How To Start a Lawn Care Business: A 10-Step Guide

One constant feature of the US suburban landscape is lawns—lots of them, covering millions of acres, and offering a huge opportunity for people looking to break into the lawn care industry. What’s more, consumers are willing to spend on lawn care, with one survey finding that US households spent about $214 per year on lawn care services in 2023.

Learn how to start a lawn care business and best practices for funding success.

What is a lawn care business?

A lawn care business provides lawn and yard maintenance services for paying clients. Lawn care businesses offer services ranging from fertilizing, watering, and mowing lawns to soil aeration and pest control. Residential clients pay lawn care businesses to maintain lawns around their homes. Commercial clients pay for maintenance at business locations, office parks, schools, hotels, restaurants, and large residential complexes. A solo entrepreneur could run a small local lawn care business on their own, or even expand into a fleet of teams in multiple locations.

How to start a lawn care business

1. Analyze the local lawn care market
2. Develop a business plan
3. Set your pricing
4. Register your business
5. Purchase lawn care equipment
6. Start marketing to attract new clients
7. Provide top-notch lawn care services
8. Manage your lawn care booking schedule
9. Partner with complementary businesses
10. Hire employees

Here are some of the steps and best practices to consider before launching your own lawn care business.

1. Analyze the local lawn care market

A competitive analysis of your local competition can help you make more informed decisions about your own business planning. Start by creating a spreadsheet and listing existing lawn care businesses in your area. Research your competitors’ websites and business listings on platforms like Google, Facebook, Angi, and LawnStarter. Include details on their pricing, company size, client reviews, promotions, social media presence, and niche or add-on lawn care services offered (like mosquito prevention or gutter cleaning).

2. Develop a business plan

Write a business plan to outline the goals for your lawn care business and your detailed plan to achieve them. Include your competitive analysis research and information about your target market. Include estimates for travel times to jobs, transportation, and equipment costs.

Describe the lawn care services you’ll offer based on your target market and the competitive landscape. For example, tree removal services for commercial clients like property managers require different equipment and marketing strategies than a lawn mowing business for residential customers.

Here are common services provided by lawn care businesses:

• Mowing

• Watering

• Trimming

• Weed control

• Pruning

• Soil fertilization

• Leaf removal

• Lawn aeration

• Pest control

• Snow removal

• Mulching

3. Set your pricing

There are a variety of pricing strategies to consider, but use your competitor research to guide you. Full-cost pricing incorporates all associated costs of a product or service, including equipment, transportation, insurance, permits, taxes, and labor. Set your prices high enough for positive profit margins but low enough to keep your pricing competitive.

4. Register your business

Establish your lawn care business legally by setting up a sole proprietorship, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation. Choose your business structure based on factors like company size and budget. For example, LLCs involve higher startup costs than sole proprietorships, but they offer personal liability protection from your business’s debts and obligations. 

If you’re operating in the US, you can get your general business license from your local office and your employer identification number (EIN) and sales tax permit from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Starting a business in California differs from starting one in Georgia, so dig into your state’s requirements on your Secretary of State’s website.

Consider acquiring general liability insurance to protect your business and commercial auto insurance for the vehicle you’re using to transport lawn care equipment. You’ll also need to research local regulations that apply to providing lawn care services. For example, some US states require lawn care business owners to hold permits for certain pesticides.

5. Purchase lawn care equipment

Your equipment needs will vary depending on the services your business offers. For example, if you plan to offer soil aeration services, you will need an aerator machine. If you plan to offer snow removal (a popular winter offering for when green lawns aren’t an option), you will need a snow blower or a plow attachment. Purchase reliable equipment from hardware stores, online platforms, or directly from manufacturers, and incorporate regular equipment maintenance into your operational costs.

Here is common lawn care equipment you may need for your business:

• Lawn mower

• String trimmer

• Leaf blower

• Aerator

• Hedge trimmer

• Shears

• Hoses

• Lawn edger

• Rakes

• Shovels

• Sprayers

6. Start marketing to attract clients

Start gaining your first clients through focused marketing efforts in your local area. Print flyers with your business name, logo, services, pricing, and contact details, and post them in locations with high foot traffic, like shopping malls, libraries, community centers, and coffee shops.

Within your digital marketing efforts, prioritize local search engine optimization—the process of tailoring your online presence for local search queries. Build a business website on a platform like Shopify to showcase your services, pricing, what areas you serve, your bio and credentials, and contact information. Be sure to use relevant industry and location-based keywords so your website will rank in search results. Create a Google Business Profile to get your business into local search results in Google Maps.

List your business on platforms like Yelp, Angi, Nextdoor, and Thumbtack. Launch social media accounts for your business on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. By creating local citations on a variety of platforms, you can increase your chances of reaching potential clients looking for local lawn care services.

7. Provide top-notch lawn care services

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful way to get your lawn care business name out to new clients. But it’s only possible if customers are happy with your lawn care services and you build a reputation worthy of sharing with friends and neighbors. Show up on time for appointments and provide meticulous lawn care services every time. Consult with clients about their priorities for their lawns, and focus on those areas with attention to detail.

You can also develop a referral marketing strategy that encourages happy clients to leave positive customer reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook. For example, you could offer one free lawn mowing for any customer who refers you to a new client. Similarly, you could launch a loyalty program that rewards consistent clients with discounts on repeat lawn care bookings.

8. Manage your lawn care booking schedule

As you begin booking more clients for your lawn care business, use software tools to enhance your communication with clients and manage your lawn care schedule, like a customer relationship management (CRM) software system that lets you communicate with all of your clients from one dashboard.

Integrate your website with appointment booking apps that let clients reserve lawn care time slots directly from your website. This can be particularly useful for one-off and special jobs like laying grass or tree pruning, which fall outside of your regular gardening schedule and require more time than standard maintenance. By using these kinds of software tools to manage communications and bookings, you can avoid missed appointments and disappointed clients.

9. Partner with complementary businesses

Research companies in your area that offer services complementary to your lawn care business. For example, you could find a local landscaping business that needs to subcontract for lawn care. Build a network of outdoor contractors to generate referrals from companies that have a built-in client base from past construction or landscaping work. Similarly, you can send referrals back to those partners if any of your lawn care clients need help with more specialized landscaping services like pool removal or patio construction.

10. Hire employees

As your lawn care company gains customers, you can easily max out your revenue simply because of time constraints. Providing high-quality lawn care takes time, and a growing lawn care business run by one entrepreneur can face limitations in terms of how many clients it can take on.

If you want to run a bigger, more profitable business in lawn care, you will likely need to hire employees. Before hiring employees, purchase workers’ compensation insurance to cover any on-the-job injuries and look into health insurance options for your employees as well. Hire lawn care professionals with a good track record who receive positive feedback from clients and have a history of arriving at lawn care appointments on time.