This is BY FAR the most asked for service in my local area on social media. Like seriously I see maybe 10-20 posts of people asking for lawn care a week on Nextdoor.

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

I know lawn care is saturated because any joe with a mower can do it, but it seems to me answering inquiries in a timely manner and showing up when scheduled to do a quality job would be all it takes to put me about 90% of these guys.

I’ve read from landscapers that mowing alone won’t get you far. Is this true? Will you be unable to become wealthy simply having large lawn mowing business? Is it necessary to expand into further services?

I’ve got a truck, weed wacker, rake, and blower. I’d just need to grab a push mower and some insurance to start mowing some lawns.

I’m thinking $40 or $45 minimum per job and $70-$90 per acre. That seems to be around the going rate for my area.

Think is I’m not quite sure how long these jobs take as I haven’t ever timed myself mowing lawns. It would seem mowing businesses don’t charge by the hour so if you don’t get the job done quick enough you’ll be bleeding time and money.

Anyone got any insight?

  • HarryWaters@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    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.