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What Business License Do I Need For Lawn Care

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Open A Business Bank Account And Credit Card

Do You Need an LLC and Insurance To Start A Lawn Care Business

Setting up a business bank account is another important step. Even if youre operating as a sole proprietor, a business bank account is a good idea. It keeps your personal and business expenses separate and makes bookkeeping and tax filing easier.

Starting an account at a brick-and-mortar bank is a good idea if you accept cash for your services. Large banks offer the convenience of many branch locations, while a local bank keeps your money in the local economy.

There are also a number of benefits if you choose online banking. Online banks typically have lower fees and less paperwork.

A business credit card can also help separate personal and business expenses. These cards typically offer better terms and higher limits than personal cards. And they have the added benefit of perks like rewards points and cash-back offers.

Consider your current needs as well as what you might need in the future. With a little research, you can find the best checking account and credit card options for your business.

Before You Start Focus On Branding

When starting a lawn care business you will need to develop a brand for yourself.

This includes a name and logo that are interesting and catchy, as well as reflective of you and your services.

Your name should be professional so that you can place it on your emails, invoices, any marketing, advertising, and merchandise. And I recommend choosing a shorter brand name and domain name as well.

Your logo can also be important for brand recognition and awareness. If you dont have the design chops to tackle this yourself, you can hire a graphic designer for the project on Fiverr or Upwork. When you are happy with your logo, I suggest getting all of your social media banners and images done at the same time by the same designer. That way youll have consistent branding online across the web.

You have options when it comes to designing a logo, if youre strapped for cash, you can try to design one yourself on a website such as Canva. But in my experience its better to spend $50 or so on a professional logo if you can.

What Are Some Of The Biggest Costs

If you stay small, say around 50 customers a week, you will be able to control costs to a manageable and predicable level. However, as you scale your business and begin hiring workers to help you with the work load, costs will escalate. You will need to consider factors such as rising minimum wage issues, payroll taxes, healthcare taxes, and workmans comp insurance. You will also need to spend on administration and bookkeeping of all of these costs because they can add up to more than most people realize. Probably the most burdensome aspect of running a labor intensive landscaping or lawn care company is the rising cost of labor and everything that goes with it.

Also Check: When To Aerate Lawn In Georgia

Dont Be Afraid To Hire The Pros

You know the value you bring to your lawn care clients whether theyre residential, commercial, or an estate. So, a business professional will wade through city, state, as well as federal licensing and tax regulations to give you peace of mind.

For example, hire an accountant to help you with your taxes, EIN, and incorporating your business. Hire a lawyer to make sure youre compliant with local, state, and federal laws.

Just make sure that you hire the right professional to walk alongside you. For instance, your CPA should have experience working with small- or medium-size businesses. Likewise, you want your lawyer to be familiar with business law in your state.

Thinking about starting a lawn care company? Then you need to read, 8 Things to Know When Starting a Lawn Care Business.

Step : Define Your Brand

Do I Need A Business License For Lawn Care?  ictsd.org

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you aren’t feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners, we’ll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.

Recommended: Get a logo using Truic’s free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker.

How to promote & market a lawn care business

Promotional signage on the truck used for the business is important. If possible, when the truck is not in use, park it on a street with lots of traffic in a place that is highly visible. Using door-to-door distribution of discount promotional flyers to residences and business is also an effective way to advertise your business. Hand out your business cards to everyone you meet. If possible, put a promotional sign on all the lawns that you maintain that has your contact information on it. Make sure you have an attractive website that uses the best practices for search engine optimization to have a good rank on the search engine results page for local searches.

How to keep customers coming back

Still unsure about what kind of business you want to start? Check out the latest Small Business Trends to help inspire you.

Read Also: Lawn Mowing Estimates

Landscaper Licensing Requirements By State

  • Landscaper Licensing Requirements by State
  • Whether you are just starting off in the industry of landscaping or you are a seasoned professional, there are many aspects to learn in the landscaping business. If you have not been involved in the landscaping business for long, then you may be wondering how lucrative the business of landscaping even is.

    Lawn care and landscaping is a huge industry, earning over $90 million each year. Starting a landscaping business can include anything from lawn care to flower bed maintenance, snow and ice management, or even commercial landscaping. Unsurprisingly, commercial landscaping actually makes up the largest portion of landscaping revenue and brings in $70 million dollars annually. This is typically due to businesses having larger budgets to spend on landscaping.

