Go to College or Start a Lawn Care Business?
Sam grew his lawn care business from 5 to 80 customers by 19 but faces burnout and family pressure to go to college. Mike Andes argues community college covers what you need to run a small business, and an MBA is built for corporate jobs, not scaling a lawn company.
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Landscape architecture, all that kind of stuff. And then I've also thought about getting into getting an MBA or getting a business degree or a four year degree, which is what I'm doing right now in community college. So I don't know which is kind of more value.
Exactly what I want to do. I've thought about both branches, my business of either taking it down a bit, like a little critique with it and having like 40 different customers and trying to just like doing it myself. Just kind of doing the everything for them, you know, that way I have to worry about our another employee or maybe I should just hit the gas next season. Kind of like I did this year. I mean I got 80 customers. I probably could have had like 100 plus if I, you know, just really wanted to. But I got burn out right now too. Or should I. Yeah, should I like make sure to kind of just hit the gas and then try to get more customers, hire on some more help. That way I can focus on school a little bit more.
Are you wanting to go to school or is it your parents?
My parents.
See that's the thing. So like I think the big thing is like, no, are they paying for it or are you paying for it?
So actually we have two for years that are community colleges.
So the government pay for it for the community college. But then you're thinking about beyond that. Right. Like, like the thing is like if you're going to your mba, for example, it's not going to be relevant to law enforcement.
Right, right.
Like what you're, are you doing in business class in community college now?
Yeah.
That's going to cover 90% of what you need to know. Right. Like balance sheets, income statements, a little bit of marketing and things like that. But like you're getting your MBA is going to be like more for a corporate level. Like knowing, you know, cash flow statement, a, you know, a Fortune 500 company is not gonna help you very much.
Right.
And knowing, you know, certain regressions and things on, on stock market standpoint, like it's not gonna help you a lot. But if your parents are pushing you in that direction, that becomes, well, if you're, if you're still dependent on them for like living and all the rest, that's, they kind of get the, the last call on that.
Right, right. No, I, I could move out, have my own place and I can catch. I've got pretty decent money, a lot of money saved up. They're just giving me some living space. They definitely want.
College. And I've gone back and forth on, you know, I could do the lawn care business, get through it, or I could do the college and try to do it this and that time. But honestly, right now I am burned out. I don't want to do anything. It's just been. It's been a tough year. You know, we've got leaves coming up and stuff. And I'm just thinking about, well, I need to take a few weeks off and kind of figure out what I want to do do. I want to, like, get serious college and kind of downsize that. I really want to go serious with the lawn care stuff.
So. Have you grown since 20?
Yeah, I started when I was like 13, so I'm 19 now. So, yeah, I've usually doubled every year. Like when I first started, I had like five customers, and then make sure I got 10. Make sure you got 20. Next year got 40, and like next year I got 80. So there's definitely room for growth. There's a lot of things I could do. And I actually have a guy, he does Hardscape installs, big 30, $40,000 installs. He went to college actually. He's like, hey, you can work me this winter. Learn some of the fingers and patios and stuff. Like, maybe I can go do that some. So I'm not exactly sure yet. I'm not sure.
It's one of those things is like, you know, you're young enough for. It doesn't really matter.
Right.
Like, you could do school, come out, and you're still gonna be young.
Right.
So it's not really a big deal. But on the flip side, like, just know that you're not gonna get, like, a whole lot, like, tangible advice from a business standpoint, going to business school.
Yeah, I can tell it already.
It's just like, you're gonna learn more. You have learned more than what you will learn in school for small business right now. If you're going to scale up and I imagine your parents want you to have a backup plan, that's why they want go to school, right?
Yes.
Right. So the thing is though, if you know you're going to do this for the rest of your life. Right.
I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's. That's a good point. Yeah. I'm not. I'm not sure yet. I like doing it, but at the same time, I'm kind of going through that, like, burnout cycle.
Yeah. You almost got to choose one or the other, Right?
Yeah.
Because like, otherwise you're either going to do lousy in school because you're focusing the business I'm doing or the business is going to do lousy because you're trying to like, you know, do homework and all the rest of it. Right. So or, or you say, hey, look, I'm just going to keep it small for now. I'm going to cut to 40, 50 of my best customers get through school and then I'll grow it.
Right, right, right.
There's no right or wrong. It's just a matter of like, you know, what do you want?
Right, right.
