How many of you fellas are in the biz? I did lawn care as a side hustle from 2020 until last year- let the few clients I had go to a buddy of mine since I was trying to focus more on my primary gig until my company had other plans. Found a good gig shortly thereafter, but starting to miss lawn care and thinking about starting the business back up again. Any words of wisdom if you've been in my shoes? I realize it takes time to build a client base before you can jump head-first into it, but curious to hear of your experiences. Also curious how many of y'all do tractor work, and if there's much of a demand for it (bushhogging, light land clearing, etc).

Been in the Lawn Care/Landscaping business for over 30 years. Started in the 90s when I was working part time at UPS. Worked both until I thought I had enough to go out on my own with the lawn care business. Never looked back. Its provided me a pretty good living. Few pieces if advice

1. Stay with your current job until you have enough customer base to go out on your own.

2. Year round customers are the way to go. That way you don’t starve in the winter. Don’t turn down customers that wont go year round but strive to find the ones that will.

3. Learn how to sell your services to potential customers.

4. Buy the best equipment you can afford and up grade when you have the means to do so. It will pay off.

5. Get a good accountant. Start off with a LLC and when you get too making 100k a year gross then move to a S corp. At that stage the tax breaks of a S corp can be very beneficial.

Good luck. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Helps to know what areas you'll be servicing. I've found it hard to find tractor, grading work when either I or my clients needed it.

Hey FFP, I have a young guy that does all my grading work when I do sod jobs. He is good. If you ever need anyone call or text me and I will give you his contact info. 205-317-8076. Jeff.

A friend of mine who cuts grass also sells\delivers firewood in the winter. His brother has a tree cutting business and brings him the logs. He splits all year long as he has time and usually pretty busy in the winter. Even has a couple of restaurants who buy all year round.

Thanks for the info, Bullseye. I'll definitely reach out if I need anything. I never realized how important the grading/dirt work was for sod until I started watching Pete with GCI Turf on YouTube. Dude is meticulous about turf and the prep for it.

Buddy of mine near Austin Tx does over 500k a year. He chase nothing but corporate accounts and the rich that live on lake Travis. They sign yearly contracts.

It’s very cut throat but if you have loyal customers there is money to be made. I had mine for about 5 years and I was tired of trying to find help so I sold it all. I have always done tractor work and still do. I kept some big money customers and will still cut them and do tractor work for people all the time. I do a lot of work for guys on their hunting land keeping up with their properties. I moved on to bigger stuff with a lot more overhead but if I had to I’d start me another Lawncare business and do it again

Not sure I'd want the stress that goes along with doing 500k a year, but the money would be nice. I'm minutes from Lake Harding and about 30 from Lake Martin, so I'm sure there's some guys capitalizing on those markets. One more won't hurt. LoL.

Something to consider if getting into the grass mowing business.



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