# 1st year gross in business,curious .



## tzzzz216 (Dec 25, 2005)

I'm Curious as to what everyone thinks is a good gross for the first year in business , 20-$50,000 range ?


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## MKamis (Nov 17, 2006)

This sure depends on a lot of factors!

Where do you live? 50k in Manhattan is nothing, 50k in Arkansas is much more.

What kind of time are you devoting to the business for this return? If you're putting in 40 a week or 70 a week, there's a huge difference.

The main question is can you cover your cost of living with this amount earned in your first year? If the answer is no, then you need to focus on what is working well for you and stay away from what is not working.

If the answer is yes or no, ask yourself if working on your own is worth what you're earning. I'm not just talking money, but time as well. My first year in business I made less money than in my previous job, but I also took off 3 weeks when my daughter was born, and a lot of other time to visit out of state family and friends. I could never have done that in my old job, and I can't put a price on that time!


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## mahlere (Aug 6, 2006)

in ny/nj area, 1 truck, 1st year, $150 - $200,000. under $100,000 gross and you are having a lot of trouble paying your bills.


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## marc (Mar 18, 2005)

seems to me that the answers you've recieved so far are talking about your salary.
Is that what you're asking or are you asking what the gross profit of the company should be? If the gross profit of the company is what you're asking, you need to know what your overhead costs are. Here is a list of typical overhed items for a contractor.................

*Advertising
Bank Service charge
Credit Card Fees
Depreciation Expense
Dues & Subscriptions
Dump Fees*...(could be considered job costs)
*Postage
Employee Awards or bonus
Liability Ins.
Health Ins.
Auto Insurance
Interest Expense
Professional Fees *(Lawyer, accounting, etc.)
*Office Equipment & Supplies
Permits *(could be considered job cost)
*Rent
Equipment rental *(could be considered job cost)
*Repairs
Misc.
Seminars
Taxes
Fines & Penalties
Telephone 
Travel Expenses
Utilities
Truck Maintainance
Truck Repair
Fuel
Tolls
Truck Misc.
Payroll Expenses *(some of these could be considered job cost)
*Wages* (some of these could be considered job cost)
*New truck purchase *(Deposit)
*Hiring expenses*


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## mahlere (Aug 6, 2006)

marc,

i took the numbers as gross sales, not gross income. maybe I took it wrong.


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## hatchet (Oct 27, 2003)

That's the way I took it - gross receipts. My first year was $320,000 in MT.


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## marc (Mar 18, 2005)

well, he also wrote 20-$50,000 range ? 
If that is what his gross sales will be he's going to have some trouble.

All though he could be doing it part time and be working full time for someone else.


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## mahlere (Aug 6, 2006)

after reading some of the numbers that guys charge, etc on this board...i couldn't tell you if he meant gross sales or gross income. Heck, guys are billing out $15-$20 and hour. that's only $40,000 gross if you can bill 2000 hours.

I'm shocked and amazed at what I read here.


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## Fence & Deck (Jan 23, 2006)

Our first year, back in 1980 was $343,000.
Our first year over $1 million: 1984: $1,200,000
1988 $5,600,000
1991 first year of the Canadian recession $1,200,000

1996 was my first year after being bankrupt(a builder stiffed me for $100,000) and losing my house. I worked out of my basement $650,000

1998 First year with new partner $956,000

2005 First year after leaving my partner (threw the keys on the table and left) 1,000,500 (started completely from scratch)

2007 On track for $1,700,000 or better.


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## Gordo (Feb 21, 2006)

1st year 1995....$19,000.:w00t:


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## mahlere (Aug 6, 2006)

Gordo said:


> 1st year 1995....$19,000.:w00t:


2006.....$21,000 :whistling


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## Gordo (Feb 21, 2006)

mahlere said:


> 2006.....$21,000 :whistling


Yeah. You know with inflation and all.:w00t:


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## North Country (Jan 14, 2006)

First year $105k, second year nearly double.


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## ruskent (Jun 20, 2005)

Some of you guys had great first years!!! But i guess you guys weren't 18 years old fresh out of High school when you started your business!

First year i did 60k gross. 2nd year i did alittle more than double that. I have no idea where this year will end up.

Takes time to grow and figure everything out. I am glad i started out young though. I am able to take alot more chances and risk now then if i had a family to support.

Matt


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## farrellpainting (Feb 24, 2007)

Last year was my first year in biz, I planned on 30-35k gross receipts, but ended up doing 20k give or take, for some (small) off the cuff cash jobs. This was just me alone from late March to late Nov.I fell short because I couldn't find a decent worker, I actually did around 31-33k in sales I just couldn't get it all done alone.This was w/o newspaper advertizing, just yard signs,WOM etc..

P.S. I only do exterior work as far as my painting business goes, so my fiscal year is shorter. I plow in the winter, I make more than if I risked lookin for interior work,it's still not worth it though, winter here is just plain UGLY! movin south soon or so I keep tellin myself!


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## airborneSGT (Feb 19, 2007)

Ruskent, 

I hear you on that. If I was older and had the wife and kids then I probably would not have been able to have my startup. If you call it luck, I ended up not getting married while I was in the Army. It was kind of hard when I spent half of my time in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq hunting down bad people.


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## hiaderph (Feb 1, 2007)

Stone Mountain said:


> Our first year, back in 1980 was $343,000.
> Our first year over $1 million: 1984: $1,200,000
> 1988 $5,600,000
> 1991 first year of the Canadian recession $1,200,000
> ...


you grossed over a million for that many years, and you didn't have enough equity or banker's trust where a 100k hit took you into bankruptcy?


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## wackman (Nov 14, 2005)

First year: $645,000. Built a spec home that contributed a lot to that figure.


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## wasdifferent (Dec 18, 2004)

My first year on my own was 1974 (yeah A.D.). The number for the gross wouldn't make much sense to you guys now, even if I could remember what it was.


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## petermichael (Apr 13, 2007)

*Gross vs Net*

Look at these numbers. What does a gross receipt number really show you? I know guys who did 20k gross in side jobs that were all labor and guys who did over a million in home building. These are "gross" numbers, but the guy with the 20k had over 15k in net income out of it, and the guy with a million had less than zero in income.

That's where the true wizardry comes in. On the net numbers.


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