Having a plan for your lawn care business doesn't mean you have to have a formal
written business plan. Yes, there is a place in all businesses for formal business plans but I think for
most guys, including me, a realistic day to day plan for my business is more
inmportant. Look at it as a road map when your're going on vacation. You wouldn't
leave knowing how to get there would you?
A lawn care business plan should contain the following:
1. How much money do you want to make in a week, month and
year? Not only how much do you want to make (or Gross) but I would include how much I want to net
(what's left after you pay everything) as well.
2. How you will make this money? Will
you make it mowing lawns, doing landscaping installs, fertilization or maybe
a mix of all of these? List what percentage of your income will come
from each of these.
3. What kind of mowers, trimmers, blowers are you going to need and how
much will this be? The equipment you buy needs to match up with the type of
clients you are doing work for. For instance, if you are doing large properties,
a 36” walk behind mower would not be too smart to use. The opposite is true as well. If you
are doing small garden homes then a 60” cut zero turn mower might not be the
best choice for getting though gates and into back yards. Don't forget to factor
in repairs on your mowers, blade sharpening, trimmer string, etc, etc.
4. How many lawns will you need to be
profitable and make the money you want to make? This ties in with #7 below. You
need to know about how many clients it will take to make the money you want to
make.
5. What is your ideal customer going to be like?
Are you going to do large properties such as apartments or industrial sites? Maybe you'll focus on trying to get an entire community of garden homes.
6. Are there enough of potential lawn care
clients in one area to support your business? In the area we service there are
only a couple of garden home communities. I love these communities because we
can do a lot of work in one small area. It would be hard for me to make a
decent living if that was my only customers. Make sure there are enough of the type
of clients you are going to focus on. Being a specialist in apartment properties
won't help you much if there is only one apartment complex in your town.
7. How much will your average customer be worth?
You need to know what you average income wise per client. I know some will make
your more, and some a little less, but it will average out. You need to know this number.
8. How will you spend to market to your potential customers. If you know you make $1700 per year, per customer, then don’t you think you
can afford to spend $10 or so to get a more customers like them? It amazes me at the people
who won’t spend the money to get
more of the exact type of clients they need. So what if it costs you $ .55 each to
send out full color, glossy postcards to a specific community. If you get only a
handful of new clients that fit exactly into your business it’s more than worth it.
Well, there you have it. These are basically the things I would include
in my day to day plan for my lawn care business. This is a perfect list that
includes everything you might run across.
Depending on how big of a business you are planning on there are other things
you will want to include. For most guys, this will be enough to get you started
and thinking...
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