5 Tips for Starting a Lawn Care Business

Hi, it's Mike over at Landscape Business Course and just wanted to answer a question that came in from one of the listeners. And this question was about what are the tips that I would give to someone who's just starting out their lawn care business. And what I did is I essentially took the question and I wrote down the first five things that came to mind. And so these are in no particular order, but they are the five things that I thought of right off the bat that I would suggest to someone just starting out a long care business doesn't have a whole lot of money, isn't trying to take on investment capital and things like that, just trying to do grassroots, get started with a little bit of money in your bank. And so the five things that kind of came to my mind if I would be telling someone that was just getting in the lawn care industry, I tell them five different things. Number one is focus on sales. And what I mean by that is not getting distracted with all the other things that go on with starting a business. So, but focusing primarily on top line revenue. And so obviously, yes, you gotta think about profit. You need to be thinking about how you are gonna actually make the business run financially. However, top line revenue, getting your clients, getting started, it's all gonna come down to sales. And if you can focus on sales, marketing, the branding part of your business for the majority part of your time, that's where you're going to see the real results in 5, 10 years. And even short term, focusing on sales, not getting distracted with equipment and other things is important. That kind of leads in the number two, which is don't romanticize about your equipment. There are tons of YouTube videos and all sorts of opinions on different types of equipment, whether it be gravely, Exmark, skag, tiger cat, whatever, Toro, whatever is in your market. People have their opinion on if It's a Honda 21, that's better an Exmark 21 or Toro 21. Or if you should go to a 36 inch mower versus a 52 or there's so many different, varying opinions. And if I was you, I would not romanticize about your equipment. It's very easy to do. We all love equipment. Is part of being business owners in this industry. A lot of us love the newest and greatest best equipment. I wouldn't get romantic about it because you'll find that you'll buy a $10,000 mower when you only use it 5% for 5% of your mowing clients. But you like the mower, it's not very good use of assets. As far as buying a $10,000 mower, when 95% of your clients can be done with a 21 inch mower or maybe even a 36. And if you're getting a massive 62 inch, it just doesn't make sense. So don't romanticize about your equipment. Don't get locked in on one specific brand. I don't even. The brand that we get is usually gravely Honda or Exmark. And the reason for that is because our local dealer that works really closely with us, that's the different brands that they carry. So if something breaks, if something needs to be fixed, they have the part right on hand. That's why we use them. We, we don't go out even though we might want to get a walker mower or we might want to get a different type of mower or equipment in general, whether it be skid steers and loaders, track loaders, whatever it is, we'll stick with the dealers that are close by simply because they can provide those parts when things break faster. So if I was you, that's what I'd be looking at. I wouldn't be looking at what type of brand you like or if you like right stand ons or if you. It just doesn't matter. At the end of the day, when you're just starting out, you got to focus on sales, not romanticize about the equipment. The equipment will take care of itself as you begin to develop the business, grow the sales. So don't romanticize about the equipment. The third thing is avoid debt, especially when you're just starting out. Like I said, this is assuming that you're not taking on venture capital. You're not taking trying to make a $10 million business in one year by acquiring a bunch of different small competitors. This is assuming that you're just trying to start out, maybe on the side trying to get out of your nine to five slowly. I would avoid debt. The reason for that is because it can give you false indicators of success early on, and that's not something you want to have. I think it's good for you to kind of feel the pain for that first couple years and putting the money back into the business and not get this false sense of security by having a massive loan or a massive line of credit, especially if it's occurring interest. And so when it comes to equipment, I'm okay with people getting out loans because you can a lot of times through Sheffield Financial get 0% down and it's feasible. Obviously you can go too extreme with that and spend way too much money on equipment and things. At 0%, it doesn't matter. You're still alone. You still gotta make wise decisions with that. However, as far as unsecured lines of credit, second mortgages on your house, securing a loan, a business loan with a car vehicle, those things that are accruing interest, especially, I would stay away from, especially at the beginning. I would get in the habit of living frugally, living and trying to make an efficient business that will then pump out profit