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Lawn mowing is not just something that many people would think in attempting to turn something into a money-making business venture. There are more than enough residential farmlands as well as plenty of opportunities to start a lawn mowing business on your own or with a partner.

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The idea of starting a lawn mowing business or taking something as basic as a lawn and transforming it into a business and service has not been that easy to do.

When thinking about starting a lawn mowing business, you need to remember that it’s more than just mowing grass and chopping edges.

As with any landscaping enterprise, you need to realize that your business has enough room to adapt and scale to fit your market, your needs and your experience.

Starting a garden or lawn mowing company from scratch provides many fascinating opportunities to develop and improve what can be a very lucrative business.

Here are nine steps to take to get your lawn business underway:

Phase One:

Plan out your business

A simple strategy is a key to success as an entrepreneur. A business plan will enable you get every detail of your business figured out and uncover grey areas of your business. There are a some important things to take note of.

• Your estimated startup capital and operating costs?
• Your target audience
• The duration to break even
• Your business name

However in this post we have done an extensive research for you

Read Also: How to Write a Good Business Plan

What does it cost to start a lawn mowing business?

The cost of starting a lawn mowing business will attract  possible expenditures on equipment supplies, business cards, website, operating licenses, promotional signage ,internet connection and trucks .Although you might have a modest liability insurance for the business;  Paying the workers ‘ compensation insurance is paramount if you have hired employees.

The average startup cost for the owner / Operator Company with no associates is less than $3,000 and comprises of:

• Hand tools – $100
• Promotional signage (to put on sides of a truck) – $100 for magnetic signs
• Flyers – $50
• Business Cards – $25
• Website Creation – Free to $500
• Mower – $500
• Gasoline Can – $25
• Internet Services (website registration, hosting, and Internet connection) – $50 to $75 per month
• Insurance $50 to $200 per month
• Pickup Truck Lease – Nothing down with good credit, $299 per month plus $100 per month for insurance
• Oil and gasoline – $20 per tank needed.
• Trimmer – $200
• Leaf Blower – $200

What operating cost would run a lawn mowing business accrue?

Ongoing expenses usually involve labour costs, maintenance of trucks and equipment, and operational costs. A standard monthly expenditures budget for a young company with a home-based office (rent-free) would be:

• Gas – $200 per month
• Equipment Maintenance – $50 per month
• Employee Taxes – 7.65% up to about 15% of the wages paid (depending on the state)
• Labor (per assistant) – Minimum wage up to $15 per hour.
• Insurance – $50 to $200 per month
• Truck – $299 per month
• Truck Insurance $100 per month
• Telephone/Internet Connection – $50 to $100 per month
• Promotional Flyers/Business cards – $75 per month

Find out who your target audience

Long-term customers willing to sign up for recurring automatic payments are the highest.  With this type of clients you are able to plan your budget in advance.

Regional businesses are also good clients, as they are generally pleased and able to pay you more services than residential consumers, and will probably demand daily service. Big lawn operations are fantastic clients, such as hospitals, office buildings, shopping centres, and schools. Nonetheless, others have their lawn care crews, so it can be difficult to secure a large contract like this since this industry is highly competitive.

How does a lawn mowing business generate income ?They offer a  monthly service bill for the standard lawn routine maintenance and receive additional income for any specialized services rendered, like  the fertilization, installation of new grass sod, and winter preparation.

What would be the ideal rate to bill customers?

There are quite a lot of undocumented workers in the lawn care business, it doesn’t matter if you are okay with it, and you should be prepared for a lot of competition. These businesses are typically unregulated, they pay employees less than the base pay, do not have benefits, paying taxes is also exempted.

Legit companies only charge a minimum wage of at least 150 per cent for every period worker is on the customer’s premises. For instance, if the minimum wage is $10 an hour, the fee will depend on a cost of $15 an hour. A fixed price per month is typically about $25 for a basic home lawn that takes less than two hours to cut. A large business will pay more because of the time it takes to cut the grass.

Rate: How to Make Customers Pay your Price

How much profit can your lawn mowing business potentially make?

Lawn mowing alone, on a local scale, is not a very profitable sector. There is extreme competition due to the lack of specialized skills and the low cost of entry required for this sector. Many of the small operators who work in this sector do so to make a better standard of living instead of having a normal job. Typical owner/operators, who operate on their own and are popular, work very hard to make $30,000 to $50,000 a year. In order to make more money, a company owner has to run more than one crew and provide extra services to current customers.

How can you make your lawn mowing business successful?

