Identify Your Target Clients
To find commercial lawn care clients, focus on specific types or sizes of business as your clientele. Only contacting clients that are a good fit for your business increases your chances of winning work.
If youre just starting commercial work, start with small properties. You need to build up a reputation for doing great commercial lawn work before big clients will contact you for large-scale jobs.
Look for businesses with small properties , or single-business properties. These can include local restaurants, retail stores, gas stations, and bank branches.
If you have commercial experience and are ready to tackle bigger contracts, look for:
- Real estate agencies
READ MORE:How to write a lawn care business plan
Is This Business Right For You
The people who succeed in this business enjoy working outdoors in a variety of weather conditions. The temperature varies depending on the seasons. At times during the summer, it may be very hot in certain locations. This work requires enough physical strength and stamina to be able to lift heavy equipment in and out of a pickup truck and to push the lawn cutting equipment around the yard.People who are friendly and like to talk with people usually are more likely to get customers. It helps to have a good eye for details and to be meticulous in the maintenance work in order to do a good job that customers appreciate.
Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?
Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!
Get The Required Business Insurance Licenses And Ein
There are a few necessary forms of business insurance you need to obtain to conduct business at all. The most important is general liability insurance, which covers everything from the cost of repairs to legal fees to damages that need to be paid out if you or an employee accidentally causes damage. Accidents like running over a sprinkler head with the mower, for example happen, and you want to be covered when they do.
You might also need workers’ compensation insurance, depending on what state youre operating in, though as Clayton puts it, Many states require both insurances to operate a legitimate business regardless of whether you have employees or not. Workers’ comp covers you in the event an employee is injured on the job, from medical expenses to court costs.
Other forms of insurance that arent required, but may come in handy, include inland marine insurance , commercial auto insurance and commercial umbrella insurance .
Additionally, if youre looking to apply pesticides as part of your services, most states have a pesticide charter that needs to be acquired. Clayton calls this a very involved process and doesnt recommend it until youre well-established in your field.
Before you start operating your business, make sure you also have any business licenses you need for the state you’re operating in and that you’ve registered to pay taxes and received your employer identification number, also called a business tax ID number.
Also Check: What Does Your Lawn Look Like If You Have Grubs
Secure Customers With Landscaping Insurance
You’re just starting out getting customers, so why would you need insurance? You can take every step to make sure accidents aren’t likely to happy on your watch, but you never know. We may be able to read a tree’s age by its rings, but we can’t see into the future.
Mistakes and accidents happen despite our best efforts. In fact, 36%-52% of small businesses surveyed reported being involved in a lawsuit in a given year. And even if business owners are found not to be at fault, it’s likely there are still legal fees owed.
That’s where landscaping insurance can come in handy. General liability insurance, also known as commercial liability insurance, typically covers:
- Third-party accidents
If you had landscaping insurance with general liability coverage, it could help to cover costs resulting in an event like one listed above. Let’s look at an example.
You’re working to help clean up a customer’s lawn in the Fall. You leave a leaf blower in the yard while preparing to leave for the day and your customer trips over it. He’s irate, having hurt himself, and sues your landscaping business for the cost of his medical bills.
Without general liability insurance, you may have to pay for his medical fees out-of-pocket, which could put your company into unexpected debt. With coverage though, you could be covered for the cost of his medical bills, as well as legal fees, up to your policy’s limit.
How To Get Commercial Lawn Accounts In 7 Steps
Commercial lawn care accounts is a dream for any lawn care company. Theyre a steady source of income, and they can be pretty lucrative. But its not as easy to get commercial lawn accounts as you might think!
If your commercial lawn care game is just starting, you might feel like you dont have enough experience with commercial lawn accounts. But remember that every business started somewhere, and with a strategic approach, you can become one of the most sought-after commercial landscaping companies in your area.
If you have the ambition to land a big commercial lawn care contract and increase revenue, you must be willing to do the work.
Also Check: Can I Fertilize Lawn In June
How To Get Lawn Care Customers Fast
Growing your lawn care business requires a three-prong approach. First, advertise your business through word of mouth with friends, family, and existing customers. Next, establish a digital presence with a Yelp Business Page,social media, and company website. Lastly, utilize more traditional techniques like print marketing, discounts, and referral incentives.
Get a free Yelp page
Promote your business to local customers.
Make Your Sales Pitch
Start contacting potential clients youve met and offer your services. Tell them why you have the best team for the job, and that you can send a bid when the client is ready.
