Lawn care services are essential for both domestic and commercial maintenance of lawns. Around 81% of American homes have a lawn, and 78% of the citizens feel the necessity of having a lawn attached to their homes.

The feeling of having a smoothly trimmed, fresh lawn full of beautiful green grass is just what a house owner needs when they are staring outside the window of their home. And you can build up a business around this feeling they have. 

Where there is demand, there is a business opportunity. So, if you are interested in taking care of lawns or just looking for small business opportunities that are refreshing and payout well, then why not start a lawn maintenance business?

This might come as a surprise to you, but the lawn care industry employs almost 1 million employees. In addition, nearly 604,163 landscaping service businesses are there. The lawn care industry is booming exponentially, and from 2016 to 2021, the market has acquired 2.5% growth.

Now, if you plan on a hassle-free small business, return a healthy amount on your investment, and are a profit-maker, I suggest you look for a lawn care service.

How To Start A Lawn Care Business?

The fundamental question is how to start a lawn care business legally? Surely you don’t want any legal charges against you, so getting the legal stuff out of the way first is crucial.

It may seem like all you need is a lawnmower and a few other lawn care equipment, but there are several other key factors you need to take care of before getting into the business. A planned framework for the business, understanding customers, sending invoices, tracking revenue, etc.

Here are some crucial steps that you need to follow for starting your lawn care business.

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1. Choose The Lawn Care Services That Your Business Will Be Offering

Getting into the business is easier than staying in business. You need to understand your customers’ needs and provide them with the services they need from your business. 

You can start a service that covers the overall needs of your customers’ lawn maintenance needs will be helpful. Essentially they will ask for lawn mowing, but you can keep a few extra things in your arsenal to keep the business growing; for instance, 

• You can sell fertilizers, pesticides, and a few other products for taking care of the lawns.
• Adding mulching, weeding, and a few other gardening works to your service will help you earn some extra money. 
• You can help plant native lawns.
• Lawn installation.
• You can also plant pollinators and native species within and alongside the lawns. 
• Snow removal services and raking leaves during the fall are also some extra services you can consider giving. 

It is always profitable to be an expert on what you do; for instance, you can also provide your customers with your consultancy and help them with lawn care tips.

2. Do Your Lawn Care Business Legally

So, you have gathered your startup and purchased all of your equipment. But what about the legal frameworks of the business? You need a license for doing any business, even for lawn care. Here are the legal aspects of the business that needs taking care of before you start your business.

Business Licensing Requirements:

There’s probably no need for a license if you only provide a lawn mowing service. But your city will need to check a permit if you are spraying pesticides and herbicides.

Legal Business Entity :

For a legal lawn care business, you need a federal Tax ID to pay your employees, which is crucial to set up a business entity. You can create an LLC, S Corp, or a partnership entity for your business. There is no need for all these if you are an independent contractor; however, you can safeguard everything if you keep your personal and business assets separate legally.

3. Lawn Care Equipment

You need to first take care of the legal aspects of the lawn maintenance business. Then, you can move on to buying the equipment you need for providing lawn caring services to your customers.

As for the equipment you need, here is a shortlist of those:

• Mower
• Mowing goggles
• String trimmer
• Edger
• Leaf blower
• Safety earmuffs
• Gas cans
• Gardening gloves
• Lawn bag

Also, having a trailer or a truck will help you carry the equipment to your customers’ place. Of course, you can invest in a work vehicle too.

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4. Insurances And Protection

It may come as a surprise that what might go wrong with a lawn care business? But sometimes, your tools and pesticides may cause unintentional harm to your customer. For instance, the pesticides you spray may give the customers a rash. As a result, they may sue you for causing bodily injury.

In such cases, you need legal protection. Also, you need insurance on your tools; many lawn mowing equipments come at high prices, you need to keep them from being damaged. Also, if any of your expensive equipment gets damaged, you can cover the damage with a new replacement.

5. Set Price For Your Services

How much does lawn care cost? Your customer may have asked you several questions, and the price for your services is one of them. For starting a new business, it may seem tough, but you may check out the facts below when setting up your price.

• Know your target customer; whether you will offer lawn care service to domestic or commercial clients matters a lot when pricing your service.
• A good understanding of the market price and the price your competitors charge will help you.
• How will you charge your customers? Whether you will charge on the number of services or the hour of services is a matter of importance. Based on your expected profit margins and the amount of profit you need, you can set your price.

6. Marketing

Marketing your business is inevitable for running it in the long term. Once you are done with all the previous steps, you can start with the marketing and branding of your business. Here are several initiatives you can take for your marketing.

• Have a business logo: You can use your logo on your equipment, invoices, business cards, vehicles, and on the t-shirts of your employees. You can create a logo yourself or hire a professional for the job.
• Track your competitors and what they are doing: By tracking their activities, you can strategize and schedule your business accordingly.
• Word Of mouth: For services like this one, word of mouth marketing will help a lot. If one of your customers loves having lawn care services from you, they can refer you to a new customer.
• Flyers and business cards: An age-old technique, but helpful; you can hand out business cards flyers so the new leads can understand the kind of service you provide.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Now that you know all the basics and needs to start a lawn care business, you may look at these questions for further queries you may have.

Q1. How Do I Start A Lawn Mowing Business?

Here are the simple steps:

• You need to make a plan first. 
• Get all the legal aspects ready, from the insurance license. 
• Buy lawn mowing equipment and other necessary equipment.
• Set prices for your services. 
• market your lawn care business online and through other inexpensive mediums.
• Be patient and diligent about your work.

Q2. Do I Need An LLC For Lawn Care Business?

You can save your assets using LLC; this is an inexpensive and simple way of safekeeping your business. There is no extreme need for LLC when starting a lawn care business. However, having one might prove helpful in the long run. 

Q3. How Do I Name My Lawn Care Business?

It is very simple to name a business, but you need a catchy and easily memorable name. You can also highlight the type of service you offer through the name of your business. 

Q4. How Big Is The Lawn Care Industry?

The lawn care business industry is huge and has been increasing fast. The market size in the US is worth $115.6 bn. In 2022 the industry has grown 0.9% 2022. Considering the industry’s growth, it is the right time to start a business in this industry right away.

Start Your Lawn Care Business

If a business is not online, then it is unavailable in today’s time. Your customers may search for “lawn care services near me” on Google Maps. It is helpful to maintain your online and social media presence for your business to get the attention of most prospective customers.

Also, you need to be very careful about your business structure, marketing initiatives, and the customer testimonials that you are getting for running the business in the long run. I hope the steps I have provided here in this article prove helpful in starting your business. Also, if there are any queries, you can ask them in the comment.

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