Is there money to be made by working?

[upupandaway]

Personal advice - don't buy the mowers to fix and sell. Doing so, as u learned, parts kill any profit. The ones i get\fix\resell, I only pick up if complete and decent looking as a minimum. Although if the engine looks and pull feels good, then get it only to remove and test\cleanup\sell the engine alone.

 

[bertsmobile1]

If I was setting up from scratch I would go the way Jonnie went and just service walk behinds on an annual basis.
Buying B & S filters in 200 or more lots brings then down to 50¢ a piece and the swing back blades we use here to under $ 2 each for most mowers.
SAE 30 mower oil is about $ 2 / litre when bought in 44 gallon drums, spark plugs go for $ 1.50 when bought in 144 commercial sheets , it gets really cheap.
A full service on a walk behind may take as little as 20min if you are set up with all of the modified tools to make life easy and as you service the mower annually no surprises like wheels rusted solid onto the axels, missing parts etc etc which kill me on flat rate services and it take 1/2 hour to get a rusted dry bearing off an axel .
HE leaves them with a reciept & a report if some thing major will need to be done which he may or may not do at a latter date for an extra fee.

A riding buddy is setting himself up as a mower leasing service.
HE buys warranty returns by the pallet load, and makes some good ones out of them.
He used to try & sell these but as most were supermarket brands, no one would pay a reasonable price.
Then he twigged to leasing when his daughter bought into one of those "rent for keeps" deal on a TV and he saw she was going to pay 2.5 times the full retail price over the 4 year contract .
So now he leases them out along with a service guarantee so he basically will be swapping mowers over at the end of each season for another that he has serviced during to off season.
Same story, all the customer want is a no hassell mower that starts on the first pull & works.
They really do not care if it is an Aldi Chinese special or top of the line Honda just so long as it cuts the grass .
I think he was getting $ 10 / month for a push & $ 15 for a SP.
He is getting a lot of pensioner customers

 

[Jamietodd]

I would like some input from members regarding making money by restoring riders. I am retired and started picking up old mowers to repair or restore for resale, or sometimes just giving them away to people in need. I usually break even after a sale but ultimately the work is just because I enjoying fixing things.

Recently I bought a used 42" Craftsman rider for $50. The deck was in good shape. The mower was complete except the engine cowling was missing. I completed a frame off overhaul: rebuilt the engine(18.5hp B&S), disassembled the transmission(6 speed manual) to replace bearings and seals, replaced all the pulleys and idlers, pto clutch($110), new blades, starter, carb(will fit), battery, and belts. Without any discounted parts from OEM's, I've got just south of $800 in invested.

Considering a box store 42" lists for $1900 has anyone out there been able to establish a way to by discounted parts?

Selling Push Mowers
Over the years i sold any brand i would only sell clean better than average units. I found getting the parts for certain brands made it impossible
to make a great profit. I am not licence or have retail sales tax numbers. Today i only sell older Toros with Suzuki/ Briggs engines. These older units
are made well and don't break down. It seems the average person agrees the units are well made- they pay the price knowing the machine is quality.

 

[Charlie8d]

There is a retired small engine repairmen here who wanted to work part- time, but be able to make some extra cash. He no longer does repairs, but picks up & delivers mowers to other shops for repairs. He has a small pickup & a trailer that will haul 2 riding mowers at a time. He makes more doing this than repairing. He charges $50 round trip for a mower, if it is within 15 miles each way.

 

[footballfan33]

My thought is that depending on where you live and what the landscaping business is like there, you could build a niche: selling to high volume guys. They break a mower and need something quick, they buy your renovation as a backup.
My experience is that most good businessmen also tune/fix everything by themselves. But when they are short 1-2 workers, they don’t have the time to do maintenance. And they’ll know how much value you add better than the nickel and dimer general public.

 

[genevaemery]

My friend had a small mower shop where he sold all equipment and tools and also provided services. However, he was at a loss and decided to close the store. I have no idea what happened. Perhaps the pandemic situation is also a factor.

 

[bertsmobile1]

My big saviour was the contractors.
I give them overnight routine servicing and drop everything repairs.
Thus they drop their mowers to me in the afternoon on their way home & pick it up the next morning on their way to the next job.
Originally when I started most only did it once a season & now nearly all are doing it every couple of months.
These are the smaller contractors who do not have a workshop & run their businesses from home.
Thus I have all of the "clutter" associated with their business in my workshop and of course I need to have everything I need for their mowers in stock , so it is not cheap to set up .
Just another thought .

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I do a lot of same day service but i don't stock a large inventory of parts so i don't get a lot of the commercial guys. There is a shop that stocks a large inventory and does quick turnaround for commercial guys but they charge 3 times the hourly rate of me. They rape the commercial guys but they still have lots of business.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I do a lot of same day service but i don't stock a large inventory of parts so i don't get a lot of the commercial guys. There is a shop that stocks a large inventory and does quick turnaround for commercial guys but they charge 3 times the hourly rate of me. They rape the commercial guys but they still have lots of business.

I used to give the commercial guys a big discount thinking that price would be an incentive.
I was wrong
Time is what was important to them.
Their down time not needed to be spent on servicing the mowers and more important, lack of down time for equipment.
It is coming into winter down here but the local mower shop has a 3 week wait before they will even assess a mower then you can add another 4 to 6 weeks if they have to order in parts.
In town the story is the same but the big shop has a 1 week wait for quotation then it is 2 to 8 weeks for repairs .
Add to that they keep normal shop hours so the contractors can not pick up their mower before 7 am or drop it off after 6.
They all have keys to my yard so can pick them up any time which mostly will be between 4 & 6 am .
Small repair shops can not compete agains deep pockets if they are doing the exact same thing.
The trick I found is to do what the customer wants or needs rather than make them suit you .
One of my customers noticed his tranny was leaking so he dropped it in that day .
However the trannies ae sealed and have a life time warranty so it was either let me loose on it and void the warranty or send it to the shop he bought it from.
They quoted him 3 weeks before they would be able to pick it up + 3 weeks for repairs if it was not a warranty job or up to 9 weeks if it was an actual claimable warranty job.
It is a $ 5000 tranny so he went with the dealer & dropped his other 2 mowers in for an extra service so they would be able to cover for the mower that is out of service.

 

[charlie50]

Hi yall . yes not much $$$ in flipping riders . the only way ive found to make money on them is to be able to get the rider your gonna try and sell ether for free or at a very good price with hopes that there isn't a whole lot wrong with it . my rule of thumb (and y'all are gonna laugh at me ) is if the tires are cracked and wont hold air its junk . there may be some parts on it but its not worth putting a lot of effort in to it to try and get it running again .