If you have a phone number, call the client to make your pitch. If you only have the clients business address, send a customized pitch letter that tells them why they should invite you to bid as a lawn care provider.
Your pitch letter should include:
- Your name, business name, and address
- A subject line that states you want to offer your services
- The services you can offer the client
- How much experience you have in lawn maintenance
- What makes your company unique
- Any special techniques or equipment that would help you do a better job than your competitors
- Limited-time offers or discounts that sweeten the deal
After sending your letter, follow up with the client over phone or email to find out if theyve looked at it. If they need more time, ask if you can follow up again in two or three days.
Following up frequently ensures you stay on your potential clients mind, and it increases your chances of getting invited to bid. Dont be afraid to keep following upitll feel less aggressive and easier the more you do it!
You May Like: Where To Buy Cheap Lawn Mower
You Can Be Your Own Boss
Starting a lawn care business is an excellent choice if you like being your own boss. Out on your mower, you can pretend to be the Lawn Ranger riding off or pushing off into the sunset.
Other decisions you can make as boss of your lawn care business:
- Do you want to work weekends?
- Gas, electric, or battery-powered equipment? Or a mix of both?
- Truck or truck and trailer? And open or covered trailer?
- What time do you want to start work? And when will you call it a day?
- Chemical or eco-friendly fertilizers?
- How can you wow your customers so they stay with you?
- Where can you get gas cheap if you have gas mowers and tools?
- Who will do your books? You? Your other half? You and business software?
- Can you afford new equipment, or should you get a loan?
- At what number of jobs will you need to hire an assistant?
- What services can/should you add to grow your business?
This freedom to be your own boss comes with responsibility. You will be accountable for any mishaps, mistakes, unpaid taxes, or business losses.
What if a fire destroys the shed or storage unit where you keep your mowers, string trimmers, and leaf blowers? You have to plan ahead as the business owner.
Being the captain of your lawn mower sounds easy, but being the captain of your business takes more work and planning.
Create An Ultimate Lawn Care Business Plan In 7 Steps
Starting a lawn care business is a great way to become an entrepreneur with low barriers to entry. For the most part, it means you need to get out in the community, make connections and start caring for lawns.
However, there’s much more to having a successful business than day-to-day work. For long-term success, you need to create a lawn care business plan to help you think through daily operations and how youre going to generate revenue.
Some business owners view a business plan as a bunch of paperwork that needs to be filled out quickly. But a business plan represents the work you need to do to achieve your financial goals.
Don’t Miss: How To Kill Yarrow In My Lawn
How To Get Commercial Lawn Accounts
wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 34,177 times.
Who truly owns a commercial property you are interested in? Have you gone and introduced yourself to a tenant of a prospective property to try to find out who owns the property? These are both questions you should ask and answer or find the answers to these questions.
Go For The Easy Wins First
When you want to know how to get lawn care customers fast, its vital to use a variety of marketing strategiesestablish a digital presence, network face-to-face with potential customers, and employ traditional marketing techniques. Do the easy things first, like printing out business cards, establishing a social media presence, and claiming your Yelp Business Page. You can then move onto the more complex undertakings, like creating a website, and soon youll be garnering new lawn care customers.
Also Check: What Do I Use To Kill Clover In My Lawn
Create Your Business Plan
Suppose youre ready to transform your nebulous idea for a lawn care business into a glorious reality. In that case, youre going to need a business plan.
Youll use your plan as a detailed outline to get you where you are right now to where you want to be. Its a must for all business owners who want their company to thrive.
Having a business plan means youll accomplish your entrepreneurial objectives sooner rather than later. Itll help organize every detail of getting your business off the ground, exponentially increasing the chances that your lawn care business will be a smashing success.
If you dont need a bank loan, your business plan can be short, sweet, and to the point.
Just remember:
Your lawn care business plan should accommodate your needs, and not the other way around.
Have it be a reflection of you in all your wonderful uniqueness.
According to the Small Business Administration website, there are two categories of business plans:
Traditional business plans are what most entrepreneurs use, and they require a ton of detail and work. They can get so convoluted and complicated, that they can be dozens of pages long.
Lean startup business plans are far less structured because they focus like a laser-guided missile on only the most essential facts.
They can be completed in sixty minutes or less, and are usually no longer than a single page. Heres an example of one.