    If you are considering starting your own landscaping business, then you have most likely learned all of the necessary skills required to actually do the work. Despite this, being a good landscaper is not the only component of a business.

    Another important and crucial aspect of starting a landscaping business is licensing and insurance. These licenses vary between states, and there are also different requirements one must fulfill based upon the certain types of work you plan to perform.

    Do You Need A Lawn Care License

    You may wonder if you need a business license for lawn care. In most states, yes, the answer is a resounding yes.. Aside from a state license for lawn care businesses, there may also be local requirements. If you need to make a change, you should contact your county clerk and the state department of business regulation.

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    Licensing Your Lawn Care Business

    To start a lawn care business you should not need any specific licenses unless you offer specialized services. But to physically operate a business you will need a business license.

    If you decide to offer specialized services, such as fertilization, landscape design of pesticide control, then the laws will vary state to state, but you can expect that you need to obtain a specialized license.

    Check with your local Department of Agriculture to find out your states specific license requirements.

    If this is a hoop youd rather not jump through, consider marketing your business as a green lawn care alternative thats safer for kids and pets. Using organic products that dont require a license may be attractive to homeowners in your area!

    What Can A Landscaper Do Without A Business License

    How to Start a Lawn Care Business

    Posted via Mobile Device

    All equipment is wore out.

    theone54 said:Hello everyone this is my first post here. I plan on starting my own landscaping business or lawncare business soon. I have enough money to buy the equipment i need. My budget is around 500 dollars which will include the push mower, weed eaters, blower, and tools . Now my question is what can you do legally without a license. I know you can mow lawns, use a weedeater, and rake leaves. What other services can be done without license. The only thing i know is you need a license to plant trees i believe. I am not too sure if you need a license to trim trees. Any advice would be helpful.

    theone54 said:Hello everyone this is my first post here. I plan on starting my own landscaping business or lawncare business soon. I have enough money to buy the equipment i need. My budget is around 500 dollars which will include the push mower, weed eaters, blower, and tools . Now my question is what can you do legally without a license. I know you can mow lawns, use a weedeater, and rake leaves. What other services can be done without license. The only thing i know is you need a license to plant trees i believe. I am not too sure if you need a license to trim trees. Any advice would be helpful.

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    Ready To Form An Llc Or Corporation

    Northwest Registered Agent is here to help with all your small business ideas and needs. Answer a few simple questions about your business, and weâll prepare and submit your formation paperwork to the state. We also provide your new business registered agent service, free business forms and guides, and much more.

    How You Can Use It

    The step-by-step plan we share in this post focuses on the fundamentals to help you get all your bases covered for your lawn care business. Think of it as a launchpad for a zero to six figures lawn care company.

    If youre hungry for more, we added links to different resources throughout the post to satisfy your learning appetite. Each section can be read independently, so you can jump to any topic that is relevant to you. However, we recommend you to go section-by-section to get the most out of it.

    So if youre ready to turn your dream of owning a lawn care business into a reality, read on In this post, we are going to lay the foundation to make it super easy for you .

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    Obtaining City Or County Licenses

    Some cities or counties require businesses, including lawn care, to obtain an occupational license. Occupational licenses are typically based on gross receipts. For instance, in Fairfax County, Virginia, if you make more than $10,001 taking care of peoples yards, you must pay a flat fee of $30. If you make anywhere from $50,001 to $100,000, the fee goes up to $50. Check with your local city administrators, town hall or county administrative office to ask if you need an occupational license and if so, where to get an application.

    Get Employment Law Liability Insurance Before You Scale

    Do You Need A Business License For Lawn Care?  ictsd.org

    Another form of insurance you’ll need when starting a landscaping business is employment law liability insurance, which covers your business in case you make mistakes around calculating overtime and wage and hour violations.

    Considering the uncertainty around the future of overtime wages, and the fact that many small-business owners tend to go it alone at first without the aid of a lawyer or an accountant, this insurance could be a life-saver or more accurately, a business-saver.

    Clayton describes his personal nightmare that resulted from not having this insurance as follows:

    In 2009 my company was audited by the Department of Labor and they determined that our crew leader managers could not be paid a salary they needed to be paid as hourly wage employees, he says. This, in turn, kicked in additional overtime charges that were due to 80 employees, and it resulted in a $450,000 fine that my company had to pay.

