Nine Beginner Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Lawn Care Company

Starting a lawn care company is a pretty straight forward kind of business that requires just a little forethought in order to do it right.

But there is still the right way of doing things and plenty of beginner mistakes to be made if you don’t know what exactly to expect.

Below, we will be discussing just a few mistakes that someone who is new to owning a lawn care company could make and how to avoid them.

1) Pricing Your Services too Low

Though making your prices lower than your competitors might seem like the best way to make your services stand out, it usually isn’t worth it.

You will end up working for pennies and give high paying clients the impression that your work is of lower quality than that of your competitors.

While you also don’t want to overprice your services, it is best to price a little higher than your most expensive competitor or a little lower, depending on the services that you are offering.

2) Not Setting Business Goals

A common mistake that people make is not approaching their lawn care company with future goals in mind.

Goals are important in any kind of business because they provide a vision that you are working towards.

Without having goals for your company, you will most likely begin to lose your company's purpose and struggle to keep it growing.

In order to avoid moving forward with no goals in mind, its important to consistently step back and consider what your company is verses where you would like it to be.

3) Not Being Aware of Local Laws and Regulations

One of the most common and most costly mistakes that you can make when starting your lawn care company is to not properly follow the laws and regulations in your area.

Every state will have a different set of regulations for lawn care companies, so it is important to do your research before you ever start working.

In some areas you may be required to get a business license, and, in most places, you must get specific licenses to handle pesticides.

Every state is different and will have different requirements that you must uphold to, so it’s important to educate yourself on your areas specifications to avoid issues further on down the road.

4) Cutting Costs

When you are starting a lawn care company from scratch, it can be tempting to cut as many costs as you can.

But, cutting costs such as not having a reliable truck and buying run down equipment will lead to greater expenses later on.

Your truck could require work done on it or it might just stop working altogether and old equipment will have many of the same problems, leading to expensive repairs and last-minute replacements.

You don’t have to spend a fortune in the beginning of starting your company but it’s also important to consider future costs and invest in things that will ultimately pay you back.

One good method for cutting costs is to use free lawn and landscape business software.

5) Poor Time Management

One of the quickest ways to decrease your business and give your lawn care services a bad name is to not manage your time properly.

When you are your own boss you have to be the one to hold yourself accountable and to make sure that you are keeping track of all of your jobs and clients.

If you overbook yourself and miss a few clients, they just might not give you a second chance and if you do the opposite and don’t book enough jobs, then you will have wasted time.

Start managing your time well early on and do whatever you have to do in order to remember and keep track of all of your responsibilities. This will help your lawn mowing company grow the business.

6) Not Separating Business Finances

A very common mistake that some business owners may make, is to not separate their business finances from their personal finances.

Not separating the two could lead to confusing problems in the future and could ultimately cost you.

You could do all of your business finances yourself or hire a bookkeeper to take the responsibility.

7) Skipping Out on Marketing

It’s easy to want to immediately put the peddle to the metal and begin working on your lawn care business, once you have everything ready to begin working.

One key factor in business success that can be overlooked is the need to market your work in order to achieve a consistent flow of clientele.

Social media advertising as well as old school flier and door hanger advertising are both extremely effective, as well as cheap ways of getting your companies name out there.

8) Not Maintaining Your Lawn Equipment

One very pricy mistake that some lawn care owners make is failing to upkeep and maintain the quality of their equipment.

Lawn care is hard work and often takes a toll on tools and lawn equipment If they are not continually being looked after and taken care of.

The best ways to keep that from happening is to have specific days each week or month that you look over all of your equipment and clean them up.

As well as making sure that you have a dry place to store them for slower months, like winter.

9) Letting Clients Run the Show

Something that all forms of business owners will come into contact with at some point is difficult clients.

It can be tempting to let them walk all over you and run the show in order to keep the peace and continue to work for them but that doesn’t always pay off.

Especially if clients are always late to pay you or avoid paying altogether, those are the kinds of clients that you do not need, and you would be better off finding new ones.

As you can see, there are many mistakes that a lawn maintenance company might make in the beginning of starting their company.

It's normal to not know exactly what you are doing in the beginning, which is why we hope that this article can help you to avoid some of those beginners’ mistakes.

To avoid some of those pit falls in the beginning of starting your lawn care company, so that you can achieve success and grow even faster.