How Do I Make Sure That My Insurance Policy Has Everything I Need
As with any business contract, carefully read your insurance policy before you sign it.
You can ask your agent for clarification about any terms that you dont understand. If your client requires a certain type of coverage in order to secure a job, your agent can also help make sure that you have everything you need to meet those requirements.
Knowing exactly what your lawn care insurance does and does not cover will help you manage risks and better plan for emergencies down the road.
Care And Maintenance Of Your Equipment
The equipment listed in this article needs to be cared for to avoid damage to yourself, your customers, or the yard youre working in. For example, you dont want a string trimmers faulty line to whip a blade of grass into your eye.
Lawn mowers, string trimmers, edgers, leaf blowers, and other lawn care equipment needs to be maintained properly, and that includes winterizing your lawn mower.
Caring for your equipment also means cleaning underneath your mowers and stinger trimmers at the end of a job or making sure your mower batteries are charged and your mower blades are sharp.
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.
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A Hose Or Sprinkler System
There are 2 things that every lawn needs: sun and water. Unfortunately, you cant harness the power of the sun just for your lawn or control the weather to make it rain when you need it. However, you can keep your lawn hydrated with a hose or sprinkler system while you wait for the rain to fall.
According to Scotts, your lawn will need about an inch of water per week on average to remain perfectly hydrated, or about .63 gallons per square foot of grass. If you have a sprinkler system, congratulations! You can simply check your sprinklers flow rate to tell you how long to leave the system on for optimal hydration.
If youre stuck watering by hand or had rain recently, you can perform the screwdriver test, where you take a screwdriver and put it into the ground until it hits 6 inches deep. If that layer is wet after rain, your whole lawn is likely hydrated. However, if it isnt wet enough, you will have to water it manually with a hose, testing individual sections as you go. There is no precise science to manually watering your lawn, so youll have to go through trial and error until you have an idea of how long you need to spray for 6 inches of water penetration.
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Common Florida Lawn Pests
A lawn is naturally filled with all kinds of insects and other types of pests. Most are harmless and beneficial, but several types can cause problems, and even damage or kill your grass if left unchecked. Here are common issues in Florida and lawn pest control information for each of them.
Mole crickets.
These one to one-and-a-half inch long insects chew on grass roots and thrive in moist, warm weather. They work night and day creating areas that appear streaked or closely clipped. Mole crickets create small six- to eight-inch deep tunnels and do the most damage by disrupting the grass root system with their tunneling. Their soil mounds have a hole in the middle and otherwise look as though soil was pushed up from below. Females lay eggs deep in the soil, about 35 per cluster, increasing the population on your property, with members of the mole cricket infestation being more active in warm and wet weather during humid conditions in Florida. As part of our yard pest control services, we can take care of mole crickets for you.
Sod webworms.
Armyworms.
Armyworms are most active in the warmer months and their activity usually forms irregular bare patches in the lawn that appear to have been poorly mowed. They can be exceptionally destructive, damaging newly sodded and seeded lawnswhile being capable of ruining just about any lawn in Florida. Well manage them for you as part of your outdoor lawn pest control services.
Chinch bugs.
Lawn Grubs.
Ticks.
Mosquitoes.
Moles.
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How Spyker Helps You Succeed As A Lawn Care Operator
There are several licenses needed to start a lawn care business, but youll also need quality equipment! At Spyker, we specialize in lawn spreaders to help you apply granular fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides. We have the following Ergo-Pro spreaders for you to choose from
- Four broadcast spreaders to meet your needs
- Our Ergo-Pro Ice-Winter Spreader helps you apply ice melt to driveways, sidewalks, store entrances, and crosswalks.
If you prefer our Pro-Series, we offer you the following six broadcasters:
- Light Duty Broadcast Spreader
Research And Apply For Financing
Starting a lawn care business can get expensive, especially if you have to start from scratch when buying equipment. Several financing options exist, from business lines of credit to using your retirement funds as capital without tax penalties . Evaluate your available options and choose the one that make the most sense for you.
