Anybody here run a business cutting grass? I'm talking full

I would keep your eye out for used equipment on Craigslist like a trailer, commercial mower etc. starting out, your only means of marketing is going to be word of mouth so be good to what initial clients you get and maybe make a small lawn sign and see if you can put it somewhere in their yards. Also put a sign on your vehicle. Then advertise in a small local newspaper or coupon distribution paper and work your way towards commercial clients.

>>1015293
Mow yards for free to start, once they get hooked then start charging. I would find shaggy yards and just go to work. They will appreciate your can do attitude and offer you sweet tea and then you have a customer for life

>>1015306

No. The people with shaggy yards don't care about having a shaggy yard, or they would already have taken care of it. They are not going to pay someone to take care of it.

OP needs to go into rich neighbourhoods and find well maintained yards and then mention how much they can save if they let him do it

If someone has a well maintained yard they are obviously his target market. Shaggy yards are not.

>>1015315
This.
Ask how much they are paying, tell them you can save them TEN dollars a month, that is ONE HUNDRED TWENTY a year! Play that up. Offer Value Added services, simple little shit that makes a difference. Things I thought of would be removing the grass clipings or helping move their trash cans to the curb or something.
Im sure you can think of something better, it is your business afterall

>>1015507
Do all of this but make sure you get heard, post your service on local facebook pages, and emphasize on the fact you can guarantee them that you will save them money, and things like raking the lawn for free (if and when you have spare time after a job) just for that extra customer satisfaction, and don't forget to give business cards to anyone who you think might need/ want their lawn cut. I would also recommend getting a decent logo done E.g draw up sketches then get someone on fiverr to professionally do it for you.

Uncle owns one. They also cut trees. It's a shitty market. Go into B2B janitorial instead. Learn how to run a floor buffer and commercial carpet cleaner. Start with cleaning churches and network with members of the church. At least one of them is a business owner.

>>1015293

DO

Cut in rich neighborhoods, because they don't have the time to be cutting their lawn, unless they're retired.

DONT

Cut in your neighborhood since they are like you, meaning they have time to cut their own lawn

are you gonna do this full time op?

>>1015293
try to get big jobs, like apartment complexes and condos or even try to secure a contract with golf courses or schools or even cities

>>1016127
I want to go full time, but getting enough clients is a lofty goal.

>>1015315
>>1015507
>>1015512
>>1016121

Solid advice, thanks. Are you guys suggesting I just go and knock on doors? That seems a little shady. From what I've seen, fliers only have like a .5% call return. Facebook sounds like a good idea for marketing.

>>1015517
Thanks. I know the market is pretty saturated because everyone and their brother wants to quit their job and cut grass for a living. I will consider your advice.

>>1016154
Definitely seems like a good idea. Even one medium sized commercial site could easily make or break me. I just have to figure out how get myself taken seriously.

>>1015293

Go for commercial clients, avoid poor people. Don't do one times only repeats. Constantly call people to drum up business, brand yourself and make a website. Always answer the phone. Figure a safe rate to do a job and add 20% for wiggle room. Hire Mexicans to do the real work, you need to he the manager

The fact that you mentioned flyers and door to door sales proves to me you're either stupid or old.

Start a website, look at SEO techniques.

[TOWN] lawncare
[TOWN] landscaping
[TOWN] grass cutting

Your website should be the first result on Google every time someone enters a keyword like that.

Local word of mouth will follow.

>>1016711
This guy knows his stuff. Find churches, gyms, and other local businesses to do contract work.

>>1015293
You need to work out how quickly grass grows in your area. That depends on the sunlight and species. You could do with a map, a list or a database which would tell you when places were ripe for chopping.

Part of the reason people do not want to get their grass cut because they have a lawnmower/strimmer thing in their shed which their wife/partner expects them to use, or they have flowers etc around the verges of their grass and do not want Mick the grasschopper making their lawnmower redundant/ruining their marriage or accidentally chopping their azaleas.

You should offer an 90% cut at a slight discount, where you leave the edges of the grass for the customer to do either with a lawnmower or a strimmer. It is the monotonous, long shit grass that pisses people off.

>>1016515

Advertising as a whole has at best a 3-6% hit rate. 8% is knocking it out of the park.

Forget direct marketing. Go to towns and villages. You know the people whos yard looks like a haunted house? Towns and cities will clean those yards and then fine the owners... be the guy the town contracts to make the haunted house.

