(Me & Dan Platta Blue Skies CEO)

I have spent years building up my business, and I have made plenty of mistakes along the way. One of those mistakes was trying to do all of my bookkeeping on my own. I used to spend days trying to record all of my transactions and balance my business expenses, and at the end of all my hard work, it was still a mess.

After trying it myself and giving my statements to my tax accountant, they basically had to scrap it and do it themselves. That cost me hundreds of dollars and wasted a lot of my time, and it was fairly embarrassing. So the next year I got a bookkeeper to do all of that hard work for me, and when I turned it in to my accountant the following year, they were super impressed with the quality of the work, and it helped me out a ton throughout the year.

What a Bookkeeper Can Do for You

If you only have a few things going in and out of your business account, you can probably do your books yourself. Although as your business starts...

I am super excited for the Marketing ROI live workshop this year. It is taking place on March 25th & 26th, and I personally believe it could be the most impactful thing you do for your business this year. I wholeheartedly think that marketing was the one thing that held me back the most. If I could have attended this workshop when I first started my business, I would have skipped over years of mistakes. 

Marketing Is More Difficult than It Should Be

You are going to learn a ton about business at this workshop, and most of it pertains to marketing. Marketing as a whole is relatively complicated, but it does not have to be. There is no doubt that you should be doing a whole lot of marketing in your business, but remember, you still have to run the business.

Some people get so caught up in marketing that the rest of the business starts to slip. In my opinion, you should take what you learn from this workshop and double down on a few key aspects. You do not have to try...

The most important thing you can do for your business is to get your money right. Ironically, making money is not the hardest part of business. Managing it is. If you mismanage your money, you can get yourself in trouble quickly. It is only a matter of time before bills pile up higher than you expected, or you get audited by the IRS.

So I made a business money Blueprint course where I go in-depth about how I manage my money and tell you everything you need to know to do it on your own. This article is going to be a brief overview of what you can expect from the hours of video you will get in the full course. If you want your business to succeed, you should really check out this course. 

Getting Your Business Legal

The first step to making a successful business is making sure you make it legal. Once your business gets big enough(making multiple thousands a month) it is time to create its own business entity.

This is where you should hire a tax professional. These tax...

When you start a landscaping business, it can be difficult to feel like you can find enough work to go full-time. Well, I am here to tell you that finding customers is not near the problem you think it is. You just have to learn the basics of marketing and finding customers honestly feels super easy. Plus while you are just getting started, you can find those couple hundred dollar package deals all day long if you know where to look.

So let’s take a look at everything you can do to find new customers. A few of these things are something you can go out and do right now, while others build up over time. Physical marketing definitely has its place in the business, but having your own website and marketing online is a must if you want continued success.

There Are So Many Customers Out There

When you first start looking for customers it can be hard to realize just how many people out there need your services. Let me tell you, there are way more people out there that NEED you than...

I have used ExMark mowers for years and I have been very impressed with not only the mowers but the company as a whole. They make awesome mowers that are super high quality, and they have a mower for everyone. They are easy to work on and easy to get parts for. Plus, you will definitely have the best mower in the neighborhood if you are riding on an ExMark. Let’s take a look at exactly what I love about ExMark mowers.

They Make Quality Mowers

Everything on an ExMark has been optimized for performance. Their parts are made to prevent failures, and if they do fail they are easy to replace. Their hydro drive system is “painless” because it is designed in a way that eliminates hoses and other typical failure points. Plus the tow valves can be operated without the use of tools.

Their ultra-cut deck is just amazing. Their top-tier engineering ensures that the cut always looks good, and more importantly, the mower keeps cutting. These mowers have been optimized to reduce...

As a small business owner, every dollar counts. After you initially get your business off the ground, it can be tempting to start buying all sorts of toys that you have always wanted. However, items that you buy that are not going to make you money, are huge liabilities for owners of a young small business. While you may be able to afford it this month, who knows what will happen next month.

Typical Profit Margins

If you are running a basic small business, you already know that there are tons of expenses that you need to keep up with. You have to pay for materials, labor, taxes, gas, and countless other things. All of these things add up and eat away at your profits.

Typically the average small business makes about 20% net profits. So if they are doing a $5,000 job, they make $1,000 in profit after they pay everyone else. 20% profit margins are honestly pretty good. Many businesses make much less than that. Owners of larger businesses can make as little as 3-5% net profits after...

Starting a business is already an impressive feat, although growing that business is a whole new ballgame. Plenty of people have built their own businesses and have truly worked hard day after day and doubled their income over and over again. However, for many of them, there is a plateau where they can only make so much money because they only have so many hours in the day. If you have reached this point in your business, it may be time to get some outside help.

What Is a Virtual Assistant

That outside help would be a virtual assistant! A virtual assistant is someone online that you can hire to do any various tasks that take up your time. Just think about it, if you have a landscaping business, you likely have hired guys to help with(or take over) the manual labor that the job entails. Likewise, these virtual assistants can do all the mundane, time-consuming tasks that businesses require.

Then after you have all the virtual assistants that you need, you are free to do the important...

If you want to take your small-time grass-cutting business to the big leagues, you have to start getting higher-paying jobs. You also have to expand the services you offer. What happens when you are a trusted company in an area that can do every single task a customer needs, is a much higher paying total package type of job. These jobs can get to well over twenty thousand dollars, but I would not plan on starting at twenty thousand, you have to work your way up.

Start Small

If you are just starting out in the landscape game, you have to keep it small until you figure out what you are doing. Start by cutting grass, then expand into shrubs, gutters, edging, replanting, etc. Start figuring out how to do these jobs effectively, and when you eventually are able to hire workers, you will know how to do it the right way and you can teach them. The last thing you want is to be working a high-paying job and have one of your employees completely botch their part.  

Work Your Way Up...

American culture today makes it seem so difficult to start and run your own successful business, but I am here to tell you it is not nearly as hard as they make it out to be. With just a small amount of money, you can start making over $500 a day. While it may not be easy, and it is definitely not a way to get rich quickly, window cleaning is a solid business that can make you a lot of money. Like any real business venture, it requires hard work. If you are willing to get out there and knock door to door, you will be able to pay your bills by cleaning windows before you know it.

Get the Basics

To get started on your new business you will need a small amount of equipment. You should be able to get everything you need for around $50 at your local hardware store. Personally, I like Lowes because their store brand is higher quality than HomeDepot, but either will work.

The most important thing you are going to need is a squeegee and scrubber. You can get these for around $20, and you...

Building a successful local business is hard enough on its own. Handling all of the online tasks can be exhausting, especially if you have never done it before and are just shooting in the dark. After spending years building my business and fumbling through the noise of the industry, I decided to put together a small list of things that I had to figure out the hard way. Hopefully, you can use these tips to get ahead in your area, and if you do them just like I did, your website will be converting more customers than anything else you have ever tried. 

Where I Built My Website

The first step to having a high converting website is… a website. There are dozens of platforms that you can use to build websites nowadays. Places like WordPress, Square Space, Wix, and GoDaddy are great but I personally use Kajabi to build my website. This is partly because they are wonderful at hosting my courses, but they also have a nice website builder and even handle email marketing....