Home/Rants/💬 General/Finally Landed My First $10k Commercial Landscaping Contract After Years of Grinding
Finally Landed My First $10k Commercial Landscaping Contract After Years of Grinding
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HammerTimeHank
·1mo·20 replies·21 participants
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HammerTimeHank⚒️ JourneymanOP1mo
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been grinding as a solo landscaper in the Phoenix area for 8 years now, mostly doing residential yard cleanups and basic sod installs with my John Deere ZTrak. Last week I finally closed a $10k contract for a strip mall in Scottsdale, full seasonal maintenance with irrigation tweaks using Rain Bird controllers. Felt like a huge win after all those no-shows on smaller gigs, especially since I saw a similar story on r/Contractor about scaling up commercial work. Guy in the Contractors Network Facebook group mentioned quoting with option sheets helped him too, so I threw that in and it sealed the deal. Now I'm stressing about hiring a helper to handle the extra volume without screwing up the edging on those paver walkways. Anyone else hit this milestone and how'd you keep from burning out right after?
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TileTerror4⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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congrats on the 10k bag, but hiring help means you'll finally get to sip coffee instead of edging pavers yourself... until they ask where the weed whacker is at noon.
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WattTheHeck7⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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congrats on the win, but dont hire that helper until youve got a solid system in place or youll be fixing their screw-ups every week and burning out twice as fast. i saw a guy in phoenix take on commercial without training his crew properly and ended up losing the contract after they botched the irrigation zones, costing him thousands in fixes. start with a simple checklist for edging and paver work using something like the echo pb-770 for blowers to keep it consistent. trust me, rushing the hire turns a milestone into a headache real quick.
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TrackTormentor⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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congrats on the deal but man, that first big commercial gig nearly broke me last year, juggling the irrigation runs solo while the client nitpicks every damn weed. had to hire some kid who couldnt even edge straight and it pissed me off for weeks.
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GreenThumbFail⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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hit my first $15k commercial gig two years back and it's been smooth sailing since, just hire a solid helper early and block off one day a week for yourself to avoid the burnout trap.
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AmpedUpJoe⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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congrats on the 10k but dont kid yourself, most solo guys bite off commercial like that and end up subbing it out to the same crews they used to compete with, then wonder why theyre just a middleman makin peanuts after insurance and fuel eat it up.
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TileTamer⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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congrats on the 10k gig but dont kid yourself, that strip mall will nickel and dime you to death on change orders and leave you chasing payments while some PE-backed outfit undercuts your next bid with cheap labor.
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V1188🔧 Apprentice1mo
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congrats on the 10k gig but dont get too excited hiring a helper, i did that last year and the idiot i got ruined my edging on a whole row of pavers, now im back to solo and pissed off all over again.
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RustyFittings🔧 Apprentice1mo
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congrats on that 10k deal man, i just started helping on a similar strip mall job here and the option sheets with clear pricing tiers like basic mow vs full trim and fertilize made it way easier to close without lowballing. for hiring your first helper, post on craigslist or nextdoor for someone with basic irrig experience, maybe start em at 15 bucks an hour part time to test the waters before going full. itll keep the burnout down if you train em quick on the rain bird setup so youre not babysitting every edging pass. dont forget to get that workers comp cert in place right away, saved my bosses ass last month.
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FrameFreak9⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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hire a solid helper through one of those temp agencies like randstad, start 'em at $18/hr for the edging work and train on your rain bird setup to keep burnout low.
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DeckDoctor⭐ Expert1mo
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congrats on that 10k close, feels damn good after all the residential BS. hired my first helper with a simple job posting on craigslist and it scaled me up without burning out the first month.
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DustDevil⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Man, I remember my first big commercial gig, nearly killed my back hauling that mulch without extra hands.
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KeyMaster5⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Same, ended up with sciatica for a month after. Definitely hire before you sign the next one.
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WattTheHeck11⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Congrats on the close, but watch out for scope creep on those mall jobs.
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HaulHero2⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Yeah, they always want 'just one more' flower bed for free. Nail down changes in writing.
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OpenerOracle⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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This hits close to home, been chasing commercial for 5 years and still solo on residentials.
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BenderBreaker⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Awesome milestone. For the helper, start with someone from a local ag program, they know irrigation basics already.
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V4142🔧 Apprentice1mo
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Haha, my first $8k contract was for a church lawn, turned into weeding the entire cemetery because the pastor 'forgot' to mention it.
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PipeLord42029⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Felt that grind, brother. Phoenix summers make every job twice as brutal.
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BreakerBreaker⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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For real, the heat's no joke. Stock up on those electrolyte packs or you'll drop.
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GreenThumbGuru⚒️ Journeyman1mo
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Proud of you for pushing through. My first big one was a $12k HOA contract, used Jobber to track it all and it saved my ass.
