Once upon a time there was a young man who started a lawn care business with a single ZTR lawn mower, a commercial weedeater, and a powerful backpack leaf blower that could blow your house down.

This young man worked very hard to grow his lawn care business. He studied lawn care manuals to learn proper lawn care techniques and he enthusiastically marketed his lawn care services with proven advertising models. As his business grew he took special efforts in choosing the right types of customers. While shying away from low priced mowing jobs, he targeted highly profitable jobs and he used estimating software to help him price his jobs so he could make the most money possible with each job he completed.

By working smart and taking advice of professional lawn care business owners, the young man built a successful and profitable lawn care company. Offering grass mowing services with only the best lawn mowers and landscaping with the correct tools allowed him to work efficiently and profitably on each and every job. Soon, his reputation was known throughout his city and he was able to charge a premium on every job he bid.

Having a roster full of satisfied customers and a steady daily income he came to the realization that he worked best when he awoke at 6:00 AM, started work at 6:30 AM, and finished by 2:00 in the afternoon. After his work he would drive home, perform 30 minutes of equipment maintenance, and take the rest of the day off. By 3:00 PM he was showered and ready to relax.

His afternoons consisted of enjoying time with his family, fishing and water-skiing at the lake, dinner with his friends, and a movie with his significant other. His life was great as he was controlling his destiny, making great money, and doing exactly what he wanted to do with his free time everyday.

One day as he had finished mowing the grass for his last customer of the day (a business consultant) he was loading his lawn mower on his equipment trailer. The customer came outside to hand him the check and asked how many more mowing jobs he had for the day. “Zero. I’m finished for the day.” The business consultant was shocked. “How can you finish so early, there is still plenty of daylight left?” The young man said “I’ve made my quota for the day. Now I am going home to relax.”

The business consultant protested “but you are not making as much money as you could.” Pleading with the young man, he proceeded. “If you will continue to build your customer list you will eventually be able to buy a second mower and add an employee to your business. Also, you should lengthen your hours of operation. With an employee, a second mower, and longer work days you will eventually be able to add enough new customers to keep a second lawn mowing crew busy.”

The young man stared at the business consultant who continued “If you keep growing your business you will soon be able to add more crews and make even more money.” The young man, not convinced by the business consultant’s argument asked “sure, I will have more money but with all those crews and all those customers, won’t I have to spend all my time at work dealing with business problems and responsibilities?”

The business consultant’s answer seemed simple enough. “With foremen managing your lawn care crews, you will be able to delegate your responsibilities among your associates and eventually reduce the hours you work. Then, you can leave work in the early afternoon to go home and relax or go to the lake or hang out with friends.”

Bemused, the young lawn care entrepreneur just smiled at the business consultant and said “yes, but that’s exactly what I’m doing now.”

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This parable originally used a businessman and a fisherman to tell the story. I think it is equally important for lawn care professionals to understand how to balance business life with the rest of their life. You are in business not only to make lots of money but to also enrich the other areas of your life.

Lawn Care Business owners who start their businesses with professional advice seem to have an easier time with business startup and make more money in the long run. If you are starting or operating a lawn care business and find that you are working long hours and not making the money you deserve, you should seek some professional advice.

The “Start A Lawn Care Business” guidebook, training video, and software package will help you build a successful lawn care operation. By working smarter and estimating better you will be able to make more money with better customers and less headaches.

This comprehensive business package is available from this website:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
Start A Lawn Care Business

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Mid to late winter is one of the most target rich environments for lawn care contracts. City governments are bidding grass cutting contracts, apartment complexes are taking competitive bids, and banks & office buildings are thinking about sprucing up their landscaping for spring. If you are not aggressively pursuing these contracts, you may be missing BIG profits and lots of money for your business.

We believe lawn care business owners should strive for a balance of commercial and residential customers. While you can successfully operate a business with 100% residential customers, commercial contracts are needed to bring in additional money and add stability over the course of a year. You need both kinds of customers.

