Seth Lynch ⋅ Plano, TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 15 years experience

Brian,

I saw your question when you first posted it, and I keep thinking about about ways to make something like this happen, so thanks for asking something that got my brain working.

In academic business speak, you are looking at a need for working capital. It is the single most significant issue preventing most businesses from starting or growing.

A small business loan should be 'no go' territory for you. Unless you have a solid set of business or personal assets, taking out a loan like this is so high risk the interest rate you would get is so high you would never be able to make money.

Brian and Lucian give some good ways to look at alternatives to start. I wanted to expand just a bit on those.

If you have a decent relationship with your current company's owner, approach them and ask if you can work with them to expand their territory with an ultimate goal of taking over that territory. There are probably service areas where they want to expand. Make them an offer of doing the marketing in that area on your own dime with the agreement that you get to run the crews and keep the fees paid ( minus a set royalty per yard) for any business that comes from that area. Include a contract that allows you to take over that area completely once you reach a revenue goal that allows you to operate independently.

With a scheme like this, you can stay employed as you start your business and also allow your company to expand their service with no additional marketing expense. You can build working capital by keeping the fees from the new customers (minus paying your expenses) and keep your job to pay your family expenses.

Hope this helps give you a thought on other ways to look at doing this.

Lucian Hill ⋅ Pearland, TX AECOM ⋅ 6 years experience

Oakley,
You don't really need a business loan to create this type of business initially. New subdivisions are always popping up in growing neighborhoods and the rates are fairly fixed. Once you have the tools, you can easily run a crew of 5 or 6 on the weekends doing 20-25 yards a day for $35 each. This is how we used to do it in Baton Rouge. The reason I suggest the weekends are because you can get cheap labor from high school/college kids on the weekends, and you can also maintain a Monday through Friday job if you needed during the week that could float you until the business began to flourish.

Regards,
Lucian

Brian Richardson ⋅ Columbus, IN U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Hi Oakley,
Are you able to try and acquire some customers BEFORE quitting your current position? I would try that if possible. It might be difficult to quit one day and expect to have enough income to pick up where you left off.

Can you bootstrap your start up without a loan? Having the weight of a loan on top of trying to "pay the bills" might be tough. Look at the bare essentials that you need to make some money before going all in.

Would this be a seasonal business? Do you have plans for the slower months?

If you would like to discuss this further, I would be happy to. Contact me here or thru my site.

Brian Richardson
www.VetLaunched.com