How to Start a Summer Lawn Mowing Business in 23 Steps
8 summers and counting, a mother and her sons put their best tips to starting your own summer lawn mowing business, fast.
You read that right! 23 steps. There’s lots to cover, so let’s skip the intro paragraph and on to step:
Step 1: Decide if you have the time in the summer to invest in cutting someone else’s lawn.
From my experience, the average urban lawn can take up to 28 minutes of mowing time. A suburban lawn, around 34 minutes.
With travel time, trimming and leaf blowing prepping, consider 35–45 mins of work time. And that’s just for one lawn and dedication.
Step 2: Have a goal of what you will do with all the revenue you will earn from cutting lawns.
I made the mistake of fooling around with the revenue I earned in the first few years. It led me having sort of nothing to show for.
After that I promised to invest and put towards something fun and worth celebrating (like a winter vacation) to really put my sense of accomplishment somewhere. Do the same, learn from my mistakes.
Step 3: Look around you, your city. Are you in a good area?
If you live in a complete desert, dense city like Manhattan, an oil rig, water platform or Antarctica — these places will not work.
Step 4: Look around your garage, your shed. Do you have starting gear?
To my amazement, but this might differ from person to person, many of my gear I already had.
Everything from the mower, to wire sheers, to a bin. Be resourceful and see the many things you might already have.
Step 5: Look at yourself, do you enjoy being outside, exerting energy?
This is hard, but be honest, it will save you time and grief. If you know you hate being in the warmer, hot weather or if lifting some heavier equipment doesn’t get you excited, you can stop at step 5.
Step 6: Gear: what you will need.
Look at any lawn mower service provider: they usually have a lawn mower, trimmer and leaf blower.
These are the main gear that will get you started and successful at cutting other people’s lawn for money.
Step 7: More gear: what you will need.
It doesn’t stop there. After almost ten years, I’ve narrowed down other small items that complete my gear for any job that comes on a lawn.
Some of these include: extra trimmer line, wire cutter, ear covers and gloves.
Step 8: The right attitude. This one’s important.
I remember when I first started to do this I thought ‘do people even need lawn mowing services anymore? So many things are automated now, right?’
It was quite the opposite, people pay more and more for conveniences now.
Step 9: Solo vs team. Both are okay.
Will you mow by yourself, with a partner? Sometimes either or in case the other person isn’t available. I’ve found out that both are totally okay for many different reasons.
For instance if one person cannot make it due to sickness or an appointment, the other person will have to mow by themselves.
Step 10: If solo: lumber! And a cool kit adapter piece.
Going solo, you absolutely must need a ramp. Have no fear, you can build one yourself by using 2 x 6 wood boards, a hinge kit and a ramp kit.
Home depot, Lowes and up here in the Mid-west, Menards are great places to start your journey.
Step 11: If you build it, they will come, right? No, not yet.
Building and putting things together, I’ve found is the exciting part, but it’s not the part that moves the needle. Step 12 is.
Step 12: Put yourself out there: the scariest part.
You have to tell people that you offer lawn mowing services. Don’t worry, you’ll be surprised at how many people kind of need that service.
Step 13: But first, the office supply store.
I’ve learned that having a contract that solidifies the terms and conditions are crucial to being professional.
Having those super traditional 3 part carbon copy does wonders and brings clarity to both parties.
Step 14: Open a Canva account.
Canva is a online graphing design tool. It is free to use, with paid subscriptions for more options. It is cloud base, to carry your designs wherever you have an account on any device. I use Canva to make some of my flyers.
Step 15: Open a Paypal or Venmo account.
You will need more options to secure payment. Many clients these days actually prefer online payments as opposed to checks, and almost no one pays in cash, at least from my experience.
Step 16: Open a HelloSign account.
HelloSign is an election signature tool needed to sign contracts online.
If using online contracts instead of the carbon copy paper ones, you will need HelloSign to have a valid contract between the lawn service provider and the client.
Step 17: Use crayons, if you must.
Do not fear or think it’s silly. Our first flyer(s) were designed by my sons using crayons and markers.
What matters is the message and clarity of what we’re offering: mowing people’s lawns at a fair price.
Step 18: Practice, practice, practice.
It’s a good idea to run a lawn mowing session in your own yard. Find your right pacing, lifting and even time yourself.
Step 19: Learn how to say “no” to say “yes.”
Lawn mowing services are sort of the bottom totem pole of services, you’ll be asked to do a variety of outside jobs such as: weeding, mulching, clearing gutters.
Over time I’ve gotten used to saying no, in a diplomatic way, and instead saying how awesome we are at the services we do provide.
Step 20: Love taking care of your equipment.
Do not throw, jerk, slam your equipment around. The #1 headache of my lawn mowing business is Broken Equipment.
Treat it well, it will treat you well.
Step 21: Be organized.
At first I thought I had to just be organized with my equipment, but no. I have to be organized with my clients, the money coming in. The expenditures going out, and our time being put in.
It is about volume and speed too.
Step 22: Collect money well, have something to show for.
I might have mentioned this loosely in step 2, but for me, my goals were to gain extra revenue for winter vacations, for my children to earn money through hard work. So far it’s been working.
Step 23: #1: Always leave the place better than how you found it.
Out of eveything mentioned, if you remember one thing it is this: leave your client’s lawn BETTER than how you found it. It will bring success to you in one way or another.
Aren’t you glad it isn’t 157 steps?
If you need a more visual aspect of what I do, check my YouTube channel where I cover lawn mowing topics almost daily.
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