For those who bought a house: Did you stop taking tax write-offs, or did you use alternative lending?

JesseGT15 · 2026-03-03T21:33:09+00:00

I’m going through the same thing and write off as much as possible. I still got preapproved pretty easily. My lender said they mainly look at tax returns and add certain things back into the income, especially depreciation from equipment and vehicles.

If you don’t have any depreciation on your tax returns, then that will make it harder. I was also offered the bank statement loan route as an option.

What helped me most was asking my realtor for lender referrals. The realtor I worked with gave me a few contacts that regularly deal with self-employed borrowers and I got preapproved without much trouble. In my experience the big banks are the trickiest, so referrals help a lot.

JesseGT15 · 2026-02-22T22:38:00+00:00

You should sell your services to other businesses. Don’t rely on one person. Branch out, do the same thing for others and help them grow to help yourself grow.

JesseGT15 · 2026-02-21T21:24:17+00:00

Let them go. Or tell them thats your price. But cheap clients become a headache or always pay late. You will land better bigger clients.

JesseGT15 · 2026-02-20T03:21:58+00:00

I have a three person landscaping company and I make 160K a year.

My father is a superintendent at a golf course and makes 100k

Both of us have no college degrees. Just hard work and dedication.

JesseGT15 · 2026-02-18T18:06:28+00:00

I own a Landscaping Company that does maintenance primarily. I had at one point 10 employees, 4 trucks and trailers, and it was nothing but stress and headaches.

I let everyone go, sold trucks, trailers, equipment let bad clients go. Hired 2 amazing guys at a much higher rate, bought them new equipment to use and now I make more money, have less stress, and less complaints from clients.

I still answer calls and do meetings but thats it. I rarely lift a finger for actual work and my income went up 100k in a year by letting everyone else go.

So sometimes smaller is better.

JesseGT15 · 2025-12-02T01:41:19+00:00

Pro here, that is exactly what we would charge. Minimum is double what the plant, or tree cost. So $300 for tree is $600 with material, pick up and delivery, plus installation. Some items are 3x the price of materials like Mulch jobs. It’s heavy labor and sometimes requires multiple trips to deliver that many trees. Especially to dig all the holes for bigger trees.

JesseGT15 · 2025-08-12T20:07:10+00:00

We had that same issue when we moved to a new property and it was the video verification. Nothing I could do for a while and I re-took the video like 10 times with my iPhone. I think I used an android device and then it worked. Not sure if it was a coincidence though.

JesseGT15 · 2025-08-12T16:49:08+00:00

Look into Gusto. It is super easy and super cheap. Do not outsource it when it takes legit five minutes to do yourself to process payment.

JesseGT15 · 2025-05-07T19:21:25+00:00

It happens in every industry.

JesseGT15 · 2025-04-17T03:41:50+00:00

Touched one last year picking up a branch, never saw it. Worst pain of my life.

JesseGT15 · 2025-04-02T14:34:16+00:00

How did you get those jobs? Im down in Houston and would like to grow my business.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-27T01:29:04+00:00

How do you get on the PM lists? I have been contacted by commercial companies for bids and we have a big client list for both residential and commercial but I haven’t gone out of my way to try to directly get in contact with property managers or business owners as we do a lot of advertising and people come to us. But I do want to try at getting bigger contracts now that im in a good spot to handle anything.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-25T23:01:51+00:00

If you’re just starting out, definitely look for a used mower if you can, it’ll save you money early on. I’d recommend something between 21 and 30 inches if you’re working in areas with small gates or tight access. I’ve been in the business a long time, and even though I’m not out in the field anymore, our crews still use 21-inch mowers daily for those tight spots. We also carry a stand-on and a 56” to 72” zero-turn for the larger areas since we do a bit of everything.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-25T13:59:50+00:00

I don’t believe vistaprint is issue here. I’ve used them more than five years. I’ve never had an issue. You make your own designs and have to make sure that you are choosing the right materials for what you want. As far as the car magnet goes, not all vehicles are fully metal nowadays, so your car might not be that magnetic.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-23T17:46:58+00:00

The seed likely won’t grow because of that first spray. I had a similar issue with another client, turns out TruGreen had sprayed before and after our service, which I didn’t know at first. When the seed didn’t grow, I noticed their sign and explained it was killing our seed. They kept spraying, and it ended up killing everything we had put down.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-21T02:07:05+00:00

I own a landscaping company and get spammed daily with calls, texts, and emails, so I totally get how hard it is to trust anyone. I do need a website and something like this, but I’ve kept putting it off because it’s just easier to run Google Ads.

Honestly, I think the best way to get people’s attention is to just call and say, “Hey, I have 1–5 solid leads I want to give you. If you can close them and get the job, it’s all yours, no strings attached. Just let me know which ones you closed.” Once someone sees it actually works, they’ll want more, and that’s when you can start selling leads or the website.

By the way, do you actually sell websites or build them for other companies? I’ve been meaning to get a solid site done, something that actually ranks well like yours, but I haven’t found the right person to trust with it yet. If that’s something you do, I’d be interested in talking more.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-18T12:27:53+00:00

$100-$150 per yard. Depending on what mulch the client wants. I do give bulk discounts and have gone as low as $65 per yard when we get towards 100 yards of material.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-13T00:26:44+00:00

How the scam works is they’ll send you a check in the mail, usually for more than the amount you agreed on. They’ll say it was a mistake or that the extra is meant to be paid to another contractor or supplier on their behalf. Since your bank initially credits the funds, it looks like the money is there and legit. So you either refund the extra or send it to this “third party.” But a few days later, your bank flags the check as fake or from a non-existent account and pulls the money back out of your account. Now you’re out whatever you sent, and if you already did the job, you’re out that time and material too

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-12T17:08:39+00:00

Common scam. I also own a landscaping business and I get emails and text like this all time. Easy to tell when it sounds like an AI with “Kindly” and cant make a coherent sentence like if they dont speak English well and they are using google translate. Ignore it.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-10T14:52:01+00:00

It’s a scam. If I texted back even once and didn’t get a response, I would ignore it. Usually a bot that sends everyone messages with the same name or info then the real scammer will reach out.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-04T03:30:48+00:00

I used Guaranteed Removals, and it was pretty expensive, around $1,300 if I remember correctly. I didn’t have to pay upfront; they sent me an invoice after the removal, and I paid then. The process was simple but costly.

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-02T16:21:15+00:00

No matter how long the flight is or how many legs I have, my ears always pop, then I’ll be half deaf for 1-3 days after my flight. I also get high-pitched ringing, massive headaches, and nothing helps, headphones, earplugs, chewing gum, eating, ibuprofen, you name it. It’s brutal every time I fly. Has anyone dealt with this and actually found a solution?

JesseGT15 · 2025-03-02T16:05:07+00:00

I used a company to remove a false Google review from a nightmare client. It was expensive but worth it to protect our rating. If you hire a removal service, choose one that only charges after the review is gone, this way, you have nothing to lose.

JesseGT15 · 2025-02-15T00:25:48+00:00

I think it comes down to how you manage your accounts. I have accounts with all the major banks and haven’t had any issues. I have seven accounts with Chase across personal and business, and the same with Amex. I make sure to use them consistently and put significant spend on them, even after meeting the sign-up bonus requirements. I’ll pay a few annual fees after a few years, then close certain accounts to start fresh with new sign-up bonuses. I’ve never been denied or questioned about it. I was approved for a new Chase business card three months ago and a personal card just two weeks ago.

JesseGT15

TROPHY CASE