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Schedule Some Office Time
Your first few months will involve a lot of administrative work. Its an important step in starting your own business and if you spend a little more time on these tasks in the beginning, it can mean a lot less stress later on.
Your first step is to register as a lawn care business. Visit the Small Business Administration website for information about how to do this, or check the online resources for your town office or city hall.
Make time to sort out taxes, invoicing, and a few other items. To be a first-rate lawn care professional, youll need to do most of the following:
- Register as a business
- Set up a bookkeeping system
- Organize and file receipts for business purchases
What To Do After Aerating Your Lawn
Though aerating a lawn is necessary to encourage your grass to root deeply, it will inevitably cause some temporary damage to do so. As this is the case, you need to make sure that your grass is taken care of well after each aeration. With the right care, your lawn will recover and be better than ever within just 4 to 6 weeks.
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Buckets And Lawn Bags
Buckets and lawn bags might be some of the least expensive items on this landscaping equipment list, but theyâre essential. You might only pay $4 for a bucket or $25 for a pack of 50 lawn and leaf bags.
Choose heavy-duty plastic buckets over metal buckets since plastic wonât rust or corrode from long-term exposure to water or moisture. And lawn bags are vital for hauling off grass clippings after lawn mowing.
Lawn Care : What You Need To Know
The best way to keep your lawn in great shape is to maintain it between your TruGreen certified specialists scheduled visits. But knowing where to start and exactly what to do can be intimidating. Read our resources listed below to learn how to care for your lawn and what TruGreens services include.
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What To Do And When To Do It
1. Aeration
For a thorough explanation of lawn aeration and how to do it, check out our blog, .
2. Fertilizing
3. Applying Pre-emergent and Post-emergent
Pre-emergents post-emergents
Starting A Lawn Care Business: Equipment Needed
We all know the kid who spent his or her summers going from neighbor to neighbor with a push mower and rake to make some extra cash. This scenario is surprisingly not too far from the reality for many people starting out as a lawn care professional.
Although you dont need to begin with expensive and advanced tools, youll need to adapt to the increase of jobs and new services youll offer as you start a lawn care business.
From the right mower to a quality laptop, in this article, well break down the equipment youll need to manage your business, different tools for different jobs you might encounter, and the importance of caring for them properly.
It may seem like you need a wealth of expensive tools to operate your lawn care business, but in reality, a push mower and rake are all you need to begin.
As you gain more clients and expand your services, you can begin reinvesting that money into more equipment, including:
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Top 8 Pieces Of Equipment Youll Need To Start A Lawn Care Business
Vehicle
Youll need a reliable vehicle to transport your equipment from job to job. Experts recommend a flatbed truck with a locking toolbox and a dumping mechanism that will allow you to unload topsoil without shovels.
Utility Trailer
A trailer can be helpful when hauling heavy equipment that you dont want to hoist into a flatbed. A steel-mesh trailer can cost up to $1,200, but you can get by with a simple, single-axle trailer for about $800.
Storage Space
Youll need space to store your equipment when youre not using it, which you can rent for a monthly cost. Alternatively, to save on the monthly cost if you have the room, you can use your own garage or even build your own shed.
Commercial Lawn Mower
There are several types of mowers available from ride-on mowers to walk-behinds or a combination of both. You can even invest in a robotic lawn mower if you want to go high-tech! Youll likely want to start with at least one versatile mower and invest in more as you grow to handle a wider variety of lawns simultaneously.
Trimmers, Edgers, Blowers
These tools allow you to not only trim hard-to-reach places, but they can also help you clean up your work to ensure a neat and tidy appearance for homeowners.
Spreaders and Sprayers
Many clients will ask for fertilization or pesticide spraying to keep their lawn looking healthy, so its a good idea to have these tools on hand to handle these jobs.
