A typical day as a lawn care professional can start early in the morning with lawn mower maintenance. You should treat it as a business and not as a hobby.
How to start a lawn mower business
You would drive up to your first customer of the day and begin mowing and other lawn maintenance tasks, including edging, trimming, fertilizing, aerating, and weed control.
As your day progresses, you can handle multiple lawn mowing orders or just a few large properties.
Required skill set:
- Mowing times and areas scheduling.
- Handling of the necessary machinery.
- Maneuvering a trailer pulled behind a truck.
- Calculation of estimates and presentation of offers.
- Order supplies like fertilizers and pesticides.
- Knowledge about the health and types of grass.
- Experience in repairing small engines and equipment is an asset.
- Knowledge of different fertilizers and chemicals.
- List of common business skills.
Consideration of the employee and the work during the initial phase and future:
Consideration of the employee and the work during the initial phase and future:- Lawn Mowing Professionals
- Specialists (lawn or paver installers, etc.)
- Common Staff Positions Needed to Run Some Businesses
Approximate daily hours required:
General Hours of Operation: This business is typically seasonal. often in fall and winter there will be little work, while during spring and summer it can be very busy. A busy summer day can start at 7:00 a.m. and end at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m.
Hours needed to prepare: Plan to spend about an hour to load the equipment and reach your destination. At the end of the day, plan about two hours to properly clean and store equipment and chemicals, as well as turn in paperwork and scheduling.
Equipment, supplies and services during start-up or in the future:
- Professional walk-behind mower
- Blower
- Linear Trimmer
- Hedge trimmer
- Edgers
- Rakes
- Pallas
- Broom
- Personal safety equipment
- Horse Mowers
- Stand-On Mowers
- Suspended mowers
- Dethatcher Lawn
- Cage Trailer
- Pick-up truck
- Wheelbarrow
- Brush cutter
- Essential office equipment
Monthly expenses and operating costs to consider:
- Fuel
- Equipment reparation
- Equipment maintenance
- List of common business skills
Licenses and permits:
You are not required to have a professional license for a “lawn mowing” business, but that is limited to “cutting, blowing, pruning, trimming, edging, weeding, etc.” according to the Department of Agriculture.
Certain herbicides and pesticides cannot be sold to the public; They can only be sold to those who have the proper license to buy them. If you spray chemicals for a fee (for example, a lawn care business) you will need a commercial applicator license.
You may consider getting certified in lawn care. A lawn care certification can help you land bigger jobs, especially for government contracts, but it can be nearly useless for small residential work. Also, consider diversifying your work. Skills like laying grass and installing flower beds and gardens can bring bigger jobs but require more equipment.
All licenses are required, both local and county itself, although these are not described in this post, you can check with the staff in charge of your local municipality or a county business licensing agency, where they can provide excellent information on what need at the state level. Because county business licenses are required in almost every state, the issuing county clerk can inform you of the requirements for your state.
Find out if you require an occupancy certification: In some states, you will need one in addition to your state business license. If you need this additional license in your state, you may need to pass a professional examination before doing business.
Find out if you need an employer identification number: If you are hiring employees in your lawn mowing business, you may need to obtain a state employer identification number, or EIN. In some states, this number is required even if you don’t hire employees. You should check with your state licensing agency if you need an EID for your specific situation.
Fill out the application for a state business license: Depending on your location, you can request applications from local state offices, county offices, official state websites, or by contacting your state licensing agency. Not all states require a state business license for lawn mowing, and if you are unsure whether yours requires one or you don’t know where it is needed, check the state licensing section on the State Small Business Administration website. United. (SBA). When you receive the application, fill it out completely and accurately.
Pay State License Costs: Depending on the agency, you may be asked to send payment or a quarterly fee with your application. Once payment is submitted, your state business license is current and ready to use.
Approximate minimum start-up cost:
Entrepreneur Magazine estimates that the average startup for a lawn care business can be less than $ 2,000 USD. However, the largest zero turn mowers can cost several thousand dollars. Zero turn mowers cut faster than reverse mowers and regular mowers.