Did you know? On average, households spend approximately $500 every month to keep their lawn in good shape all year round. If the growing demand for lawn care services has convinced you to start a lawn care business, there’s no better time than now to start a lawn care business.
From Russell Jeffcoat – the owner of Legends lawn care to TruGreen, there are dozens of successful lawn care businesses, making over $500 an hour just by shredding the extra grass off. If you’re looking for a low-risk, low-investment business that brings back-to-back customers, starting a lawn care business might be the ideal option for you.
Still, have doubts? Read this article to explore the world of lawn care, ranging from average lawn care profits to tips&tricks to make money in lawn care.
Step-by-Step Guide To Start A Lawn care Business
1. Good Workload
Whether you’re buying a well-established lawn care business or starting from scratch, it’s crucial to be aware of the average workload you’ll have to manage. To cope with ongoing and consistent service orders, you will most likely need a team to outsource recurring orders and distribute time and lawn care profits equally.
If you operate your lawn care business in areas like New Jersey, St. Louis, Florida, and North Carolina, chances are that you’ll have a sufficient workload to cover, especially during the growing season.
2. Lawn Care Products
After a few weeks or months of starting a lawn care service, you can also generate another lucrative income stream by suggesting and selling your lawn care products to your loyal clients. From lawn fertilizers to seeds and sprays, selling these products under your company name can help grow the lawn care business at a faster pace than expected.
To start, you can offer these lawn care products for free with mowing packages to create trust and later start charging depending on the cost of each product.
Tip: Try to sell organic lawn care products because of their high demand and quality-conscious buyers who won’t mind paying a little extra to keep
3. Automate The Business
The secret to making mowing lawns lies in the smart work you do to scale your lawn care business from $0 to at least $8,000 a month.
Even with all the advanced lawn care equipment, turning a lawn green and healthy from a wild meadow can suck a lot of your effort and time. That’s where automation comes into play. With a hard-working team of workers, you can grow your lawn care business by automating the entire system.
Once you get your clients coming back, all you’ve to do is assign workers for different jobs, hand over the required lawn care equipment and sit back to let the money flow into your account.
After work, give a final finish to the lawn, attain client’s satisfaction and pay your employees based on hourly wages, weekly payroll, daily wages or monthly employee’s salary,
4. Scalable
Another lucrative benefit of starting a lawn care business is the flexibility to calculate the average lawn care business profit that keeps increasing with time.
Even with a limited client base, you can expect an average of 15-20% of lawn care profits depending on the lawn care services you provide. Such as mowing an acre of lawn is more profitable than trimming or shedding trees that make nearly $100 on average or a few more bucks.
The more you invest, the earlier and better profits it will yield at the end of the day. To measure scalability, try to keep track of profits from every individual order so you’re always up to date with all the money going in and out of the business.
5. Customizable
Starting a business can often be very overwhelming and there’s more than a good chance to make mistakes. When starting a lawn care business, you have the freedom to choose the services you’re really good at. If you’re starting small with a limited budget, it’s best to stick to mowing unless you turn more clients down the road to afford other expenses. With time, you can build your business reputation and gradually include more services to expand the business across neighbourhoods.
Remember, the key to growing a lawn care business is by providing the best out of the rest. No matter how many services you provide, a large sum of your lawn care business profit would come from one service such as mowing, landscaping or trimming.
6. No separate Equipment Is Required
The best thing about starting a lawn care business is that you can even start with a very limited investment. Russell from legend lawn care says that you just need $100 bucks to be in the lawn care business without any inventory or additional labour costs.
At the start, all you need is a quality mower to chop off the grass, a broom to clean and a grass collection bag to fill in all the mess. Russel started his lawn care business with just $2000 upfront and scaled it to a whopping $100,000 in the first year. Once you’ve got enough money on hand, you can re-invest it to buy other essential lawn care equipment to expand your business by providing quality service.
Things to Consider When Starting a Lawn Care Business
1. Competition
The number of lawn care services after the Covid pandemic is more than ever before. As of now, there are over 70,0000 active lawn care businesses to meet the growing demand for quality, affordable, and friendly lawn care services.
Although the competition is high, the best way to stand out from the crowd is by offering exclusive discounts, high-quality service and some extra to scale your business.
Moreover, a solid market analysis can also help you know and understand your competitors and learn from their mistakes to grow your lawn care business through safe and full-proof methods.
2. Seasonal
If you fail to structure your lawn care business smartly, chances are that you might not get any work during winter when snow covers the grass, eliminating the need for lawn care.
However, there are ways to turn your seasonal lawn care business into an all-year-round business by adding more services to your lawn care service package. For example, you can offer snow removal services, sell winter lawn care products, and provide after-winter lawn care services to ensure the lawn is in good shape even during winter.
As a result, you will be able to reap lawn care profits all year round and streamline the flow of your business.
3. No Quality Compromise
Although there are several lucrative advantages of starting a lawn care business, it wouldn’t be fair to call it easy money on the plate. Like any profitable business, lawn care also involves an equal share of work and hassles to provide quality service to every client.
With flexible pricing and promised service, it gets easier to build healthy relationships with clients and keeps them coming back to you.
Tip: Go a mile extra to satisfy your clients and follow each and every instruction provided to you as one mistake may get you out of the game.
Do’s and Don’ts To Start A Lawn Care Business
Do’s Of Running A Successful Lawn Care Business.
1. Automate the workflow of your lawn care business
2. Track your time and effort
3. Streamline communication in your absence
4. Get a license for your lawn mowing
5. Spend on marketing
6. Ask for positive customer feedback
7. Give back to your customers
8. Up-sell your lawn mowing services
Don’ts of Lawn Care Business
1. Investing too much in the equipment
2. Not following the instructions.
3. Messing up with the lawn mowing schedule
4. Going against the climate.
How Much Does It Cost To Start A Lawn Care Business?