Types Of Equipment Needed To Start A Lawn Care Business
Its understandable that as a newcomer to lawn care, you likely want to take some shortcuts until you get more customers under your belt. Yet, as you grow, youre going to need to invest in some heavy-duty equipment to get all of your clients lawns cleaned up promptly. According to Lawn and Landscape, a typical landscape company will have 8-14% of sales going towards their equipment costs each year. When starting out, its wise to budget between $30-$50k for start-up costs.
Heres the list of those six pieces of equipment you must have when youre starting your lawn business:
- Assorted additional tools : $10-$50 each
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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.
What Does Lawn Care Include
Maintaining a healthy lawn in Bergen County, NJ requires ongoing care and a huge commitment. Many landscape companies offer lawn care services in addition to regular professional lawn maintenance and landscaping services. Borst Landscapes professional lawn care services include:
- Pest Control
- Grub control and chinch bug control
- Natural aeration & thatch control
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Watering Too Late In The Day
No matter where you live or what type of grass you have, your lawn will probably need at least some irrigation to keep it green during extended summer dry spells.
The right time: Water early in the morning.
Why timing matters: Early morning is the best time to give your lawn a drink. The warmth of the sun will soon dry the grass and lessen the chance of disease. Avoid nighttime watering, which can encourage disease because of prolonged wetness, and watering during the warmest times of the day, when a lot of the water may evaporate before the plants have a chance to absorb it.
When it’s necessary to water, do so once or twice a week, long enough to wet the soil several inches down. This encourages deep roots compared with frequent, but shallow, irrigation, and it will make your lawn more drought-tolerant. Some cities and municipalities have recommendations or restrictions on the timing and frequency of watering to help cut down on waste so it’s a good idea to check that you are following those guidelines, too.
Overseeding In The Spring
Overseeding is the process of replenishing grass by scattering grass seeds over a lawn. Spring is a good time to overseed, particularly if youâre using turf grasses that are known to grow robustly in these conditions.
However, there is a debate on whether overseeding for cool-season turfgrasses is effective or not during spring. New seeds for these kinds of grasses only tend to grow shallow roots since the higher temperatures in the following summer cause photorespiration. This is the process where a plant uses more energy than it manufactures. But if your lawn has warm-season turfgrasses, then overseeding is generally recommended around this time.
Under normal circumstances, youâll only need to overseed twice a year unless your lawn suffered severe damage in winter.
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Dethatching And Aeration In The Spring
Remove any leaves and twigs that might have accumulated on your lawn over the winter using leaf rakes and similar tools. Cleaning up these old debris paves the way for easy application of herbicides and fertilizers.
Also, donât forget to aerate the soil on a day when soil is slightly damp but not soaked. This helps to ensure that oxygen, water, and nutrients from feeds reach roots for healthy lawn growth.
Protect Your Lawn Care Business
Once you start providing lawn care services, make sure your business is legally protected. Having a legal business entity is not enough. While an LLC, for example, can protect you from some liability, its called a limited liability company for a reason. If your personal finances and your business finances arent rigorously separated, you could find your personal assets liable in the case of a claim made against you.
Wait, you might ask, what can go wrong with lawn care?
Imagine your client has asked you to install a new lawn and treat it with pesticides. Youve sprayed the one-acre expanse as requested. Should this practice lead to your clients child suddenly breaking out in a rash, they could claim its from exposure to the pesticide and sue you for bodily injury and medical costs. If this happened, you could be held liable.
Bodily injury isnt the only thing you could be held liable for, either. If you get distracted while riding your mower and this leads to you damaging a part of your clients property, you could be liable for the replacement or repairs.
Thats why lawn care professionals need general liability insurance. General liability insurance can protect you in the event of a client or third partys claim of bodily injury, medical costs, or property damage related to your lawn care work.
Bonus: Lawn care insurance on your schedule
As you start your lawn care business, make sure that a client or third partys claim doesnt cut your business off at the root.
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