It is a fantastic small business. The pitfalls I see:

• hiring/ keeping labor is tough, and the work is seasonal so you’ve got to plow/rake/whatever if you plan to keep your staff year around
• a lot of the labor pool for this kind of work can be unreliable and prone to blowing through money when they’re flush and running into trouble when they aren’t
• large capital investments can be easy to justify until the weather fucks you over for a couple months, I see lots of landscape company owners towing with $100k trucks and buying big equipment because they’ll “save money” versus renting
• Underestimating the costs of maintenance. It is expensive to keep all the mowers, trucks, etc… in working order and you’ll need to figure out how to fix/maintain them or lose every dime of profit in paying a pro
• Lack of financial education/ accounting knowledge. It is easy to collect money and mow lawns, it is hard to pay taxes, track depreciation, save for repairs, and keep liquid through dry spells

If you’re going to be successful, save a cash reserve, learn to maintain your equipment, hire carefully, keep good accounting, and diversify your services. Make sure you’re not just charging for your time, but your overhead too. It is easy to mow a yard and count your money, but when the truck needs a major repair or it rains for two weeks, you’ll be thankful you planned ahead.

Keep in mind a lot of those people complaining online probably were fired or dumped by their landscaper; I wouldn’t believe every complaint. So your target audience is partially the bad business others have decided aren’t worth their time.

80% of those posts mention that their old lawn guy stopped being reliable or that the guy they hired never showed up.

Because they refuse to pay for the more reliable actual insured businesses and only hire “dude with pickup truck and a lawn mower” then get shocked when that’s not a reliable option, but still refuse to pay for the folks who show up on time like clockwork.

you aren’t going to out compete bubba for these customers, they are going to low ball you. Can you actually compete with the professional operations doing commercial work?

I own a lawn/landscape company for the last 24 years. Currently bringing in about $11,000 per WEEK just on mowing services, not to mention landscaping, christmas lights, snow plowing etc…there is no magic formula for quoting. Those of us that are successful we have our ‘recipe for success’ and dont like to share it. Regardless of how saturated you ‘think’ the business is, there is still a LOT of opportunity out there. Sure, anyone with a truck and a mower can claim to be an expert, but same goes selling hot dogs or ice cream. Its the ‘value added’ services/relationships that $ell.

I’ve owned 2 mowing businesses in my life. Started one, ran it several years, enjoyed it. Got into some other businesses, got those running themselves and had an opportunity to buy a different lawn care business so I did that.

It can be a great business and for anyone looking to dip their toe in self employment it’s a great place to start. It is not hard in most markets to be the most profession outfit around. Yes it can be saturated but 80% of lawn companies are drunks who do shit work and look like they’ll rob your house. There is a company where I live called “A family thing.” I shit you not that’s the name of their lawn business. They drive around in a beat up truck missing a muffler and the both look like they just got out of prison.

I’d only take contract clients- none of this call when needed shit and I’d avoid bi-weekly people too. They want it done every other week but it gets long as shit and then YOU have to go over it twice to make it look good. As another commenter said, the auxiliary services like hedge trimming, spraying, fertilizing etc can be good money makers.

My neighbor picked up a grocery store complex/strip mall as a client and it’s pretty much his only client. He cuts the grass, plows the snow, picks up trash, prunes trees, basically anything a decent size complex needs.

As you mentioned. Since the cost of entry into this business is very low, it is essentially a commodity. And when buying commodities they usually rely on price alone.

If you create your own niche by adding a service that they appreciate then you begin to compete on value.

In addition to cutting, grass needs to be cared for. The yard owner wants beautiful grass and not just a mowed lawn.

I own a Handyman business and when I first started, I mowed 6-7 lawns every Friday to stay busy in the summer. I grew to hate Fridays very quickly. Make sure you love mowing lawns or get some employees who do.

Those prices wouldn’t work for you. People charge that if they have a zero turn which can smash through an acre quite quickly, making $70-90 reasonable. You’d be only doing small yards until you upgrade equipment.

If all you need is a push mower, buy a relatively cheap one, charge slightly higher then what others are charging and see how you go. Adjust pricing depending on how long you take and how many clients you are getting.

Let your virtual magic carpet help you visit the competition and hear what customers have to say.

Google “lawn care yourTown” and then click on the “Maps” tab.

It might help you get some insights on how you can make your business stand out.

It’s quite simple, be reliable, be professional and maintain high standards of work. Follow good business practices and you’ll do well. But a word of warning; there aren’t many more physically taxing jobs out there, don’t go into it thinking it’ll be easy money. Combine the physicality of the job along with the tolls of running a business and people tend to burn out real fast.

I admit I do not understand this industry. I needed a lawn care guy, so I flagged down the guy doing my neighbor’s yard because I liked his work. He gave me what I thought was a very high quote, but I figured it was worth paying for good work, right? Told the guy “deal” just start on my yard next time your out and email/text me an invoice and I’ll pay it immediately. He agreed and I thought we were set.

Well, he never sent me an invoice and never did any work. He still does my neighbors yard 2x month. I mean isn’t it a slam dunk to my yard at full price, since you’re already here?

That’s the other thing too. Everyone on my block has a different yard guy. 15 houses, maybe one or two retired guys do their own lawn. Everyone pays a service. 12 different lawn companies!! If I got a client on my street, bet your butt I’d be knocking on every door trying to win more contracts, it makes no sense to me that they don’t even try.

People are cheap and expect perfection. They either cut lawns for $20 a yard in high school and can not believe you want $75. Or old people who used to go pick up every leaf within 10 minutes of it falling.

Do not offer to bag the grass because unless you have a dump truck it takes a while to drive to a place you can dump it. And even longer to shovel it out of the truck.

Figure your hourly rate. Figure drive time and cutting time to give price. And people WILL complain. Just do an awsome job in a timely manner and your name will spread

Expect to lose your weekends when it rains. And do not lower your price

Greatest advice I ever got. “if you let them, your customers will price you out of business.”

Ask yourself this question… Are you lowballing every service or business you use?

Chances are all of those people asking for services, at the end of the day, are unwilling to pay for those services.

It’s a simple rule of life. Everyone believes their money is more important than yours. The only people who are worth your time are the ones who don’t begrudge you your money.