A home based lawn care businessis is a terrific choice for you if you really like to work outdoors. You get plenty of sunshine and fresh air working on making the lawns and gardens of your customers look great. Of course, you'll have to endure some crappy weather from time to time, but for individuals who love working outside, this is a minor inconvenience. For the personality that loves being outdoors whether it is hot or cold or even rainy, building a lawn care business will be a good fit for you.
There's also a lot of creative expression possible in lawn care work. One of the main reasons people hire you is to take a lawn or garden that looks bad and turn it into a thing of beauty. You use the tools you have mastered to sculpt that outdoor space into something your customers will be proud of. That's a worthwhile advocation for anyone. And when you walk away from a job well done and admire the thing of beauty you made, you can get that same thrill that artists get when they make the world a more beautiful place.
Your desire to own your own lawn care business may stem from your certainty that you know you can do a better job than the company you might currently work for or worked for in the past. If you've built up strong relationships with customers, it's very common for a skilled lawn care professional to start a new business and be very successful taking away dissatisfied customers from another service. If your focus is on the service you do and on making your customers happy and you know how to recruit and keep skilled workers, you have the basic skills needed to be a big success running your own lawn care business.
Lawn care can be a business that will keep you busy and making money for decades. It's somewhat recession proof because everybody need to have their lawns taken care of and not all of us are willing, able or adept enough to do it ourselves. I personally could take a perfectly healthy lawn and turn it brown in a matter of weeks.
Your home based lawn care business will be built on relationships with long term customers and that means you may never have to spend a dime on getting new customers. Good lawn care businesses thrive on word of mouth and once the word gets about the quality work that you do, you'll have more customers than you know what to do with.
Getting Started
Usually when a person thinks about starting a new business, there are a lot of costs they have to consider. But with a home lawn care business there are ways to start without spending a dime. All you have to do is get a few customers and begin working to generate cashflow and then the money from those customers will help you fund any additional expenses or equipment upgrades for your business.
You can get your business going using the equipment you have and even the transportation you have. If you have a pickup truck and the lawn care equipment you use to mow your own lawn and take care of your own yard, you're in business. Use that home computer you have to create some flyers to put out on people's doors. Take an afternoon and walk the entire neighborhood and put a flyer in each persons front door announcing your new home based lawn care business.
Once you decide on a business name, print up some business cards on your home computer. You can purchase pre-cut, card stock sheets of paper from any office supply store. Take a few pictures of your lawn or the lawn of any friends or neightbours you may have worked on, to create a portfolo and presto, your company just became a reality. Down the road you can register your company name so nobody else can use it. Even that usually only costs less than $50.
To build your customer list more quickly, make an enticing "grand opening" offer to give the first lawn care session to the customer for half price, or offer the first one or two jobs for free. You'll get dozens of phone calls and within a couple weeks, you'll have so many customers, you'll be busy every day. The money will start to flow and you'll have the revenue to begin to buy more equipment and better transportation and even put a sign on your truck with your company name.
So is it possible to make a good profit running a home lawn care business? Of course it must be otherwise there wouldn't be lawn care companies that stay in business year after year. To make your own business work, there are some basics of building a profitable business that you must keep in mind to apply to your situation as you launch your lawn care business and begin to get customers and generate revenue.
Profitability is not a complicated idea. It's basically making more money than you spend. But it's a mistake to think you can reach profitability simply by controlling costs. Too many businesses have gone under putting all the emphasis on efficiency and cost savings and not enough emphasis on getting new customers and customer retention. You can see profitability when you and your crews are all fully engaged in money generating work every working hour of every day.
This can be a challenge particularly as you grow to where you'll need to keep multiple crews going every day. To keep each team on a job site, completing work and then moving to the next job site and juggle the work and the workers each and every day is a test of your management ability. But you learn the art of managing larger and larger teams and larger jobs as your business grows from just you and your small collection of tools to an empire.
