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Some very cool businesses in this thread.

I'll post what I do although I think most here know it already.

I own a Street Legal UTV / Golf Cart rental business

I have a small car rental business that I run out of the same location.

What I am most excited about and growing as hard as I can is my Guided Off Road ATV tour park. I am currently setting up a 760 foot long repelling activity there. I am pretty sure it is the longest one in the SE USA.

I really do not want to run all 3 but it is what I have to do for the next couple of years.

It is very hard to keep everything going, most of the time I feel like I have a bunch of balls in the air and I am just trying to keep them from falling down.

I also use as few employees as possible as I am trying to 'profit' as much as possible so that also makes it hard on me.

I think in about 5 years I will be able to slow it down, have more employees and be more of the owner and less of the main employee.

Oh, I plan on opening a way larger business in the next 2 years so I am not sure my plans for taking it easy in 5 years is really going to work,

I love this shit, I hate working for someone else, I would not trade what I have for anything.

YMMV
 
2JZ said:
I started the thread, but never really elaborated.

I bought a swimming pool service business in 1990, after getting out of the Air Force. I cleaned pools and did minor repairs for 15 years. I got burnt out on cleaning pools and sold that route. Spent the next year just fucking off, mostly out 4 wheeling in AZ. Woke up one day with no money :shaking:

Hooked up with a pool builder/remodeler for the next 5 years. It's where I really learned a lot. But he didnt pay me shit. I wrecked his truck on a Sunday out doing side work, and that was that.

Started with absolutely nothing in 2011, except for one realtor who was flipping shitty houses with pools in Maryvale. I grinded for a few years solo until I just had too much work to do on my own. Hired my first guy almost 11 years ago. It was enough to take the load off me, but I wasn't really making much more money.

Ive had as many as 6 guys, but am at 4 now. They get the work done that 6 guys could barely do.

6 years ago, I went backwards off an almost 10' wall. Broke 6 vertebrae, 2 bruised lungs, 5 days in ICU. Fucked me up pretty bad. That lead me to the next chapter in my business. I just couldn't do the field work anymore.

I now run my business remotely from a beautiful 7 acre property in Eastern AZ. My wife helps run the office, along with one of my techs wife. Life is pretty damn good, despite spending every waking moment, at least 5 days a week, running the business.
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We might know some of the same people. One of my buddies is that guy who claims that the "experts" tell other pool guys that he is the one who has "forgotten more than any of them will ever know." (Man, I hate that phrase.)

Another friend, in the east valley, has been designing pools for probably thirty years.

Hope you're up there in the trees in Alpine loving life. That's where I'd be!




And man, I wish I'd have known some of you guys with tons of equipment when I was selling industrial paint.
 
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SoylentGreen said:
We might know some of the same people. One of my buddies is that guy who claims that the "experts" tell other pool guys that he is the one who has "forgotten more than any of them will ever know." (Man, I hate that phrase.)

Another friend, in the east valley, has been designing pools for probably thirty years.

Hope you're up there in the trees in Alpine loving life. That's where I'd be!
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Not bragging, but at this point I'm pretty much that guy. Mostly pool equipment/diagnosis/repair knowledge though. I've never really been into building pools. Making old pools work great has always been my specialty.


Alpine is a helluva great place to live :smokin:
 
Going into my fourth year self employed as a field service technician on Ag equipment. Worked 2 years at a Cat dealership 4 years at a Deere construction dealership and 10 years at a different Deere agriculture dealership.

I specialize in diagnosis and getting broke down farmers back up and going quickly and fill in with service / maintenance work. Solo employee and probably make less than minimum wage after the "company" pays for my trucks and insurance.

I left the last company to start doing site development type work but my former customers wouldn't let me go so i never got that off the ground other than the occasional brush cutting or yard prep.

I helped my father build a pool last year at his house and one of his friends wants us to build a pool for him next spring. We will see how that goes, after the rough in work was done on my father's pool the finishing work was a pain and not in my wheel house.

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2JZ said:
Not bragging, but at this point I'm pretty much that guy. Mostly pool equipment/diagnosis/repair knowledge though. I've never really been into building pools. Making old pools work great has always been my specialty.
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90% of it is replacing mechanical seals and capacitors.

The real money is selling a new pentair (or whatever the new hotness is) because a seal or capacitor went out. Polaris won't work? New booster it is!

Worse than used car salesmen.
 
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On year 11 or 12. Started out in my own auto repair shop. Hated the work and the customers bitching. Got into pest and wildlife control. On year 7 of that now I think. Got 6 employees, im
Not working a route anymore. Just running the company. Hardest part is figuring out advertising and what makes the phone ring now. Hoping to start buying smaller companies next year to speed up growth.
 
TRINDU said:
90% of it is replacing mechanical seals and capacitors.

The real money is selling a new pentair (or whatever the new hotness is) because a seal or capacitor went out. Polaris won't work? New booster it is!

Worse than used car salesmen.
Click to expand...
I buy $400k in just Pentair equipment alone every year. I let someone else work on old junky stuff :flipoff2:
 
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