Safety Goggles?   Check
Hearing Protection?  Check
Work Boots?  Check
Sun Screen?  Check

This safety list for lawn care professionals is far from complete but before we go much further we must be sure to place a very important, yet often overlooked, item close to the top.  Water.

Water.  How much is enough to drink?

If you perform lawn care and landscping work outside during hot months you must monitor your water intake constantly through the day.  According to a CDC report*, consumption of approximately one pint of water every 15 to 20 minutes is suggested for most people at risk of heat strain. Dehydration can be insidious and thirst or lack of thirst is not a clear indicator if you are dehydrated or not.  Dehydration can affect the body cummulatively over a period of days therefore if you have not properly maintained your fluid intake during your workday you must catch up before resuming work.  A body weight ratio may help you understand how much water loss occured during your work day.  Again, according to the CDC report, body weightloss during a workday should not exceed 1.5%.  Rehydration should be complete before the next day’s work.

Keep your pee clear.

Another method of monitoring your hydration level is keeping check on your urine.  Urine should be clear, not dark.  If you pee a color approaching that of a school bus you must curtail your work load and properly hydrate yourself.

The CDC discusses hydration in the Lawn Care Business.

Think about what the CDC say the proper hydration rate should be for those at risk of heat strain.  One pint every 15 to 20 minutes.  One pint per 15 minutes equates to 4 pints per hour.  That equals 3 gallons of fluid intake during a 6 hour workday.  This is only a recommendation and your particular need for fluid intake relies on many variables such as personal fitness, general health, outdoor temperature, and level of physical activity required in your work.  You must also monitor electrolyte levels.  People who drink too much water can dilute sodium in their bodies and are at risk of an effect called Water Intoxication.

Water consumption in our lawn care business.

A personal habit we adopted many years ago in our lawn care business was to carry two jugs per person with us each workday.  One jug is filled with water and placed into the freezer the night before.  As the ice melts during the workday we continuously drink from that jug.  The water is always nice and cool and melts about as fast as we can drink it.  The second jug contains a mixture of water and gatorade.  We drink as necessary during the day to maintain proper hydration and electrolyte levels.

Operate a lawn care business?  See your Doctor.

In addition to these suggestions, it is highly advisable that you monitor your health properly.  See a phyician as needed.  Alert your Dr. to your type of employment and have him keep track of your health history with your work in mind.

* http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/FACE/stateface/mi/02mi075.html

If you are keen on the weather, you may also be interested in the Atlantic hurricane season.  A huge swath of our country is affected each year by hurricanes and their related weather systems.

We think a neat marketing idea for 2009 would be to develop advertising campaigns around 2009’s Hurricanes’ names.  We’ll list the names below so you can get a jump start coming up with ideas.

If you own your own lawn care business or you want to start a lawn care business, the ( www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com ) lawn care business program is packed with information, business tools, estimating calculator software, and lawn care business training videos.  The complete program is on sale right now at: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Now, onto the Hurricane Names for 2009
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

Good luck with your lawn care business.  Let us know of your marketing campaigns around Hurricane names.

Life of a Lawn Care Newbie

You only started your landscaping business two months ago.  You are advertising aggressively with flyers and newspaper classifieds.  You already have a full roster of lawn care clients but you don’t seem to be making enough money to justify all the hours you are working.

What’s wrong with this picture?

If you are anything like many of the new lawn care companies we give business consulting advice to, you are suffering from the common mistakes many business owners make.

In the early days of your business you are excited and full of energy.  You give estimates to every potential lead that comes your way; grass cutting, shrub trimming, landscape planting, all types of yard work.  No job is too big and no job is too small for your new business.  Since you are new you think you need to lowball your estimates to get customers.  Afterall, if the other guy can do a job for $45 surely you can do if for $40…or $35…or even $30 .  You think it’s okay to underbid and overpromise.

Sure enough, all your prospects accept your lowball prices and suddenly you have more clients than you know what to do with.  That’s what you wanted, right?  And the money is rolling in…kinda.

Word of your great work and your low prices gets around to neighbors of your customers.  They want estimates too.  One neighbor wants grass seed planted and his lawn aerated.  Another wants fertilizer treatment and the grass cut.  Still another neighbor wants her leaves raked and hauled away.

