For the older guys around here... business related

[jordanmills]

Fresh herbs, baby veggies for high end restaurants!

I'd say something like this. Assuming you have enough land. One issue is that the baby vegetables won't grow well without climate control since it's too hot in most of Texas to grow things like lettuce year round. Greenhouses and passive cooling can help with that. You really need a good reliable source of water, but a nice deep well should meet that need and you probably already have that if you have enough land.

 

[Rhino]

I'd say something like this. Assuming you have enough land. One issue is that the baby vegetables won't grow well without climate control since it's too hot in most of Texas to grow things like lettuce year round. Greenhouses and passive cooling can help with that. You really need a good reliable source of water, but a nice deep well should meet that need and you probably already have that if you have enough land.

I'm not sure how reliable the well will be. Buncha luxury homes being built nearby (grrr!) on a ranch that sold out. For now the well seems OK. I've actually given that some real thought to growing stuff and spent a stimmy check on a tractor I'm slooooowly rebuilding when I'm able to drive down from Dallas, but I suspect I'd need supplemental income.

 

[Brains]

Use your Dad's influence to sell paintings to world leaders.

 

[jordanmills]

I'm not sure how reliable the well will be. Buncha luxury homes being built nearby (grrr!) on a ranch that sold out. For now the well seems OK. I've actually given that some real thought to growing stuff and spent a stimmy check on a tractor I'm slooooowly rebuilding when I'm able to drive down from Dallas, but I suspect I'd need supplemental income.

I bet they're all going to expect lush green st augustine lawns all summer long too. If them rednecks want cows to have water, they can go out in the country and leave me alone!

Make sure your well is deeper than theirs? Also a deep stock tank might help. Especially if you can do something to reduce evaporation, like those water reservoir balls.

 

[Rhino]

I bet they're all going to expect lush green st augustine lawns all summer long too. If them rednecks want cows to have water, they can go out in the country and leave me alone!

Make sure your well is deeper than theirs? Also a deep stock tank might help. Especially if you can do something to reduce evaporation, like those water reservoir balls.

For now, if I have $$, I'd rather get some cash flow going, and THEN dig a deeper well, if I go that direction.

 

[busykngt]

I would think a storage facility would be a good idea. Why not?

I was thinking of being the owner of the Farmer’s Market - that way, just rent out the booth space and collect the rent. And if it’s not successful, then you’ve still got the property to sell.

 

[BuzzinSATX]

This is something I'd for sure consider. I didn't mention this, because I'm trying not to be tied to a piece of land, but I should be able to use "my portion" - which is a bit ambiguous - of the family ranch - probably about 40-60 acres worth east of Lampasas.

Hydroponic growing is an extremely small footprint of land, and can be integrated vertically pretty easy. Main equipment required is lights, trays, and plumbing. Some HVAC during hottest and coldest months.

Hydroponic growing is pretty easy…plants grow in a fertilized water that is cycled directly to the roots. As long as the roots get some air, they are generally good to go.

I once talked to a guy who had a couple greenhouses and grew organic heirloom greens (Bok Choy, Kale, lettuces, etc.) in floating rafts. IIRC, he had a cycle of 40,000 plants that took 4 weeks from planting the established plant (3” plant) to harvest. He planted 10,000 plants every week and harvested 10,000 plants weekly. Sold the plants for something like $2.50 each at local grocers, restaurants, and cooperatives.

Main investment was organic hydroponic fertilizer, seeds, and growing media (coco coir). Water is in a closed system and recycled. Grow beds are wood frame with pond liner. One or two pumps and plumbing keep it circulating. Grow lamps for winter time. Maybe heat lamps for cold days but the water grow beds and styrofoam floating grow rafts regulate heat pretty well.

some resources below:

Hydroponic Greenhouse Production Resources

Hydroponics is a production method where the plants are grown in a nutrient solution rather than in soil. The greenhouse and its environment control system are the same whether plants are grown conventionally or with hydroponics. The greenhouse needs to be suitable for production with adequate...

ag.umass.edu

Hydroponic Greenhouse Systems & Kits | Rural Living Today

Hydroponic greenhouse systems grow plants in a water-based nutrient solution. As it reduces soil usage, plants grow faster and with lesser pests and disease

rurallivingtoday.com

"More companies are looking for products dedicated to hydroponics"

With hydroponics and vertical farming gaining popularity around the world, growers are increasingly interested in finding crop varieties with a proven track record in controlled environment…

www.hortidaily.com

 

[Rhino]

I was thinking of being the owner of the Farmer’s Market - that way, just rent out the booth space and collect the rent. And if it’s not successful, then you’ve still got the property to sell.

