My Biggest and COSTLY $$$ mistakes!

Figured i'd share with you guys some of my biggest mistakes that i've made during the growth of the company. Thanks for watching!

[@brandonsequipmentvideos6177]

Very interesting to hear your perspective on the excavating business. My experience is a little different because we are a father- son team as a development company. We do our own excavating work versus hiring it out. I would say the biggest mistakes we’ve made was having rentals drag on too long without applying anything to a purchase. You get left with nothing but a large bill at the end and no equity in a machine. The only positive is that we got to try out different machines long term and decide for sure what we wanted. I would say the next biggest mistake is doing small jobs for other people that distracts us from our larger jobs that we do for our own properties. The next mistake I’ll pick on is buying or RPO’ing equipment that is too small. For example, many people and salesmen tried to tell us that a 45 ton class excavator is too big, when in fact it has been perfect. Love seeing the videos lately and sharing thoughts!

[@CASG93]

I used to dig utility trenches for gas, electric Comcast and Verizon in new homes. Pretty easy work since it was mostly from the side walk to the side of the house. Other things i also did, were top soil and grading, digging for downspouts to connect to the storm pipe. I would love to expand my landscape business into doing more work like this since i worked for an excavation company for 3 years. Im 25 now. I got to learn a lot but if you ever make a video about pricing just small trench jobs, it would be a great help since its hard to find more people talking about the excavation game 👍🏽. Thanks

[@slyrooster1241]

You should probably explain how you do your clients pay in 30 days or upfront or 50/50. The excavation business is cutthroat. Good cash flow is the best thing, a constant influx of cash coming in and out of the business helps it grow, and give the business owner the best perspective on where to go in terms of growing the business. We started out in the commercial side, and since Houston is such a whore market, you have swindlers and getting paid is rough sometimes. At any month I have roughly 110-130k out in invoices owed. All this has taught me not to accept work from just anyone and we only work for folk who have a good track record now. We have approx 1.4 million is equipment and about 3 million in upcoming work but it's been the most difficult year as qualified help is so scarce here. Not to mention the big excavation companies only pay about $17 an hour for an operator with unlimited hours. Versus us who pay 22-25 an hour for skilled operators but only work 55 hours a week. Very hard to compete. Still it's been a year of personal growth and very good lessons learned, and lots of opportunities. Can't complain I just want those jerks who owe me money to hurry up and pay. I wish we could take on more large-scale private land clearing, but those jobs are few and far between. Soon enough it'll happen though just gotta keep hanging in there.

[@PSExcavationsLLC]

I partly agree with you but I prefer the older non dpf and def machines, easier to service and look after by myself, and yeah get the right machine for the job!

[@CarsonSchifsky]

Love Graham’s videos!

[@tractortom401]

Thank you for sharing this. It is incredibly valuable to get insight from people that have been through it.

[@RedRockRancher]

Great video! These are the dirty little details nobody tells the younger generation starting off in business.

[@122yamaharider]

Man ive not thought about the business credit card. Im just a small solo landscaper but thats a hell of an idea for mulch rock block shit you gotta buy but is payed for no matter what in the end

[@Properformancenutritioncom]

122yamaharider As long as you have the cash to pay the card off in full every month. That way you don’t pay interest. Otherwise you’re just getting a loan when you swipe your card & you lose more than you get in points.

[@gnarrdog]

Thanks for the insight on your business. You know there are banks that let you deposit checks from your cellphone so you don't have to worry about bank hours or having someone run to the bank.

[@mjethier]

Can you tell us more about them WHILE you are operating machinery? Truck rides arent close to as cool as in action on a site! Just saying!

[@AveryExcavating]

Lol! Noted! Thank you!

[@stedder8436]

They offered you half for 6 months old and 300 hours? Wtf

[@AveryExcavating]

Yes. 😑

[@stedder8436]

Kyle Riegle wow. Just wow. That’s insane. Hopfully all your future moves will work out better for you.

[@nieldcreek2098]

Stay away from cat....that’s the way they roll.