With all these new lawn care customers you attempt to raise your prices.  You give higher estimates to your new lawn care customers:  “That will be $45 Mrs. Smith.”   You can guess what her answer is:  “But you only charge my neighbor $30 for the same work.”  Ugh, word is out…you’re a lowballer.

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of Life of a Lawn Care Newbie

If you don’t want to fall into the traps of Lawn Care Newbies, purchase the Lawn Care Business program available from our friends at:

Start A Lawn Care Business

The business program is less than $40 and it is FILLED with useful information and business tools to help you start your own successful lawn care business.

Remember to check back tomorrow for part 2 of Life of a Lawn Care Newbie.

If you are starting a lawn care business in the near future, you are probably already thinking about how much commercial lawn equipment to buy and how much money it will cost. After you buy the equipment, you have to consider maintenance, a truck and a lawn care equipment trailer to haul it around, and insurance on your commercial grass cutting rig.

While I normally write about traditional methods of financing landscaping equipment, today I am advancing an idea that won’t be suited to many lawn care companies. If you are looking to start a zero-cost lawn care business, this idea might be suited for your business.

A few years after becoming established in the green industry, I was servicing my lawn clients in a subdivision. I had several clients on one street. Stops with several houses are always good because you only have to unload your equipment once and drive time is minimized.

On my way into this subdivision one day, I noticed a teenager walking the street with a red gasoline container. Several minutes later, as I finised my first my first lawn, the teen was mowing a small yard across the street with a small push, residential lawn mower. Since he hadn’t had a lawn mower with him before, I assumed he was mowing his own lawn.

Later that morning, as I was exiting the subdivision I saw the same kid on a different yard. This time, he was cutting the grass with a riding lawn mower. Intrigued, I turned my truck and trailer around and visited the house where I first saw him mowing.

The homeowner told me that the kid did not have his own equipment. He carries his own gasoline and uses the homeowner’s lawn mowers. The homeowner told me that they didn’t have a string trimmer and hired my landscaping company to stop by while I was doing the other lawns to trim and blow grass off the driveway and sidewalk with my backpack leaf blower.

If you don’t have money to start your own lawn care business and you don’t have any equipment of your own, there is always the potential of using homeowners’ lawn and garden equipment to start your business, earn money, and eventually purchase your own commercial lawn care equipment.

If you want to take a more traditional route to your own successful lawn care and landscaping business, think about purchasing our complete lawn care business package available at:

www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Have you seen them? Have you seen the shabby looking pick up trucks with push lawn mowers in the back driving around your town looking for grass to cut for extra spending money?

While there is nothing wrong making extra spending money mowing grass during the summer months, many lawn care business owners want to step their businesses up a notch and turn part time on-the-side landscaping work into full-time professional careers in the Green Industry.

What separates a professional LCO from a part-time operation?

Knowledge:
Professional lawn care business owners have the knowledge to perform jobs correctly and recommend solutions to difficult lawn care related problems. Most anyone can grab a lawn mower, get customers, and mow yards. However, professionals know what types of grass they are cutting and at what height it should be cut. Professionals know how to perform soil tests and interpret the results. If a customer’s lawn needs fertilizer, professional lawn care companies know which formulation to recommend and they know how to apply it correctly.

Lawn Care Equipment:
Guys with beat up lawn mowers inevitably have equipment failures. Professional landscapers purchase commercial equipment and they maintain their equipment properly to reduce down time. Lawn mower blades are kept sharp. Sharp blades reduce ragged tearing of grass blades which causes stress and browning. Well maintained lawn mowers do not leak oil and they run cleaner since their air filters and oil filter are changed regularly. Customers (and potential customers) notice professional equipment.

Time Management:
Full-time commercial grass cutting companies manage their time diligently. Their customers never have to wonder if the grass will get cut on schedule. If rain prevents grass cutting, professional mowing outfits are able to get back on schedule quickly and without much notice by their clients. Professional lawn care companies know their customers rely on them 12 months per year. Lawns don’t need to be maintained during cold months but there is always other work that a LCO can take care of. A professional lawn care business makes money year-round.

You might be happy making a few extra dollars in your spare time cutting grass. However, if you are looking to step your business up a notch and eventually turn it into a more profitable and professional business, our lawn care business package can help you reach your goals.

Visit our website at: http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com