Small tractor biz

What are some simple services I could provide with a compact tractor? I live in a small metropolitan area with a lot of suburbs. What services could I provide with my tractor that are one or two man jobs? Also would it be worth it to make a website or should I just lost to craigslist or put up a sign in my yard, I live on a somewhat busy street with high visibility. Also, I want to keep this an all cash business. Any tips? I also have a bush hog. Tractor is a deere 650 with a 3pt hitch. No bucket currently.

I was thinking:
Bush hogging
Large mowing jobs
Grading and mulch spreading
Fence installation

I'm very open to investing in new attachments. I will be purchasing a box blade and auger soon.

I'm also interested to hear of any people that paid for these services recently and what you liked or didn't like about the contractor. Was the price fair? If so how much?

I guess everyones too busy trading cryptos or penny stocks and arent interested in real forms of labor?

Earth moving / excavations?
Depending on where you live:

In Germany fire wood is a pretty good gig.
A friend had an old Deutz tractor and I had an old Nissan so we teamed up, bought us a big, used trailer and a woodsplitter.
We mostly deliver to old people and offered them to store the wood in the place of their choice.
Therefore we are a little bit pricier, but they enjoy someone doing this for them.
We often get a cup of coffee and a piece of cake or even a meal.

You just need wooded land and a good stihl chainsaw to start. It takes a little but you can easily do it in any spare time.
Otherwise rent some land and look into high intensity farming.
Can be pretty good too.

Generally old people are pretty good business.
The uses of a tractor are somewhat limited.
Offer them a handyman garden service. Mowing, triming, easy maintainence jobs, etc.
Small tree cutting etc.
All you need is a small truck like a 15-20yo Ford Ranger.( Fuck the newer trucks. Can't stand them.)
Some hand tools, gloves and bags and a good service attitude.

Print some flyers and distribute them in PWHOPD ( places with high old people density)
The rest is good work and mouth to mouth propaganda.

Thanks for the tips. I already have a toyota suv and a trailer to pull the tractor. I also have all necessary landscaping tools and a chainsaw. I will look into tree cutting. Im basically just trying to make some cash under the table to pay the bills for a while like 1k$ a month

Really a tractor is not the tool for town.

A skid steer would be much more suited for suburb work which is going to consist of 99% landscaping projects and deck post hole drilling in very tight quarters.

Nobody in town (here anyways) has brush, enough lawn to need a tractor, or would need grading.

Deutz guy here.
Under the table cash is hard with something that big.
Look into handyman stuff, janitorial jobs, snow removal etc.
Look at at your local newspaper whats needed and which areas are already "occupied"
Avoid big trees. Pain in the ass.


agreed!

Dem Tires. Too aggressive for a typical lawn. Tears shit up. That's big field machinery. If you got the clientele for that (those that don't already have what you have to offer), fine. You'll never compete against a zero-turn.

Off season, get a truck with a plow. Be dedicated to your customers.

At my old school there used to be a landscaping firm that used to bring a tractor with a grass cutter attached to the back every now and then to mow the huge sports field.

I would invest in some more sensible tyres and then look into larger cutting jobs. As another user posted, I would also consider getting a snow plough attachment and using it in the winter.

Bid on jobs to cut road medians and RoW.

My tires are actually not that aggressive. theyre turf tires, pic isnt my tractor, just the same model

bumperino

If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, hook up with wholesaler and get into some minor landscaping, like trees, shrubs, stuff to dress up a house. If you are already doing mulch, that's an easy "value-add". Even weed'n feed for the lawn.

Also, a website will give you some credibility. Doesn't have to be anything crazy. And for fucks sake make sure you have business cards. I just had some guy like literally 20 minutes ago stop by my office looking for lawn work. No business card. Not even a sign on the side of his truck or trailer (which had a zero-turn). He was fucking clueless. I sent him on his way....

Good tips thanks. I am definitely looking into some magnetic stickers for my truck and i want to repaint my trailer and bush hog to clean up their appearance.

What tractor attachments do you think that i could get consistent work out of? Im really not shooting for a lot of money, more so simple jobs without a lot of headache. I like to keep it simple.

If you have a brush hog and a post hole digger you are fine with the tractor.

The only items you can add to the tractor are a bucket loader and backhoe which are major bucks. And that starts delving into excavating type work that is beyond the scope of landscaping that (presumably) what you want to do.

You are in a good position with what you have and what you want to do.

in the back of your thought process, be mindful of succession planning. Be golden to your customer list. You want them dedicated to you as much as you are to them. They are truly your "asset" that you can sell to an employee or friendly competitor when it's time for you to move on from this business.

