Thanks again to Thomas G for the comment that inspired this video. Hopefully this gets your guys wheels turning and you realize you may not need “50 new clients” in 2019. Maybe you just need to cross sell and upsell new services to those existing customers, which could be far less work for you than acquiring new clients. I know this helped me a lot.
Great Video. In my area getting new clients and adding services to existing clients has proved extremely easy. We always have more work than we can get done. I would love to expand the business but I'm having a lot of trouble finding reliable, legal (I don't want to use day laborers) help. Do you have any suggestions on finding good employees?
Many thanks, been searching for "construction maintenance resume examples" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Peanlivory Singular Predominance - (do a google search ) ? It is a good one of a kind product for discovering how to learning how to start a successful handyman business without the hard work. Ive heard some great things about it and my cousin got amazing success with it.
This helped me a lot because I am 14 and have 25 accounts for landscaping and about 15 for snow removal and now I am hoping I can get into a lot of the mulching and pruning this spring .
Elite Landscaping...kudos to you keep it up! I was 13 and had about 15 customers near my home where I performed the basics, mowing lawns, trimming shrubs, cultivating gardens etc. When I got my drivers license, I got extra, but cheap equip, a beater truck (chevy Luv truck, lol look it up) and took on more lawns...all by word of mouth, and ended up doing work for some of my high school teachers and the school principal....probably the only way I got my diploma! Point here is you have to start early in life and you've got to get some real world experience. If your 25 and trying to start up from nothing, without knowing the difference between a aerator and a power rake and what each machine is used for....your probably way behind your competition and the the learning curve will be steep! as i said I started young, back in the 70's but my grandfather, who was my real mentor, was raised a farmer, and a brick mason who did custom work as an adult.....2 areas that as I learned from him, I could translate into my future landscape construction business. Thing I see from all the new start up "lawn businesses" is the owner has no clue how to maintain a lawn correctly....he has know idea how to sustain a healthy lawn or landscape! How can he effectively maintain a landscape unless he truly knows how to grow a landscape! I've had college courses on plant biology etc. read many publications on nutritional needs of lawn/plants/trees and taken the state applicators tests for pesticides etc. Educate yourself so that you have the knowledge to speak intelligently about what you will do for someones landscape! I worked for 1 of the largest Landscape companies in Se. Michigan for 6 years before I went into my business full time, the owners never knew I had my own client list! By the way for all the "Grass" cutters out there in Michigan.....if you mow grass you will need to register in each of the cities you plan to work in.....and if you plant one, for instance, "Day lily" or lay one yard of sod you fall under the category of a "nursery stock/ plant dealer" and will need to get your license from the State of Michigan...just sayin....and they will eventually show up at your place of business! So "do it rite" and get some kind of education/training and some practical experience and you will be way ahead of the rest of your competition.
@@pnu504horaceakatimekeeper3 technically 1.....if they will give you enough work to stay busy for 3 days....I would, and this depends on if your out of school, look to do "weekend warrior" cash work for the weekends while working a regular part/full time job during the week. Once you get enough work/customers to keep you busy 3 days a week, then maybe its time time to get a llc business started. Do your home work in the meantime and check on local laws/ordinances regulating lawn/landscape businesses and state/federal license/tax registration.....no employees yet or you'll need further help regarding payroll reporting and tax withholding reporting but a payroll/tax prep company such as "paychex" is a good resource if you can afford it.......and also make sure you are covered for "business" type insurance like a Liability/Products and Completed Operations insurance.
Another great topic with solid information. A long time ago, I began my property management company after leaving my job as a carpenter. I did anything a customer needed done on their property, if it was possible for me to do it right. If I needed the tools/equipment and could afford them, I added them to my shop. I worked for time and materials and was always working soon I was backed up far in advance. As for lawn care, I mowed a few very close by neighbors with my lawn tractor, no trailering, an easy $200 extra per week. 5 years ago after constant growth over the many years and an increased lawn mowing sector as well, with trailering, I decided to simplify my business and go to a mowing only business. I also have kept my snow plowing a service I’ve done for 25 years. After some time now there are pros and cons from moving from a broad based service to a narrow field of work. The pros: Scheduling and less customer consultation time, I got my people and I do my thing, very little job selling and pre planning work. Less time loading tools for the day, trips to the stores for materials and less office time doing billing, estimates and keeping all my tools working and inventories. In general now I do one job instead of 100, and that is less stress and the per hour income has actually increased.....a lot. The cons: I miss doing many of the jobs I did for people, I did them for a long time and got quite good at most everything I did, so there was a lot of satisfaction doing anything someone needed. Variety. The lawn mowing racket and the snow plowing circus are nature based outdoor activities where Nature is Boss, if I want the work I must play by Her rules. Also I’m pretty much on call every single week off the year, we can squeeze a 1 week vacation in during the late September pre fall cleanup time, and during winter I have free time but have to always be ready for snow, no snow birding for us. So I miss being able to schedule my time off for out of town vacation adventure, and after doing physical labor for a lifetime, my greatest challenge today is trying to learn how to retire and escape from always working. The thing I’ve most liked about my business in general over all the evolutions it has taken has been the ability to rebranded myself as I have wished, to choose how I spend my time and my jobs. And the involvement in my community getting the privilege to help so very many amazing people, to make their homes better, to be trusted and reliable while forming lasting friendships, and getting paid well for it! I get less of that riding a loud mower for 25 minutes, the total service business is far more personal and my path has been right for me.
So thankful that I sort of learned this early on. I’ve always had customers that wanted more than just mowing. It also helps to break up the monotony of just mowing. Great video Brian!
Brian you are the MANN!!!!!! Very great Information, it's literally Dummy Proof. Lol It's crazy how much money I've left on the table!!! Its not enough to say but it's always great to track down the numbers and take a step back to see what else you can do and you nailed it in this video!!! Great content. Thank you for sharing!!!!
couldn't agree more about the value of additional Services. We are running a dedicated enhancement crew this year for this very reason. Are mowing crews will still handle nothing but mowing but they will be instructed to report back upsell opportunities. The only thing to remember is that sometimes all revenue is not equal. Planting flowers and doing mulch for instance comes with material cost.
Lol. Man I have been going through your vids old and new. This is the first one I watched on my home system.. your intro hits my sub hard. Lol. Great info as always also. Thanks for sharing all this.
Good video Brian I understand I had the mind state to just mow but now I'm offering services and mulch and fertilizer had been a big help and cleanups as well I also invested in a pole saw and it's been the biggest profit generator
I worked lawn and landscape for 3 summers before getting into the fire/medic service full time. I acquired so much knowledge and loved the work. I’m planning on starting lawn, and other services in the next year or 2 on my days off ( I work 120 days a year ). I get so motivated, and better yet “driven” from watching your videos. I’m 100% sure I’d be successful. Can’t wait to get started.
That’s awesome pal. Check out our “how to start a lawn care business” program on LawntrepreneurAcademy.com. It will definitely save you time and help you get off to a great start.
Ideal customer for me. Year contract/agreement $250-$400 per month. Mowing, pruning, mulch, aerate/over seed, leaf cleanup, and spring cleanup. If they aren’t comfortable with a contract give them all prices up front and schedule them out for the year and invoice as you go.