As the owner and manager of your own home based lawn care business, you must always be looking for ways to capture more business. This means marketing and advertising sometimes. But it also means making sure the work you do for existing customers is done well.
With satisfied customers, you can build a budget of reliable income from the monthly payments of that customer base. Happy customers will give you new work as you expand the kinds of services your lawn care business offers. And happy customers give you referrals as they tell their friends and neighbours about the lawn service they are so happy with. That word of mouth marketing is free and it'll get you more business than any other type of advertising.
Success Isn't About The Lawn, It's About The Customer
If you asked someone outside of the business of lawn care what it takes to be a success, they would probably say that it takes an ability to do a great job taking care of lawns. And it's true that anybody who runs a lawn care business must be able to perform the functions of mowing and trimming a lawn and offer other services that customers come to expect. That might be considered a "minimum requirement" of a good lawn care business.
But if you're getting ready to start your own lawn care business, it's important you understand a hidden truth about being a success in this kind of work. That truth is that it's not about the lawns. It's about the customers. And once you focus the majority of your attention and energies on the customers of your lawn care business, you'll have discovered the key to long term success and growth that will carry you as far as you wish to go.
People hire a lawn care company most often because they come recommended. That means that they find out from a friend or neighbour who worked on their lawn or they observed who worked on their lawn and they decided they liked the work that company did.
If a neighbour looks down the street and sees a perfectly sculpted lawn and beautifully maintained garden, that'll spark their interest in hiring the same lawn care company to make their yard just as beautiful. However, speaking with their neighbor about that company is where the recommendation will either make or break the deal and bring you a new customer. Similarly, many lawn care companies who can create masterpieces out of their customer's lawns lose the contract simply because they don't understand how to interact with customers and how to anticipate their needs.
When you go onto the property of a customer every week to do their lawn care, you're entering their private space. That customer must be able to trust you and your with and on their property. If the people you employ scare the customers or if they behave unprofessionally or in a way that upsets the customer, you're sure to lose a client even if those workers do immaculate work on lawns. That means that not only do you have to understand customer relationships, your workers must know how to handle customers as well.
Customer relations is also all about communications. The customer doesn’t want to see you drive up, work on their lawn and disappear until it is time to pay the bill. A person's lawn is personal to them and they want to be able to access the management of the company which includes you, the crew chief in charge of that lawn and even the workers. That customer should be able to walk out of their home while your workers are on the property, stop the work and talk to them and feel like they were responsive to their needs.
That customer should also be able to call your office and get you when they have a concern or want to discuss new business. That means you don't route customers through an automated answering service. Give them access to you, the boss of the lawn care company, every time they call. If you are responsive to customers, communicate with them and let you know you value you them as much as you value their lawns, you will win many contracts with that approach and keep those customers for years.
Competing For Lawn Care Customers
Bidding on a new job and winning a new customer is as much an art as the work of lawn care is. As the owner of your home based lawn care business, it falls to you to handle customer relations and win new customers. There's one thing to keep in mind about how to bid on a job: winning the job is about a lot more than the bid.
You would think that if you can bid the lower price, you will get the job. But home owners and property managers are smarter than that. They know that just hiring the cheapest lawn care company is not a good idea. If that lawn care company makes a mess of their property, they end up with a much worse situation than is justified by the few dollars they saved on that bid.
Your reputation is a big part of your presentation to a potential new customer. If you must present all of your credentials in a bid or an RFP (Request for Proposal), make that document well grounded in the things that are important to the customer. You can bid a higher cost than some of your competition and still win the bid if the customer is convinced you're reliable and that you'll do a great job on their lawn or the grounds of their business.
So include some text discussing your background, how long you've been in business and some notable customers who have used you for years. If you've just started your lawn care business, note how long you've been doing this kind of work, who you may have worked for in the past (if you didn't leave on bad terms) and include photos if you have any. If you come recommended by a customer the prospect might know, include that recommendation letter or drop that customer's name in the proposal. The prospect will pick up the phone to verify that you're doing a great job for that customer and that live recommendation is solid gold in putting your bid ahead of the rest.
