Long gone are the days of a 12-year-old boy knocking at your door on a hot summer day asking to mow your lawn for five dollars. Landscaping and lawn care are booming businesses that can keep entrepreneurs busy all year long with a little creative thinking.
Maintaining residential or commercial properties can quite lucrative. With the busy schedules we all keep these days, it is almost impossible to find the time to cut the grass or maintain our properties, and when we do have the time, we would rather be enjoying our free time with family and friends, not working in the yard.
Owning your own landscaping or starting a lawn care business has many advantages. You are the boss, and you are able to devote as much or as little time as you can into building up your business. In addition, depending on how big you want your business to be, you have a very short commute time if you stay in your neighborhood and surrounding areas. Since you set your own schedule, you can work when you want and not worry about being late. Finally, owning a home-based lawn company allows you to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.
Developing your own lawn service is also relatively low cost. Many business owners take a small personal loan or use their credit cards to get started. Once the business owner has invested in the necessary tools needed to manicure lawns and shrubbery in a professional manner, you usually do not need to buy anything else. In all reality, you really don’t need a professional office space since you can set on up in the corner of your home quite effectively.
I bet this all sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? Keep in mind that every rose has its thorn. Although lawn maintenance is a low-cost business to start, you could run into a few obstacles. First of all, one must be adept with using pruning shears to trim bushes and shrubs. Secondly, you must able to mow the lawn so it is visually appealing. No, you cannot leave zig-zags in the grass! Keep in mind that mowing lawns. It is not as simple as it looks. It takes a lot of physical labor and a keen eye for detail. If you are lacking a bit in this department, it might be worthwhile to invest your time in learning a few basic gardening tricks. Additionally, you need to be a disciplined and motivated individual who is able to tend to customers and ignore the fact that you could be standing on a golf course on a beautiful spring day.
Being a business owner means you need to wear many different hats. Developing an appealing advertising campaign is key to being successful in your new business. This is where you need to do your research and see what the competition is offering. In addition, if you do not plan working during the winter months, you definitely need to be money savvy. Take the time to devise a financial plan to help you make it through the months when you are not working. On the other hand, many people who own a lawn service company, often work in the winter as well removing snow from the same customer’s home they maintain in the spring and summer.
In conclusion, the lawn care business can be an excellent choice for the right individual, but before you hop on mower and ride off into the sunset, take the time to develop a sound business plan. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a successful business.