You should have a plowing video coming up? I Hope. The business I started 28 years ago started as just Mowing. Then I added Some Maintenance, pruning, of trees and Hedges. Next was fall clean ups. All the first year. Next spring I started with replanting of flower beds, aeration, mulching, putting down a scotts weed and feed, and clean up of winter storm damages. That winter I added Snow removal and Salting, I was in High school at the time. Figuring out how much salt to use, how to mix salt with other products to make it work better were all trial and error. But by the Next year I was doing just as many Residential as Commercial. Even had as my own special mix, but needed to learn how to by bulk and have a place to store it.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance I sold my Business when I was 23 because I had inherited a second business. After the second year of running both I had enough. I actually sold them both.
Brian do you have any videos talking about yearly taxes or daily expenses like insurances, gasoline, employee payroll & benefits if your provide them. It would be nice to see a break down of exactly what you spend everyday and what it takes to to break even or be profitable. I think a lot of people see a big number but forget how much it costs to run a business daily.
I’m hoping to talk a lot more about those topics in 2020. We’ve been going through a lot of restructuring of my business so I’m waiting to weigh in. We’ve had to make moves ourselves as things keep growing. Hang tight, more to come!
Thank you for replying to my comment Brian. Your videos are great. Me and my wife like watching your Fullerton party of two channel, it reminds us of our own relationship a lot. Keep up the great work brother. Keep calm and plow on!
Love the video Brian! Very true. Could you please make a video that brakes down the cost in equipment and tools to do maintenance and basic landscaping as you showed here.
This is how I get new lawn maintenance accounts. When the existing guy only mows. Once I get my foot in the door to do pruning or mulch I'll be mowing in no time.
This season we are only taking on customers that we upsell added benefits and are letting customers go that are will never have upselling opportunities. Actually looking to down sizes number of customers this year while icreasing both gross and profits.
It's a lot easier to sell new products to existing clients than to find new clients. I use the same company for maintenance, landscaping, sprinkler work, mosquito control and fall cleanups. As the client it's very convenient to deal with one company.
I'm offering several new services to my clients this upcoming season. One of them being mosquito control. Has that particular service been lucrative for your company?
and as the contractor we find it way easier to schedule multiple services if we have the control of all related work without other contractors mixing it up for us! thanx for customer input on this topic!
Good video Brian I run a Landscape & Maintenance Company. The maintenance company is where I get most of my landscape jobs. As Long as you keep a great relationship. Hey Brian what do you think about Uber type Lawn Care businesses? And what kind of pay structure do you use to pay your guys? Do you use pay-for-performance or the typical structure
Please will you do a video on how you budget the money your company makes not the money that you pay yourself to put it back into the business like what do you spend on gas maintenance equipment and so on and how do you budget it?
I think there should be a line drawn as well: there's lawn CARE and then there's lawn MAINTENANCE. For the guys doing lawn maint. adding lawn care can be huge if you upsell customers. Aerations & dethatching, fert, and overseeding obviously, but if you take the time to get educated and get certified then you can now add pesticides and herbicide treatments as well which is BIG $$$. I think if you're a lawn maint guy going into lawn care is the most profitable avenue to go afterwards. Adding on property maintenance as well of course
said another way, lol I'm gunna catch hell for this.........there is dudes in lawn mowing business that have no clue what real landscape maintenance and construction is! 2 men a truck/trailer and high cost and high interest equipment that don't know a thing about business, any type of business!......just ask them if they know what their cost of doing business is? ask them if they have a business plan, ask them if they have a profit/loss statement or a balance sheet......and they'll come back with huh? so how do they keep getting loans for new trucks every 3 years and going further in dept......until all that "no recovery of depreciation" catches up.........because they lowballed and mow lawns for 17.50 a lawn.....any lawn, lol
Great video Brian, a couple years ago I expanded my business I provided everything on the board plus landscaping and snow removal and salting, and spraying de-icer! So I was making a profitable business!
This was my first year doing lawn maintenance and I learned very quickly that more money is in Cleanups, hedge trimming,pruning,Mulch install, planting etc.We paid off a lot of equipment thanks to those profitable jobs.Bee I love the videos. Can you do a video on snapper pro products?
rite on you're a "fast learner" Grassology4610......check out my replys above with Elite landscaping and Snow removal and MOWING LAWNS PROPERLY.........I'm tryin to show them to get after the premium extras they can "upsell" to their existing clients........lesson #1 its much easier and costs less to service existing customers for their additional landscape needs than to go out and search for a new/broader client list! and so when you get your foot in the door with some larger commercial clients apply the same theory! Complete property maintenance is where you want to be heading, not mega grass mowing list!
Great information as always. We are beginning our sixth year. This past fall and winter season I’ve been doing more leaf and brush cleanups than I ever have. I’m planning on implementing some of those services this spring because I was very surprised how much money we left on the table the past few years.
Just think if you actually charged the right price for mowing lol. You would be 125k alone in just the mowing. I’m wondering if maybe we get more for cutting in the south bc it’s so hot and humid ppl will do anything not to mow their own grass. But I don’t know if I totally believe that bc I see y’all sweating in Michigan too so it must be hot there too so I dunno why the difference. I have to believe it’s only different bc it’s all your asking for. Lawn mowers re just as expensive by you as they are by me so the prices should be the same there too. I don’t know. But I’d hate to cut to grass in Michigan.
Its all about the size and area, we have cookie cutter high competition areas with small lots as low as 22-25$ and other slightly larger residential that start at 35$/cut then on to larger higher end that start at 50/cut. always tough to compare one area to another especially with just 1 example.
Alameda Landscape Inc. I feel like there isn’t any where besides probably Florida that has more competition than me in the south. And I mean ill legitimate competition too. But something is making the big difference. I can’t help but to think the difference is from what you ask for. It’s still the same job. Just as hard. And costs just as much to get started. And Brian is cutting grass with big mowers. So it’s not a little push mowing job. And honestly even if it was a push mowing job those are even more here lol. If the job needs a big mower it’s going to be $60 at the least. And trust me I’m cheap bc I’m not good at walking away when it’s a bad deal. And that’s weekly prices. It must be the heat down here making it more miserable to do. I don’t know for sure though. Just guessing.
@@lawnenforcement999 the struggle is real. So real infact that my neighbors company is also "Lawn Enforcement ." Big badge on the side of his trucks. Looks cool.
Brian - totally understand guys not wanting to share numbers but you throwing ballpark figures was incredibly helpful to illustrate the point - excellent video
It helps me when I visualize things too. Wasn’t supposed to be a roadmap but more so just to get people thinking about what they may be leaving on the table! Thanks for the kind words.
In a perfect world you would get all that with all of your customers... It would be closer to 10% or 10 customers of the 100 customers like used in this example. And that still a nice little addition to your gross income regardless. Also look at increasing your mowing pricing as well which will increase your gross income as well. My minimum is $35
There's a guy that was cutting my yard, he had a lawn mowing business but it was called Home Maintenance Services. His focus was yards, but would put up privacy fences, decks or other things like that. Long story short...I gave him a chance and let him do my back deck for $3500. Did a great job...Then I let him wrap my shop in vinyl and add a lean too, on it for $5000....Did another great job...That led to him replacing all my hard wood floors in my home, Doors, and cabinets $25,000....This dudes made a killing off my house in less than six months. He would cut lawns in between and come back to my house and finish the projects he had going on. My wife and I are very please with what he has done. He was way lower than a general contractor also. I know your video is about lawns/landscaping etc. But this guy is a good example of how he found work other than lawncare. Also, he did my neighbor next doors deck and the lady across the streets bathroom. So he killed it. Now hes doing rental properties that my in-laws own. Great video Brian!
