Start A Lawn Care Business

Make money with a lawn care and landscaping business.

Posts Tagged lawn mower

Lawn Mower Problems? Change your air filter.

Sep 28

Posted by Lawn Care Business in equipment, lawn care business, lawn care training, maintenance | No Comments

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

My shoulder hurts. My fingers are blistered. The starter rope just ripped off in my hand.

If you own a pull-start lawn mower, you might have similar complaints when you pull and pull only to have your lawn mower sputter and die after each crank. You depress the primer bulb, spray a couple squirts of starter fluid and crank again. The spark plug is new, the gasoline is fresh, and the oil has recently been changed. All the controls are set correctly yet, still, your lawn mower won’t start.

Well, if you are like lots of lawn care business owners, you have probably been running your lawn mower hard all summer. We all neglect maintenance occasionally and you are paying the price for not taking proper care of your lawn mower. Proper lawn mower air filtermaintenance should be a daily chore to every lawn care business owner.  However, if your last two months have been anything like mine, you have been mowing as much dirt and dust as you have been mowing grass since the weather has been so dry.  Air filters have been the last things on your mind. Now that we are into September and early October, leaves are falling and you are trying to mulch the leaves with your lawn mower blades to avoid having to work the rake on all your customers’ lawns.

Dried out grass, dirt, and leaf dust all put tremendous particulate matter into the air. As your lawn mower operates, it sucks that same dust laden air through the airfilter and into the carburetor. After weeks of mowing in dusty conditions, your air filter is probably clogged with the dust and dirt of a thousand lawns.

Whether or not you believe a clogged air filter is your lawn mower’s problem, take a few minutes to check and perform proper maintenance on your air filter.  If your lawn mower has a multi-stage air filter, be sure to clean or replace both stages.  The benefits of fuel economy and better performance can be amazing.

For many other lawn care equipment tips that will help you have a smoother running lawn care operation, check out our lawn care business training course.  You can read the full description on our main website.  The business package is on sale right now.

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com
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A Professional Lawn Care Company Would Never Do This!

Apr 10

Posted by Lawn Care Business in how much to charge, lawn business strategies, start a lawn care business | 2 Comments

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There are several attributes of professional lawn care companies that will differentiate them from amateurs.

One big difference between professional and amateur lawn care companies is attention to detail. Amateurs get the job done as quickly as possible, charge a low price, and move onto the next lawn. Sure, the grass is cut and the customer is satisfied (for the price) but the lawn often doesn’t have the finely groomed and finished look of a professionally cut lawn.

Professional yard maintenance companies take a few extra minutes to finish their jobs correctly. As such, commercial landscapers can charge their customers a premium over amateurs. Professionals make more money, in the long run, than amateurs who leave their grass cutting jobs unfinished.

I came across a great example of an imperfectly performed lawn care job today. The grass was cut and the weedeating was done but the lawn care company skipped the detail work. Specifically, instead of properly blowing the grass off the road, the workers left the grass on the road surface.

Blow Grass Off Road for a Professional Lawn Care Appearance

If you want to operate a Professional Lawn Care company and get paid professional prices, pay special attention to the small details. They are the difference between your reputation as a professional landscaper versus an amateur with a lawn mower.

Do you want to run a professional lawn care company and make professional money for your work? If you want to earn more money and gain the reputation of a professional, our lawn care business course is designed to help you. We are running a special price on it right now. Visit our main website for full information.

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Ya' Gotta Start Somewhere

Mar 20

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, lawn care training, start a lawn care business | 1 Comment

Start A Lawn Care Business

I took a picture today I have to share with you because it brought back a flood of memories of when we first started our lawn care business way back in 1992.

Start A Lawn Care Business

I am not sure the driver of this van is operating a lawn care business (and I’m not sure if that lawn mower is properly secured) but I do know a lot of lawn care business owners get their start with a similar setup. I remember the days we first started our lawn care business humping around a push lawn mower in the back of a Chevy hatchback. It wasn’t ideal but is was much better than sitting in the accounting office where I used to work.

Before long, we bought a truck and upgraded to commercial equipment. Better equipment and more knowledge of the lawn care business allowed us to grow and attract better customers that paid more money. We all want brand new trucks and expensive commercial lawn mowers inside fancy enclosed lawn mower trailers. All that comes in due time. But ya’ gotta start somewhere.

The main lesson here is to start with what you have. You don’t need a brand new truck and expensive lawn care equipment to get out there and start making money right away.

What you DO need is knowledge. People who start their lawn care businesses the right way have a better chance of success than those people who buy the wrong equipment and price their customers all wrong.

In our lawn care business program, you will learn how to buy the proper equipment and how to price your customers. Pricing is a difficult strategy but we also include our lawn care estimating software to help you estimate and bid your lawn care customers.

Read more about the complete program at: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Commercial lawn mower selection

Apr 16

Posted by Lawn Care Business in lawn business strategies, lawn equipment, lawn mowers | 1 Comment

by: Lawn Care Business

Choosing a commercial lawn mower

Your commercial lawn mower is the most important piece of equipment for your grass cutting service business.  Purchasing the wrong equipment can cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue. 

The lawn care business program available through our website at:
StartALawnCareBusiness.com includes a huge buyers guidebook for lawn equipment purchases.  We recommend you read the entire guidebook before making an important purchasing decision which will affect your business each and every day.

Here are a few quick tips taken from the equipment guidebook:

1)  Engine size:  Purchasing a lawn mower with a small engine size will give you inferior performance from your lawn mower.  A low powered lawn mower will not allow the lawn mower blades to slice quickly through the grass. Sluggish blade movement tears the grass instead of cutting it.  Torn grass turns brown and gives an unprofessional look to the lawn.  We recommend a minimum of 14 hp engine for most any commercial walkbehind lawn mower with a 48" deck size or smaller. 
If you are purchasing a ZTR, zero turn mower, or other mowers that carry the operator, bump up your engine size to a minimum of 17 horse power.

2)  Deck size:  What kind of grass cutting jobs does your company perform?  If your lawns are small and your customers’ back yards are gated, you do not need a 61" mowing deck.  Look for something smaller such as a 36" or 48" mowing deck. 
These decks are easier to maneuver and can often fit through back yard gates.  If you are doing wide area mowing, look for 48" to 72" decks.  Larger decks increase the chance of scalping uneven yards. 

3)  Controls:  There are many types of operator controls in the commercial market today especially for walkbehind lawn mowers.  Some controls require constant attention but they offer great ability in keeping the tracking of your lawnmower straight to give professional straight line patterns to your lawn.  If strength or dexterity is an issue for you, choose controls that are easy to maneuver and will allow you rest your hands during
your work.

These are just three tips of what to look for in a commercial lawn mower.  For a huge lawn mower buyer’s guidebook, purchase our program available from

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

 

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