Gone are the days where people used to pay neighborhood teens and young adults to mow their lawns. Today, there are full-blown businesses that take care of people’s lawns.
If you’ve been looking for a business idea that’s good enough to pursue for quite some time, consider offering lawn maintenance services.
Lawn care is something that not many people consider for business, but it’s definitely worth giving a try. So, before you ask yourself, “should I invest in a lawn maintenance franchise?”, here are the things you should know:
The pros of running a lawn care business
- Stability. As long as grass grows, there will always be customers. For a lawn care company, this means stable and consistent business. And if you do a great job consistently, there’s a high chance of having lifetime clients.
- Consumables. There is also an opportunity to sell consumables to customers, such as fertilizers and weed treatments. You can even sell seeds or seedlings on the side for lawn beautification.
- Customizable. You can modify your business however you see fit. As the owner, you get to create your company’s vision and mission, hire the right people for the job, and decide where and when to operate.
- Entry-level employees. Lawn maintenance requires no formal education. Instead, your workers can learn through training and while on the job.
- Growth. Your services don’t have to stop at lawn maintenance. As your business grows, you can expand your services to landscaping, weeding, gardening, and many other options.
- Franchising. If you want to buy an existing business model instead of starting your own from scratch, there are lawn care franchises available today.
The cons of running a lawn care business
- Competition. Depending on where you live, there’s either a lack or abundance of lawn care companies in your area. If it’s the latter, you have to step up your game in order to compete with the already established companies.
- Seasonal. If you live in an area where there is little to no snow in the winter, a lawn care business may operate all-year-round. However, if you live somewhere with moderate to severe winters, your customer accounts will be out until the snow melts. If you want to keep business running during winter, you can also offer snow shoveling or de-icing services to your customers.
- Cost of labor. Even though lawn maintenance requires little to no formal education or training, you still need to pay your workers. And labor does not come cheap.
- Difficult customers. There’s always going to be difficult customers. In the case of lawn maintenance, some people may not find your work up to par or have all-too impossible expectations for what they paid for. That said, it’s important that you have some customer relation skills up your sleeve.
Starting a lawn care business can open up many opportunities for you in the future, such as expansion and possible franchising. However, there are some disadvantages that you have to be prepared for in case you pursue this business. Now that you’re aware of the pros and cons, you can have a better idea of what to expect.
