Just a sidejob?

[Hopingforless]

Hey, im a 22 year old man who is thinking abou starting up as a contractor. But i was thinking about just doing it on the side as i have a fairly good paid, stable job. But the problem is that i dont know if its worth the risk as i dont have any equiptment. Was thinking about buying a tractor and a plow, since i know there is many farmers where i live who would take the advantage of my offering. Also was thinking about buying a snowblower and a bucket since it snows alot here and many would like to get their driveway snow free. I know its alot of extra work but i just love to work, especelly for my self so i was thinking about just having it on the side. But as dont have so much experience as a contractor im so unsure off if its too risky. ( FYI I have also workd for a contractor every summer for the past 4 years and been raise on a farm) sorry for my bad english..

 

[7610 super q]

TBH, if you've got a well paid stable job.....I wouldn't bother. Contracting is pretty cut throat.

 

[Hopingforless]

TBH, if you've got a well paid stable job.....I wouldn't bother. Contracting is pretty cut throat.

I can undestand that, thanks for the reply

 

[thorpe]

I can undestand that, thanks for the reply

dont buy anything that goes in the ground it wares away. advice i was given 35 years ago.

 

[Hopingforless]

dont buy anything that goes in the ground it wares away. advice i was given 35 years ago.

 

[Renaultman]

Bums on someone else's seat seem to pay better than bums on your own. I would go around all the local farms and see what they need.

 

[Andrew K]

If it snows alot, how about offering a gritting service to local council,schools ,supermarkets etc??
Would be mostly night work in winter if that fits in with the day job...

 

[Classichay]

honest answer? dont bother theres always some foolish farmers son with a brand new tractor doing it for near enough diesel and insurance costs just to keep him busy in the winter. Your better going and driving someone elses machine, plus is that you dont have to do it for the period to keep paying bills if you don't enjoy it, and more so you wont suffer the loss of income when it inevitably will and does sh!t the bed. Ploughings okay if you can buy a 6F and have 250hp to pull it, but a small tractor and plough combo will use a fair bit of diesel and you wont be competetive enough. I do a fair bit of hedge cutting thats viable aslong as your good and you don't need to put someone else in the seat. You dont need the newest kit to do that, a friend of mine has a renault he cuts with and has something like 20k hours running his cutter just dont expect the hedge cutter off ebay for a grand will behave for a lot of hours, But saying that you only have to bend or warp your rotor and your back to square one minus a few K. We all need to start somewhere though!!

 

[Hopingforless]

honest answer? dont bother theres always some foolish farmers son with a brand new tractor doing it for near enough diesel and insurance costs just to keep him busy in the winter. Your better going and driving someone elses machine, plus is that you dont have to do it for the period to keep paying bills if you don't enjoy it, and more so you wont suffer the loss of income when it inevitably will and does sh!t the bed. Ploughings okay if you can buy a 6F and have 250hp to pull it, but a small tractor and plough combo will use a fair bit of diesel and you wont be competetive enough. I do a fair bit of hedge cutting thats viable aslong as your good and you don't need to put someone else in the seat. You dont need the newest kit to do that, a friend of mine has a renault he cuts with and has something like 20k hours running his cutter just dont expect the hedge cutter off ebay for a grand will behave for a lot of hours, But saying that you only have to bend or warp your rotor and your back to square one minus a few K. We all need to start somewhere though!!

Thanks for the reply so you think its too hard doing contract jobs on the side? Too luch stress and not enough income?

 

[thorpe]

Thanks for the reply so you think its too hard doing contract jobs on the side? Too luch stress and not enough income?

dont buy a plough!

 

[ARW]

You don’t want to buy a machine for a job you like, buy a machine that’s in demand

 

[Roger Perry]

Hey, im a 22 year old man who is thinking abou starting up as a contractor. But i was thinking about just doing it on the side as i have a fairly good paid, stable job. But the problem is that i dont know if its worth the risk as i dont have any equiptment. Was thinking about buying a tractor and a plow, since i know there is many farmers where i live who would take the advantage of my offering. Also was thinking about buying a snowblower and a bucket since it snows alot here and many would like to get their driveway snow free. I know its alot of extra work but i just love to work, especelly for my self so i was thinking about just having it on the side. But as dont have so much experience as a contractor im so unsure off if its too risky. ( FYI I have also workd for a contractor every summer for the past 4 years and been raise on a farm) sorry for my bad english..

Not sure of your location but here in Colorado we get a lot of snow so clearing it is a good paying job.
Depending on location a man with a snow shovel is $60-70 per hr, get a 4 wheeler or a UTV and you will charge $80 plus hr.
Lots cleared with a snowplow on the front of a pickup.

I guess that would be the best return on investment.

 

[Hopingforless]

You don’t want to buy a machine for a job you like, buy a machine that’s in demand

What do you mean by that?

 

[Hopingforless]

Not sure of your location but here in Colorado we get a lot of snow so clearing it is a good paying job.
Depending on location a man with a snow shovel is $60-70 per hr, get a 4 wheeler or a UTV and you will charge $80 plus hr.
Lots cleared with a snowplow on the front of a pickup.

I guess that would be the best return on investment.

Thanks for the info and knowledge

 

[robandles]

Location would help greatly.

 

[Hopingforless]

Location would help greatly.

Middle of norway

 

[Grassman247]

100hp tractor and a fertiliser spreader, obviously I can see your in Norway but guy I used to use charged £3/acre and could easy do 300 acres a day or more. That’s a good earner to me and does not maul the tractor. Big wide tires are a must. Second thing I would buy is a hedge cutter if you have hedges in Norway and mower or topper. Amenity grass cutting pays a lot more than farm work and can work in nicely with the fert spreading. Obviously all equipment should be second hand. Buy it new and you may aswell not bother

 

[Hopingforless]

100hp tractor and a fertiliser spreader, obviously I can see your in Norway but guy I used to use charged £3/acre and could easy do 300 acres a day or more. That’s a good earner to me and does not maul the tractor. Big wide tires are a must. Second thing I would buy is a hedge cutter if you have hedges in Norway and mower or topper. Amenity grass cutting pays a lot more than farm work and can work in nicely with the fert spreading. Obviously all equipment should be second hand. Buy it new and you may aswell not bother

Not a bad idea!We got like 6 other contracters mowing grass in my town so i dont think thats an option, but i have considered it! Thanks for the help

 

[Stewie]

What do you mean by that?

He means that you shouldn't buy a plough just because you like ploughing. Buy a plough only if you think you will have a steady demand for it at a sustainable price. To understand that you need to build, at least mentally, a business case: estimate a reasonable amount of work for a pricing, do your costing on that base and calculate your profit (or losses) over the next few years. The inputs will be an (educated) guess, so do several scenarios, at least best and worst case. If you don't have already the capital sitting there, you should also pay attention to cash flow that can kill even a profitable business.

In the end you it "simply" boils down to find an unbalance in the demand and offer of services in your locality, which means finding a job that is in demand and that is not already offered by 10 different contractors in a 5 mile radius.
You should also see if you can specialize in something where the margin is not that attractive for an established business, but enough for you to start up. In this case maybe you will even be able to sub for someone else.

 

[Hopingforless]

Yeah i see.. not a dumb idea that thanks for the answer!