Starting a lawn care business is pretty affordable and needs a minimum investment of $100-$500 to grab a few clients at the start. Depending on how much you invest in the business, the returns should vary from season to season and other factors.
How Much Does A Lawn Care Business Make?
The average lawn care profit varies somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000, depending on labour, equipment costs, services, neighbourhood and several other factors.
However, this amount can significantly grow regularly with every passing year.
Should I Start A Lawn Care Business?
If you’re looking for a lucrative business option that makes money on automation, starting a lawn care business is a compromising option for you. In a very less time, you can scale your business and get the money flowing without burning the midnight oil.
The best part about starting a lawn care business is having repeat customers. So, all you have to do is hire skilled labourers, provide quality service as promised and your client will come back to you.
Do I Need A License To Start A Lawn Mowing Business?
As with any other business, you will need an official license for your lawn care business from the state’s secretary to operate under legal terms and conditions.
Besides, you would also need special permission to use pesticides, herbicides, and other harmful chemicals on your client’s lawn.
How Much Should I Charge To Grow My Lawn Care Business, And What’s The Best Way To Sell My Services?
Although every lawn care business has a different ask for their services, the average hourly rate for a lawn mowing service is between $20-$40 per hour.
However, mowing large lawns up to an acre can pay you well up to $200 to $500, depending on your experience, expertise, and perfection at work.
Is A Lawn Mowing Business Profitable?
Because of consistent workload and repeat customers, lawn care businesses are fairly profitable only if you smartly trade your time and efforts for the right amount of money.
Over time, you can increase charges for the services to get maximum returns on your investment and scale your business to
Can I Make Money In The Lawn Mowing Business Over Winter?
Though lawn care is a seasonal business, there are plenty of ways to make money besides providing mowing services.
In winter, you can maintain the flow of your lawn mowing business income with services like snow removal, hedge cutting, pressure washing, and winter lawn care.
How Much Do Lawn Care Companies Make?
Generally speaking, there’s no fixed amount of money that a lawn mowing business income makes, as it depends on a handful of factors.
On average, a startup lawn mowing business can make anywhere around $500 to $5000 depending on your initial investment of time, effort and money.
Is Buying A Lawn Mowing Business Any Good?
Yes, buying a lawn mowing business is one of the most profitable investments of money, as you won’t have to build a business from scratch.
Moreover, it keeps you out of the hassle of acquiring an official license and finding new customers through expensive advertising and other hassles.
So, buying a lawn mowing business is a win-win case in every possible way as long as it has a good business reputation.
How Can I Grow My Lawn Care Business?
If you’ve been in the lawn care business for a year now, now it’s time to grow the business with consistent profits coming every month from repeat customers.
While there are dozens of lawn care business tips, not all may be the best fit for your business.
1. Oversell your services.
2. Advertise your business online
3. Run your lawn mowing ads
4. Get good customer feedback
5. Update your lawn mowing trends
6. Buy the latest lawn care equipment
What Do I Need To Do To Start A Lawn Mowing Business?
Anyone with some soft skills, a good investment and passion can start a lawn care business by proper planning and execution at the right time. To start a lawn care business, you would need.
- Solid lawn care business plan
- Targeted locations and some early hands-on clients
- A good marketing budget
- Official License to operate the business
- At least 6-8 Lawn care equipment
- A team of workers
- Backup Plans
How To Get A Business Loan To Start My Lawn Care Business?
Thanks to so many mortgage lenders out there, you can start any business with a business loan even if you don’t have an investing budget at hand. To secure a business mortgage, you’ll need to find a good mortgage lender and apply for a mortgage.
These are some of the questions your mortgage lender may ask you so prepare yourself prior.
1. The interest rate on the loan
2. Time duration to repay the money
3. Expense of lawn care equipment
4. Your Credit score and history
5. Mortgage Insurance
Is Lawn Cutting Profitable?
Yes, it is. There are hundreds of examples of successful lawn care business that makes money cutting the grass only. However, this is called specificity where you only stick to one service and make the most out of it in the long run.
Excluding the labor costs, you can make at least $5,000 – $6,000 a month from your lawn cutting business.
Is Mowing Grass A Good Business
A stable lawn mowing business can guarantee you a continuous flow of income of up to $5000-$10,000.
However, this is only possible if you’re well-equipped to manage your time, finances, and efforts wisely.
What’s the Best Lawn Mower To Start A Lawn Care Business?
When buying a lawn mower for your lawn care business, you should always consider a cheap, fast, and efficient mower to save time mowing lawns. For example, look for electric push mowers that are easy to move across the yard, require fairly less maintenance, and give you an easy time mowing.
Greenworks Corded Mower, 25142
Fiskars Lawn Mowers 362050-1001
The great States Push Lawn Mower,204-14
BLACK+DECKER 3-in-1 Lawn Mower Cordless (MTC220)
Sun Joe Electric Dethatcher and Scarifier, AJ801E
LawnMaster Lawn Mower And Grass Trimmer, 20VMWGT
BLACK+DECKER Electric Lawn Mower (BEMW472BH)
Greenworks Corded Dethatcher / Scarifier, DT13B00
Conclusion
Long story short, a lawn care business is one of the most low-risk and high-return investment scalable businesses that can make money even when you’re not around. The best part is that it grows profits year over year as you can build an incredible reputation for your business across the neighbourhood.
However, it required a fair investment of time, money and efforts to provide quality service to every client and gain trust. Stick to the suggestions mentioned in this article and give your best in every order to create a diversified clientele portfolio.
