Anybody have their own Lawn Care business?

My buddy and I were thinking about starting a lawncare business this summer. As of right now we have 2 trucks2 trailers 2 mowers and a weed wacker, with out spending any money. Anybody have suggestions on how to get customers? What equipment is nessacary?

 

Did it consistently for 2 years with my buddy, luckily his Dad owned the company.

I would recommend a high quality edger, and blower. Not sure what your looking to do, but we had school contracts. It was a good weekend summer job for the two of us, but each school usually took all day!

As far as customers, me and my bud had a little side scam where we made fliers and drove through neighborhoods writing down estimates as we went along. Usually got a couple calls in a neighborhood which was all pocket money!

 

I'm not sure if my buddy has a blower and edger, ours was stolen. Were looking at cutting grass/ edging and blowing to start off and see how far we go.

 

I don't have a lawn care business, but I do own a business. from my personal experience, the most important thing is getting your name out. you may great at what you do, but people need to know who you are. get some magnetic decals made for your trucks. get some business cards and start passing them out.
write up an attractive price sheet that will get people interested, for example I am a real estate photographer, and I started off by doing the first shoot for free, and it worked wonders. I also have a much quicker turn around time than my competitor, so why would anyone go to him? they don't anymore

your going to have to spend SOME money. your gona find out real quick that you have to spend money to make money.
good luck with it!

 

Well i kinda did the same thing when i was in middle school and part of highschool. Since i lived in a horse community i took care of there animal when they were gone. But anyways how i advertised was posting an add in a community paper, also pass out fliers. Just dont put them in the mail box, the cops called my house and said that it is a felony to put them in a mail boxes without a stamp.

 

residential, commercial? I can tell ya, get yourself a good stack of residential and its good money (since we got all residential money as a bonus). The two of us could knock out the normal size house in 30 min. and easy $75-100 bones.

In the fall/spring, rent an aerator and offer that service, get a spreader also supply the fert., seeds, what ever, all extra.

 

Were willing to spend money esp. on gas, my dad said he would help us out with $100 loan.

Our old riding mower is on our farm, when we put it there it had an aerator and trailer, not sure if it's there anymore. And how much do you think we should price if for an average 3/4 acre yard

 

All residential for now.

 

Depends how generous you are. I would reckon anywhere from $75-150 depending on length, whether or not your doing the works i.e., mow, weedeat, edge, blow off. I'm more use to doing small yards in suburbia with a fast 48" or 61" deck. Regular riding mower, will take a little longer and might not leave as nice lines.

 

Jasonslawncare has his own. Im sure he will chime in soon.

 

we will be doing all you listed. I was thinking for a starting price $50 per time. (main decesion is size of yard) Oh yeah, I'll be doing it in Lexington SC if anybody lives there.

 

We have south of the border guys do our lawn. We have about a 8,000 sq. Ft yard with a crap load of land scaping. The guys weed eat, Mow, Blow, Pull bigger weeds for $30.

 

For advertising, go to www.vistaprint.com You can get business cards made SUPER cheap... I got mine (in my signature block) made here - for my DJ business. You can also get free car/truck magnets, t-shirts, postcards, brochures, etc. for free - which I've also done. All you pay is shipping... and if you hit em at the right time, you can get FREE 7 day shipping if you spend 30 bucks.

Check 'em out.

 

I started out with one yard using my dads push mower. I saved up and bought a good used self propelled craftsman and got a few more yards. They paid for my gas and insurance for my truck in HS

print up a bunch of flyers saying something like "begining of the season special" and list a flat rate of X ammount.
I did this last fall and got a few yards @ 30 bucks per yard.

 

thanks for the link!

 

thats so cheap

 

The only bad thing is, I'm moving back to there and can't move till atleast Apr. 15th

 

I mow some lawns in my subdivision for extra cash during the summer months. I just purchased a 36" snapper pro walk behind mower and bought an echo backpack blower at the end of last season. I started out with 1 yard 2 years ago and I have 10 yards to start out this season. I work by myself but sometimes I will have friends of mine help me for spreading mulch/pinestraw/ other extras. I plan on giving out flyers this year. I don't want to advertise too much since its only me doing the work and i'm limited to evenings and weekends when I don't work my regular job.

One thing I do in addition is I take care of the chemicals for my customers if they want it instead of paying trugreen/chemlawn. I'm actually going to be putting down pre-emergent on all of the lawns this weekend. Its actually easy work with a decent markup. I charge $20 a lawn for fertilizer and weed control per application (every 6 weeks during the growing season for berdmuda) which is about 100% profit.

 

I have a landscape irrigation business... sprinklers, drip, new and repairs... also lighting, drainage, and sod installs... but mainly irrigation. It has finally stopped raining here in SoCal, so I may actually have some work soon!!!

If you have any irrigation questions, I would be happy to help... 30 years in the industry (sales, installation, factory tech services, etc.)!

 

I had a lawncare business for the better part of 5 years while I was in junior high/high school. I agree with the good edger/blower thoughts - they will make the yard look 10x better and allow you to charge a little more. At my peak I was doing about 50 yards, and depending on what I was mowing had 2 lawn tractors, a commercial walk-behind w/ a 36" deck, a larger tractor (for empty lots), 2 push mowers, 2 trimmers, an edger, and a blower. IMHO, it's a great business! I was able to pay cash for my Avalon and Mustang, and still have money saved for the future.

My advice to you - get contacts in the real estate industry, if at all possible. We would make by far the most money from real estate agents who would have empty houses that had been neglected or just needed to be kept up while on the market. You can charge them more, and if they like your work and prices, will keep you busy. The best houses are the ones that need the most clean up...they don't want to do it themselves, so I was able to charge about $100 an hour just to clean up brush and mow the yard.

Hope this helps!