Gotcha good points. Yea drumming up good business is definitely going to be the hardest part.Thats why i want to stick with something simple too so that i can deliver a good reliable service. My plan right now is to fix up my place and some land i have doing what i would for others to get some basic systems down and costs. I do know a few landscapers already though and i know they dont have tractors. I appreciate the insight. Im also hoping to hop on the local business sentiment too though haha. People like that, when they can pronounce your name. Im in the u.s.

Ah yes, business accounts. Aim for those especially. Business accounts are most dedicated cuz they want to delegate that task and forget about it.

> fix up my place

Shit dude.... *that's* your key. Get people to your office. Make that beautiful, a display of your skills and ppl will seriously gravitate to that. Especially if you showcase different things you can do.

I've got a couple landscapers nearby. You should see the shit they do. Not just landscaping, lawns and planters but pavers, brick patios/walls (that gets into the excavating but in a minor way) and most impressively waterfalls and lighting.

If you don't have an official "office", these guys installed real nice sheds with windows, counters and conference table to be used as their office. People can wander around if they happen by but meetings by appointment only.

It's all about presentation. They started as just landscapers and then *they* grew to become wholesalers of plants, trees, mulch, stone. Doing wholesale as well as landscaping. These guys got it nailed. (stay away from the retail unless you are really ambitious and have the people to do it)

Fuck. You got me excited. If these guys weren't so close I'd shit-can my POS mfg business and consider getting into it myself.

That is a good point. When i say my place i mean my house i purchased a little while back. Im outside the city limits and on a road with good visibilty so im thinking put signage out and like you say, fix up the yard real nice as a showcase of services. I do have some space in the rear but not enough really for inventory. I could keep sod, fill and gravel around though. Thanks for the tips

All this in mind though, i really wish i could just do bush hogging of fields or finish mowing for $400 bucks a day and be done

Jesus fuck you got me going.....

And if you do well in the spring/winter/fall, fuck what I said about doing plowing in the winter.

If you do well profitably, fuck it all and head to Florida (or wherever) for the winter and park your ass on a beach till the spring.

Fuck I'm really beginning to hate you.

Put in 10-20 years, sell the bitch (or run it remotely, there's so much online accounting now) and live happily after.

Fuck. I *do* hate you OP.

> i really wish i could just do bush hogging of fields or finish mowing for $400 bucks a day and be done

Ok dude, I get that but no one makes money working for a living. You get the business going and throw the keys to your tractor whom you've trained and can trust.

Consider thinking bigger. Do "operations" now to get the business going but "your" job ultimately is "strategic planning"

(I gotta go, but I'll be back tomorrow when I'm back in the office of my POS mfg company)

FYI, My "brush hog" are lathes and milling machines. I have ppl doing that now. I haven't touched them in years.

I wouldnt discount the business you have. Especially if its running well. This business is just a sparkle in my eye at the moment. I def agree though about delegating tasks. Im young so all this is pretty foreign territory to me. Im somewhat concerned about the little things like branding, quickbooks, and incorporating an llc

Bumping

Branding - Don't use your name. That'll make it hard to sell. Come up with something catchy.

Quickbooks - It's cheap. It's easy. I use the high end version Quickbooks. You can easily do it yourself. Or if you want, go to a temp agency and hire someone for a few hours a week to do your bookkeeping. The beauty of Quickbooks (why I chose it) is that everyone in accounting these days are trained in it. They can do the actual setup and train you on it. I can't imagine your bookkeeping needs will be all that great. You can probably do that yourself in a couple hours a week.

Incorporating - talk around to ppl that might know a cheap lawyer or accountant. You might even be able to set it up on your own on nolo dot com. It adds a level of complexity but it protects your personal assets if you get sued by a customer with a bug up their ass. Keep your property and tractor in your name personally and rent/lease it to the LLC and make a profit on that rent/lease. Keep the LLC as asset-free as possible.

Personally, I keep my properties in my personal name and rent it to the business. This way if things go to shit, no one can attack the major assets. Of course, your LLC will need some sort of liability insurance which should be relatively cheap.

Oh, and make sure you keep a separate set of books for personal and business expenses/income. It is a classic maneuver of assholes to attack your personal assets when they see that you are using the business for personal expenses.

So yea, you need a lawyer, and accountant and an insurance person. All of this can be done on the cheap. Sit down with these people and lay it all out on the table so they understand exactly that you are not some Rockefeller or knucklehead and will advise you properly. If someone tries to sell you on something that is major bucks, that is your sign to say "thank you very much for your time, let me continue on with my thought process to make this work. I'll get back to you." and never go back to them again.

There are plenty of people that would love to work with you. There are also plenty of assholes out there wanting to do whatever it takes to make their commission. Watch your back...