Burnet has one, but I'm not sure how well they do.

 

[Rhino]

Hydroponic growing is an extremely small footprint of land, and can be integrated vertically pretty easy. Main equipment required is lights, trays, and plumbing. Some HVAC during hottest and coldest months.

Hydroponic growing is pretty easy…plants grow in a fertilized water that is cycled directly to the roots. As long as the roots get some air, they are generally good to go.

I once talked to a guy who had a couple greenhouses and grew organic heirloom greens (Bok Choy, Kale, lettuces, etc.) in floating rafts. IIRC, he had a cycle of 40,000 plants that took 4 weeks from planting the established plant (3” plant) to harvest. He planted 10,000 plants every week and harvested 10,000 plants weekly. Sold the plants for something like $2.50 each at local grocers, restaurants, and cooperatives.

Main investment was organic hydroponic fertilizer, seeds, and growing media (coco coir). Water is in a closed system and recycled. Grow beds are wood frame with pond liner. One or two pumps and plumbing keep it circulating. Grow lamps for winter time. Maybe heat lamps for cold days but the water grow beds and styrofoam floating grow rafts regulate heat pretty well.

some resources below:

Hydroponic Greenhouse Production Resources

Hydroponics is a production method where the plants are grown in a nutrient solution rather than in soil. The greenhouse and its environment control system are the same whether plants are grown conventionally or with hydroponics. The greenhouse needs to be suitable for production with adequate...

ag.umass.edu

Hydroponic Greenhouse Systems & Kits | Rural Living Today

Hydroponic greenhouse systems grow plants in a water-based nutrient solution. As it reduces soil usage, plants grow faster and with lesser pests and disease

rurallivingtoday.com

"More companies are looking for products dedicated to hydroponics"

With hydroponics and vertical farming gaining popularity around the world, growers are increasingly interested in finding crop varieties with a proven track record in controlled environment…

www.hortidaily.com

I'll do some more research on that. Wonder how much babysitting it takes!

 

[Sasquatch]

How big of a jump in industry do you want to make? Are you mechanically inclined? How many hours do you want to work? How old is the kiddo you're thinking of leaving the business too - when can he start learning the ropes? What is the population of the area you're intending to serve?

I spent 16 years in the towing & roadside assistance industry before moving to Texas, the last four of which I was co-owner of a small roadside business (we did everything but towing). All the companies I worked for were primarily AAA emergency road service contractors, we also contracted with the major insurance carriers, and the other large auto clubs plus providing wholesale service to shops (where the shop pays a discounted rate and they can mark up the tow or absorb it) and retail (customer paid) services. A few of those companies did impound towing and police rotation tows. Different area, so different demographics, regs - but each type of service had pluses and minuses. The last fellow I worked for before going self employed wanted nothing to do with impounding/repos/rotations, because of the facility requirements, which meant rent to pay regardless if it was a slow or busy period (typically had two real busy periods per year, two slumps, and the crests & rises associated with them) and the negativity involved in impounds & repos.

For that company, for example, we had 3 tow trucks and 3 service trucks in the fleet. We paid $15,000 per year in liability insurance alone, and another $10,000 or so for our comprehensive coverage on the vehicles. For the first few years, we ran solely out of the bosses house, until we grew larger, then ran out of a self-store facility that had large bays and just used the big bays to store the spare truck or do what maintenance we did ourselves, plus storing equipment and batteries (we were part of AAA's mobile battery service, so we stocked batteries to sell)

My business partners in my last venture in that industry worked for the same company, and bought two of the service vehicles off of our old boss and spun off into their own company when the boss said he couldn't afford to pay them more, but wanted to see them do better.

We served the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. We had around 300,000 people in the area we serviced, and had half a dozen direct competitors.