Future customers want to know that you believe you're the best company for the job. You can prove that by including an enticing offer that'is hard for the prospect to refuse. Give the prospective customer a "coupon" for the first yard care session for free. That costs you the labor, time and gas to perform the free service. But it's a potent marketing tool that invariably results in a contract for long term service. Also don't be afraid to include an iron clad, no questions asked guarantee of satisfaction with your work. Good customers will not abuse that and they'll feel confident in using your service knowing you stand behind your work and yourself.
Learning to write a good proposal is a skill you'll develop over time. There's no "one way" to write a good bid so you can use your own personality and style in putting together your proposal to the customer. If possible, present your bid to the customer in person. Then you can use your charm and establish rapport which is even more effective.
Tools Of The Trade
Running a professional home based lawn care business must be done with a different approach than just doing lawn care to make money as a contractor. You may have already learned a lot by loading up your small push Briggs and Stratton lawnmower in the back of your pickup and going around mowing lawns to make money. Not that this is not good honest work. But to actually upgrade from that stage to running a full scale lawn care business means you will think bigger, plan to make more money and approach the question of equipment with a bigger vision as well.
There are expenses that are a natural part of running a lawn care business. Probably the top three expenses are:
1. equipment and fuel
2. storage and maintenance of your equipment
3. employees
When you finally have your business started, whether that means you've created a sole proprierorship, a limited liability company or a corporation, you need to be ready to get out there and start working as soon as possible. That means moving quickly and efficiently to buy the tools you'll need in order to take good care of your customer's lawns.
The basic tools needed for lawn care are pretty easy to list. Depending on the kinds of services your lawn care company will do, those tools might include:
- lawnmowers, (even if you have a ride-on mower, you should still have a push mower for small areas)
- edgers and clippers
- rakes
- brooms
- leaf blower/suckers
- weed eaters, hoes, trowels, shovels
- and clean up equipment
In addition to finding out the costs for "industrial strength" equipment, the types of contracts you'll be servicing and the kinds of services you offer impact equipment needs. If you're going to be the primary lawn care service for a large golf club, you'll need large riding lawn mowers and other equipment that can handle such a big job. Also think about storage and transportation of that equipment and any maintenance needs you'll have in keeping your tools in mint condition at all times.
Keeping Your Lawn Care Business Going Year Round
There are a number of jobs that simply go idle when the weather isn't cooperative. People in the construction business know what it means to have to fill months of their schedule waiting for the weather to be friendly so they can work. Teachers also are idled throughout the summer but not for weather reasons. When you operate your own home based lawn care business, you may not be comfortable with simply not working through the winter months. Not only is that hard on your business, it's hard to keep employees when they can't make a living when it's cold and icy outside. The bills still have to be paid, even when yard care is not as much of a hot business as it is in the spring and summer.
One way to generate business is to offer yard care services that are perfect for the winter months. There are things that can be done to a yard in the winder, such as turning a section in preparation for replanting and the laying down of pre-emergent chemicals that'll stop weeds from growing in the spring. Tree and shrub trimming are perfect winter yard care activities because the best time to trim trees is when they are hibernating. By building your skills and equipment to help people with their tree needs, you can find work in the wintertime.
Of course, winter is also a good time for you to do your internal maintenance. If you do have a week when you have no work to do, take advantage of those days by cleaning, repairing and tuning your mowers and other equipment. If you have property and buildings that your business uses, these are also good months to do your upgrades, painting and other chores that you could not get to during the yard care business when you had to focal all of your energies on the ongoing projects of your customers.
From a business perspective, it's a good idea to bank some funds in preparation for these months. Even if you have some fall back work you can turn to during the winter, your business will have expenses to be paid. By setting aside a percentage of your revenue during the 8-10 productive months of the year, you have a slush fund to use for repairs and maintenance or simply to financially get by until you can begin working actively on yard care jobs when the weather improves.
