3 Key Takeaways: How I Built a Successful Lawn Mowing Business with Zero Experience
‘’After striking a boulder in half after the 101th blow, it wasn’t the last hit that broke the rock, but the 100 strikes before.’’ — Author Unknown
Answer: mistakes, lots of mistakes.
Intro: I’m a 40 yrs-old mom from Minnesota running a small summer lawn mowing business with my children.
What happened at the beginning.
A bit of luck.
2014 in my second year of homeschooling my boys, ages 11 and 9 — they discovered Pokémon and wanted a Nintendo 2DS.
The lucky part was that they were strong enough to both lift a lawn mower and luckier, I actually liked to mow our lawn.
Saw a need.
Before the lightbulb moment of what we should do to bring in money for their game consoles, I thought of lemonade stands, but then I thought: no one really goes to them plus who brings cash?
And usually it’s more of an ‘in kind’ gesture to support a lemonade stand.
What about newspaper route? I didn’t even know the process, plus another mom from my homeschool group mentioned that now newspaper companies do not allow young children to pass out newspaper.
But…
I was consciously aware that during the spring and summer months, truck after truck pulling trailers of lawn equipment always crossed my lane on the street.
Cue lightbulb! We will mow lawns!
So, now the gears are turning in my head.
We have the human hands to work, we have some or all the equipment, (I think, right?) I’m foreshadowing the mistakes part here.
Marketing.
I now know why marketing is such a big part of everything. So, the next steps was to make the flyers, right? People need to know we have a service to provide that’s of real value. Out came the Crayola and we went to work.
Here’s a picture of one of our earlier flyers. It’s it cute?
People actually responded!
Oh, that means I have to talk to them now, right? What do I even say? I actually go to people’s lawns now. Should I just say yes to every service?
Hint: do not say yes to everything.
Luckily, a couple of my first clients, one was a relative and guided me what they wanted which was what virtually every client wanted.
The next client offered to pay me in ‘advance’. I didn’t even know what that was! But that paved the path of being paid FIRST! Thank you neighbor!
I also brought way too much equipment the first year. Truth be told, I brought our wheelbarrow! Why? I don't know; it looked like it belonged there, I guess.
Capital investment, risk and sweating bullets.
Without my husband’s consent first, I bought a used Echo backpack style leaf blower from Craigslist. He was a bit upset, but we now all love the leaf blower and use it for many chores. It’s still used to this very day and one of the best investments. Lesson: invest in good equipment.
Improve by taking notes of everything right and wrong we did the year before.
I decided the second year that I’m going to take notes of what we’re really doing. What’s working and what’s not working.
- Don’t bring the wheelbarrow.
- Listen to the customer and get paid first
- Take note of that works and more importantly, everything that delays success
- Have a better system of collecting money and tracking client days of the cutting schedule.
- Invest the money but also have fun so we stay motivated in mowing!
Taking notes was necessary to give those items of improvement a space to live on and not clogging in my brain space.
Repeat the process and get a few more clients.
Speaking of money…
This was a side note that turned into a larger note. Why we are doing the things we are doing?
Money, I realized isn’t taught formally in school, it isn't even taught that well in family passing on knowledge.
I wanted to know myself what money is and teach that to my children.
Money is neutral energy. Now that’s a oxymoron.
Money allows the frequency of action from low to high. From the desires I want in a timely and faster manner to the degree of how creative it can be.
I can have a bologna sandwich on my couch or a freshly grilled sea bass on the cliffs of Mykonos — both are food items but different degrees of money/energy time attached.
Can I make this money grow?
I always grew up with this concept of net zero. When money comes in, it's my proud job to spend it down all the way to zero as fast as possible!
No! Money like a plant, must be nurtured, gathered and understood to even grow more.
So now I teach that FIRST money must grow — therefore invest first! Notice I didn’t use the word save.
So we give a small portion to my husband’s to invest in index funds and sell call and put options.
Giving money away.
Now this makes no quantifiable sense. After all I just explained in an entire blog of how hard we work, how much we invest, but to give charitably with no return doesn’t make numerical sense.
So, why do this?
So that I can master money but not have money be the master of me. The cycle is complete.
Have fun!
Pokémon games, mountains of snacks, sports fees covered, vacation trips in the middle of winter. Now we enjoy the fruit of our labors.
So, what are my 3 key takeaways?
One. Success may come in different forms. I was surprised at how long this little summer gig has ran and especially how it has grown.
It has made me appreciate whole heartedly small businesses, all their processes, staying solvent and making an impact on someone who needs a product or service.
They get rewarded with money and joy in their creation — yet also must need to be wise with that money.
Two. The journey never stops and leads to other paths. This little summer lawn mowing business has truly has been my passion.
I have seen it build character with my children, learn money management, talking to clients and finishing a job well done!
It’s so much of my passion that for the past two years I’ve worked until the late night hours creating a digital course: Lawnup — how to start an easy summer business step by step with no step skipped, so that others may too know this journey.
Three. It’s about connections and relationships. After all said and done — I’ll share a story.
Two weeks ago, I experienced one of the most intense physical pain I’ve ever experienced. An inflamed pinched nerve: sciatica. Truly unbearable.
Thank goodness that with time and some pain medication, I was able to heal.
The following week, we mowed our long time client Ms. M. I enjoy catching up our clients when we do meet.
I asked her if she planned on going to the local state fair — she mentioned that maybe, maybe not. If only her leg will cooperate with her. I probed more and she says she sufferers from chronic sciatica as well!
It only came up about 5 years ago and has really altered her daily life, thus why she responded to our flyer many years ago.
I shared the same experience and there was a close quick bond of knowing that at the end of the day — it’s the connections and relationships we make that really matter.
Want to know the 3 myth busters in the lawn mowing industry that will get you landing clients fast? Check out my FREE guide, I put my best of the best tips here.
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