    Not having that insurance almost killed Claytons company. Take his experience as a lesson that having that insurance in place particularly before you scale is crucial to your landscaping business.

    Also Check: How Much Does It Cost To Aerate And Overseed A Lawn

    Pricing Your Lawn Care Services

    Like any other local service business, pricing is one of the biggest challenges for most of the lawn care businesses.

    Thats pretty understandable.

    A lot of different factors determine the pricing of lawn care services. So, until you account for all or most of those factors, its tough for you to arrive at the right pricing point.

    So, how do you decide the pricing for your lawn care services?

    When you are starting off, cost-plus pricing is a good starting point for you.

    Cost-plus pricing also known as markup pricing strategy is a simple pricing method where a fixed percentage is added on top of the total cost incurred to provide a service or manufacture a product.

    The first step for you is to calculate the cost you are going to incur to provide a service. This includes:

  • Material/Chemical Cost
    • Vehicle maintenance
  • Salary/wages for you and your staff
  • Once you have numbers for all these above points, you will have your baseline. In simple terms,

    Baseline = Salaries + Material Cost + Operational Costs

    Once you have the baseline, you are one step closer to deciding your final pricing. It is the sum of your baseline, marketing/sales spend, and the profit or markup you would want to make on each service.

    Final Pricing = Baseline + Marketing/Sales Spend + Profit or Markup

    Note: Even though the cost-plus pricing strategy doesnt account for competition pricing, it is good to know how much your competition charges. You can use this information while deciding your profit or markup.

    Insurance For A Lawn Care Business

    After registering your lawn care business, commercial insurance is the next step to consider. Insurance is incredibly important in case you accidentally damage, or break something on a clients property. Not having insurance for your lawn care business could quickly put you out of business.

    Insurance will protect you from large payouts when getting sued or involved with a lawsuit. It will also protect you in case of damages or injuries that occur while on site.

    Although you should always hope you never have to use your commercial insurance, you do not want to be without it if something does happen.

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    How And When To Build A Team

    Many start out as single workers and owner/operators and then add one assistant when the workload increases. You can hire additional crew if the jobs can be found and the necessary equipment is available. Expansion requires capturing more jobs, having available workers, sufficient equipment, and open work-time slots for scheduling.Make sure to hire documented workers because it is dangerous to use undocumented workers and there are hefty fines .

    Next Steps

    Check out our How to Start a Business page.

    Sign up at the Business Center to access useful tools for your business.

    What Happens During A Typical Day At A Lawn Care Business

    How I Started My Lawn Care Business!!

    The days start very early. Before going to the customers job sites, the equipment needs to be inspected and to make sure it is in proper working order. Typical activities of this type are cleaning the mowers and sharpening the cutting blades. Additionally, all equipment that uses gasoline needs to be filled with a mixture of gasoline and the appropriate amount of oil required. After all the equipment has been checked, the trucks are loaded and the crews are assembled and given the days job orders that have been prepared in advance.The rest of the day is spent working at customers job sites. Naturally, any problems that come up, like truck breakdowns or equipment troubles, need to be dealt with. When the crew return to the office, they should fill out a report of the work completed, making note of any special conditions or requests by the customers. This information is added to the system for billing purposes, and to help in the preparation of future job orders for those customers.At the end of the day, equipment should be cleaned and checked for damage to see if it needs repairs. For some owner/operators, these can be very long work days, until they can hire enough crew to reduce their workload.

    Recommended Reading: When To Start Watering Lawn In Colorado

    Start A Lawn Care Business By Following These 10 Steps:

    You have found the perfect business idea, and now you are ready to take the next step. There is more to starting a business than just registering it with the state. We have put together this simple guide to starting your lawn care business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

    Check out our How to Start a Business page.

    Do I Need A Business License For Lawn Care In Florida

    In Florida, however, lawn care operators fall under the landscape design umbrella. Floridian landscape design companies can mow, trim, plant and maintain lawns without using pesticides. But you need to get a business license from the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations before you work on anyones yard.

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    What Are The Licenses And Permits Needed

    To get started with only mowing lawns you will not need a permit in most municipalities. However, you will most likely need a business license that all business should have.

    As you grow your business, you may offer herbicide applications such as RoundUp to spray for weeds in your customers landscaping beds. In most states you will need an additional license for that.

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