How to Start a Lawn Care Business That Actually Makes Money
Interested in starting a lawn care business?
This complete guide will show you the basics, and walk you through the best practices to make your new lawn care business profitable as soon as possible. Along the way, we’ll answer your major questions and show you the path to true business growth for new lawn care owners.
Once you understand the core concepts, your new lawn care business will be ready to grow into a profit-generating machine. Best of all, if you set up your business the right way, it’s surprisingly easy to run a profitable lawn care company.
Here are the 7 steps to start your new lawn care business:
Step 1: Find a Powerful “Why”
Starting a lawn care business is easy.
But growing one? That’s a different question. Along your journey, you will face some hard challenges. To keep yourself going, you must have a powerful reason for why you’re starting this business:
Do you want to build your business skills and generate a strong profit?
Do you want a business that creates a healthy income for you and your family?
Do you want to build a multi-million-dollar enterprise so you can build serious wealth?
This “why” will keep you strong even when times are tough. It will help you push through the difficult days, so you can reap the rewards on the other side.
This reason must be powerful enough to keep you pushing. We’ve seen owners overcome all kinds of challenges because they had a powerful reason why. Even when their competitors gave up, they stayed strong, and now they’re making serious money.
What is your powerful reason for starting a lawn care business?
Write it down. Put it up on your wall, where you can see it every day. You will need it.
How Much Money Does a New Lawn Care Business Make?
Some new lawn companies go negative in their first year, because they buy so much equipment.
Some (extremely rare) companies can hit $200,000+ in their first year.
More likely, you’ll land somewhere in the middle of the pack. There are too many factors to give an exact answer, so here’s the truth:
If you run a healthy operation
And price your services the right way
And put in the effort to market your services
And you work hard
…you can expect to make a healthy income in your first year.
This guide will show you how to check all those boxes, and give yourself the best chance at making a strong profit in your first year. Then, it’s up to you to put in the work.
Step 2: What Lawn Care Services Should You Offer?
Almost every lawn care company will offer mowing, weeding, and debris cleanup/blowing services.
Some companies will only offer these services, especially in the warmer parts of the world where grass grows almost all year.
But in most parts of the world, lawn care is a seasonal service, so you will also need to think about offering Fall and Winter services (like leaf cleanups or holiday lighting).
Warning: when you start, you might be tempted to offer any kind of landscaping service, but beware: this mindset can trap you into doing any work that comes your way. You don’t want to be a general handyman.
Longterm, the best strategy is to focus on a few premium services and get really good at them. This will help you make your operation more efficient and more profitable. By doing this, you will set yourself up for real growth.
Why Premium Services Sell Better
In general, the best practice is to offer premium packages for your services: an all-in-one mowing, trimming, and clean-up for higher-end clients.
Instead of competing with other lawn care companies on price—or always selling your services cheaper than the other guy—you want to sell high-value services to high-value clients.
Build your services around a “premium lawn care experience” that focuses on quality and customer satisfaction. This allows you to sell your services for more money, builds your reputation, and allows you to work with the best kind of clients.
Step 3: Does Lawn Care Need a Business License?
In most states, you are required to get a business license to operate legally. It might sound like a big hurdle, but getting a license is surprisingly simple and cheap.
The U.S. Small Business Administration can help you get your business license right away.
In addition, your city or local municipality may also have specific requirements. We recommend you contact your county clerk and your state’s department of licensing and regulation to make sure you’re within those requirements.
Last, if you’re thinking of offering more advanced lawn services like fertilization or irrigation, you may need additional permits. Always check your local laws. A few minutes of searching will save you hours of headaches (and thousands of dollars) down the line.
Step 4: What Equipment Do You Need to Start a Lawn Care Business?
To sell lawn services, you will need a mower, a trimmer, and a blower for clearing away debris. You will also need a vehicle, most likely a truck, and a trailer to haul your equipment to your clients.
For owners just starting out, you can get away with used equipment to help you lower your starting costs.
Lawn Mower
Home-Grade Mower: ~$250
Commercial Mower: ~$8000
Trimmer
Electric: ~$180
Gas-Powered: ~$200
Blower
Gas-Powered: ~$500
Work Truck
Used: $12,000
New: $45,000
Trailer
Open: ~$1700
Enclosed: ~$8000
Total Estimated Cost for Lawn Care Business Equipment:
Cheap: ~$14,630
Premium: ~$61,000
Note: don’t let these prices scare you!
if you already have a vehicle and access to a mower, this will cut your startup costs significantly. Borrow, buy used, and use what you already have to lower your costs. You can always buy gear upgrades later.
At Lightspeed Social, we’ve worked with lawn care companies who started with $0 by borrowing equipment and using trucks they already owned.
Step 5: Perform a Test Run
Once you get your license and your gear, it’s time to iron out your process.
Find a neighbor nearby, and offer to cut their lawn for free while you work out the kinks. Think of this person as your first client, and give this first job 100% of your effort.