The boss showed me the numbers at one point, when he was contemplating retiring and trying to sell the business. After selling off the service trucks and sticking with just the tow trucks, our small company was pulling in $250-300k / year gross. We were still paying around $17,000 total in insurance, payroll was running $120-150k with 3 of us, and it was around $1k / year per vehicle to register (some were more, some were less, some had IFTA tags on top of state registration) plus DOT, DMV fees... the margins weren't great. We bought a brand new truck - the only one he ever financed (paid cash for used trucks prior) - in 2015 - a Dodge 5500 flatbed that one of our guys flew to Ohio to pickup and drive back. That rig was $85k. Fuel was the next largest operating cost besides insurance, the busy periods during the high cost times would nudge up to $7k / month, with the slow times still running us $2500 / month when the trucks barely moved.

The flatbed I drove was a 2005 Navistar 4300 with 110 gallon fuel capacity and averaged 4-6 mpg. The previously mentioned Dodge was averaging 10mpg, but it was a much lighter duty truck. Our one-ton gas wrecker (V10 dodge) got 6-8mpg on a good day.

We didn't run 24 hour service, but there were still those late night calls from family / friends or long-time customers who found themselves in a bind. The hours could suck and cut into your family time. A larger operation with 24 hour service and shifts of drivers could handle that business better.

We also had a 2 car trailer that when pulled behind a flatbed allowed us to run 3 car transport loads for dealers. That combination requires a class A CDL.

My old boss started that company from scratch, used his relationships with local shops to build slowly, and had a vision where he wanted to go. He didn't want to be the biggest, he wanted to offer the best service - and I'll argue we were one of the best when it came to customer service, the minimal amount of damage we casued. We wound up towing for high performance shops, custom car modifiers - and a handful of clients with super cars that would have us move them just for oil changes or new tires from time to time. We were in business for 9 years before he financed that truck, and the reason he decided to finance one vs buy old, was all the other vehicles reached the end of the depreciation cycle, and he retired our oldest vehicle and bought the brand new one as a tax strategy, not because the old equipment didn't work.

I know this is a lot of info, but you say you want to build a business you can grow, that will serve your local community, and you can potentially pass along to your kid. If your local market isn't already well served, you could get into that industry fairly easy. If you don't want to do accidents / impounds that require a storage lot, you can focus on consensual towing and auto clubs / insurance companies. You won't be a primary contractor off the bat, but the big clubs usually get busy and a backup contractor can do well especially if you start building a reputation with the various dispatchers as getting the job done without headache or generating complaints.

We set ourselves apart by being customer focused, providing better, friendlier service and focusing on hiring better, friendlier people who paid attention to detail and were less likely to damage shit, or wreck a truck. We weren't the most expensive or the cheapest around, but in the 10 years I worked for Rob, we build up hundreds of repeat customers. We had people that would call us directly, instead of their insurance or auto club, and set up the tow because they didn't want to roll the dice with the other companies that were primary for the area.

Starting out at a bigger company with high turn over, and becoming a trainer - it was damn scary how high the likelihood was that when you call for help, you were getting a new guy who didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. For most people their vehicle is their single most expensive possession, unless they own a home. They want it taken care of when it breaks. They don't want some crotchety asshole who looks like he just got out of prison dropping it off the back of the wrecker or flatbed.

I haven't priced trucks in a couple years - but it wasn't hard to find a serviceable used truck. If you were to pick up a couple decent trucks - a flatbed and a 4500 or 5500 sized wrecker (I would NOT get a 3500, personally because they're just too damn light and scary when it came to steering and stopping) and you hired experienced people to run them, while learning how yourself - you could set yourself up with a business you could grow and pass along. Since you already have experience dealing with federal regulatory agencies, the DOT is probably cake compared to the FAA. Texas is different than Oregon in that they require an occupational license for tow operators, but the costs there are minimal, and honestly I think its a good thing Texas requires training.

If you have a few mechanics that you know and have a good relationship with, you could get their overflow business to start, if they like the service and price maybe they send the bulk of their business to you. We had half a dozen shops that accounted for 80% of our wholesale business.

Its not an overnight success thing, but if you're in the right area, you could probably be making a quarter million a year fairly quickly. Then it becomes a matter of scaling to the size you want. Just don't expect to get rich from it.

 

[baboon]

Location would be a determining factor of what to do. A friend of mine has property and thought he would be a hay Barron!

For his location I suggested a camper park plus adding a convenient store, washateria, mini storage& car wash!

He stated that with their acreage a Sanderson’s Farm chicken farm. He said they earn $350,000.00 per year

 

[Sam7sf]

Random thought...if op wanted to get into freeze drying I would offer my services to get operators trained and the business familiar with the correct machines and methods. I’ll never forget it.

