Starting a Home Based Lawn Service
The first thing you want to ponder before you rush out and begin your own lawn care business is how many services you want to offer and how much time you have to spend at performing and growing your business. It is tempting to think that you will have the drive, time and ambition to make a serious business out of something that many do as a part time job. My advice to you is to start small and if you decide things are going well and this is something you may want to consider growing then proceed after you have gotten your feet wet.
Time is of course the first thing you should consider. Do you work a full time job? Or is your main income seasonal? Are you laid off and trying to start a new full time business? The answers to these questions will differ from person to person. When we decided to start our lawn care business my husband worked a full time job. We kept the services he offered simple. We had a busy life and we were not looking to be out every day cutting lawns. Our main focus was to find a few lawns in the same neighborhood. That way we maximized our earning potential while minimizing our time constraints. As well as keeping our transportation costs lower.
Next, decide on what equipment is absolutely necessary for you to perform the services you are going to offer. We all want a zero turn mower and state of the art equipment, but does it really make sense to invest that much into your venture up front? For us the answer was, no! So, we bought a used 48” John Deere walk behind mower for a great price. We took our time and located a small lawn service that was upgrading their equipment, so we purchased their old mower. We already had an industrial weed eater and blower so we were all set. Sinking a huge investment into a business that was seasonal and that we knew little about just did not seem like a wise idea. We figured if the business thrived, we could always add more equipment and customers at a future time.
So, you have decided that this sounds like a great opportunity for you. Congratulations! Now, how do you start out getting clients, acquiring equipment and setting rates? The first thing we did was talk to other smaller companies to see what they charged to mow, trim and blow sidewalks. We talked to owners that serviced our area and were slightly larger than we planned to be. From there, we set our rates just a tad lower since we were not a full service lawn business. We DID NOT approach any of the other businesses’ customers! This is crucial since you want to maintain a good working relationship with these companies. There were times when other owners needed a helping hand and paid my husband to pick up a couple of their lawns. Remember, you want to become a respected member of the lawn service community.
Next comes the purchasing of equipment. This can cost you anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. I am going to assume that you are cost conscious and not looking for a huge tax write off. (For more on tax deductions visit www.irs.gov) With that being said, off season is the time to keep a vigilant watch for equipment sales. You can watch the sale ads, craigslist or your local paper. Even if you buy new equipment most retailers will mark down merchandise in October to make room for the winter equipment. As I mentioned before, we had forged some relationships with other small lawn business owners and we purchased a great mower really cheap from one of them. It worked out well since we knew him and could trust him.
So now that you have everything you need how do you find customers? The most obvious and cheapest way to find customers is word of mouth. My husband told all his buddies he was going to start mowing on the side and we had lawns within days. Two of our best customers were actually given to us by another company that could not service them. This is why it is crucial that you have an excellent reputation and it also illustrates the effectiveness of networking within the industry.
But what if you don’t know anyone or you really want to bring in lots of business? Vehicles magnets are an inexpensive way to advertise year round where ever you go. If you are at a job mowing and your truck is in front of the house, neighbors can just jot down your number and give you a call. You can get plain magnets from a local sign company for around $70 or you can get magnets with a high resolution image for more money. Just call sign companies and see what you need to get started.
Flyers are always an inexpensive way to advertise, but I like to use methods of dispersion that allow me to control or target certain geographical areas. We like to target subdivisions where we have existing customers so that my husband can mow all of those lawns on the same evening. This saves us time and gas money. So we printed out information sheets on our home printer and put them on some of the doors in the neighborhood. Target the neighbors who don’t have manicured lawns. We just looked for that people whose lawns looked like it could always use a cut. Chances are these people are busy and would gladly pay you to just take care of it while you are there. We did not want to target the houses with 2 feet high grass. We figured these people did not care what the lawn looked like so they would be less likely to pay to have it cut.
As your business grows, and you become savvier as an owner you can expand and buy more equipment. You can post ads in local papers or even consider doing a door to door flyer campaign. But if you start out slow and don’t get in over your head, you will have an easier time managing your business and providing good service. Remember, people WILL talk about you and your service so quality is better than quantity if you want repeat customers and a good reputation. Remember, keeping repeat customers is always easier and cheaper that finding new customers.
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