You started with 25 mowing customers, then jumped to 100 customers for all of your "add on services", then said "Lets just cut that in half and assume you only have 50 customers"...... Just jerking your chain a bit. Always appreciate your content buddy. I got the premise of what you were saying. Thanks !!
Long time viewer, first time commenter. I'm wanting to go with an official business name after 7 years of doing lawn care, softscapes and other misc. property maintenance as a SP just using my personal name. I was going to add "lawn and property" to the name I have chosen but my fear is that "property" could possibly be mistaken for things like painting the interior of a house, for example. I wanted to shy away from "lawn and landscape" as I'm not in a position yet to install something like a large retaining wall that would require heavy equipment, etc. I also considered just accepting the flaws in both examples and simply turning down the job if it doesn't fit my bill no matter which I go with.
If i would have started doing more like that, i probably wouldn't have stopped doing lawn maintenance. I just never thought about it when i was teenager back in 1997. I did just start back mowing in my own neighborhood after my day job.
Excellent job Brian, As a small business owner you must be a salesman first. then do what you sold when you say your doing it as weather permits getting it done.
That's what I do trees trim, shrub trim, mulch, irrigation repairs, pressure wash for all my customers I usually get between $1,500 to $3,500 per year per customer, if you have 60 customers do the math
Have you ever considered adding another rig and a crew to expand your business and what do think of getting into lawn care as a passive business by buying equipment and hiring a crew and taking on more of a manager role? P.s. keep up the great videos
My concerns on another rig is trust and risk. Paying for a second truck, trailer, equipment and trusting someone else to drive it and basically oversee the lawn tasks. The what if pops up in my head, accident, damage, injury, quality, or the guy flat out steals accounts down the road? You would be better off to have two crews out and be totally free to supervise and monitor the crews all while estimating and getting new accounts. That Transition sounds expensive and high risk. I know others have grown into that set up but I'm sure it had a lot of headaches.
Yup. I actually dont look at the lawns so much now. Look at the yard. If they have a Tru-green sticker for example guess who is going to be taking that business. Offer fertilizing. The more it grows the more you make. First year starts with that. Second year once they are happy and so am I they can see by my flyers and notices given I provide much more. Instead of racing around cutting grass all day I focus on properties. I do everything on your white board except snow. Honestly I would get so board just cutting lawn. I love it but ya know its nice to take a break from it and make more money doing other stuff.
agree,..... but snow is a very thankless business that only a real survivor type of person can deal with.....it is a very good "necessary evil" and must be offered if your in the commercial end of landscape/property maintenance.
@@ryerob741 Totally agree. I actually tried to offer the snow service to my clients this year but because we really do not get hardly any snow here it was not wanted by them. Watch now if we really get a snow storm everyone would be asking if I still would provide and yes I would.
good video, valid points. do all you can basically, instead of cutting customers, get more, hire more, buy a building...shop, expand before you know it youre making 500k a year and just going around setting up deals and managing company.
Hello Brain Great video info like always. In my first year of lawn care / maintenance almost all my customers wanted more then just cutting grass. They wanted seeding, fertilization, hedge timing if they had hedges. When I told them I do Lawn Rolling in the early spring time when the frost is out of the ground they all want me to do that for them as well. So your right on bysaying don't just do grass cutting your customers are looking for one person todo all the work and they have seen the work you do already, so you have already built up that trust. A service I have not seen people posting is Spring Lawn Rolling Any reason for this? I have been doing Spring Lawn rolling for over 7 yrs and just added aeration in 2018. My equipment for Lawn Rolling is 1/2 ton Brutus Lawn Roller. Cost for Spring Lawn Rolling is = to Aeration. Roll $50 the lawn first then aeration $50 two services instead of one. $100 and it takes about the same amount of time to roll the lawn as it dose to do Aeration Sorry if i was a bit long winded on this post Thanks again for the Great videos
Many thanks, I have been researching "preventive maintenance sop examples" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Peanlivory Singular Predominance - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is an awesome one of a kind guide for discovering how to learning how to start a successful handyman business minus the hard work. Ive heard some great things about it and my colleague got cool success with it.
Brian… love all the videos!! How do I navigate to the links you always provide below?? I have never found the links?? I know , stupid question but need to know. Thanks
I've been planning on starting a lawn care service this year I was thinking why have 300 customers (chasing $30 pre lawn) when when I could have 50 to 75 customers that still have money in there pockets that I that give more services to and not have the drive time (time is money) then you you put out this video
Michael Foote......theres something to be said here, you will see if you go ahead with your start up. I got to the point early in my Landscape maintenance business where it bothered me, really bothered me....to have to share a customer with others....everytime we would show up on these exclusive properties the fertilizing company was just there! so we would have to bypass that lawn and come back the next day. So we got certified to treat lawns too, no more scheduling conflicts there. Hated that around early May thru June couldn'y mow a lawn because the irrigation company had the lawn tore up, had to bypass and come back....uh uh we got educated and certified to work on irrigation systems....so on and so forth, rite? soon we were the only contractors working on the property!
Serious comment is love the video. I def already planned to do spring and fall clean ups. along with mulch and bed clean up. Debating on pruning unless they fully want it. Until i have current equipment paid off aeration and seed needs to wait. The up sale allows you to limit mowing days and use your free day to do these.
Yes, schedule a full days worth of aeration or multiple days, ( it's cheaper to rent for the week), and then rent the aerator. Only thing is with me, the rentals are walk behind, not ride on, so base your productivity on that.
Hey Brian, great video as always. I have my own business in Mpls, going on 18 years. Do everything myself. I agree with there is money to made on side work. I used to do all the things that you talked about. However, it got to the point where I was working 7 days a week to keep up. Thought about hiring people but after looking at additional expenses and extra time to manage, found out it wasn’t worth it. Talked to a few guys that have expanded their business over the years and a lot of them have said they are still trying to get the same profits that they had when they did it by themselves. You just have to be careful weighing additional revenue compared to expenses and personal time.
1)Spring/fall cleanups 2) weekly AND bi weekly accounts 3) residential snow removal ....that’s all anyone needs to get started and then you can grow into mulch , hedges, aeration etc....
Leave the “lawn maintenance” to the guys who operate illegally not paying taxes or carrying insurance. Differentiate your business with things such as an irrigation license, applicators license, all inclusive property care (mowing, fertilizer, sprinkler start/shutdown, maintenance), overseed, aeration. They’re far and few between in my area but they make for way less stress and are fun to work with. You get to do landscaping, lighting, outdoor additions, water features, the wow factor type work and make you love your job and pay you year round.
@@kennyplay5982 Sometimes you can use the local GIS (tax maps) of the city/town/county, other times you can zoom in with google earth and use the measuring devise or scale to calculate the area. It may not be exact, but it'll be close. Also, the tax assessors office has the total lot size either online or over the phone.
