Start Mowing And Growing
Make your first lawn care hire
When your business has taken off and youre overbooked and desperate for help, youll need to hire lawn care technicians.
A bigger team will give you the freedom to focus on higher-level dutiesmarketing, customer service, and operational efficiencythat will help you grow the business.
There will be plenty of eager job-seekers out there itching to get their hands dirty and join your team.
Or, if youre swamped with scheduling and paperwork, consider hiring an administrative assistant.
Invest in efficiencyand do it early
Lots of experienced business owners have serious efficiency problems, even several years into running their company. They most commonly struggle with:
- Making crew schedules and keeping track of job progress
- Staying on top of unpaid invoices
- Running the business while always on the go
You can avoid those issues before you even start your business. Jobbers lawn care business software is designed to keep job and customer info organized as you move through each stage of a job.
We have a new customer completely set up for the season before we are off the phone with them, says Chris Senger, owner of Mow Town Edmonton.
In less than two minutes, we are set up to run on autopilot for the year. Customers have been impressed by this because the organization on our side translates to assurance for them that we are professionals.
Expand your marketing efforts
- Create ads for Send marketing emails through Mailchimp
Fungicides For Disease Control
Fungicides are chemicals or ingredients that inhibit the growth of fungi on plants. There are many different active ingredients that help to achieve control, and different ingredients will work for certain plants and certain diseases. The types of diseases fungicides control include rots, spots, and rusts, among others and you can use fungicides to treat lawns , gardens, and other plants, even indoors. Fungicides only help manage some plant diseases and will only work on infections plant diseases if the disease is truly caused by fungi.
Professional Lawn Care Vs Do It Yourself: Which Is Best For You
The do-it-yourself craze is huge these days, and so tempting.
As you gaze out at your lawn, it looks pretty simple. Mow it once a week, give it plenty of water and a dose of fertilizer a few times a year and it should be lush, green and healthy, right?
How hard could it be?
Harder than you think.
A healthy lawn takes a lot of work. It needs proper mowing and fertilizing. Then theres aeration, de-thatching, weed control, pest control, soil analysis.
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Effective Weed Control With Professional Herbicides
Most homeowners find that buying weed killer for lawns and other areas around the house is a common home ownership routine. While many people are familiar with weed killer products such as Roundup, most people dont know that you can buy the professional grade weed killer versions of Roundup, Ranger Pro , and Roundup Pro Max. These commercial weed killer versions are stronger and work much better than the stuff you can buy at the big box stores.
Pest Control For A Thriving Lawn
Bugs are going to make their home on your lawn, but they will not be able to harm your grass that much. Similar to weed control, pest control involves spraying insecticide to kill harmful insects. You need not worry about the pests if you have a greener, thriving, healthy lawn. Having ants and spiders in your lawn will help you get rid of lawn pests, so you might consider keeping them around.
- Rolling your lawn
Rolling is done to keep the lawn leveled surface, keep the grass anchored securely to the soil, and that the surface of the lawn gets firm. Rolling allows the seedling to come in contact with the soil easily to boost the germination process. It also allows us to eliminate clods of soil and low spots.
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House Method Home Warranty Ranking Methodology
At House Method, transparency and trust are our most important values for the reader. Weve done the homework for you and have researched over 50 home warranty companies so you can have the information you need to make the best choice for your home.
Our team spent hours on the phone speaking to representatives from each home warranty company to get information right from the source. We also dug into the fine print on each companys service agreement to ensure no detail was left out.
To make the most of our research, we developed an objective rating system to score each home warranty company based on the following criteria:
Hiring A Lawn Care Service
Putting the responsibility for an attractive lawn on someone else’s shoulders can be appealing if you’re limited on time or commitment. Going the lawn service route involves some tradeoffs you’ll want to think through.
Advantages to hiring a lawn service:
- Time savings. With a service, someone else does the work. That means extra free time for you.
- Consistent schedule. With many lawn services, you’ll get consistent weekly service same day, same time rain or shine.
- Professional-grade lawn care products. Lawn professionals have access to premium pro-line products at trade-only pricing.
- Equipment provided. Lawn care services provide the equipment and fuel , along with repairs and maintenance.
- Skills and experience. Qualified lawn pros offer the benefit of focused training and industry expertise
Disadvantages to hiring a lawn service:
- Increased labor costs. Your time’s valuable, but so is the pro’s you’ll pay.
- Inflexibility. A lawn service’s fixed schedule doesn’t always correspond to the best timing for your lawn.
- Increased product costs. Some services charge more for trade-only products.
