I just turned 40 and would like to change my line of work. I have owned a pizza chain rest for 2 years and I am selling it for about $100k. I want to start a business that will generate $60-75k. I am willing to work as much as needed, but would like to see it grow steadily. If this is a stupid question I will not be offended if anyone calls a spade a spade. The question is what type of equipment would offer me the best chance at success, and could a driven person succeed with little experience. Heavy equipment has been sort of a dream of mine for a long time. I lost my father recently and at the end he told me to follow my dream no matter what, but this is easier said than done. Any help anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time. Hal Bartlett Nolensville, TN
Do you have experience operating H.E.?
Find an old phone book and look up contractors in the Yellow pages and compare it to a current Yellow page listing, you can probably anwer your own question. Good luck.
Well thank you for your reply. I appreciate your time.
Many hours in a skid loader a few years ago but nothing on anything bigger.
Yeah Hal , sorry about the loss of your Father . That's a tough stage in life for all of us . I was going to suggest a pizza chain with cold barley soda on tap . Old folks like me love pizza & beer . I'm in my mid 40's now and if I had to start out from scratch today I would still go with a rubber tire loader / backhoe combination . Very versatile machine capable for many different jobs . Master that machine and you will be able to run Damn near anything
Thank u 25. I appreciate the guidance. You are the second person to suggest the loader/backhoe combo. I truly appreciate your time.
If there were one type of machine that gave people the best shot at making money, there would be no need to make or sell any other type of machine. Machines don't make money, they cost money. They depreciate, they break down, they need maintenance, you need a place to store them, you need equipment just to move your other equipment....the list goes on. Contracts make money. A client needs a service performed--->your bid is accepted---->you're on your way to making money (IF you priced it out correctly so that you've covered your fixed and variable costs for the job and you've figured in a little profit for yourself.) If you buy a machine with the intent of figuring out how to make some money with it, you're on the fast track to losing money. You need to study the market in your area. Hire a business coach to help you do this. Skip this step and you'll be better off using your money to take a year off from work and tour the USA in an RV (if you're going to part ways with your money, you should do it in a way that's going to be enjoyable). Customers seldom care what you use to get the job done. Machines are tools. Figure out the work that you want to do and then start by renting the machine that you NEED in order to get the job done. Guys our age are more likely to be looking to get out of excavating and into pizza making than vice-verse. :drinkup My advice is to prepare yourself for longer and harder hours, more stress and less net income. Be prepared to lose money the first few years. Equipment is the production side of the business. You need to figure out the office side of the business if you want to make money. Hire a business coach to talk about what you want to get out of your career.
You may like some videos on YouTube check Ditch witch 20 20 Directional drilling. Then see who offers as such in your area.
Thank you for your advice. It is truly appreciated. I will take what you said to heart. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Looks like you can start small and grow. I appreciate the advice. It is very constructive and helps me intensely. Thank you for your time.
Renting equipment might be a better way than buying. Rent what you need and turn it back in when you're done.
I'd also suggest a TLB and go after residential customers. The Kubota M59 comes to mind, but they're expensive, don't have a cab and they're no match for a fullsize hoe. The upside is the ability to transport with a 3/4-1 ton truck and 14k trailer. Get the right truck and you won't even need a cdl. Find an unfilled niche and scratch the crap out of it!
Great way to explain what I'm trying to find. The unfilled niche. Thank you for your time. I need all the information that I can get. Truly appreciate all the help.
I dunno man. There's following your dreams, which is a great sentiment and all, and then there's dropping out of an established business into something you know nothing about. If the deal isn't done already, I would strongly suggest pulling the reigns back before you jump balls deep into being a dirt contractor from a pizza chef. If the restaurant is self sufficient, go get a job and work for a contractor for awhile. I'm trying to tell you to try it before you blow 100k on equipment and are taken for everything you are worth. I'm not calling you stupid, don't get me wrong, but if I wanted to start a business and had the resources like you say you do, I would just double check that I really wanted it first. :my2c
Thank you sincerely. I agree with you completely. I was planning on trying to get a job in the field first. My first step was to feel out how stupid an idea this was. As well as to try to find a niche as another member of this forum put it in this arena. I have bought and sold four restaurants in the 15 years I have been doing this all have been Domino's. I flip them usually within the first 3 years. Truth be told I am running out of areas to buy. Dominos wants people to build new stores as there aren't nearly as many poorly performing stores as there used to be. How about this....knowing what you know about your business what areas would you consider to be lucrative with the best odds of success. Granted you have valuable experience that I do not possess. Thank you for your time as everyone's is valuable and lending your ear to perfect stranger is going above and beyond. I have posted on many forums and this one truly has changed my opinion of people. I appreciate the info and help that everyone has given me and would love to return the favor in any way possible. Thanks again.
a skid steer and mini excavator makes a versatile combo you should be able to get both good used low hour for 100k for the pair ,low operating cost and if doesn't work out you should be able to sell and get most your money back. do smaller jobs and get a feel for your market before you get in over your head.
Good point clintm . Being Hal has a little experience on skid steer that might be the way to go . Add a backhoe attachment & over the tire tracks and end up with a machine capable of many tasks in a wide range of job sites . http://www.ebay.com/itm/John-Deere-...t-used-once-low-hour-Heavy-Duty-/221802602038 We go everywhere & do about anything with our skid combo unit . It's a little money machine . HeavyEquipmentForums HeavyEquipmentForums Septic system HeavyEquipmentForums It's a handy little rig .
