My market has TERRIBLE customer service. I called every single sprinkler company and didn't get one call back. I was forced to learn how to fix sprinkler heads, drip lines, 5 busted pipes (one on the mainline) a valve, and rewire the computer to water all zones independently (a few crossed wires buried somewhere). I just bought the house and knew it had a busted system.
The local competition basically runs YELP pages, poorly. I could very easily pay ~$100 to become a licensed irrigator and start taking their business by launching my own site and running a legitimate business and growing slowly/organically.
One of the reasons I am on the fence about whether or not I want to start a sprinkler/irrigation or any company is that I am a high school teacher and not looking to quit, at least initially. I would do my best, sick days, weekends, clever scheduling, managing demand, to see how this looks part time and go from there. I could hire and train other people, but the barriers to entry are so low, I am not sure how I would keep them working for me. Additionally, I find myself asking, is it worth it if it makes only "X" per year?
Frankly, I love finance and entrepreneurship (15 year career at Morgan Stanley prior to teaching), and I would want to tinker with this for fun and curiosity to see what I can do with it. MOST IMPORTANT I want my young boys not to fear doing something on your own, and it would be incredible if I could build a lasting company.
Go ahead and rip apart why I shouldn't enter irrigation, how I'm daydreaming I can do this part time, etc. I'm early on in the exploratory phase at the moment.
Thank you for your review and kind/harsh words.