- Automatic treatments. Many service programs provide automatic treatments for all lawns they service, regardless of each lawn’s individual needs.
- Need for careful screening. Some lawn services lack training and professional experience. Top care takes more than equipment. Request and check references if you take the do-it-for-me route.
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Your Time Is Valuable
Sure, you can head to the lawn care aisle on Saturday morning, invest in fertilizer, seed, weed control, equipment, head home, puzzle over the labels, apply everything, clean up and find a place in your garage to store whats left.
But why? Why spend your valuable weekends toiling in your yard? Why risk making mistakes that can damage your lawn when you can turn your turf over to the pros?
What Should I Not Do When I Do My Own Lawn Care
An exquisite, dreamy, and lush green lawn doesnt happen all by itself. A perfect lawn can be a bit less than ideal as you face weeds, spiders, or other plant diseases. But you can keep your lawn healthier by keeping in mind what to do and what mistakes to avoid.
For a greener, weed-free lawn, you can practice good lawn care maintenance with the required cresco equipment and products. Lawn Care is affordable and a simple task if you are experienced, educated, and all up for experimenting with new things.
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Learn How To Price Your Lawn Care Services And Create A Profit Plan
If youre starting a lawn care business without a profit plan, you risk putting your money to waste.
Its important that you dont charge very bare minimum prices in your lawn care business, says Jason Creel.
You need to be making a good profit in your lawn care business so that when it comes time to bring on employees, you can pay them enough to get a quality employee, versus one thats going to be a hindrance to your business.
Setting prices for your services affects the types of clients you get and how much financial wiggle room you have. It also determines how much you can grow and scale your business in the future.
- Calculating your hourly rate with employees
- Factoring in overhead and equipment
- Making adjustments for special services and materials
READ MORE:A step-by-step guide for pricing your lawn care services
Once youve calculated an hourly rate that works for your business, you can create a pricing sheet based on service costs and yard sizes. This will help you quickly and easily provide accurate, consistent, and fair lawn care estimates to clients.
Use time tracking to measure productivity
Tracking time on lawn care jobs can help you make better pricing decisions.
Its not about micromanaging your team. Time tracking helps you measure productivity, calculate hourly rates for different types of work, and invoice clients properly.
Fertilizing: Feed What Your Lawn Needs
Sunshine and water can only do so much to make your landscape healthy and green. Sometimes, your yard needs a little boost of nutrients provided by fertilizer. A trip to your local gardening store can yield a dizzying array of fertilizer choices that promise to help your landscape grow big and lush, but even the best fertilizer wont help you if you dont use it properly. Follow these steps to ensure that you feed your lawn what it needs:
- Check your soil pH often. Instead of flying blind and guessing what your landscape needs, ask it with a pH test available at your local gardening store. If your soil is too basic, use acidic fertilizers to help balance it out. If your soil is too acidic, choose a lime treatment instead.
- Only fertilize when neededusually only twice per year. Fertilize cool climate grasses in the spring or summer and warm season grasses in the fall or winter.
- Consider using compost to help feed and insulate your plants. Compost is packed with nutrients and is an eco-friendly way to keep your greenery happy.
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The Amount Of Crabgrass Preventer Matters
If you use a 10,000 square foot bag of Scotts Turf Builder Plus Halts, on a 10,000 square foot lawn, you will be applying the lowest recommended rate of application, With the 15,000 square foot bag, you will be applying the higher rate which will provide better results so we will price this application using Scotts 15,000 square foot bag this is your ounce of prevention.
Use A Variety Of Ways To Deal With Problems
Pest problems that keep coming back are often a sign that your lawn care practices need to change. These changes can include:
- correcting drainage or fertility problems
- adding lime
- increasing mowing height
- removing thatch
For help in dealing with common problems like weeds, pests, and diseases, see Dealing with lawn problems.
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Correctly Aerating Your Lawn:
How can I do my lawn care by aerating? Aeration is essential for the soil as it will assist the water in penetrating deep into the ground to reach the plants roots.
With time, the soil of your lawn will get compact due to heavy traffic and accumulation of thatch. It is crucial to water the lawn before aerating. You cannot penetrate water in the dry soil deeply.
Is It Hard To Start A Lawn Care Business
Starting any business is a massive challenge.
Luckily, the lawn care industry doesnt have many barriers to entry. As weve said, some businesses dont need more than a mower and truck to get started.
In most cases, you wont even need a license or certification to do basic lawn care work.
While its easy to qualify to be a lawn care professional, heres a hard truthgetting your first customers and making a profit can take months or years of grinding non-stop.
