I was talking to my friend Edward the other day. Edward owns a landscaping and small equipment repair business, and he’s been very successful over the years. He’s also a customer of ours, and has been for more than a decade.
We got to talking about business growth, risk, and what it takes to be successful. And he said something that really resonated with me.
“Fletch, the hardest part about succeeding wasn’t starting the business, or even that first year or two when I had to do everything. The hardest part was making the decision to buy the equipment and a truck for a second crew.”
He went on to say how easy we made it (that’s how we met, in fact), but this post isn’t really about financing equipment. It’s about the mindset that Edward had. He reached a point where he was successful on his own in his landscaping business – in fact he started turning away work, because Edward is only one guy (well, technically two guys, because he did hire a helper.)
But that was the key – Edward didn’t want to turn away work. He knew that the only way to succeed was to replicate himself and expand. So he took the plunge, got a second crew going, his current helper was promoted to lead said second crew, and off they went.
Success followed, and a few years later, Edward took another giant step when he purchased a building and, in addition to having a “home base” for the landscaping business, started repairing small equipment as well.
This was an even larger decision than the first one, but Edward says it was also easier. He had experience from his first “expansion” decision (and since that time, added a third crew). Yes, buying a building was a much, much bigger deal, but by now, “growth” was in his DNA.
I find it interesting that the first big expansion decision was the hardest, even if in raw dollars, it’s not anywhere near the biggest risk he took. But it was – that very first “I need to grow, and I’m going to have to spend some money to do it” was the catalyst to everything.
Food for thought. And yes, if you need fast, easy equipment financing to take that first big step, we’re here.