment below. And one more thing, I wanna be a 100% real with you. Starting and getting a landscaping business off the ground is not easy. It's really challenging because you have to take a lot of other stuff that was going on in your life and kinda like push it to the side and focus to get the plane off the ground.
Keith Kalfas 00:18:50 - 00:20:04
And there's gonna be really challenging moments, but there's this sweet spot that you get into, and it's freaking unbelievable. It's where you start to learn the way that this thing works, and your subconscious mind starts reshuffling the deck and neurons that fire together wire together. Right? When you start getting some successes and making more money in a day than you used to make in a week, something like it's like you come online. You're like, you start connecting all these dots, and this that for me, it changed my life because especially when I started learning up, like, how to do ornamental tree trimming and landscaping installs, I was on fire, bro, and I still am. But the sweet spot is where you start seeing, like, customers and money everywhere and all these people that you can take care of. And when you do what you say you're gonna do when you say you're gonna do it, whether you feel like it or not, and you take your business serious, the moment you take your business serious, and you take yourself serious, that's when all these customers will take you more serious, and you'll start getting the money that you want. But if you're kinda half-assing it and you're on the fence and you don't feel it, people are smart. They'll pick up on it, and they might hire somebody else instead of you.
Keith Kalfas 00:20:04 - 00:20:39
But when you're a 100% committed, that's when the right employees start showing up because they can feel your commitment. So when you go all in, I'm talking, you can make 5, 6 grand a week. I literally have you can make I don't know what it is for you. If I said $10 a month, is that a good number? You can make 15, 20, 30, 40, $50,000 a month. Now that's revenue. It's not all profit. Right? Of course, you're gonna have to reinvest back into your business. But I'm telling you, you can do such a good job and make so much money, and you got this.
Keith Kalfas 00:20:40 - 00:20:50
This is the year. 2025 is the time to get it. This is your time to shine. I'm rooting for you. Hit the subscribe button. Let me know what's up in the comments below. I'm Keith Kalfas. Much respect to you.
Keith Kalfas 00:20:50 - 00:20:51
Peace.
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