Here are some of the sections you might want to include:
Get Your Business Financials In Order
When youre starting a landscaping business, its crucial that you keep your finances on track. And were probably past the days of using a pen and paper to keep track of all your business expenses, schedules, and accounts. Even spreadsheet applications, though capable of handling large quantities of information, are a bit outdated.
Luckily, there are plenty of business apps out there that can help your landscaping business operate more smoothly. There are apps and software to help with everything from inventory management and payroll to employee timesheets so you can focus on the important things like actual landscaping work.
Clayton also recommends accounting software for new landscape contractors. Youll be able to manage invoices and, depending on the program, even automate fixed asset management.
Read Also: How To Estimate Lawn Mowing Jobs
Read Also: Does Lowes Sell Lawn Mower Blades
How To Get Your First Lawn Care Customers
For those just starting in the lawn care industry, your number one concern is attracting clients as fast as you can to your lawn business. After all, without paying customers, your business wont take off. But establishing a foothold among your target customers and standing out above your local competition can be challenging. So whats the best way to get lawn care customers? Securing a loyal client base requires hard work and dedication, but you can overcome the barrier to entry by implementing a few of the right marketing strategies. To help get you on your way to business success, were going to take a look at some tried-and-true marketing strategies and learn how to get lawn care customers fast. Lets jump right in.
How To Get Commercial Snow Plow Accounts
If you live in an area where you get a lot of snow and are looking to expand your lawn care business into snow removal, you may be thinking how to land commercial snow plow accounts. That was a question brought up on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum when a member asked as part of our lawn care business, we want to get some snow removal customers preferably commercial accounts. Any ideas who to target and how? We thought about churches or apartment buildings. Are there free lists out there? Any other thoughts?
How to get commercial snow plow accounts.
One of the things you could do is drive through your area and make a list of the different commercial location that you would like to service. We have a letter in the free letter section that you can send to these properties to request to be put on their bid list.
But the best thing to do is to knock on the door and ask who is in charge of the property and who you should send such a letter too. You improve your chances of landing these jobs when you meet the people who make such decisions.
What do you suggest a lawn care business owner send to a potential customer to get them to sign up for snow plow services?
Should they send them a bid? Or what kind of wording would you suggest in a letter?
Do you suggest doing any follow up calls at all or going into the commercial establishments to find out who is the contact person for property maintenance?
Also Check: How Do I Fill In Bare Spots In My Lawn
Stand Out From Your Competitors
Simply saying that you have the lowest prices or the best service wont make you stand out from the crowd. To ensure your lawn service business catches the eyes of prospective clients, find out what makes your business unique among others in the field. For instance, you can boast that youre the only lawn care company specializing in pest control in the area.
However, you should also set a reasonable price so your landscaping business still turns a profit. We have some great tips on lawn care pricing to help you build a price book.
Get More Referrals From Your Lawn Care Clients
If you do an outstanding job for a customer, ask them for a referral. At first, its uncomfortable asking your customers for their feedback, but you want to get into the habit of asking them.
When you get known online, you can beat your competition and get reviews that build your lawn care business credibility.
You can use these mini-testimonials on your postcards, brochures or flyers as well as on your website. Theyre marketing gold and make you look like a dependable and trustworthy lawn and landscape company owner.
Need help with SEO?
Also Check: How Often Should You Fertilize Your Lawn In Florida
How To Start A Landscaping Or Lawn Care Business
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list ofour partnersandheres how we make money.
Anyone with a yard knows that maintaining it is a lot of work. So its no surprise that there are so many landscaping businesses out there to help eliminate the need for mowing, weeding, treating and doing more lawn maintenance yourself.
If you, however, are someone who loves to do yard work and the smell of freshly cut grass or a newly mulched garden is your favorite, you may have wondered how to start a landscaping business of your own.
The landscaping business is booming and if you live somewhere with a warm climate, you may be able to work nearly year-round. The landscape services industry makes $93 billion in revenue each year and employs more than 1 million people, according to the National Association of Landscape Professionals.
If this sounds like the right move for you, keep reading to find out how to start a landscaping business of your own.
The Grass Can Be Greener With Your Lawn Care Company
Starting or expanding your lawn care business can be overwhelming, but using these strategies will help you grow your customer base and hit your goals.
Donât be afraid to get creative and even adopt some new technology thatâll help you streamline tasks and put you ahead of any competing companies in your neighborhood.
Recommended Reading: How Short To Cut Lawn
