I think I have the new name for this blog.  It took long enough, I know.  So here it finally is: "Legal Landscaping" part 1.  I think it sums up the goal of the project well.  Winter presents many challenges for Charlie and I's business.  We both play basketball, which when practices and games are acounted for there is very little time or energy left for work related activities. We dont have the time to do much leave removal which is the primary work this time of the year in our line of work.  However the few jobs of it that we have had time to do on the weekends has taught us some valuable business lessons.  I have found from my experience running the business that most of the important lessons are not very fun ones, seeing as how they most often come from our biggest mistakes.  For example a few weeks ago I recieved a call from a customer over in Hunting Hills who wanted some leave removal done.  I agreed to come by and give him a quote on the job.  The job was huge and the price I left was also rather high for a leave removal job, but heres the catch that we would later realize would be more problematic than anticipated; the leaves to be removed were primarily all in woods surrounding the house.  Being in Hunting Hills, the house had a very small sodded lawn and the owners land consisted primarily of a very steep wooded hill which turned into quite a challenge.  The short version is that we realized after  working for several hours with two other employees that we didnt have the equiptment necessary to do the job effectively since our open trailer is not ideal for transporting large amounts of leaves since there is no way to keep them all from blowing out without it being enclosed. our large tarp just simply wopuldnt do the job for the amount of leaves there were this time.  We had to inform our customer that we simply underbid ourselves on the job and did not have the right equiptment to get it done in an efficient manner which would allow us to leave in the black.  We were forced to cut our losses before they pushed farther into the red. 

Luke Alligood
Mrs. Honaker
English 12 CB
9/9/14

Figuring Out My Twenty Time

For my "Twenty Time" project I want to possibly do something with the use of magic and the effects it can be used for in many different contexts which may include but not limited too street performance, table magic, and illusions.  My other thought of a possible project is to research new ways to improve my landscaping business and expand it to other areas of growth.  My ideas on this include looking into licensing and insuring my business as an "above board" business with the goal of growing my customer base from what is currently residential businees primarily to forming contracts with local business's and residential jobs in order to increase profit and create more work for me and my employees.  Some of the challenges that come with this however are difficulties in the form of taxes and workers compensation.  My goal would be to weigh the pros and cons of this big change and develop a plan to make it more succesful and appealing business to hire and be confident in the work to be done.