Thinking of starting a lawn care business this year? You’ve come to the right place. The team here at Demplates has created a free guide to starting a lawn care business, as well as getting your first paying client.
As far as lawn care is concerned, starting your business is simple. Startup cost can be low, depending on the equipment you have. Chances are, you’ve already got access to a lawn mower and a weed trimmer.
If you live in a city, you can land your first clients just by knocking on the neighbors door.
Everything you need to successfully start and run your business is in this guide. With that being said, we’ve built an online training program just for startup lawn service business owners that will get your business running in under a week.
Ready to start? We’ve built a (completely free) Lawn Care Business Bootcamp. In this bootcamp, you’re going to learn how to build a Lawn / Landscape Website from Scratch. We’ll also teach you how to set up Google and Facebook Ads funnels that will produce leads for your business on autopilot.
*this is the same marketing system we charge $5,000+ for.
Join The 2019 Lawn Care Bootcamp and have your website + sales funnel running in under 5 days >>
Starting A Successful Lawn Care Business in 2019
Businesses evolve, whether we like it or not, on a yearly basis. Lawn care is no exception.
Is it hard to start a lawn care business? Absolutely not. In fact, all you need to start your lawn and landscaping company are a few simple things.
- A business name
- Lawn mower (and a weed trimmer)
- Transportation
- Your first customer
Of course, some of these are easier said then done. Getting your first lawn mowing contract is fairly simple.
As we mentioned above, with a little luck and motivation, you can land your first paying customer today. Head over to your neighbors house, knock on their door and tell them about your new business venture. If you have a good relationship with your neighbor, chances are they’re going to hire you to mow their lawn.
Just like any business, you’re going to face rejection when selling lawn services. Find unique ways to separate yourself from the competition and you’ll quickly establish a niche for your business.
Separating your business from the competition can be simple things like: having a better brand, offering better customer service, having a lawn mowing subscription (or advertising one), bundling lawn and snow care (or landscaping).
The bottom line is, if you separate yourself from the competition, you’re going to start landing paying clients.
Do you need a business plan to start a lawn care business?
If you’re starting from scratch, chances are, you do not need to spend a large amount of time on developing a lawn care business plan.
After your first successful year in business, I would sit down to develop a plan that will help you scale your business.
One of the reasons that a business plan isn’t totally necessary is because you shouldn’t seek financing. Starting a business like this is relatively cheap, if you decide to bootstrap it. If you want to shoot for the stars and have run successful businesses in the past, financing may be the leverage you need to quickly expand. If you decide to seek financing, any bank is going to require a bulletproof business plan.
Regardless, jotting down a business plan for your new business is never a bad idea.
Throughout the rest of this article, we’re covering things like lawn care lead generation, building your website (if you sign up for our Lawn Care Bootcamp, we’ll show you how for free), and coming up with marketing materials.
Related: lawn care business plans 2019
How to market a lawn care business this year
Marketing your business, regardless of the business you’re starting, is critical to your success. We’re fortunate to live in the internet age, where generating leads is as simple as setting up ad campaigns. All of this is covered in our Bootcamp we mentioned above, but we’ll break down some starting points.
Lawn Care Business Marketing Ideas
- Getting A Logo
- Making Business Cards
- Building Flyers / Handouts
- Setting Up A Website
- Building Online Advertising “Funnels”
- Billboards?
The fact is, you can start a business without any of the above. However, if you want to scale your business to the point where you spend your time working on your business (and not in it!), you’re going to want to set up systems that generate clients for you. This way, you’ll be able to work on things like scheduling your employees workloads and maximizing your efficiency.
Everybody gets into business to make money. Lawn care is no exception.
Related: how to get more leads for a lawn care business
Building a lawn care business website
Building a
Related: complete guide to building a lawn care business website
Lawn care business marketing materials
Related: lawn care business card examples
Things you NEED to know before starting a lawn care business
First, starting a business is easy.
Operating a successful business can be challenging. You’ll need to know things like how to set up an LLC (we recommend Legal Zoom).
You’ve got to have insurance. Things happen when mowing lawns. Rocks hit windows, equipment breaks, accidents can happen if you’re not careful. Starting a business like this without the proper insurance is asking for a lawsuit that puts you out of business as quickly as you started.
Get insurance.
You’re going to face rejection.
Every business owner faces rejection at some point. Whether it’s a client hiring a competing company, or somebody simply not interested in your services.
Lawn Care Business Books
There are a plethora of business books out there that will help you achieve the right mindset for running a successful business. Here are some of our top recommendations for starting and operating your business.
1- Start Your Own Lawn Care or Landscaping Business
Written by the staff of Entrepreneur.com, this book is a great step by step guide for anybody interested in starting this type of business. Having read this book personally, I highly recommend anybody thinking of starting a lawn care company take a look at this resource.
2- Start Your Own Business
Another book by the Entrepreneur.com team, Start Your Own Business is an incredibly helpful resource for business owners across the board. We recommend this one again because we’ve read it. The book takes a deep dive into all of the things you need to start and run a successful small business.
3- The Lean Startup
One of the most popular business books of all time, The Lean Startup is a must read for any entrepreneurs, not just lawn service entrepreneurs. Highly recommend this read.