Cutting lawns for owners directly means you are going to be competing with Hector and Hose B. I have the Mexican brew crew (always smell like liquor) cut my lawn for $7 a week, bushes and edging is an extra 3 dollars. Twice a year it is 20 bucks (spring and fall) to dethatch, air rate, and fertilize the lawn. You really dont want to be competing with guys who are probably making, at best, 6-8 dollars an hour per crew

>>1015293
>DO
Go with a Scag mower. Really good, they have lots of grease points and are built with really heavy steel. Mine has 1,200 hours on it and still runs and cuts fine. You can also do all of the servicing/most of the repair on it yourself. That's one thing I hate about John Deere, it's literally engineered to make people frustrated and take it to the dealer for repair. Lots of cast parts too. Time alone will break it.
>alternate brands for commercial mowers
Dixie Chopper
Kubota

Try to find used equipment. A Turf Tiger with 1,000 gentle hours on it is a good deal for around $2,200.
Take care of your shit. Start the mowers and let them idle for five to ten minutes when cold to warm up. GREASE EVERYTHING WITH A FITTING. Another plus for Scag is that the bigger mowers have grease relief valves which means the excess just leaks out. You can't over-grease them. Fix it as it breaks, or of the evenings and you will have an easier workday next morning.

Stihl makes good weed eaters and leaf blowers. Usually has a good warranty.

There are several types of line that you can use. If you are weed eating heavy weeds around old fences, use heavy line. I like the X-Line or whatever it's called from Stihl.
When weed eating around vynil siding, use the lightest round line you can find. It has smaller chance of breaking the siding if you fuck up. Learned this the hard way.

Buy a pressure washer and wash your shit every few days. Showing up with clean equipment is good for business, as opposed to showing up with shit that looks like a hairy green blob. Grass does stain if left caked on for extended periods, especially with heat.

Once you get established with a good client list, start trading in your mowers for new ones every two years. Most dealerships have programs designed especially for this.

Learn how to mow patterns in grass and offer them to clients for an extra charge depending on the size of the yard. $5 for a half acre, $10 for an acre, so on.
>>Cont

>>1017543
See if you can find some vacant lots to learn on. Tell the owner that you will mow them for free if you can mow them for practice. Practice the striping patterns.

Get a trailer with racks for weed eaters. Get a truck that is reliable and in good cosmetic shape. Make sure all of your equipment and employees look good and clean.

Try your best to get contracts with businesses.
Offer direct deposits to everyone with monthly, six month and yearly plans. Once they sign, just show up whenever, cut the yard, leave, come back and do it again.
Do an introductory mowing at cost to secure business.
Put up flyers at key points. E-mail businesses. Be very, VERY professional. Get some business cards. YOU are the face of your company.

Keep your customers happy. Check in with them every month or so and ask if they are satisfied with the job and if there is anything they didn't like. Be careful with who you do this with, some will exploit the satisfaction angle to get you to do extra shit.

Make your employees wear clean work uniforms every day. Such as matching Dickies pants and a Neon crew shirt and sun hat. $40 from Walmart. The sketchy crews wear raggy, stained white shirts and blue jeans. Later on you can get custom business shirts. White T-shirts stain WAAAAY too easily and show every bit of grime you pick up.

Try to secure lots of yards or lots in a closely confined area, that way you won't have to load up after just one yard. This saves time and money. Commercial mowing companies operate like gangs, I.E. they have their turf. Don't get too spread out.

Keep a five gallon cooler filled with fresh water for your employees. Heat stroke is a real thing. It's cheap and will help employee morale.
Joke around and bee good to your employees. in a way, they are like clients. Keep them happy and they will work hard for you. unless they are lazy pieces of shit.
>cont

>>1016906

But then you'll get 1099s

Cash business is better

>>1017577
Buy your employees pizza every once in awhile, write it off as a business lunch. Small things like that help.

Provide alternate services to do in the winter unless you live closer to the equator, like brush removal, tree trimming, snow removal, the like.

Ask if you can leave a discrete, professional looking sign on the edge of client's yards. "lawn care provided by "yourcompanyname", *phone number*, city".

The hardest part is drumming up business. Be sure to letter your truck with your business name and number. Advertise as you roll down the street. Try to get as many yard done in a day as possible. If you have only ten yard contracted, try to do them in a day and take the rest of the week off.

Chain your equipment up when it's on the trailer for the night to discourage theft.


Commercial lawn care is a labor intensive business, but it is fairly easy to run from a business standpoint. One guy who frequents the same dealership as me made $320,000 one year.

Just some random thoughts, I'm not a commercial guy but I mow about 30 hours a week during the summer, have done so for seven years. I would apply these things if I lived in the city, instead of bumfuck nowhere on my own business.

>>1017587
A few more thoughts.

A good truck to get is a 90's Ford F-150 with the 4.9l straight 6 motor. Bulletproof motors, good used trucks go for $2,500 with under 200,000 miles. That mileage will not hurt those motors.

If you have an extra good employee who demonstrates exceptional responsibility, reliability, and work skills, you might want to get him his own truck and small mowing crew, a pay raise, and put him to work on your yards. Two crews = more money.

>>1015293
I don't but a friend did, bought houses and rented them with his profits. Basically retired now. Dude killed it, never look down on a hard working man, he may be mowing your lawn but he's happy and he's killing it.