In addition to cutting and preserving lawns, a lawn service company may provide extra services like landscaping and snow removal (in snowy areas). Landscaping is another but connected sector. This involves the construction of pavements, walkways, sidewalks and retaining walls. It also includes the planting of trees, installation of water features (waterfalls, ponds and fountains) and, flowers and shrubs.

What do you intend naming your business?

Choosing the ideal name is very vital. Read our comprehensive guide on how to name a company. We recommend testing whether the business name you picked is already available in the online domain, and acquiring it early enough so that no one would be able to claim it.

Try setting up a professional email account (@yourcompany.com) after registering a domain name. A business email service is provided by Google’s G Suite as well as many useful resources, including, spreadsheets, word processing, and many others. Do it free of charge.

Phase Two:

Form a legal entity

Establishing a legitimate corporate organization such as LLC protects you from being legally liable if your lawn mowing company is being sued. There are several business structures from which to choose, which include: corporations, LLCs, and DBAs.

You may also consider making use of a licensed agent service to help secure your data and monitor compliance.

Phase Three:

Ensure you enroll for taxes

You will have to enrol for a wide range of federal and state taxes prior to when you open up for business.

You will have to apply for an EIN to register for taxes. It’s so simple and easy!

Phase Four:

Open a business bank account and credit card.

The use of dedicated business credit and banking accounts is important for the security of personal assets.

Getting your business and personal records mixed up will be placing your assets (home, vehicle, and other personal possessions) at risk if your business is sued. It is regarded as piercing the corporate veil in business law.

Open a bank account for your business.

• It divides your assets from the assets of your company and is important for the security of personal assets.
• Accounting and tax filling are made much simpler.
• Obtain a credit card for your business.
• This lets you differentiate your personal and company expenses by placing all your business expenses in one place.
• It also establishes the credit history of your business, which could be useful for raising capital and investing later.

Phase Five:

Create accounts for your business

Recording your many expenditures and income sources is essential to understanding the financial results of your company. Keeping accurate and comprehensive accounts also makes the yearly tax filing much simpler.

Phase Six:

Acquire vital permits and licenses to run your business

Inability to obtain the required licenses and permits can lead to heavy fines, or perhaps even force your business to be closed down.

State and local business licensing requirement

It is necessary to collect a Lawn Service license in most states. Read more about licensing conditions in your country by visiting the SBA State Licenses and Permits guide.

Besides, several local licensing or regulatory conditions can apply. For more inquires about state licenses and permits

• Verify with the town’s office, or the office of the county clerk.
• Get support from any of the local associations listed in the Department of Business Association’s database of Local Business Resources.

Service contract

Lawn mowing businesses should   to sign a service agreement prior to beginning another project. The contract would explain the expectations of the client and reduce the likelihood of legal disputes by specifying payment terms and conditions. Below is an example of a service agreement.

Proposed: Rocket Lawyer makes it easy to set up a legal service agreement for your lawn mowing business when you sign up for their premium membership. For $39.95 a month, participants are granted access to hundreds of legal contracts and on-call lawyers to obtain free legal advice.

Read Also: How to Become a Real Estate Agent

Phase Seven:

Obtain insurance for your business

Even as with permits and licenses, the business needs insurance to function securely and lawfully. Company insurance covers the financial well-being of the business in the case of a covered loss.

There are many types of insurance plans designed for various kinds of businesses with a range of distinct risks. Perhaps you aren’t certain of the types of risks that your business might face, consider starting with General Liability Insurance. It is the most popular coverage that small businesses require, so it’s a good starting point for your business.

Another significant compensation scheme that many businesses use is Workers ‘ Compensation Insurance. If your business is going to have employees, it’s a fair likelihood that your state will allow you to have workers ‘ compensation insurance.

Phase Eight:

Your brand depicts what your company is known for and how the public perceives your business. A good reputation will make your business to stand out from the competition.

Marketing and promoting your lawn mowing business

Promotional signage, mostly on a truck(s) used by the company is essential. So whenever possible, if your car is not in service, park it on the street with much traffic in a highly visible spot. Making use of door-to-door delivery of discounted promotional flyers to homes and businesses is also considered an efficient way of   advertising your business.

Hand out your business cards to anyone and everyone you know. If necessary, place a promotional sign on every lawn that you manage with your contact details on it.

Ensure sure you own a  very engaging website that makes use of  the industry standards for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to be ranked on the SERPs for local search results.

Keeping clients coming back to your business

A lot of new clients will come through word-of-mouth to your current customers, so make sure to do a better job than satisfies your customers. Always turn up on time as per the scheduled work and ensure that you clean up properly before you leave the job. Always leave a work partly done or badly managed. Check back with your clients frequently in order to see if there’s something else you can help them with.