If you are not successfully bidding lawn care contracts this year, you need to purchase the START A LAWN CARE BUSINESS guidebook and video training series by www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

This guidebook package has a huge chapter telling you how to find, estimate, and successfully bid lawn care contracts. If your business is new or if you just want to make more money in 2010, get this guidebook. It may be the best purchase you have ever made for your lawn care business.

Start A Lawn Care Business.com

The economy is still in a challenging position, foreclosures are still high, and unemployment is still in record territory. Despite gloomy headlines everyday in the newspaper, things seem to be greening up for a good start to the year.

In our part of the country, the housing market is really beginning to move. We spoke with a real-estate agent recently who told us that their inventory of houses is beginning to decrease as buyers step into the market.

Curb appeal is a buyer’s first impression of a property. If the lawn is cut and the landscaping is maintained, the buyer is more apt to consider making an offer. Lawn care is a much needed expenditure for real-estate offices on their vacant homes. In many cases, a neatly mown lawn makes the sale.

If you are thinking about starting your own lawn care business, right now is a great time to get started. You can take advantage of all the landscaping contracts that are being bid right now for 2010.

Learn how-to start your own lawn care company and bid landscaping and mowing contracts with the Start A Lawn Care Business Package.

Though cooler weather brings slower growth rates, October is a perfect time to start a lawn care business or ramp up an existing lawn care business.

Autumn can be very profitable with Leaf Raking, Gutter Cleaning, and Seeding Jobs. Customers pay lots of money to have these jobs done. They will also hire you for many other jobs during the winter months. Once spring rolls around, these customers will gladly pay you to mow their grass all summer.

If you want to learn how much to charge for Autumn lawn care jobs and increase your lawn care business, check out the lawn care software and strategy guidebook located at:

Start A Lawn Care Business.

When I first heard that a lawn care business owner had been robbed, I thought a piece of equipment had been stolen from his truck or a customer hired him to perform some lawn care work and failed to pay.

According to Fredericksburg.com, a Virginia lawn care business owner was lured to a vacant property with a phone call. The caller claimed to be interested in having yard work performed on the property. When the man came to the property to give an estimate he was robbed of $500 in cash and a few credit cards.

Landscape Pruning Video

In April we posted a video on YouTube detailing the correct method of making pruning cuts to take a branch or limb off a tree without damaging the trunk.

The video describes how to use a three-cut method.  First you make an underside cut.  Then you cut through the branch beyond the underside cut.  Finally, you cut through the stub barely beyond the collared union.  This allows the tree to heal properly and prevents against disease and insects.

Crepe Myrtle Pruning

I was recently pruning a Crepe Myrtle landscaping tree.  Crepe Myrtles only require marginal pruning and do not need to be pruned dramatically.  One branch, however, was crossing another and needed to be removed.

I made the underside cut as described in the video and began the top side cut.  When I was slightly over half-way through the top side cut the branch gave way and tore along the bottom of the branch.  At the underside cut, the branch broke free and fell away from the tree.

Underside Cut Saves the Day

If I hadn’t made the underside cut, the branch would have torn into the trunk of the tree causing significant damage threatening the health and life of that tree.

Properly Pruned Crepe Myrtle

Landscaping and Lawn Care Business

If you prune landscape shrubs and trees as part of your lawn care business, you are well advised to learn proper pruning techniques.

For more information on starting your own lawn care business, click the “Start A Lawn Care Business” link at the top right of this page.

Good Luck

1)  Hand tools:  Leaf rakes, shovel, mattock, pole saw, shears.

2)  Auxilliary lawn mower gas tank.

3)  John Deere push lawn mower.

4) Lunch cooler.

5)  20 lb. air tank.

6)  Traffic Cones

7)  John Deere Z-Trak commercial lawn mower

8)  Water cooler.  Drinking lots of water is important.

9)  Leaf blower rack.  Blower is removed as it is currently in use.

10) John Deere Gator.  Good for moving landscape mulch, grass seed, plants, etc.

OTHER SIDE OF THE LANDSCAPING TRAILER

1) Lockable Toolbox.  Equiped with all tools needed to work on lawn care equipment and to work in customers’ yards.

2) Weedeater Racks.  2 Commercial grade weedeaters.

3) Flags on rear of trailer.