It is also a good idea to do some creative thinking about how you'll use months when yards are under ice and snow and you can't perform your primary mission in life. In areas that get very wintry, there may be plenty of work to be had in snow and ice removal. This is a service you can discuss with your yard care customers. They know and trust you and they may be quite open to contracting with you on a "per job" basis to come and clear the ice and snow from their driveways, porches, steps and sidewalks when Mother Nature unloads.
Many yard care businesses also diversify and offer services that are similar to yard care but customized to the seasons. You may have the equipment to put up Christmas lights for people who want a beautiful display but are not physically able to decorate their houses, yards and roofs to fit their vision. With your crew of trained guys, you can get up on those roofs and put those Santa Clause figures and lights wherever your customers want them. And these contracts come with automatic follow up work taking down those Christmas decorations so they can be stored for next year.
Use your imagination to find viable ways to keep you and your crew busy all winter. There's often work available on Christmas Tree farms helping people cut trees to take home for the holidays. If you have the tools and the skills, you can even offer indoor maintenance work or fence repairs that can be taken care of during the months that you're waiting for the return of yard care jobs. By being creative, you can keep your crew active all winter long and even keep the budget of your home based lawn care business working so you don't lose any ground on your path to success just because it is cold outside.
One Step Ahead Of Success
There's a question that you should ask yourself very early in your thinking about starting your own lawn care business. It may seem like a silly question but it isn't. The question is, "Do I plan to be a success?" You may think that it is a silly question because why would anyone go into a new business venture and not plan to be successful? But it's surprising how many people start a new business and don't plan to be successful.
You have to make an effort to stay one step ahead of success. And when success comings your way, as it inevitably will, you have to be ready for it. Success in the lawn care business means more customers and/or more demand for additional services from existing customers. It may also mean a sudden arrival of a very large job like landing a golf course or a major corporate account which may call upon you to expand your business dramatically and quickly. So think ahead about how you'll respond to such success so when it arrives, you're ready for it.
When you began your lawn care business, you no doubt wrote a business plan. Part of that business plan should have been a five year projection of growth for your business. Perhaps you predicted a conservative growth of 10% for each of the first five years of the business. That means that if you genuinely expect that kind of growth, if you have 50 customers, next year you'll have 55. Are you ready for 5 new customers this year? Do you have the staff for that new business? How will that growth impact your equipment needs? If you need to add 10% more equipment to handle that business, do you have the storage for that equipment? Do you have the transportation to send out crews to five new customers each week?
These are practical questions. Because you are already supporting a specific number of customers, you know in detail how much resource each customer needs. You know how many customers one crew of workers can take care of in a week. You know how many mowers, edgers and other equipment to keep on hand and you know how much space and transportation you need to handle that workload. Your business may be very well tuned to the current number of customers so you very little excess but you have sufficient labor and equipment to handle your customer load.
To stay one step ahead of success, you begin each year planning to add the workers, the equipment and the support space and supplies to take care of the anticipated growth. Do a detailed review of your equipment and your physical facility and transportation. If you're at capacity, plan to acquire new equipment and new space and transportation if that will be needed when that new business comes along.
Notice I used the word "when", not "if" the new business comes along. If you really expect to succeed this year, then you know that business is coming and you'll make plans to accommodate it. If you'e not getting ready, you dream of success but if it comes, you will have no plan to handle that additional load. That means that new business is not a blessing, its a crisis as you stress your staff and equipment to handle the new business until you can get ready.
Managing your new home based lawn care business means being ready when success arrives so you smoothly integrate it into your business plan. While you are planning, what will you do when explosive success arrives? While you cannot buy ahead for a sudden increase in business of perhaps 60-90%, you should have a plan to respond if sudden opportunity, like that big golf course deal, comes along.
It's a great time to start your home based lawn care business, so don't keep thinking about it. Do It! And I wish you the greatest success in your endeavour. Oh, yeah, don't forget... have fun!
Until tomorrow,
Terry
