Putting up a lawn care business is an excellent example of being an entrepreneur. With a small capital and hard work, you can make money out of cutting grass.
Like other startup businesses, starting a lawn care business needs a lot of research to make sure the company continues to grow. Here are several steps for opening a lawn care business.
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1. Determine your business goals
Every startup business should have goals to grow, and a lawn care company is no different. Identify what you wish to achieve with your lawn care firm by answering the following questions.
• How much time will you dedicate to the business you want to put up?
• Are you ready to run all financial, sales, and marketing tasks?
• How much money are you looking forward to earning within the first year and in the long-term?
• Do you need workers to help you accomplish these goals?
2. Choose a business name
Come up with a creative business name that will attract your target customers. The name should be professional and practical because it will be used on emails, invoices, quotes, and advertising materials.
3. Look for the right equipment
Starting up a lawn care business means that you need to have multiple lawn care equipment to meet your customer’s needs. You can save up some money by buying used equipment from the internet or auctions.
You should not buy all categories of tools at once; instead, purchase the most important ones. Some of these essential tools include:
Lawnmower- purchase a commercial walk-behind lawn mower and upgrade later to a riding mower once you start getting your profits.
Safety gear- safety glasses, earplugs, and work gloves will protect you and your workers when working with powered tools.
Edger- this is used for cutting grass along driveways and sidewalks.
Rakes, shovels, and weed pullers- this set of tools will make all your tasks easy.
Transport- you cannot run your business if you can’t transport your equipment from one place to the other. Lawn care startups tend to use pickup trucks to move their tools.
4. Know your target customers
Putting up a lawn care business needs you to figure out your target customers.
• Who is your target customer, and will you meet their needs?
• Will you offer your lawn care services in your neighborhood, or do you have plans to expand across other regions?
• Will you focus on commercial or residential lawn care services or both?
5. Advertise your lawn care business
Marketing can be done online and offline, although the best way is online. You can market your business across multiple social media platforms. Before you market your business, invest in a good website.
There are multiple web hosting service providers who offer simple web building sites. Ensure your website follows the best SEO practices so that it will appear in search engines.
After having an online presence, connect with your customers through Twitter and Facebook to generate leads. You should not depend on these platforms only, but instead, invest in review sites.
While your lawn care business is running online, make an effort to meet your target customers. Meet them in person or walk door to door to gain insights into the services your clients want. If you have problems finding clients, offer discounts, or even at no cost to build trust and referrals.
6. Build a team
As your business grows, your team grows too. Running your lawn care business will become a task that you cannot carry out by yourself. You should look for an office worker who will run your day-to-day activities. With time, you will need to hire professionals to work for you.
As you employ more people, you can ask them for referrals if you need more people to work for you. Begin by asking them if they have friends or families looking for jobs. If you find one, consider giving cash bonuses to the worker.