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
·10h·13 replies·14 participants
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HammerTimeHank⚒️ JourneymanOP10h
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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⚒️ Journeyman7h
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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⚒️ Journeyman7h
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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⚒️ Journeyman7h
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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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DustDevil⚒️ Journeyman10h
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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⚒️ Journeyman9h
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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⚒️ Journeyman9h
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Congrats on the close, but watch out for scope creep on those mall jobs.
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HaulHero2⚒️ Journeyman9h
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Yeah, they always want 'just one more' flower bed for free. Nail down changes in writing.
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V4142🔧 Apprentice9h
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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⚒️ Journeyman9h
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Felt that grind, brother. Phoenix summers make every job twice as brutal.
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BreakerBreaker🔧 Apprentice9h
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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⚒️ Journeyman9h
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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.
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OpenerOracle⚒️ Journeyman9h
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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⚒️ Journeyman9h
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Awesome milestone. For the helper, start with someone from a local ag program, they know irrigation basics already.
