The biggest thing hanging over me right now is that the weather has remained phenomenally nice up here. This has pretty much been a year without bad weather. We haven't even had big rains.
Business-wise, that's been a killer. We started off the year like gangbusters, but are limping in to the end of the calendar year. Overall, we'll gross the same as we did last year. Considering the weather conditions, that's not so bad. However, we worked twice as hard for it and I ended up with about 40% less profit as a result.
I still see huge reasons for optimism, despite our losses in the 4th quarter. For one thing, we stayed steady despite the economy and lack of help from the weather.
So, when the weather breaks bad, we should do fantastic.
I finally submitted my paperwork to the State of Ohio to become a minority owned firm. It won't matter much as far as getting our disaster restoration work. However, it may come up huge when it comes to pursuing commercial cleaning and construction contracts.
One thing I'm doing to try and even out the cyclicality a bit is launching a lawn-care business in the Spring. There, the minority-owned thing may be a help when bidding on larger commercial accounts.
I'm not that convinced that it's a great idea from a stand-alone business model standpoint. However, it has nice synergies with my current business.
For instance, houses that pay to get their lawns mowed are also good candidates to have their carpets cleaned every now and then.
The main idea is to keep people on the payroll, and to engage them in something that at least covers the cost of their wages and perhaps absorbs some overhead.
We just got our brand-new John Deere 840 with the grass-catching system. The thing is a monster. It is capable of delivering a quality cut at 17 miles per hour and has a 60" mowing deck. Basically, it mows a swath that's almost as wide as I am tall, at a speed faster than I can sprint.
Like virtually all credit I get, this one came with 0% down, 0% apr, and a 42 month amortization period. It is sorta funny, when I think about all the debt I've accumulated, very little of it has been at an interest rate of over 3%.
I'm getting a little bit spoiled.
I may see about getting a pickup truck here soon so I can get the tax-writeoff. And yes, even those are coming with 0% terms. I'd really like a new Toyota Tundra extended cab, but since this will probably be used primarily for lawn-care, I'll probably be looking at something more like a Ford F-150, spartanly appointed.
For the Navy, I'm going back to Athens, GA to repeat my last 4 day midpoint worth of instructions. There are 3 food service tests. I passed one in July in Athens, but have failed the 2nd one, twice now. One more failure and I could be dismissed from the program and although that would mean no trip to the desert, it would also mean I would no longer be an officer in the Navy. Service to my country means too much to me, and serving with my fellow sailors has really been a great part of my life. I'm going to do all I can to keep up. The Navy isn't making me do this: I suggested it, myself, even if I had to go unfunded (meaning I wouldn't get paid for any of it.)
Next week, Logan and I leave for Disney so he can have some fun with all his Phoenix cousins.
And that's all I have to say about that.
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