Mike Andes explains why lawn care businesses should stick to a tight 5-mile radius instead of chasing jobs 15-20 miles away. Tight clusters mean less drive time, better brand awareness, and higher profits. He uses his own Blaine and Bellingham routes as proof.
What's up, Mike? Zach from western Massachusetts. When Augusta lawn care was operating from Blaine, how large was the radius of your service area? Were you traveling to Bellingham or Ferndale? We are currently a two man crew and still getting calls from other nearby cities approximately 15 to 20 miles away. I would prefer to stick to a more dense service area as I'm afraid of not being efficient, too much travel time, but also don't want to be missing out on opportunities. Is it a better idea to put your foot down in the beginning or to slowly shrink your service area back as you grow? All right, so on this case, I really, really recommend that you start in a very specific area and you grow there. I know it's very, very hard to turn away business, especially when there's opportunities outside of your local area and especially in good neighborhoods. And you're like, man, I could get 20. What if I got 20 lawns there? Don't do it. I just highly recommend it. You're gonna be unprofitable for a long time. You're gonna eventually have to either raise their price or cut them anyways as you. Those are always the jobs that seems like where equipment breaks, things happen and stuff messes up. And so I would highly Recommend sticking within 5 miles. Like, 5 mile radius is a lot of space. And to answer your question, when we started in Blaine, we only did Blaine. It was only when we moved to Bellingham that we really expanded in Bellingham, did an acquisition in Bellingham and still had so much business in Blaine that it was worth driving 20 minutes but 15, 20 miles. I would never do it. Just don't. The reason is because as you make your radius bigger, you have to market to all of those clients, and it gets harder and harder to make your brand have brand awareness. I'd much rather be a big fish in a smaller pond. The reason we were so successful in Blaine is cause there's like six or seven thousand people or less living there. And so when we did marketing campaigns, whether it be print or digital, everyone saw him, everybody. We could hit every single person with a postcard on one campaign. And so everyone knew who we were. And so it's a really massive advantage. You do not need a ton of people to build a million dollar business. Or, you know, even if you want to just build half a million, like, you don't need a lot of people. You just gotta realize if you have an average of $2,000 per customer and you get 50 customers, that's 100 grand, right? So you don't need a lot of people, especially if you're doing hardscaping and landscaping. But even with mowing, it's recurring, so it builds on top of focus on small radius and just deep penetration. Don't go wide, go deep and really, really try to get brand awareness where everyone knows who you are in that small market.