Your goal is twofold:
Make sure you can do the job right
Get early pictures and reviews to immediately boost your reputation
You want to feel what it’s like to work under pressure and to satisfy a client. You will learn so much from this first job, so go at a careful pace. Time yourself, but don’t rush.
When you’re done, take pictures of your work. You will need them soon. And don’t forget to ask your first “client” for a positive review, either as a written quote or as a review on your business pages.
That first review will catapult your reputation and help you easily grab more clients fast. We’ll talk more about getting your next clients in a moment.
Step 6: How Should You Price Lawn Care Services?
Now that you know how long it takes you to mow a lawn, you can price your services the right way.
Here’s the formula:
Your Hourly Wage + Base Costs + Profit = Price
Your time must generate money. To do that, you need to build your time and your operational costs (fuel, maintenance, etc.) into your prices. But most importantly, you need to guarantee that you make a profit on every single job. Otherwise, you’re working for free.
The best strategy is to price your services for a premium profit. This allows you to make more money from fewer clients, which means less work, and reduced stress on your part.
It also means that you don’t have to compete on price.
The biggest mistake we see new owners make is undercutting everyone else. This is a huge trap. If you try to compete on price, you’ll end up in a price war and drive yourself out of business.
If you want to guarantee you priced your services right, this pricing guide will help you.
Step 7: How Do You Find Clients for Lawn Care?
Start by asking this: who is my ideal client?
Ideal clients are people who will love your work, and who will be happy to pay you for it.
Avoid price shoppers and people that ask you to do things beyond your main services. These clients tend to ask for discounts or they’ll complain about your work no matter what you do. Not only do they kill your profits, they make this job miserable. Avoid them as much as you can.
But there’s one other key aspect to finding your ideal clients …
Why Location is Everything in Lawn Care
The real money in lawn care comes from route efficiency. Denser routes mean you can service more properties in a day, which means more income—for the same amount of work. Basically, the less time you spend driving, the more time you spend earning money.
So the ideal client should also be close to you and close to your other clients.
This will also help you market locally, and target specific neighborhoods with your advertising.
Once you know what your ideal client looks like, you can start marketing to them.
How Do I Get More Lawn Care Clients?
Your first few clients will probably come from word of mouth or knocking on doors in your local area.
After that, you’ll need to market if you want to grow your business. Marketing is key, because it’s scalable. If you call one person, you can only sell to one person. But if you put up a damn good Facebook ad, you can pick up a hundred new clients in just a few weeks. Low effort, high reward.
To start marketing, you need a web presence. You can use a website builder like Wix.com to quickly build a professional website where clients can sign up for your services. In addition, you’ll probably want to start a Facebook Business page, or something similar, so clients can verify that you’re a real business with a good reputation.
As your lawn care business grows, you’ll want to start doing more: send out emails, print flyers, and eventually start targeting specific neighborhoods with digital ads. But don’t feel like you have to do it all.
Start simple. Choose one marketing tactic, and get really good at it.
We suggest joining local Facebook groups, where you can advertise your services. You can also go door-to-door with flyers to get a few handfuls of clients in a dense area, which will make your earliest jobs very profitable.
Need Marketing Help?
Our team at Lightspeed Social Agency would be delighted to help you out. Our expert marketing team has helped dozens of Lawn Care owners like you grow faster with our proven advertising strategies. We use a mixture of Facebook Business, Google Ads, and a few other techniques to net you new clients and build a healthy profit ASAP.
Get Ready to Start Your New Lawn Care Business
Now that you know the basics of starting and running a lawn care business, you’re ready to begin.
You have a powerful reason for starting a lawn care business, and you know what services you want to sell. You have a good idea of how to price your lawn services.
Once you get your business license and a handful of clients, you’re can start making money. So let’s look at one final question:
How Much Work Does it Take to Run a Lawn Care Business?
On average, new owners can expect to put in overtime. New owners average between 40 and 60 hours a week. Any more and you run the risk of overworking yourself, which can lead to you getting stuck in your business.
But how do you know when enough is enough?
Here’s the best practice: set a specific revenue goal that you want to achieve. This lets you focus on a specific number, instead of working endless hours and burning yourself out.
The good news is, as you get better at running your business—and as your business grows—you can start working on your business, instead of in it. You will learn how to build systems that run themselves, earning your more hours of free time. Eventually, you won’t be working in the field at all (unless you want to).
To get to this point, you must grow. Keep marketing, improve your efficiency, and move on to the next big step: hiring employees.
Employees are the hardest part of building a healthy lawn care business, but they can be so good for you, too. Great employees allow you to multiply your efforts, and grow your business automatically.
Keep up the great work, and you will see the rewards.
If you need help with your marketing or finding great employees for your lawn care business, Lightspeed Social Agency is ready to lend a hand. Contact us here, and we’ll show you how we can help.