>>1015293
Financial institutions have a lot of empty foreclosed homes that need regular yard maintenance. Real estate firms might be a possibility too.

>>1017543
>>1017577
>>1017587
>>1017636

Thanks buddy! I've been cutting grass for 4 years for the city I've worked for (got tired of $10.25 an hour), so I'm pretty good on all the equipment.

I was looking for Hustlers or Exmarks because I have experience with them and know they cut well. What do you think about these brands? Are exmarks just too expensive for a new guy? Also, will the Scags/Dixie Choppers stripe well enough without a striping kit (roller)? I could at least install a rubber thing.

I was thinking of getting a 3/4 ton van because then I could lock my weedwhips, blowers, etc in there. What do you think of that?

I'm in Michigan. Do you have any idea what time of year the process of getting customers signed up begins? Is it close to when the grass starts before or does it go on during the winter?

File: bond field.jpg (2MB, 2560x1920px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2560x1920px

>>1017543
>>1017577
>>1017587
>>1017636

Also, is a full tube steel trailer necessary for moving mowers? Or will an angle iron one suffice?

Pic related, at least I can make straight lines... (this is on a snapper with no striping kit)

>>1017962
>>1017965
Hustlers and Exmarks are good too, I just forgot the names last night kek. Little burned out and rambly from work. Scag is my brand because that's what was the best deal from the dealership.
Hustlers are great as any commercial mower, but I don't have a dealership close by so I couldn't really tell you too much about them.
I've also heard good things about the Cub Cadet Pro series.

One thing I would suggest is browse some local dealerships, see what the most commonly used mower is by the professionals, and look for gently used ones. Most popular = most used inventory. Just because it's been traded in does no mean that it's a bad mower. One thing to look for in a used mower is if the wheel motors are still good. Do this by putting it on low-half throttle and push the control bars all the way forward, see if it travels straight. Do it on full throttle if you have the space.
ALL new pro-grade zero turns are too expensive for beginners IMO. Find a dealership you like, and start trading in once your business takes off. It's usually pretty easy to build a relationship with a good dealer. You can get new mowers when you trade in.

My Scag stripes as good as yours without the stripe kit. I haven't used one, so i can't tell much about that. Your lines do look good though, so you should be able to do really well with a stripe kit.

An angle Iron trailer will work fine. If it's long enough to fit your mowers on, it should haul them. Make sure your tires can handle the load.
A commercial zero turn weighs about 1,000-1,200 pounds. Just go easy and smooth on your trailer with a load, like smooth accellerations and missing big bumps in the road, etc.
You can also replace a wooden floor on a trailer easier than you can repaint a steel one.
Just get one bigger than you will need at the time, because you will outgrow it. Found this out the hard way.

A van would probably be a better idea than a truck, now that you mention it. Didn't think of that.

>>1017962
>>1017965
>>1018953
I live in Virginia so I wouldn't know about Michigan's grass, nor the time for marketing. I just take care of all my family's property. Watch the other guys from the shadows and see when they start marketing for spring. Maybe start a little earlier and advertise your lower rates so that people will see only you for awhile.

The rubber rollers only work so well. Maybe a little better than no roller at all.

I'm on here until tonight around 10, ask anything you think of.

>>1015293
Worked for a guy for 2 years. We did grass cutting as a way to get our trucks into neighborhoods for brand presence. After gas, wages(all legit), deprecation, ect. We were pulling in $50 profit a month from 20 yards. About half the clients came to us for mulch, cleanups, and hardscapes. That is where the money was.

DOs.
>keep up on maintenance. Keep a log of hours and what was done. Saves you in the long run
>keep business cards on you or in your truck
>go for neighborhoods with McMansions. Avoid everything else.
>be professional. No naked women t-shirts. No bragging about that bitch you banged while loading up at a house. I don't see a point in buying 5 sets of clothes for each employee when they can provide them.
>respond to calls the same day. Landscapers are notorious for not returning calls.
>plan out your route.
>keep your equipment clean
>offer to bag yards for an extra fee. EZ money
>consider leaf cleanup in the fall. Charge an hourly rate.
>wear safety glasses.

DON'Ts
>cut 5 days a week. You will be rained out customers will be mad when you can't get them
>cut when the weather is hot and dry. Let it grow out a bit so it stays green. You will make it back come September/October when the dew gets into the ground every day.
>don't buy shitty equipment. Stihl for anything 2 cycle, avoid anything you can buy at Lowes. Expect 4-8k for a quality mower.
>keep mowing if they don't pay. A week of high grass gets you a check quick.
>hire kids who don't know a thing about grass cutting
>blast the mulch beds with clippings.
>buy a diesel dualie to tow mowers. You will be laughed at.
>expect this to be a replacement for a year round job.


>>1017962
> Exmarks

Very nice mowers. They are identical to Toro's pro offerings since Toro bought them.

>>1019019
This.

bumping so this here when I get home