Great video man. Can I pick your brain for a minute? What if somebody was considering starting a company that focused mainly on the other services and added mowing as an add on service. Would you consider that more of a property care company vs. a lawn care company? Just wondering for marketing purposes. Would that be considered Lawn Care, property care, Property Services, property management, lawn maintenance, lawn service, or Property Maintenance? Trying to keep things understandable and easy. I have to wonder if putting my time and energy into the things that the other companies don't like to necessarily do first and putting the mowing second would pay off. Reverse the concept.
We title ourselves property maintenance. I was leaning toward property management but some wordsmiths reminded me thats more of a term used in the real estate and housing markets. In some states(mine) it even requires special licensing, that really doesnt apply to the work we do. We've been doing just that since day 1. By mowing we still have the weekly visits to keep cash flow up in between larger jobs. Most clients are full service, i keep very few mow only clients, only if they are neighbors to build better density. But we require much more, sometimes specialized equipment. I won't rattle off all that we do but take Brian's list and add trees, grading, gravel driveways to name a few. But my past work history included construction so I came with operating and managerial experience. It requires more trailers, higher insurance, dump trucks, and skilled(higher paid) helpers. But I can keep them going when work slows, and we always have our weekly cuts for a couple days so we book months out by june. We used to take on everything under the sun and still will if times are lean, but we know where we make the most profit and what tools make us the most so we focus on offering those services primarily. But once you are working onsite it's free to ask who mows and installs their mulch, etc. Mowing has always been a foot in the door for us and despite it being lower on the profit scale, the consistency has been priceless.
This is good. Makes sense to have as few as customers as possible, but maxing out your capacity!! You will have less people to keep satisfied, but make more jack!! 💰💰 thanks!
Great subject to touch base on. Offering other services, especially over the fall and winter months really helps increase your yearly income. You figure most of us only cut grass for 7 months or so that live above the snow belt. That leaves roughly 5 months of potential money left on the table. Of course, profit levels are typically less due to weather conditions and such. If the temps are above freezing and the sun is out, I'm out and about doing whatever yard chores for my customers that request my service(s) other than mowing. Surprisingly, I get a fair amount of calls for leaf removal even in January and February. A pitchfork wells great picking up frozen leaves!
Totally pal. Offering clean ups both spring and fall took our business from a 6 month maintenance business to a almost 9 month long business. Clean ups are great if you have the right tools. Adding a leaf vac is a nominal investment if you already have the expensive mower. Talk about keeping equipment moving and bringing in revenue. 💪
You are right I am new at this landed a commercial accounts just because I told him I would push his snow and all he needs just call and ask me painting his curb what ever he pays me I will do it
So I bid a bank and I through in trimming shrub but I add $10 a week so was $320 more that season they told me to give a bid on all there banks 5 of them was that a good idea not too many scrubs
Never doubt yourself! Mindless mowing??!?!?! what the heck all my guys can do cleanups ect. However very few can step on any lawn and meet the expectation of a professional high quality mow trim blow service. I think all the light excavation we do is easier too. Mowing is a difficult job without proper training and lots of seat time.
This video came across my feed this past spring and turned my business around and is bringing in more money then I ever thought. It gave me the idea for managing vacation rentals.
Here are two more things that you get up sale on is firewood and Christmas lights and they do really good for me because I don't plow in the wintertime
This where I’m starting snow removel not a lot of customers but it’s a start but I have been watching ur videos which will help me in the lawn care to get me go and I am solo with help from wife here and there thks
Great video Brian. I discuss and do a lot of these as well; minus aeration at the moment. But one thing, isn’t the issue pricing yourself out of work? This totals roughly 3-4000 per year for people to spend on lawn services. For someone who makes 80-110,000 a year, that’s roughly 2-4 percent of their earnings. Seems like the sweet spot for our target customers would be more like 1600-2500, right?
Brian's Lawn Maintenance it’s basic economics though. They won’t and can’t spend tons certain extent on something they could potentially do. We’ve found that here; that there’s a certain point where they go another direction.
Hires more employees, more employees you have = more work done = higher income....just need to make sure you have enough work to cover costs for more employees
@@mrlockhart4252 right that makes sense. I want to keep my overhead as low as possible. All of my experience is in extensive hardscapes so it will be a challenge keeping any landscaping down to single day jobs for just myself as a solo guy. I see why mulch and tree services are so popular with lawn care guys.
Thanks again to Thomas G for the comment that inspired this video.
Hopefully this gets your guys wheels turning and you realize you may not need “50 new clients” in 2019. Maybe you just need to cross sell and upsell new services to those existing customers, which could be far less work for you than acquiring new clients. I know this helped me a lot.
Great Video Brian! Gotta crunch the numbers
Great Video. In my area getting new clients and adding services to existing clients has proved extremely easy. We always have more work than we can get done. I would love to expand the business but I'm having a lot of trouble finding reliable, legal (I don't want to use day laborers) help. Do you have any suggestions on finding good employees?
Lasarius2010 It should say “Property Maintenance”
Question how many properties I would need to start a small lawn care business and still make good money
Many thanks, been searching for "construction maintenance resume examples" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Peanlivory Singular Predominance - (do a google search ) ? It is a good one of a kind product for discovering how to learning how to start a successful handyman business without the hard work. Ive heard some great things about it and my cousin got amazing success with it.
This helped me a lot because I am 14 and have 25 accounts for landscaping and about 15 for snow removal and now I am hoping I can get into a lot of the mulching and pruning this spring .
Keep at it, learn from your mistakes and also from others mistakes.
Elite Landscaping...kudos to you keep it up! I was 13 and had about 15 customers near my home where I performed the basics, mowing lawns, trimming shrubs, cultivating gardens etc. When I got my drivers license, I got extra, but cheap equip, a beater truck (chevy Luv truck, lol look it up) and took on more lawns...all by word of mouth, and ended up doing work for some of my high school teachers and the school principal....probably the only way I got my diploma! Point here is you have to start early in life and you've got to get some real world experience. If your 25 and trying to start up from nothing, without knowing the difference between a aerator and a power rake and what each machine is used for....your probably way behind your competition and the the learning curve will be steep!
as i said I started young, back in the 70's but my grandfather, who was my real mentor, was raised a farmer, and a brick mason who did custom work as an adult.....2 areas that as I learned from him, I could translate into my future landscape construction business. Thing I see from all the new start up "lawn businesses" is the owner has no clue how to maintain a lawn correctly....he has know idea how to sustain a healthy lawn or landscape! How can he effectively maintain a landscape unless he truly knows how to grow a landscape! I've had college courses on plant biology etc. read many publications on nutritional needs of lawn/plants/trees and taken the state applicators tests for pesticides etc. Educate yourself so that you have the knowledge to speak intelligently about what you will do for someones landscape! I worked for 1 of the largest Landscape companies in Se. Michigan for 6 years before I went into my business full time, the owners never knew I had my own client list! By the way for all the "Grass" cutters out there in Michigan.....if you mow grass you will need to register in each of the cities you plan to work in.....and if you plant one, for instance, "Day lily" or lay one yard of sod you fall under the category of a "nursery stock/ plant dealer" and will need to get your license from the State of Michigan...just sayin....and they will eventually show up at your place of business! So "do it rite" and get some kind of education/training and some practical experience and you will be way ahead of the rest of your competition.
