beautiful landscaping at a home with green plants, colorful flowers and a stacked stone border

This beauty in Sugar Land always gets compliments. Clients love the moss stacking stone.

Howdy, fellow small business owner or budding entrepreneur! I’m Todd Farber, owner of Garden Guy & horticulturist from Texas A & M. I live and work in a suburb of Houston called Sugar Land.

I’ve established myself as a local landscape design and installation company that people know, like and trust.

I’ve seen thousands of yards, met thousands of clients and grossed millions of dollars in our 24+ years. 

The next 25 years or so, Sabrina and I are hoping to give back a little by sharing our real mistakes, real business problems, and real-life stories, in the hopes of helping others avoid or overcome the same.  

 

My story…

I started Garden Guy in 1991 as a green Texas A & M Horticulture graduate with big hopes, no money, and no financial sense. 

I wanted to do landscape design and installations, but I could not get enough of those projects to pay the bills, so I turned to commercial and residential mowing.

I quickly incurred debt in every way possible to pay for new equipment, stolen equipment and anything else that came up. ( did I mention stolen equipment?…)  

When jobs fell through or I didn’t get my money fast enough, I had to use more credit. I was overwhelmed by RISING DEBT and saw no way out.

residential landscaping at home with green grass lush plants and stone border

finding our niche in residential landscaping meant saying no to projects that were too big for us.

When a ‘big’ landscaping job opportunity came my way, I would jump.

My thinking was the bigger the job, the more money for me.

I could finally get ahead.

I’d get the specs, bid the project + hope + cross my fingers!

Maybe I would be the winning contractor!  I needed this money.

My debts were rising. I had credit with everyone in sight. 

I was suffocating from the STRESS OF DEBT with no guarantee of real income to pay it back.

THE BIG JOB LIE whispered to me again:  “THIS WILL BE THE PROJECT that will  set you UP and give you financial security.” 

Sound familiar to you??

I discovered after winning many of the “big jobs” and the resulting financial losses, that I was no match for these large commercial projects or very large residential projects. 

It ate my lunch.

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I didn’t have the personnel, equipment or bidding expertise yet. I wasn’t even sure how to estimate my cost of goods sold, man-hours and profit percentage.

I had NO BUSINESS trying to bid on these types of large projects!

It took me many years to learn to stay in my lane and do what I did best, small residential rehabs and small residential designs and installations.

I had to learn from trial and financial error, how to estimate correctly and how to walk away when there was no profit for me. 

Sabrina helped me with targeted marketing to had to FIND OUT WHO OUR COMPANY WAS and WHO IT WASN’T. 

I can help you avoid the mistakes I made.  GET YOUR small business PROFIT SECRETS from me AND download it absolutely FREE !!

UNLOCK the secrets to this graphic by signing up for your free printable copy

CLICK HERE—  5 tips to ensure profit for your small business

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As a small contractor, these are the 5 PROFIT TIPS you need to unlock more profitability for your small business.

 

 

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