My teacher told me about his friend who bought a bulldozer and earned like $60- $75,000 a year. He taught himself how to use it and worked 10-14 hrs a day in the summer but relaxed in the winter. And then he bought another one and hired someone to work for him and gave him 75% of the profits. I looked it up and a bulldozer costs ABOUT $110,000. I was thinking, hey, why not buy a few of these things and hire others to work on them and do the same thing - get $25% of the profit? I just wanted to know if this would be a smart, investable business - would I really be able to work 3 or 4 bulldozers and make a good profit, or is it a difficult/unlikely business?
It's a business with substantial up-front capitol investment, typically whether ones fails or succeeds depends on being able to find enough work to keep that equipment busy, construction related work can be quite seasonal and employers can be kind of fickle, I imagine some might only deal with union contractors or established services might have the marked locked up.
I think there a few important things left out here. First, there is a learning curve to using a bulldozer and it takes lots of time to master. Second, what size are you going to get and what are your jobs going to be? Clearing bush? Grading? Large scale dirt movement? Different jobs require different sizes and options. Do you understand the maintenance behind a bulldozer? The undercarriage will require replacing after periods of use and costs several thousand dollars to do. How are you going to transport it between jobs? Hiring a lowbed will work for a while, but at some point you will need your own semi and trailer. Unless you have extensive dozer experience, your own construction company, and access to enough work, I think your dreaming a bit.
