This could make mowing fun!!
Today’s blog will be a little different than most. I want to do a quick run down on what it takes to start your own Lawn Care Business. Every Spring I see many people get into the business, and every August I see most of them get out of the business. I haven’t been able to track them down because they disappear so fast, but I really would like to know why they quit! Could it be that mowing 30 yards per week is hard work? Or is it that mowing the same 30 yards per week is very repetitious? Is it that all of a sudden the weather got really HOT and the grass got dry? Maybe it is because they got another job opportunity? I wish I knew, but whatever the case may be, I have always acquired more dedicated lawn clients in August than I do any other time of the year.
With that being said, what does it take to start a lawn care business? The short answer is a truck, trailer, lawn mower, weedeater and a blower. If you get all new commercial grade equipment that will cost you right at $10,000 (not including the truck). Acquiring the equipment is the easy and fun part of the whole start up your business thing! Typically the sales companies will have parties and extremely good pricing and financing in about February to encourage everyone to buy new equipment before the season starts. Many times they will offer 90 days same as cash. That means your payments of about $400 start in June and continue on for 3 years. Making that special purchase linger on for a long time and cost you more like $13,000 in the end. Oh, and by the way, you still have to make that payment in the middle of the winter when the grass is no longer growing! That is the part many people forget. 
OK, so you have your equipment now, you are real excited about making your millions mowing grass, it is March and the grass is getting close to needing cut for the first time, and your phone is not ringing. Wasn’t the phone just going to start ringing the minute you opened your business? All your buddies who have been mowing for years, their phones never stop ringing, ‘what am I doing wrong?’ You forgot that you have to let people know that you exist and you are in the mowing business now.
Onto marketing…what is the best way to market a new mowing business? Is it the newspaper, flyers, door to door knocking, standing in front of Kroger with a table? Unfortunately there is no secret to marketing for grass cutting. I spent over $30,000 in marketing and advertising in 2008 and I got good returns on ‘landscaping jobs’, but very little on ‘mowing jobs’. So I guess that means I am not good at marketing mowing. Sorry I can’t help you on that one!
Anyway, I do know that starting a mowing company is extremely easy to do. I also know that growing, maintaining, and making a profit with a mowing company will be one of the hardest things that you have ever experienced in your life! I have been studying profiles of people over the last month or so, and I found this website, www.SlightlyEnthusiastic.com and it is a short test that will tell you what area of business you will succeed in. I also found another website that teaches principles in business that are easy to understand, www.SurviveBusiness.com . These two websites will take your business from a will fail, to a won’t fail. 90% of all small businesses fail in the first 5 years, according to the SBA website.
Don’t hesitate starting a business, but don’t hesitate to get help also!!!
Happy Mowing
#1 by Patty Stewart on October 7, 2009 - 10:27 am
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I’m in my third year of owning and using something called a Cyclone Rake system. It took a day to assemble and then i drove it right into the garage. It attaches to the back of a riding mower, Briggs engine does the work. What it does is pick up all the debris (leaves in the fall, weeds and seeds all the rest of the year) into a hopper. Since I live less than a mile to a compost site, i drive the whole rig over there to empty, until I can dump on the street for fall pickup. Ends backbreaking work of raking. Best lawn tool I’ve bought. Your lawn looks like VELVET after using the cyclone rake.
#2 by john on October 14, 2009 - 11:09 pm
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I am going on 25 years and never stopped growing. I remain a small timer but have big plans when I retire from my regular job.
#3 by Lawn Care Business on November 30, 2009 - 2:26 am
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Learning how to mow a yard is not that hard so success in the lawn care business really comes down to marketing (getting the accounts) and operations (implementing systems).
Many new players price to low and have a hard time being profitable. A great way to enter the industry would be to aquire some of the accounts from those that are going out of business – you should be able to pick them up cheaply – just check with the client that they are happy with the arrangement and your price first.
Marketing is tough these days and flyers print advertising and the Yellow Pages etc can get you a few leads but are hardly cost effective. These days its all about referrals and word of mouth marketing – provide great services and give your customers lots of reasons to talk about you.
#4 by Rebounding Master on August 24, 2011 - 6:01 pm
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Looks like an awsomely fun ride. I love people's creativity!!