Phase Nine:

Create your business web presence

Business websites help clients learn more about your business and the goods or services you sell. You have the liberty to utilize social media should the need arise.

Read Also: 8 Reasons Why Small Business Need a Website for Your Business

Could Lawn mowing business model be suitable for me?

People who are successful in this business love to work outdoors under a range of different climatic conditions. The temperature probably depends on the season. It can be very hot in some areas during the summer. This type of business model is the kind that requires the utilization of your physical strength, because you will be expected to lift heavy working equipment from time to time. Therefore, you should know what you are getting into before you embarking on this journey.

Those who are welcoming and want to chat to people are generally more likely to get customers somehow. This kind of business will require that you pay a great deal of attention to details and ensure that you do the kind f work that clients expect from you in an excellent fashion.

 In a typical day at the lawn business – what happens?

The days begin very early. You have to ensure that your working tools are in the best working condition before head off to your client’s worksites. You will be faced with routinely tasks which would require that you always sharpen your cutting blades and ensure that mowers are clean.

Also, all gasoline equipment must be made up of a mixture of gasoline as well as the required quantity of oil. After all the material has been inspected, the vehicles are loaded, and the crews (if any) assembled and given the day’s work orders that have been planned.

In a typical setting, what happens is that you will spend most of your day working at your client’s work site. Normally, any issues that occur, such as truck breakdowns or equipment issues need to be resolved.

The moment your team returns back to your office, what is left for them to do is to send a report of the work done, and note down special requests or order received by clients. The information retrieved will then be logged in for the purpose of billing and will guide in the planning of job orders from those same clients.

The equipment must be cleaned and reviewed for damage to see whether it needs to be repaired. For some lawn mowing business owners, it could turn out to endure very long working days or weeks before they are able to recruit team to help in carrying out various tasks.

 What Skills will help me build this business?

One way to draw clients is to make your lawn look amazing. Consistent working on your lawn will provide for you the necessary experience and skill you require to keep lawns in a very good condition.

Moreover, in today’s setting, there is no hidden knowledge anywhere because; everything that you ought to know about this business is readily available and accessible on the internet free of charge. Besides these knowledge are very essential is developing skills needed for the business.

Understanding the growth potential for a lawn mowing business

Several start ups and Big Conglomerates didn’t just start out as BIG; they all started out with just the owner and single truck for logistics. The capacity to grow relies on the purchase of additional equipment and the ability to recruit other crew members.

Within this sector, there are really large commercial companies that serve an enormous region. There are also regional firms. Realty Biz lists the top 50 lawn mowing firms in the USA. TruGreen is America’s largest lawn care service. They are a Memphis based company and serve more than 1 million American residents and businesses from coast to coast.

Let’s say we talk about offering landscaping services, and then the ValleyCrest Company is one of the biggest in the United States of America and has international operations too. They have more than 100 offices, more than 10,000 employees, and they earn upwards of US$ 1 billion in revenue per year.

Insider tips to kick-start your lawn mowing business

The truth is that, the best way to start any business is just to start; so the best way to start is just to begin by mapping out friends and families you could start by cutting their lawns. This makes this business the perfect startup business for youngsters. Educational qualifications or certifications are not required.

When and how to build a team

As we have said in the foregoing people who start out in the business and become successful started out as employees working under someone else, or they started out as a single business owner and grew as the work demanded. You can recruit new workforce if you can find the work and the equipment you need is available. The expansion includes the hiring of team members, acquiring of modern tools and equipments, planning of your work schedule and obviously the creation of more jobs.

Make sure you employ registered workers since it is unsafe to use illegal labour because there are heavy fines ($2,000 per person).

Pros

• You always have business and it’s repeated:The nature of this business makes it evergreen, meaning that the accounts never ceases, there is always liquidity. At the very most once a week, you are going to receive orders from your clients, in essence, you will not lack or be out of business.
• Business generates revenue consumables: Clients don’t just want you maintain their lawns; however, they also want you to offer them treat their lawns against bugs and weeds; you might also be required to apply fertilizers every month.

Cons

• Lawn mowing is seasonal:There are regions that will affect your business; this is one of the downsides of this business because if you reside in areas where winter isn’t that bad, you potential clients are likely to hibernates till the end of October. However, if you wish to combat this, you will have to broaden your service offering.
• High Start up cost: Now depending on your preference, you may need to purchase machinery that are very capital intensive, not only that you will need transportation for transporting these heavy equipment. For this reason, this might set you a few thousands of dollars already.

Read Also: How to Start a Botanical Garden Business

Conclusion

Starting a lawn mowing business is a very easy thing to do, provided that you do it the right way. In this guide we have provided for you a comprehensive guide on how to start a lawn mowing business.

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