A skid loader is a great place to start, as I'm sure above posters have mentioned. Ours seems to show up on almost every job we do, granted it is there as a support piece mainly to do some fine grading here and there. I'm not entirely sure how I would proceed that way. Snow removal, small building pads, maybe some tree and brush removal. Maybe you have contacts through your dominos dealings which could get you the snow removal jobs. Have you ever thought of combining your knowlege of the restaurant dealings to, as you said, open up new stores? Do some demo work with your equipment if necessary, throw a little site prep in, get the store up and running and sell it, rinse repeat. You'll have to have something to pull your machine around, maybe a little dump truck that can double as your mover for your skid, get yourself a little trailer to pull it around. Keep in mind you'll want a big enough skid loader or a truck with a low enough box so you can load material in the truck. Lots of things to consider, chances are right out of the gate you won't have the stuff you need to do the jobs like you want, its just about what you will be willing to do to get by, not to mention competing with the guys that -do- have the stuff. They might bury you every time you take a shot. hope this helps
Thank you very much for the suggestions. Every morsel of information that I can get from you all is extremely valuable to me. I want to do this but my desire will never out weigh the fact that I know too little about the profession to be able to compete with people that have been doing this for years and have probably forgotten more than I will ever know. I was hoping that there were/are jobs that may be too small to make it worth while for some of the larger professionals. In this way it would be easy for some of them to throw some work my way. Truly nothing is or ever will be beneath me. I would do whatever whenever in order to get by. I just wonder if there are enough smaller type jobs for it to make sense. Again thank you for you time and attention. It really means a ton to me. If any of you guys are ever in Springfield TN or Nolensville TN please stop by the Dominos and get some pizzas etc. I'd love to return the favor for all the help in some way. Thanks again. Truly.
Thank you very much 25. I appreciate all the information and suggestions. Really wish I had started this as a younger man but oh well. lol. Thank you for your time. Truly appreciate it.
Hal, I'm with jaclo on this. I'd keep the pizza chain, if its profitable, and consider starting something small on the side. Buy something used, learn to operate, work it until the new business picks up, and then make a choice on your directions in life. It would be alot easier to sleep at night if the bills were paid by the pizza shop while you got your education at "night school"... And even then, if both work out well, there would be nothing wrong with hiring a competent manager to run the pizza while you sling dirt. Markets tank, jobs lose money, stuff breaks down all the time. Keep some diversification to offset when things dont work out. Trust me, it happens. Good luck
I agree. Start the business as a sideline and grow from there. I worked construction my wholelife and always wanted a pizza chain.
Well one of my wealthiest clients that's not a big corporation, fry's chicken and serves pizzas. Of course that doesn't really mean anything as business's are so different it's not fair to compare one to the next - they own 7 chicken joints and one pizza place. However I do know what it's like to want to make a go at what you really want to do and enjoy it. My advice is to proceed cautiously, it's rough getting into a new business you know little about. There is no franchise you can buy to move dirt, no manuals, no corporate marketing or branding that comes with it. You have to forge that trail on your own, in a market full of cut rate "businesses" that think if money is flowing through the checkbook they are making a profit. It's tough competing against "bubba and backhoe" who will work for damn near nothing to keep busy. When times get slow and they will, your competition will be cutthroat. That's why I focus on the commercial work, which requires a tremendous amount of paperwork, insurance and everything that goes with it. The money is better and the bubba's are not competition, although that doesn't insulate one from the cutthroat practices when things get slow in that market either. Where I've landed has come from being in the construction business for over 20 years. Learned the trade over those years and made a lot of mistakes along the way, earned and lost a lot of money too. Still learning to this day. Is it doable? Absolutely, people carve a nice living out of the excavation business everyday. Is it easy? No. There is a lot of knowledge that is required to run a successful excavation business even if it's one guy and a machine. If your gut tells you to do it and your heart is in it - go for it. It's not going to be easy and you don't know if you'll be successful but you'll never know unless you try.
Very good advice here. Use caution, extreme caution. Most guys here have scratched their way into businesses that make money, that would probably still make money even if they just rented a machine and did not own it. Owning the machine can increase profits and production if you have enough work to support owning it. Countless owners go belly up at some point running iron. I would not buy anything unless you already have work to justify it... So many here are multi skilled individuals which would make it with or without owning... they would find a way and with out the money... I own lots of machines, each one serves me, each one allows me to get more kinds of work, with out me they are useless, each one is like a baby, they require my time... and sometimes they just sit...waiting for ME to get more work...almost anyone can run these machines, less can repair them, even less can find work for them... every man more successful than me tells me to hire a guy to drive them... put a body in each machine and make money off other men's labor and off my machines.. but I continue alone...and sometimes I wonder what's next... and sometimes all I want is 2 months off to get caught up... but I would never take my nest egg and sink it in a depreciating asset.. unless a perfected business model was in place and already making it..
Remember Hal, tomorrow could be the last day for anyone of us. It would suck to lay on one's death bed and think of the things he hasn't tried to do! And besides, in the end don't we all leave broke? Good luck with whatever you decide.
Man. I am so grateful for all the advice and information that has been lended to me here. I truly appreciate everyone giving me their time.
I think I would look for a need (work, job, project) and then find the machine that would perform as needed. You do not need a dozer if you are going to be digging trenches. If you buy a dump truck but do not have any dirt work in your area, it is wasted capital.