Question with those 25 customers do you make good money
@@ryerob741 question how many properties you think I would need to start a small lawn care business
@@pnu504horaceakatimekeeper3 technically 1.....if they will give you enough work to stay busy for 3 days....I would, and this depends on if your out of school, look to do "weekend warrior" cash work for the weekends while working a regular part/full time job during the week. Once you get enough work/customers to keep you busy 3 days a week, then maybe its time time to get a llc business started. Do your home work in the meantime and check on local laws/ordinances regulating lawn/landscape businesses and state/federal license/tax registration.....no employees yet or you'll need further help regarding payroll reporting and tax withholding reporting but a payroll/tax prep company such as "paychex" is a good resource if you can afford it.......and also make sure you are covered for "business" type insurance like a Liability/Products and Completed Operations insurance.
Another great topic with solid information. A long time ago, I began my property management company after leaving my job as a carpenter. I did anything a customer needed done on their property, if it was possible for me to do it right. If I needed the tools/equipment and could afford them, I added them to my shop. I worked for time and materials and was always working soon I was backed up far in advance. As for lawn care, I mowed a few very close by neighbors with my lawn tractor, no trailering, an easy $200 extra per week.
5 years ago after constant growth over the many years and an increased lawn mowing sector as well, with trailering, I decided to simplify my business and go to a mowing only business. I also have kept my snow plowing a service I’ve done for 25 years. After some time now there are pros and cons from moving from a broad based service to a narrow field of work.
The pros: Scheduling and less customer consultation time, I got my people and I do my thing, very little job selling and pre planning work. Less time loading tools for the day, trips to the stores for materials and less office time doing billing, estimates and keeping all my tools working and inventories. In general now I do one job instead of 100, and that is less stress and the per hour income has actually increased.....a lot.
The cons: I miss doing many of the jobs I did for people, I did them for a long time and got quite good at most everything I did, so there was a lot of satisfaction doing anything someone needed. Variety. The lawn mowing racket and the snow plowing circus are nature based outdoor activities where Nature is Boss, if I want the work I must play by Her rules. Also I’m pretty much on call every single week off the year, we can squeeze a 1 week vacation in during the late September pre fall cleanup time, and during winter I have free time but have to always be ready for snow, no snow birding for us. So I miss being able to schedule my time off for out of town vacation adventure, and after doing physical labor for a lifetime, my greatest challenge today is trying to learn how to retire and escape from always working.
The thing I’ve most liked about my business in general over all the evolutions it has taken has been the ability to rebranded myself as I have wished, to choose how I spend my time and my jobs. And the involvement in my community getting the privilege to help so very many amazing people, to make their homes better, to be trusted and reliable while forming lasting friendships, and getting paid well for it! I get less of that riding a loud mower for 25 minutes, the total service business is far more personal and my path has been right for me.
My favourite comment I’ve ever read
@@witty401son I am happy that you enjoyed reading my comment!!
So thankful that I sort of learned this early on. I’ve always had customers that wanted more than just mowing. It also helps to break up the monotony of just mowing. Great video Brian!
You bet buddy
Brian you are the MANN!!!!!! Very great Information, it's literally Dummy Proof. Lol It's crazy how much money I've left on the table!!! Its not enough to say but it's always great to track down the numbers and take a step back to see what else you can do and you nailed it in this video!!! Great content. Thank you for sharing!!!!
Kind of a random compliment but your very well spoken and you always make your point very clear and professional. Keep putting out great videos.
Thanks Daryl
couldn't agree more about the value of additional Services. We are running a dedicated enhancement crew this year for this very reason. Are mowing crews will still handle nothing but mowing but they will be instructed to report back upsell opportunities. The only thing to remember is that sometimes all revenue is not equal. Planting flowers and doing mulch for instance comes with material cost.
Lol. Man I have been going through your vids old and new. This is the first one I watched on my home system.. your intro hits my sub hard. Lol.
Great info as always also. Thanks for sharing all this.
Thanks mate!
Don't forget Spring & Fall Gutters, Detaching, Pressure Washing, & Power Edging
Good video Brian I understand I had the mind state to just mow but now I'm offering services and mulch and fertilizer had been a big help and cleanups as well I also invested in a pole saw and it's been the biggest profit generator
I worked lawn and landscape for 3 summers before getting into the fire/medic service full time. I acquired so much knowledge and loved the work. I’m planning on starting lawn, and other services in the next year or 2 on my days off ( I work 120 days a year ). I get so motivated, and better yet “driven” from watching your videos. I’m 100% sure I’d be successful. Can’t wait to get started.
That’s awesome pal. Check out our “how to start a lawn care business” program on LawntrepreneurAcademy.com. It will definitely save you time and help you get off to a great start.
Ideal customer for me. Year contract/agreement $250-$400 per month. Mowing, pruning, mulch, aerate/over seed, leaf cleanup, and spring cleanup. If they aren’t comfortable with a contract give them all prices up front and schedule them out for the year and invoice as you go.
My bad GREAT VIDEO!!! Very informative!!!
Great info an numbers lesson. I'm solo right now but growing slowly wit dedication an drive.
In today’s video Brian changes his green screen from a truck back ground to an office background. #justanactor
You should have a plowing video coming up? I Hope. The business I started 28 years ago started as just Mowing. Then I added Some Maintenance, pruning, of trees and Hedges. Next was fall clean ups. All the first year. Next spring I started with replanting of flower beds, aeration, mulching, putting down a scotts weed and feed, and clean up of winter storm damages. That winter I added Snow removal and Salting, I was in High school at the time. Figuring out how much salt to use, how to mix salt with other products to make it work better were all trial and error. But by the Next year I was doing just as many Residential as Commercial. Even had as my own special mix, but needed to learn how to by bulk and have a place to store it.
There ya go. Well done buddy
@@BriansLawnMaintenance I sold my Business when I was 23 because I had inherited a second business. After the second year of running both I had enough. I actually sold them both.
Brian do you have any videos talking about yearly taxes or daily expenses like insurances, gasoline, employee payroll & benefits if your provide them. It would be nice to see a break down of exactly what you spend everyday and what it takes to to break even or be profitable. I think a lot of people see a big number but forget how much it costs to run a business daily.
I’m hoping to talk a lot more about those topics in 2020. We’ve been going through a lot of restructuring of my business so I’m waiting to weigh in. We’ve had to make moves ourselves as things keep growing. Hang tight, more to come!
Thank you for replying to my comment Brian. Your videos are great. Me and my wife like watching your Fullerton party of two channel, it reminds us of our own relationship a lot. Keep up the great work brother. Keep calm and plow on!
great video. cross sell, up sell, always be selling always be branding. 10x
Pumpkin plan is legit!!! Real talk, real advice!! Just like my my Brian, he is awesome!! Keep it up hro!!!!
Thanks pal 💪
Just like how a restaurant try’s to sell you an appetizer, alcoholic drinks and dessert.👍🏼💰
Keep up the videos, you really opened my eyes with this one
Love the video Brian! Very true. Could you please make a video that brakes down the cost in equipment and tools to do maintenance and basic landscaping as you showed here.
