Starting a lawn care business is relatively easy and inexpensive. Low start-up costs and the ability to quickly make a profit are two of the most exciting reasons to consider a lawn care business. Other reasons why you should start a lawn care business include:

*The freedom of being your own boss!
*Being able to have a flexible work schedule.
*Potential for high income earnings.
*A steady way to earn extra income as you grow your lawn business.
*Easy to grow.

The following are four areas to consider before you start a lawn care business.

Analyze your equipment needs
One mower and one trimmer are probably all you will need when you start a lawn care business. Even though you may be starting small, consider buying low-cost, durable commercial equipment rather than residential equipment. Residential equipment may not be able to handle the workload you require and you may end up buying another mower or trimmer sooner than you anticipated.

As you expand, you may buy an additional zero turn radius mower, an edger and a hand-held or backpack leaf blower. At that point you will want to consider setting up a lawn care trailer. The trailer can be enclosed or open, depending on how much equipment you have.

Create a business plan:
A lawn care business can be as simple as mowing lawns or as extensive as planting trees and shrubbery, maintaining irrigation systems, spraying fertilizers and more. Either way, it is important to have a business plan before starting a lawn care business. Your plan does not have to be lengthy, but you do need to write down anticipated revenue and expenses and set some goals. A business plan also includes the marketing aspect of your lawn care business. It doesn’t have to be a formal plan but the questions the business plan should address include:

*How are you going to reach potential customers? Will that involve advertising? Printing costs for flyers?
*How many lawn care customers will you need to be profitable?
*Do you anticipate expanding from mowing lawns to fertilizing and landscaping? If so, when and how much will that cost?
*Do you plan to hire other employees?

Take care of the legal stuff:
Before starting your business, find out what the regulations are for your area. Research licensing requirements and tax regulations. Determine the level of insurance needed for the services you will provide. It is also a good idea to talk with an attorney and an accountant; they will help you decide whether to structure your business as a sole proprietorship or corporation.

Use simple, easy to edit forms and contracts:
Create a standard cover letter and proposal that can be customized to each client. Have a service contract already prepared so that you don’t have to waste time creating one after talking with a client. Doing the paperwork ahead of time allows you to be more efficient and frees you up to concentrate on providing good service to your clients.
Several lawn care software programs have the ability to let you even do this while you are at the customers home.

Do you keep track of your time in your lawn care business?
Time mowing, time eating, time sitting at the gas station, etc, etc.

Have you ever even thought about it?

All of us have the same 24 hours in a day.
The better use we make of it, the more money we can make, and the
more time we can have to do what we want.

If you save 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there it can really add
up in a week’s time.

We do 3 things that have made a huge difference in our
lawn business:

1. I have a sheet we use to note the start time and end time on
each property and the travel time in between.
We try and make the time better and better each visit.

2. We try to make our route each day so we have properties that are
closest to each other in one route.
(the time you spend driving in between each client doesn’t pay your
business or ours anything, in fact it actually costs us money)

3. In areas where we only have 1 property to mow we market heavily
in that area to get more customers.
We like to have tons of properties in one small area.
Some neighborhoods we even have several houses in a row.
This means we don’t even have to load the equipment to go to the
next property!

Not only is tracking your time very useful in your business,
it’s actually become like a game to us.
See if you can keep making your times better and better.

Have a great day,
Patrick

No matter if you are getting started or have been in business for a while. Having a plan for your lawn care business is a must. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Watch below then read the rest of the article on having a plan for your lawn care business…

 
 
Click here to read the rest of the lawn care business plan article.
 
 

Craig just sent me another video. Links are of the most important things for getting your lawn care businesses website to the top of Google. Craig has over 100 places you can get links and he’ll share them with you. He says this is super super easy.

Stay tuned. He’s supposed to send me more in the next few days….

Check out this video. This is flippin unbelievable.
Craig is the best I’ve ever seen at getting websites to the top of Google.

Not only can he do this, he can even show you how to do it.

Stay tuned. He is sending me more videos I’ll post in the next couple of days….