 

[BuzzinSATX]

I'll do some more research on that. Wonder how much babysitting it takes!

Not nearly as much as dirt farming, once you are set up and running.

Obviously the time required is based on the size of the operation. Your weekly actions are starting seeds, planting seedlings, and harvesting plants. Time would depend on “how much”.

Daily, you’d be checking your water levels and adding as needed to make up for evaporation and what the plants use. Also testing for fertilizer and adding and needed. Also making sure your pumps are running, etc. but plants grow on their own, and hydroponic plants have MUCH LESS issues with disease and pests compared to dirt gardens.

And the operation is scalable, so expansion is pretty easy if you are set up properly.

Finally, if you want to take a month or two off, you simply adjust and shut down. Simple. Restarting the process takes time for seeds to get going, but it’s a cycle and you can plan accordingly without a lot of worrying about seasons or weather (generally speaking).

 

[1911'S 4 Me]

Chicken house's are BIG money makers.

 

[BuzzinSATX]

I'll do some more research on that. Wonder how much babysitting it takes!

Finally, here are a few videos in case you want to just try it out on a small scale to understand the process:

 

[toddnjoyce]

I'll do some more research on that. Wonder how much babysitting it takes!

Not much, pretty passive. When we lived in CO, people would start by growing in an Aero-garden setup.

AeroGarden: Indoor Gardens, Grow Lights, Seed Kits and More

Grow fresh herbs, vegetables, and more in 3 easy steps all year round with AeroGarden indoor garden systems. No soil, no sun, & no green thumb required!

www.aerogarden.com

The people that liked doing it would convert a room in the house to a multi-level, multi-row setup with LED grow lights, then take the results to our neighborhood farmer’s market to sell.

No stalls to rent because we held it on community property. It also gave the MLM ladies a place to sell their crap without anyone having to host a party….win-win for everyone.

The niche in that operation was community itself, the little self-organized market was by residents for residents.

 

[Rhino]

How big of a jump in industry do you want to make? Are you mechanically inclined? How many hours do you want to work? How old is the kiddo you're thinking of leaving the business too - when can he start learning the ropes? What is the population of the area you're intending to serve?

I spent 16 years in the towing & roadside assistance industry before moving to Texas, the last four of which I was co-owner of a small roadside business (we did everything but towing). All the companies I worked for were primarily AAA emergency road service contractors, we also contracted with the major insurance carriers, and the other large auto clubs plus providing wholesale service to shops (where the shop pays a discounted rate and they can mark up the tow or absorb it) and retail (customer paid) services. A few of those companies did impound towing and police rotation tows. Different area, so different demographics, regs - but each type of service had pluses and minuses. The last fellow I worked for before going self employed wanted nothing to do with impounding/repos/rotations, because of the facility requirements, which meant rent to pay regardless if it was a slow or busy period (typically had two real busy periods per year, two slumps, and the crests & rises associated with them) and the negativity involved in impounds & repos.

For that company, for example, we had 3 tow trucks and 3 service trucks in the fleet. We paid $15,000 per year in liability insurance alone, and another $10,000 or so for our comprehensive coverage on the vehicles. For the first few years, we ran solely out of the bosses house, until we grew larger, then ran out of a self-store facility that had large bays and just used the big bays to store the spare truck or do what maintenance we did ourselves, plus storing equipment and batteries (we were part of AAA's mobile battery service, so we stocked batteries to sell)

My business partners in my last venture in that industry worked for the same company, and bought two of the service vehicles off of our old boss and spun off into their own company when the boss said he couldn't afford to pay them more, but wanted to see them do better.

We served the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. We had around 300,000 people in the area we serviced, and had half a dozen direct competitors.

The boss showed me the numbers at one point, when he was contemplating retiring and trying to sell the business. After selling off the service trucks and sticking with just the tow trucks, our small company was pulling in $250-300k / year gross. We were still paying around $17,000 total in insurance, payroll was running $120-150k with 3 of us, and it was around $1k / year per vehicle to register (some were more, some were less, some had IFTA tags on top of state registration) plus DOT, DMV fees... the margins weren't great. We bought a brand new truck - the only one he ever financed (paid cash for used trucks prior) - in 2015 - a Dodge 5500 flatbed that one of our guys flew to Ohio to pickup and drive back. That rig was $85k. Fuel was the next largest operating cost besides insurance, the busy periods during the high cost times would nudge up to $7k / month, with the slow times still running us $2500 / month when the trucks barely moved.

