Lawn Business

Not everyone is cut out to run there own business. Many of us have been brought up with the idea that we go and get a job at a company and spend the rest of our days working away with a boss looking over our shoulder making sure we work our fingers to the bone.

Some people cannot imagine an alternative way of working where you only get paid when you work and if the work dries up you get no income. It takes a bit of independent thinking and self belief to be able to work for yourself. The easy option may seem to be working for a boss in an office, factory or a store but the reality these days is that these jobs are not secure like they used to be.

You could work for thirty years for a company and give it your heart and soul. You could work long hours and miss out on your children growing up and even then, after all that dedicated work for the company, you could get laid off with almost nothing to show for your years of service. Working for a company is not as secure as it used to be and we have seen how all of a sudden a whole industry, like the auto industry, can almost collapse. No job is secure anymore so working for yourself can give you more control over your future income prospects than a supposedly safe job for a large company.

You do need a different attitude when you work for yourself. A lot of that comes from knowing that the harder and better you work the more money you make. It makes a difference knowing your efforts will be rewarded and because of the challenges and achievements of running your own business many self employed people get a lot more satisfaction from their work than people who choose the regular paycheck work-life balance.

Working for yourself will require you to be self disciplined because you could take a day off anytime you want to but you won’t get paid if you do. You will also need to be accurate with pricing jobs and materials and accounting for the money you get paid. Working for yourself can give you more control over your destiny and greater satisfaction from your work so if you can be self disciplined and work hard maybe you could run your own lawn care business.

Once you have decided to own you own lawn business you need to get the equipment you need. Obviously the main requirement is a lawnmower which we discussed here in ‘Choosing A Lawnmower‘ but you will need to transport the garden equipment to the job site and in most cases that requires a truck.

In the early days you can probably get away with using your car, if that is all you have available. Most modern lawnmowers have folding handles and they should fit in the trunk of your car. If you only have one of two jobs each week to start with you can manage by transporting them this way but as your lawn business develops you should have more money coming in and be able to afford a truck.

You don’t need to rush out and buy a brand new truck. Yes that would be the ideal but we are still trying to build up this business and spending a lot of money or getting a large and expensive loan for a new truck does not make a lot of sense at this stage. Yes you need a reliable vehicle and you want it to look in reasonable condition too but you must be cautious about what you spend money on until the business builds up.

Eventually, as business builds up over the years you would plan to replace the truck every few years and replace all the garden maintenance equipment every year or two but in the early stages it is important not to get tied down by large debts for a business with a small income. Build your business one step at a time and avoid the temptation to act like a large and well established business. Walk before you run and your lawn business will build steadily and successfully to give you a good income year after year.