Cuz I imagine you want to do the business. Right.
Yeah, I don't really like knowing.
So what do you got to do to convince your parents with that? Do they not see the, the value long term or.
No, they do. I mean I, they wanted me to do civil engineering, like construction stuff and go do that. I squished out of that degree. So they were already like pissed about that, but they like accepted it.
Is your dad an engineer?
So he wasn't, he was a engineer, but he did work in construction. My grandparents did construction. So they like the construction, civil engineering type stuff.
Lawn care is so cheap.
Yeah, yeah, right, right. Yeah. But I mean, they wouldn't be like, oh, we hate you, you know, but they would kick me out of the house. But I'm okay with that.
They're not going to hate me, but they'll kick me out.
Yeah, I'm okay with that. But you know.
I think you got to do what's right for you. Also, you got to remember too, if you want to do the long hair thing and you're going to resent them.
Yeah.
For the fact that they kept you back for two, three years or whatever. That's not going to help for the relation to be there.
Yeah, right, right.
So you know, if you value that, you might almost do what you want just to be able to say, hey, like I'm standing on my own two feet.
Right, right. Yeah. I guess we could kind of figure out which way I want to take and then kind of take a harder ride or a hard ride.
Just downscale, you know, you could do it on the weekend if you did 30, 40 customers that are your highest profit ones.
Right.
Doing the weekends while you're still in school.
Right. Yeah, right. Yeah, I got you.
But like I came to the point I was late to class all the time. I was like, dude, I just can't finish.
Hey, you're superhuman. I've seen your. And it's just like you had those that one year where you were like starting out, you Were doing like long care, 8 to 3 and then training from like 3 to 6. And then you were doing the NBA classes from like. I'm like, how did he do that? There's some days where I would have worked 8 to 6 and then I would have classes from like 6 to 12 in the, in the night. I'm like, man, this is terrible.
It's a stage though, right? You'll get through it.
Right.
You're young enough. Like when I was. You can just sleep a few hours. You're good to go.
Right, Right.
You'll be fine. Because if you do that, if you wanted to get through school, have a really good degree and then you come out, you have a business that's doing 150 grand a. Yeah, dude, you're in a good spot.
Right.
You know? Right. Most people come out of college and they're like, oh, I don't know if I should work at McDonald's or, you know, Starbucks.
Right? Yeah, yeah.
Especially coming to business. Business school is not going to give you a job.
Right, Right.
Like, unless you're going to go to Bain and McKinsey or Boston, like, consulting, you're not going to get a job from a business. Right?
Yeah, yeah. Which is what I'm like, definitely thinking. But I think it would be valid to have something as a backup because, I mean, I guess if it's a regular general business degree, it's very flexible. It doesn't guarantee you a job, but it does like your resume. To the point.
But the thing is, are you going to work for anyone else? Right. Yeah. Like, that's what you gotta figure out. If you want it as a backup plan, it's a great backup plan. But if you already have determined your head, like, Noah is never going to work for anybody else but yourself.
Yeah.
They're like, what's the point? Right.
Good point.
Because you can hire an accountant. Right?
And yeah, I have, like, I went.
And got an mba and I don't, I do my accounting.
Right.
I don't do my legal work.
Yeah.
If I go on the stock market, but I'm not going to be doing my investment banking. Right, Right. So, like, it's just knowledge is power. But on the flip side, like, look, I can hire someone else and they.
Have all that knowledge on their head, right? Yeah, yeah. Delegation. Yeah, that's, that's, that's really important. But yeah, I think that's, that's definitely good. And I've worked one other. So, yeah, about one, two other jobs. I was a lifeguard for, like, two years.
Hated it.
I hated working for somebody else. And then I worked for. I worked for the other guy doing hardscaping for like a week. And I just. I mean, it was okay. I didn't really like working for him, but I learned some things, so. But yeah, I'm definitely like, I've got the bug away. I don't know. I thought about, maybe I'm burned out. Maybe I need to go try a different job and see if I like the job better. So I'm not sure, but I think.
Some time off would be great.
But I'm sorry, I'm talking your head off. But I love your. Love your videos.
They're great, man. You need to watch them every day. I'd like to invite you to Landscape Summit. It's the conference we have in January of 2022. Go to landscapebusinesscourse.com conference for more details. We talk about P4P efficiencies and how you can grow your lawn care and landscaping business. I look forward to seeing you there, Sam.