Patrick

Proper pruning of ornamentals is one way to help keep your customers plants healthy and beautiful and a gardening encyclopedia is a must have for this type of work. The whole point of pruning is to stimulate new growth close to where the pruning cut was made. When pruning branches from a bush, don’t cut the branches so they are even with the rest of the bush, if you do you’ll soon be pruning again. Instead cut the branches back inside of the bush, this will cause fuller growth from inside the bush. Remember when pruning fruit or flowers, you should let the types of plants that you are dealing with determine your pruning schedule. In general, with a plant that blooms before May, you should prune just as soon as the blooms fade, if the plant blooms in the month of May or later in the year, these should be pruned in late February to early March before the start of the new growth in the spring. Early winter and fall is generally a bad time to prune, you will stimulate the plant to put out new growth and the cold weather will only damage it, and this is true for almost all plants. January thru the middle of the summer is a good time to prune plants that are grown only for their green foliage such as hollies and boxwoods.

A small number of shrubs can be rejuvenated by severe pruning. This method consists of cutting the whole plant down to just four to six inches from the ground. Usually only hollies, azaleas and camellias should have this done. With Boxwoods or Junipers, you should transplant them to a different location if possible, and never use this method on them, they do not tolerate it very well. Since crape myrtle trees flower in summer, prune them before new growth begins in the spring. Crape myrtles will tolerate heavy pruning. For a shrub-like crape myrtle, cut it to the ground so many new trunks can sprout. For a tree-like crape myrtle, thin branches for a more open look. Camellias only need pruning to maintain an attractive form. They may not need pruning every year. When you do prune camellias, prune fall and winter bloomers in March and spring bloomers after flowers have faded.

Its winter and this is the type of information that you
should be thinking about in your spare time.
When your customer asks you a question,
its more impressive if you know the answer
than if you have to go look it up.
Remember, you do this for a living.

Its winter so lets refresh our memory

The next time you’re out working on you 6 or 7th job of the day, and you just wish the mower was better, newer, bigger or whatever, think about what you could be using.

Novelty Mower circa 1874

This the Novelty Lawn Mower from April of 1874.
Its weight was a mere 20 lbs,and why it even had a 20″ cut,
and best of all its hand powered.

Still hate your mower??

Everyone with a home longs to have a beautiful, lush, professional looking lawn. The upside to this is a well-maintained lawn will add value to the home itself, and it will boost your self-esteem to have a lawn admired by others. The problem is that a well-maintained yard requires regular work, and not everyone appreciates this fact. You must take certain steps regularly to accomplish this goal.

1. Weekly lawn mowing is probably the most important step to take. Be sure to keep the blades on your mowing equipment sharp. This will allow the mower to cut, and not to tear or shred the blades of grass. Check with the professionals in your area to find out the optimal height for your type to turf grass. Maintain the lawn at the same overall height, this will help to reduce the amount of stress on the grass; also, it will look better if the entire lawn has been cut at the same height.

2. Regular watering is a requirement for any lawn. Plants of any type require regular watering, and your lawn is the same way. One of the worst things that could happen to your lawn would be for it to go without water until it turns brown. This could and probably will kill a good portion of your lawn turf, the portion of the lawn that does not die off, will be in very poor health. You should avoid this situation if possible, since it is very difficult for a lawn to recover from this. Remember, proper watering will help to promote the health and color of your lawn.

3. Weed, Weed, Weed. This is another factor than can harm your lawn. You should make an effort to keep weeds from taking over any area of your lawn. Once they take hold, you will wish you had spent more time weeding. The weeds take moisture and nutrients meant for your lawn. The weeds can also begin to choke out the grass, leaving you with a mixture of your favorite turf grass, and your least favorite weeds. While on your knees weeding, also look out for pests that can also damage your lawn. You can use pesticides to handle the bugs, insects, and other pests that can infest your lawn, because these critters can cause the same effects on your lawn as weeds.

There are various systems, methods, plans, steps and other things to ensure a lush lawn. However, just by following the simple, basic steps above, you will make a good start on your journey to having a beautiful lawn.