If you want to start your own lawn care business, click the StartALawnCareBusiness link on the tab to the right.

Start A Lawn Care Business staff members visit Washington D.C.

The staff of  “StartALawnCareBusiness” took a recent trip to Washington D.C.  We were there on a fact finding mission to better understand how lawns are maintained in dense urban areas.

Lawns in our area of the country often average 3/4  acre of grass coverage for a typical home in a subdivision type community.  Dense urban landscaping is on a much smaller scale.  Lawn Care Companies must learn how to manage the maintenance of such small areas.

Look for upcoming blogs about how to maintain small urban landscape areas.

This blog posting is about a much larger landscaping job.

How About This for a Lawn Care Contract?

While we were in Washington D.C. we took time to visit many historic sites.  The Whitehouse is one of those sites that is a must see while visiting D.C.  We were lucky enough to witness a lawn care crew working landscaping equipment on the South Lawn.

Lawn Care at the Whitehouse South Lawn

There are a couple subjects of note.

1) Look a little to the right of the upper middle section of this picture.  Can you see the blue tractor with a front end loader?  Can you imagine the security clearance of the lawn care company working the South Lawn?  If you think getting your insurance and bonding your employees is a hassle just be in these guy’s shoes.

2)  The striping pattern on the South Lawn is beautifully managed.  The perfect lines are to be admired.

If you have ever wanted to operate your own lawn care business, you can learn practically everything you need to know with our lawn care business package.  Visit our website StartALawnCareBusiness.com

The complete lawn care business package is on sale right now.

If you have read our course work and materials about how to start your own lawn care business, you know how important safety is when you are operating your own lawn care business.

This morning, as I was driving to an appointment, I heard the familiar sound of a commercial string trimmer and commercial lawn mower.  I detoured slightly out of my way to see if it was a familiar lawn care company.   I didn’t know the guys running the equipment and they seemed to be doing a nice job on the lawn grass they were cutting.

Though they were doing a professional job on the grass, something struck me enough about the scene that I grabbed my camera and took a quick photograph through my window.

What do you notice about this picture?

Okay, I am not going to beat up on these guys.  They did quick, efficient work and the grass looked good when they finished.  But,  they need to think some more about safety.

Long-time readers of this blog and of our “Start A Lawn Care Business” program probably already know the safety problems seemingly apparent in this photograph.  Let’s start with the string trimmer safety guard.

1)  Line trimmer safety guards

Look at the weedeater.  Where’s the safety guard?   Apart from holding the line limiter blade, the safety guard provides some protection from flying rocks and debris.  We recommend not removing safety guards.  They are there for a purpose.

2) Lawn Care Operator clothing and safety gear.

The guy with the weedeater is wearing shorts, low rise walking shoes, no hearing protection that I could see, and no safety glasses.  What safety gear/clothing did I miss?

Look at his legs.  He is getting pelted with grass and debris.  What happens if the weedeater slings a rock into his leg causing a gash and then he hits a pile of dog poo that gets into the cut?  (Trust me; I know about weedeaters and dog poo)  I’m certainly not a medical professional but dog poo in an open wound can’t be good for you.

Hearing protection?  “What?”   I SAID “HEARING PROTECTION!!!”  I know hearing protection is uncomfortable and inconvenient.   So what…WEAR IT.

Safety Goggles?  Guys who never wear safety goggle never read this blog….BECAUSE THEY CAN’T SEE ANYMORE!!!   Wear safety goggles!!!!

3)  Awarness of surroundings

The guy operating the commercial walk-behind lawn mower is throwing grass all over the guy who is already covered with grass from his weedeater.  Lawn mowers throw things other than grass.  They also throw sticks and stones…those hurt bones.  Be careful where you aim mower discharge.  Oh, and the guard on the mower?  Yeah, he has it flipped up so it’s not doing any good.

Lawn mowing is dangerous.  Use caution.

If you don’t know all your safety options and obligations, check out the CDC and OSHA at CDC.gov and OSHA.gov.

Good luck guys.  Be sure to check out our Lawn Care Business program.  It is a perfect resource for anyone starting out (and with less than 5 years experience) in a lawn care business.