I’ll see what I can do
@@BriansLawnMaintenance Thanks bro. Are you going to be at the 10x growth con. next month? I would love to talk to you.
Good informative video like always Brian, I offer all that except aerations and overseeding. Definitely been interested in adding those..
Thanks buddy. We did a few videos on those topics just a few back, check them out!
This is how I get new lawn maintenance accounts. When the existing guy only mows. Once I get my foot in the door to do pruning or mulch I'll be mowing in no time.
Great tip
Very professional and informational.
You look different without a hat and/or glasses on.... paid actor?
Thee highest paid in all that land!
This season we are only taking on customers that we upsell added benefits and are letting customers go that are will never have upselling opportunities. Actually looking to down sizes number of customers this year while icreasing both gross and profits.
It's a lot easier to sell new products to existing clients than to find new clients. I use the same company for maintenance, landscaping, sprinkler work, mosquito control and fall cleanups. As the client it's very convenient to deal with one company.
Validation from the other side!
You can charge more also ass opposed to a non costomer.
I'm offering several new services to my clients this upcoming season. One of them being mosquito control. Has that particular service been lucrative for your company?
and as the contractor we find it way easier to schedule multiple services if we have the control of all related work without other contractors mixing it up for us! thanx for customer input on this topic!
Good video Brian I run a Landscape & Maintenance Company. The maintenance company is where I get most of my landscape jobs. As Long as you keep a great relationship. Hey Brian what do you think about Uber type Lawn Care businesses? And what kind of pay structure do you use to pay your guys? Do you use pay-for-performance or the typical structure
Hourly rate yep.
Please will you do a video on how you budget the money your company makes not the money that you pay yourself to put it back into the business like what do you spend on gas maintenance equipment and so on and how do you budget it?
Sure
Thanks! Great video
Im a visual learner, this is very helpful
This is a very helpful video. Thanks!
I think there should be a line drawn as well: there's lawn CARE and then there's lawn MAINTENANCE. For the guys doing lawn maint. adding lawn care can be huge if you upsell customers. Aerations & dethatching, fert, and overseeding obviously, but if you take the time to get educated and get certified then you can now add pesticides and herbicide treatments as well which is BIG $$$. I think if you're a lawn maint guy going into lawn care is the most profitable avenue to go afterwards. Adding on property maintenance as well of course
said another way, lol I'm gunna catch hell for this.........there is dudes in lawn mowing business that have no clue what real landscape maintenance and construction is! 2 men a truck/trailer and high cost and high interest equipment that don't know a thing about business, any type of business!......just ask them if they know what their cost of doing business is? ask them if they have a business plan, ask them if they have a profit/loss statement or a balance sheet......and they'll come back with huh? so how do they keep getting loans for new trucks every 3 years and going further in dept......until all that "no recovery of depreciation" catches up.........because they lowballed and mow lawns for 17.50 a lawn.....any lawn, lol
I know this video is 3 years old,however excellent topic. Put a whole new picture in my head on how to get up n running. Thank you
Amen! It’s a classic imo!
Great video Brian, a couple years ago I expanded my business I provided everything on the board plus landscaping and snow removal and salting, and spraying de-icer! So I was making a profitable business!
This was my first year doing lawn maintenance and I learned very quickly that more money is in Cleanups, hedge trimming,pruning,Mulch install, planting etc.We paid off a lot of equipment thanks to those profitable jobs.Bee I love the videos. Can you do a video on snapper pro products?
rite on you're a "fast learner" Grassology4610......check out my replys above with Elite landscaping and Snow removal and MOWING LAWNS PROPERLY.........I'm tryin to show them to get after the premium extras they can "upsell" to their existing clients........lesson #1 its much easier and costs less to service existing customers for their additional landscape needs than to go out and search for a new/broader client list! and so when you get your foot in the door with some larger commercial clients apply the same theory! Complete property maintenance is where you want to be heading, not mega grass mowing list!
Thanks man this was really helpful.
Great information as always. We are beginning our sixth year. This past fall and winter season I’ve been doing more leaf and brush cleanups than I ever have. I’m planning on implementing some of those services this spring because I was very surprised how much money we left on the table the past few years.
Great video!
Wow thank you this open up my opportunity more
How did you learn pruning? I'm struggling to find good videos on different plants from Michigan that are common.
Try Keith Kalfas channel!
Just think if you actually charged the right price for mowing lol. You would be 125k alone in just the mowing. I’m wondering if maybe we get more for cutting in the south bc it’s so hot and humid ppl will do anything not to mow their own grass. But I don’t know if I totally believe that bc I see y’all sweating in Michigan too so it must be hot there too so I dunno why the difference. I have to believe it’s only different bc it’s all your asking for. Lawn mowers re just as expensive by you as they are by me so the prices should be the same there too. I don’t know. But I’d hate to cut to grass in Michigan.
Its all about the size and area, we have cookie cutter high competition areas with small lots as low as 22-25$ and other slightly larger residential that start at 35$/cut then on to larger higher end that start at 50/cut. always tough to compare one area to another especially with just 1 example.
For suburbia here in michigan that is about right. There's a lot of competition in this area . What are you charging in suburban areas?
Alameda Landscape Inc. I feel like there isn’t any where besides probably Florida that has more competition than me in the south. And I mean ill legitimate competition too. But something is making the big difference. I can’t help but to think the difference is from what you ask for. It’s still the same job. Just as hard. And costs just as much to get started. And Brian is cutting grass with big mowers. So it’s not a little push mowing job. And honestly even if it was a push mowing job those are even more here lol. If the job needs a big mower it’s going to be $60 at the least. And trust me I’m cheap bc I’m not good at walking away when it’s a bad deal. And that’s weekly prices. It must be the heat down here making it more miserable to do. I don’t know for sure though. Just guessing.
@@lawnenforcement999 the struggle is real. So real infact that my neighbors company is also "Lawn Enforcement ." Big badge on the side of his trucks. Looks cool.
Alameda Landscape Inc. Lol. What state are you in?
Excellent video! Once we started up selling existing clients...our profit nearly tripled 💯😎
Brian - totally understand guys not wanting to share numbers but you throwing ballpark figures was incredibly helpful to illustrate the point - excellent video
It helps me when I visualize things too. Wasn’t supposed to be a roadmap but more so just to get people thinking about what they may be leaving on the table! Thanks for the kind words.
Agreed - makes me rethink the value of biweekly cuts. Have a great weekend
In a perfect world you would get all that with all of your customers... It would be closer to 10% or 10 customers of the 100 customers like used in this example. And that still a nice little addition to your gross income regardless.
Also look at increasing your mowing pricing as well which will increase your gross income as well. My minimum is $35
Yup
There's a guy that was cutting my yard, he had a lawn mowing business but it was called Home Maintenance Services. His focus was yards, but would put up privacy fences, decks or other things like that. Long story short...I gave him a chance and let him do my back deck for $3500. Did a great job...Then I let him wrap my shop in vinyl and add a lean too, on it for $5000....Did another great job...That led to him replacing all my hard wood floors in my home, Doors, and cabinets $25,000....This dudes made a killing off my house in less than six months. He would cut lawns in between and come back to my house and finish the projects he had going on. My wife and I are very please with what he has done. He was way lower than a general contractor also. I know your video is about lawns/landscaping etc. But this guy is a good example of how he found work other than lawncare. Also, he did my neighbor next doors deck and the lady across the streets bathroom. So he killed it. Now hes doing rental properties that my in-laws own. Great video Brian!