To help you ease the process of getting started, weve laid out exactly what you need to start your lawn care business.
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How To Have A Healthy Lawn
Like many Canadians, you probably take pride in having an attractive lawn. Find out how to care for your lawn as easily as possible, while reducing the need for pesticides!
Many people use lawn care products like herbicides and insecticides to maintain their lawns. But “cosmetic” pesticide use is now restricted and even banned in many communities across Canada.
There are ways to have a healthy lawn without using pesticides. And when you do have to use pesticides, there are ways to use them safely.
Lawn Care Pros For The Win
In looking at the pros and cons of each decision, the pros of hiring a lawn care service far outweigh the cons. While the cost may be one of your biggest concerns in hiring a professional, with the right company you can actually end up saving money and preventing costly mistakes.
The key is to find the right company. In order to truly receive the benefits of the pro category, you must find a company that practices proactive lawn care with the best commercial grade products on the market. A company with knowledgeable and skilled technicians is also key.
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See If You Need To Be Licensed
Each state has its own criteria for whether you need to obtain a license for your lawn business.
To make it more complicated, you might need local licenses as well. So, you might have to take a trip to city hall and contact your states Secretary of States office to get the licenses you need.
Occupational License
Some municipalities require businesses to also get an occupational license, which is usually based on how much revenue you generate in a given year.
For example, in Fairfax County, Virginia, if you make more than $10,000 youll have to pay a flat fee of thirty bucks for your occupational license. If you earn anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000, the amount you pay goes up to fifty dollars.
You can search the Small Business Administrations website to determine the requirements in your state.
Fertilizer Applicator Certification
If youre fertilizing your clients lawns, you might need a fertilizer applicator certification.
The Environmental Protection Agency sets the guidelines for herbicide and pesticide applicators. However, every state sets its own regulations. Some states require that you complete one or all these things to get a lawn care applicator certification:
- Passing a written exam
- Passing a performance-based exam
- Using other standards approved by the EPA
You can find out what the policies are for your state by checking out its Department of Agricultural Resources website.
Diy Vs Professional Lawn Care
Is your lawn in need of some tender love and care, but you arent sure if you should do the work yourself or hire a professional? At Arbor-Nomics, we are excited to provide high quality lawn care services for Atlanta, Georgia area home and business owners. We enjoy helping our customers find ways to improve the condition of their lawn, and we want you to achieve the same level of success with your property. While some may prefer to take the DIY path, there are many reasons to invest in the services of lawn care professionals.
The Problem with Taking the Do It Yourself Approach for Lawn Care While certain tasks like mowing the grass or watering the lawn can be performed successfully by handy homeowners, some advanced techniques are best left to professional care. Many property owners try to source How-To articles from websites or video tutorials. Unfortunately, there is a lot of conflicting information that can confuse or misinform well meaning individuals. Mistakes made during fertilization, soil balancing, weed suppression, aeration and overseeding and other complex projects can damage your lawn long term.
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Comparing Prices Diy Lawn Care Vs Professional Lawn Care Company
Comparing DIY lawn care prices to hiring a lawn care company is a little tricky, but we will be as fair and accurate as possible. In the end, our goal is to help you understand the differences so you can make the decision that is right for you.
For example, you will see below that Scotts 4-Step program uses dry, granular material for weed control. But granular weed control doesnt work as well as liquid weed control. Since professional lawn care companies almost always use liquid weed control, to make an apples-to-apples comparison, we are adding the cost of some Scotts liquid weed control to spot-treat weeds that the dry material did not control.
Pay Close Attention To Weeds
While you do your lawn care, the most important aspect is to look out for weeds. The modern mixture of grass these days is extremely competitive itself, so there are chances that it will crowd out the weed. Your grass is weaker if a lot of weeds are popping up in your lawn. Such signs indicate that either you are cutting your grass too short, your soil is water-logged, or deficient.
Weeds are a good sign of a lush green, healthy lawn as they tend to grow in enriched soil. Weeds dont do much harm in small numbers, and almost all lawns have some weeds. If you deal with weeds in more significant numbers, spraying with low toxicity herbicide on individual weeds may help.
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Reclaiming Your Turf With Diy
Doing your own lawn care can be a simple, satisfying achievement. You get to experience and influence your lawn’s progress from start to finish and still enjoy free time. Doing it yourself also has pros and cons to consider.
Advantages to DIY lawn care:
- Cost savings. Go ahead and pay yourself. Labor costs drop when you go DIY.
- Optimal timing. From quick weekend fixes to month-to-month lawn care, you can schedule DIY lawn care for the best possible time for your lawn.