The flatbed I drove was a 2005 Navistar 4300 with 110 gallon fuel capacity and averaged 4-6 mpg. The previously mentioned Dodge was averaging 10mpg, but it was a much lighter duty truck. Our one-ton gas wrecker (V10 dodge) got 6-8mpg on a good day.

We didn't run 24 hour service, but there were still those late night calls from family / friends or long-time customers who found themselves in a bind. The hours could suck and cut into your family time. A larger operation with 24 hour service and shifts of drivers could handle that business better.

We also had a 2 car trailer that when pulled behind a flatbed allowed us to run 3 car transport loads for dealers. That combination requires a class A CDL.

My old boss started that company from scratch, used his relationships with local shops to build slowly, and had a vision where he wanted to go. He didn't want to be the biggest, he wanted to offer the best service - and I'll argue we were one of the best when it came to customer service, the minimal amount of damage we casued. We wound up towing for high performance shops, custom car modifiers - and a handful of clients with super cars that would have us move them just for oil changes or new tires from time to time. We were in business for 9 years before he financed that truck, and the reason he decided to finance one vs buy old, was all the other vehicles reached the end of the depreciation cycle, and he retired our oldest vehicle and bought the brand new one as a tax strategy, not because the old equipment didn't work.

I know this is a lot of info, but you say you want to build a business you can grow, that will serve your local community, and you can potentially pass along to your kid. If your local market isn't already well served, you could get into that industry fairly easy. If you don't want to do accidents / impounds that require a storage lot, you can focus on consensual towing and auto clubs / insurance companies. You won't be a primary contractor off the bat, but the big clubs usually get busy and a backup contractor can do well especially if you start building a reputation with the various dispatchers as getting the job done without headache or generating complaints.

We set ourselves apart by being customer focused, providing better, friendlier service and focusing on hiring better, friendlier people who paid attention to detail and were less likely to damage shit, or wreck a truck. We weren't the most expensive or the cheapest around, but in the 10 years I worked for Rob, we build up hundreds of repeat customers. We had people that would call us directly, instead of their insurance or auto club, and set up the tow because they didn't want to roll the dice with the other companies that were primary for the area.

Starting out at a bigger company with high turn over, and becoming a trainer - it was damn scary how high the likelihood was that when you call for help, you were getting a new guy who didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. For most people their vehicle is their single most expensive possession, unless they own a home. They want it taken care of when it breaks. They don't want some crotchety asshole who looks like he just got out of prison dropping it off the back of the wrecker or flatbed.

I haven't priced trucks in a couple years - but it wasn't hard to find a serviceable used truck. If you were to pick up a couple decent trucks - a flatbed and a 4500 or 5500 sized wrecker (I would NOT get a 3500, personally because they're just too damn light and scary when it came to steering and stopping) and you hired experienced people to run them, while learning how yourself - you could set yourself up with a business you could grow and pass along. Since you already have experience dealing with federal regulatory agencies, the DOT is probably cake compared to the FAA. Texas is different than Oregon in that they require an occupational license for tow operators, but the costs there are minimal, and honestly I think its a good thing Texas requires training.

If you have a few mechanics that you know and have a good relationship with, you could get their overflow business to start, if they like the service and price maybe they send the bulk of their business to you. We had half a dozen shops that accounted for 80% of our wholesale business.

Its not an overnight success thing, but if you're in the right area, you could probably be making a quarter million a year fairly quickly. Then it becomes a matter of scaling to the size you want. Just don't expect to get rich from it.

I’m dangerous mechanically - but not excellent, lol. I could probably maintain my own plane if I had an A&P and enough time.

 

[oldag]

Couple of things top of mind

1. Small Business Development Center / S.C.O.R.E. can be great resources
2. @Fishkiller got it right: find a niche, then exploit it
3. Answer these questions: what is my the market segment, who is my target population, how do I position my product/goods/services
4. Understand the finances of running a business; they’re different than starting a business

SBCD and SCORE (especially the former) will be of limited practical help. The latter is hit or miss.

And on 3 - can they afford my product.

 

[1911'S 4 Me]

This time next month you will still be getting recommendations.

 

[TreyG-20]

Pool service. Rich yuppies love to swim, but none will maintain a Pool.