You started with 25 mowing customers, then jumped to 100 customers for all of your "add on services", then said "Lets just cut that in half and assume you only have 50 customers"...... Just jerking your chain a bit. Always appreciate your content buddy. I got the premise of what you were saying. Thanks !!
Long time viewer, first time commenter. I'm wanting to go with an official business name after 7 years of doing lawn care, softscapes and other misc. property maintenance as a SP just using my personal name. I was going to add "lawn and property" to the name I have chosen but my fear is that "property" could possibly be mistaken for things like painting the interior of a house, for example. I wanted to shy away from "lawn and landscape" as I'm not in a position yet to install something like a large retaining wall that would require heavy equipment, etc. I also considered just accepting the flaws in both examples and simply turning down the job if it doesn't fit my bill no matter which I go with.
The more you can do for each customer, the profit especially if these services can be done while on site..
Sadly, not that many that can afford a 2250 upsell. It would be real nice tho. I am aiming at getting there but might take a few years
If i would have started doing more like that, i probably wouldn't have stopped doing lawn maintenance. I just never thought about it when i was teenager back in 1997. I did just start back mowing in my own neighborhood after my day job.
Excellent job Brian, As a small business owner you must be a salesman first. then do what you sold when you say your doing it as weather permits getting it done.
Exactly
That's what I do trees trim, shrub trim, mulch, irrigation repairs, pressure wash for all my customers I usually get between $1,500 to $3,500 per year per customer, if you have 60 customers do the math
Which business insurance would you suggest be used? Aside from Health/WORKERS COMP deductions.
Commercial Auto, General Liab.
Thank you for this video, it made me realize how much money I'm really leaving in the table.
Have you ever considered adding another rig and a crew to expand your business and what do think of getting into lawn care as a passive business by buying equipment and hiring a crew and taking on more of a manager role? P.s. keep up the great videos
Dunno. Haven’t thought much about it. We’re still managing it all well so far. Ty!
My concerns on another rig is trust and risk. Paying for a second truck, trailer, equipment and trusting someone else to drive it and basically oversee the lawn tasks. The what if pops up in my head, accident, damage, injury, quality, or the guy flat out steals accounts down the road? You would be better off to have two crews out and be totally free to supervise and monitor the crews all while estimating and getting new accounts. That Transition sounds expensive and high risk. I know others have grown into that set up but I'm sure it had a lot of headaches.
Yup. I actually dont look at the lawns so much now. Look at the yard. If they have a Tru-green sticker for example guess who is going to be taking that business. Offer fertilizing. The more it grows the more you make. First year starts with that. Second year once they are happy and so am I they can see by my flyers and notices given I provide much more. Instead of racing around cutting grass all day I focus on properties. I do everything on your white board except snow. Honestly I would get so board just cutting lawn. I love it but ya know its nice to take a break from it and make more money doing other stuff.
agree,..... but snow is a very thankless business that only a real survivor type of person can deal with.....it is a very good "necessary evil" and must be offered if your in the commercial end of landscape/property maintenance.
@@ryerob741 Totally agree. I actually tried to offer the snow service to my clients this year but because we really do not get hardly any snow here it was not wanted by them. Watch now if we really get a snow storm everyone would be asking if I still would provide and yes I would.
I gross over $200,000 with one employee.
good video, valid points. do all you can basically, instead of cutting customers, get more, hire more, buy a building...shop, expand before you know it youre making 500k a year and just going around setting up deals and managing company.
In theory! Full service is a great option as you build your company.
This is very informational and brainstorming food.
Very turn only problem California and other states require a contractors license to do over $500 per job
Hello Brain Great video info like always.
In my first year of lawn care / maintenance almost all my customers wanted more then just cutting grass.
They wanted seeding, fertilization, hedge timing if they had hedges.
When I told them I do Lawn Rolling in the early spring time when the frost is out of the ground they all want me to do that for them as
well.
So your right on bysaying don't just do grass cutting your customers are looking for one person todo all the work and they have seen the
work you do already, so you have already built up that trust.
A service I have not seen people posting is Spring Lawn Rolling Any reason for this?
I have been doing Spring Lawn rolling for over 7 yrs and just added aeration in 2018. My equipment for Lawn Rolling is
1/2 ton Brutus Lawn Roller.
Cost for Spring Lawn Rolling is = to Aeration. Roll $50 the lawn first then aeration $50
two services instead of one. $100 and it takes about the same amount of time to roll the lawn as it dose to do
Aeration
Sorry if i was a bit long winded on this post
Thanks again for the Great videos
That’s awesome man nice work
Awesome video!!
Great video . thanks
Many thanks, I have been researching "preventive maintenance sop examples" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Peanlivory Singular Predominance - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is an awesome one of a kind guide for discovering how to learning how to start a successful handyman business minus the hard work. Ive heard some great things about it and my colleague got cool success with it.
Awesome 💪
Brian… love all the videos!! How do I navigate to the links you always provide below?? I have never found the links?? I know , stupid question but need to know. Thanks
Hi Justin, just click the show more or show description. They’ll be in that box on every video.
I've been planning on starting a lawn care service this year I was thinking why have 300 customers (chasing $30 pre lawn) when when I could have 50 to 75 customers that still have money in there pockets that I that give more services to and not have the drive time (time is money) then you you put out this video
Bigger isn’t always better. You can go far with 100 clients (or even less) and provide everything for them. I saw the light too! Ha
@@BriansLawnMaintenance I like a lot of your videos just don't take the time to click on it sorry I'll try to do better
Michael Foote......theres something to be said here, you will see if you go ahead with your start up. I got to the point early in my Landscape maintenance business where it bothered me, really bothered me....to have to share a customer with others....everytime we would show up on these exclusive properties the fertilizing company was just there! so we would have to bypass that lawn and come back the next day. So we got certified to treat lawns too, no more scheduling conflicts there. Hated that around early May thru June couldn'y mow a lawn because the irrigation company had the lawn tore up, had to bypass and come back....uh uh we got educated and certified to work on irrigation systems....so on and so forth, rite? soon we were the only contractors working on the property!
Great video Brian, thank you for the detailed information.
Serious comment is love the video. I def already planned to do spring and fall clean ups. along with mulch and bed clean up. Debating on pruning unless they fully want it. Until i have current equipment paid off aeration and seed needs to wait. The up sale allows you to limit mowing days and use your free day to do these.
StrykerV Yup. Don’t forget you can always rent aerators for very little.
Yes, schedule a full days worth of aeration or multiple days, ( it's cheaper to rent for the week), and then rent the aerator. Only thing is with me, the rentals are walk behind, not ride on, so base your productivity on that.
Hey Brian, great video as always. I have my own business in Mpls, going on 18 years. Do everything myself. I agree with there is money to made on side work. I used to do all the things that you talked about. However, it got to the point where I was working 7 days a week to keep up. Thought about hiring people but after looking at additional expenses and extra time to manage, found out it wasn’t worth it. Talked to a few guys that have expanded their business over the years and a lot of them have said they are still trying to get the same profits that they had when they did it by themselves. You just have to be careful weighing additional revenue compared to expenses and personal time.