that you can then funnel back in the business for future growth instead of focusing on outside capital from a bank that charges you interest every single month. Because that little bit of money, that interest that is going back, it starts to accumulate and that money can be used to grow. And it's also the, the thing that'll hurt you. If you go through a slow month or a slow season like the winter, and you don't get a lot of business, a bunch of interest accruing through those months can really pile up and hurt you long term. So that's number three, avoid debt. Number four is go out. This would be for someone that's just wanting to start. They literally just got the idea I'm going to do a long hair business. This would be something I've shared with a lot of people on the course and that is go out and get 10 clients, 10 million clients. Before you go out and get equipment, before you go out and get a truck and a trailer and start focusing on business cards and all the other paraphernalia, even licensing your business, go out and get 10 clients. So don't license, you don't need to license your business. You don't need to make a fancy, fancy website, just make a simple one. But maybe do make some business cards. You go hand those out door to door, you go talk to your friends, their neighbors and you begin to build up some buzz. And if you're doing that now, this time of year, as we go into the winter, the perfect time, because you can say, hey, I'm starting my business come spring and you can pre sale people and have that guaranteed income before you go out and buy the equipment. And so what I see a lot of times people doing, they get romantic about their equipment. They like trucks, Ford or they like their GMCs. And so they'll buy all the equipment, the trailers, the equipment, all the trucks, all the things they need for, for the business. Then they focus on the sales part. What I recommend you do is actually do it backwards and that is go very minimum viable Product mvp and that is get a business name, get a logo, get a business card, go out and sell, get 10 people committed to being on your mowing route. And then you can go into this having revenue that you know is going to be coming in every single month. And so what that allows you to do is go buy that equipment and with the knowledge that you already have guaranteed income. So if you're in the winter right now, it's a great time to say, hey, I'm starting in the spring and trying to get those 10 clients. If you're halfway through the season, I would say, you know, give yourself a 2, 3 week buffer. Go out, knock on doors, ask, talk to local people, people you know, your friends, your family, share it on Facebook, try to get social in the community and get those 10 clients and say, hey, you know, if it's, if it's June 1st and you say hey, I'm starting July 1st my business and would you like to get set up on schedule for my mowing route? And then what you can do is by July 1st, have those 10 clients then go out and get the equipment before you've committed yourself to actually mowing and doing service. So I'd recommend pre selling at as much as you possibly can. That's number four, go out and pre sell when you're just starting out. Number five is do is really just kind of a generic, kind of 30,000 foot level view of your business. And my advice on that would be start the foundation strong. So start the foundation of your business strong. When I talk about the foundation, I'm talking about the system that the business is built upon. The principles, the ethics, the mission statement of that business right from the get go. Those are the things that your entire, the rest of the architecture, the rest of the, you know, talk about foundation of a house, all the architecture, all the infrastructure above that foundation relies on that foundation. And so if your foundation, that's why the first couple years are so important, you're really developing the core principles of your business, the branding, your positioning statement. As far as you as a brand, you're positioning yourself in the market, in the minds of your consumers. You are also creating this internal policies and systems procedures. You have a software system, you got to figure out which type of software you're going to be using. All are you going to be charging by the hour? Are you going to be charging by the job? What type of services are you going to offer? How is that going to reflect on your brand and really nailing all of those systems and procedures down. And so that's probably the biggest part is in that first couple years, when you're first starting out, it's easy to say, oh, well, I'll worry about that later on, or I'll worry about insurance on our website later on. Once you get started that first year, first couple years, it's very important to get those systems and procedures rock solid, because that's what the rest of your business is going to be built on. It's the foundational aspect of your company. Those systems, procedures, how you run things, what your policies are, what is your core mission of your business. And if you get those things solid, the infrastructure up above will have something solid to rest upon. So that's the five tips that I would tell someone that is wanting to get in the lawn care business and is looking to start as soon as possible.