Agreed 100%. Lean and mean.
Awesome sauce... that can be eye opening for many... great share of insight
Awsome man!
1)Spring/fall cleanups 2) weekly AND bi weekly accounts 3) residential snow removal ....that’s all anyone needs to get started and then you can grow into mulch , hedges, aeration etc....
325 for snow removal for a season?? Damn that's cheap most people in ontario pay 50-300$ per snowfall depending on the lot.... $$$$
Leave the “lawn maintenance” to the guys who operate illegally not paying taxes or carrying insurance. Differentiate your business with things such as an irrigation license, applicators license, all inclusive property care (mowing, fertilizer, sprinkler start/shutdown, maintenance), overseed, aeration. They’re far and few between in my area but they make for way less stress and are fun to work with. You get to do landscaping, lighting, outdoor additions, water features, the wow factor type work and make you love your job and pay you year round.
exactly Sean.....here here!
Don't forget lawn detach, big profits, done after spring clean ups before aeration and overseeding. Along with fertilizer applications
How do you figure up a large property? Im guessing it's around 3 acres area. How do you measure a huge area? Thx
Figure out your acreage rate and times it by 2 or 3.
@@BriansLawnMaintenance yeah, that's the question. How do you measure the lot itself?
@@kennyplay5982
Sometimes you can use the local GIS (tax maps) of the city/town/county, other times you can zoom in with google earth and use the measuring devise or scale to calculate the area. It may not be exact, but it'll be close. Also, the tax assessors office has the total lot size either online or over the phone.
Great video man. Can I pick your brain for a minute? What if somebody was considering starting a company that focused mainly on the other services and added mowing as an add on service. Would you consider that more of a property care company vs. a lawn care company? Just wondering for marketing purposes. Would that be considered Lawn Care, property care, Property Services, property management, lawn maintenance, lawn service, or Property Maintenance? Trying to keep things understandable and easy. I have to wonder if putting my time and energy into the things that the other companies don't like to necessarily do first and putting the mowing second would pay off. Reverse the concept.
I’d suggest it as a Property Management company, yessir!
We title ourselves property maintenance. I was leaning toward property management but some wordsmiths reminded me thats more of a term used in the real estate and housing markets. In some states(mine) it even requires special licensing, that really doesnt apply to the work we do.
We've been doing just that since day 1. By mowing we still have the weekly visits to keep cash flow up in between larger jobs. Most clients are full service, i keep very few mow only clients, only if they are neighbors to build better density. But we require much more, sometimes specialized equipment. I won't rattle off all that we do but take Brian's list and add trees, grading, gravel driveways to name a few. But my past work history included construction so I came with operating and managerial experience. It requires more trailers, higher insurance, dump trucks, and skilled(higher paid) helpers. But I can keep them going when work slows, and we always have our weekly cuts for a couple days so we book months out by june. We used to take on everything under the sun and still will if times are lean, but we know where we make the most profit and what tools make us the most so we focus on offering those services primarily. But once you are working onsite it's free to ask who mows and installs their mulch, etc. Mowing has always been a foot in the door for us and despite it being lower on the profit scale, the consistency has been priceless.
This is good. Makes sense to have as few as customers as possible, but maxing out your capacity!! You will have less people to keep satisfied, but make more jack!! 💰💰 thanks!
Would you be willing to do a phone appt? Very interested in chatting about pricing.
We do coaching calls yep. You can schedule one at www.lawntrepreneuracademy.com
Great subject to touch base on. Offering other services, especially over the fall and winter months really helps increase your yearly income. You figure most of us only cut grass for 7 months or so that live above the snow belt. That leaves roughly 5 months of potential money left on the table. Of course, profit levels are typically less due to weather conditions and such. If the temps are above freezing and the sun is out, I'm out and about doing whatever yard chores for my customers that request my service(s) other than mowing. Surprisingly, I get a fair amount of calls for leaf removal even in January and February. A pitchfork wells great picking up frozen leaves!
Totally pal. Offering clean ups both spring and fall took our business from a 6 month maintenance business to a almost 9 month long business. Clean ups are great if you have the right tools.
Adding a leaf vac is a nominal investment if you already have the expensive mower. Talk about keeping equipment moving and bringing in revenue. 💪
You are right I am new at this landed a commercial accounts just because I told him I would push his snow and all he needs just call and ask me painting his curb what ever he pays me I will do it
So I bid a bank and I through in trimming shrub but I add $10 a week so was $320 more that season they told me to give a bid on all there banks 5 of them was that a good idea not too many scrubs
I really like your channel and very helpful
Never doubt yourself! Mindless mowing??!?!?! what the heck all my guys can do cleanups ect. However very few can step on any lawn and meet the expectation of a professional high quality mow trim blow service. I think all the light excavation we do is easier too. Mowing is a difficult job without proper training and lots of seat time.
Can you make a video on taxes? Tax write offs, exemptions, ect
We can, sure. I have a new resource coming out soon on Lawntrepreneur Academy on this topic, it'll be worth the wait!
Awesome ... I also repair fences, and fix sprinkler leaks, etc ... awesome video bro👌👍👍✌
Yeah I rather have 1 Full maintenance house and not 25 mowing ones, that’s where the money is at.
Thank you for taking the time to walk through this information, Brian! It is going to help a lot of people.
Don't need high number of customers just the right ones that work for you.
I have watched this video a few times and it always makes me think more and gets me pumped!
Like the M22 shirt.... can't wait for spring and summer and come to get up there
This video came across my feed this past spring and turned my business around and is bringing in more money then I ever thought. It gave me the idea for managing vacation rentals.
Here are two more things that you get up sale on is firewood and Christmas lights and they do really good for me because I don't plow in the wintertime
Where can i learn how to do these new services? Is there an online course or something else?
www.LawntrepreneurAcademy.com
This where I’m starting snow removel not a lot of customers but it’s a start but I have been watching ur videos which will help me in the lawn care to get me go and I am solo with help from wife here and there thks
Rather get paid for painting curbs and cleaning gutters out on my time charging what I need to charge then making 15 a hour for someone else
Great video Brian. I discuss and do a lot of these as well; minus aeration at the moment. But one thing, isn’t the issue pricing yourself out of work?
This totals roughly 3-4000 per year for people to spend on lawn services. For someone who makes 80-110,000 a year, that’s roughly 2-4 percent of their earnings. Seems like the sweet spot for our target customers would be more like 1600-2500, right?
Dunno man. People spend money on what ever is important to them.
Brian's Lawn Maintenance it’s basic economics though. They won’t and can’t spend tons certain extent on something they could potentially do. We’ve found that here; that there’s a certain point where they go another direction.
I didn't see no hugs and kisses
@brianslawnmaintenance hey so how do you manage mowing time and all your other services you provide? Do you just do other services on saturdays?
Hires more employees, more employees you have = more work done = higher income....just need to make sure you have enough work to cover costs for more employees
Yep
@@mrlockhart4252 right that makes sense. I want to keep my overhead as low as possible. All of my experience is in extensive hardscapes so it will be a challenge keeping any landscaping down to single day jobs for just myself as a solo guy. I see why mulch and tree services are so popular with lawn care guys.