One of the best things about lawn care business is that you don’t need huge capital to get started. You can easily start on a small scale and expand when there is a steady increase in sales. However, it is imperative that you have a proper understanding of the nuts and bolts that goes into lawn care business. For a start, you must be able to estimate the lawn maintenance cost accurately and bid correctly in order to avoid loss would be the key to your lawn care business. If possible, visit the actual location before providing estimates. Do not estimate blindly and go into a price war with other competition. This is a strategy where no one wins except the customers.
Making correct estimates is absolutely vital to your business survival. A difference of just five dollars can translate into a loss of thousands of dollars per year. If you a newbie, this will prove to be quite challenging for you. It is a good idea to take up a formal course to learn the dynamics of a lawn care business if one is available in a your vicinity. You would also have the opportunity to learn how to prepare a professional proposal as well as some selling skills that will aid you when prospecting for clients. Another way is to go work for a professional lawn care company and learn the rope from scratch.
One of the things you will need is a Customer Profitability Worksheet, which allows you to track the returns on your work. This will enable you to know at a glance if you are making a profit on a particular work or are you actually in a loss. With this knowledge, you will know what options are open to you. If you are not making a decent profit, you should consider raising the price for your future projects or start looking for other customers that are willing to pay you more. You certainly do not want to find yourself in the red at the end of the year after working so hard throughout the year. It is better to check each and every project you take in hand for its profitability as soon as you can.
There is one important thing you need to understand though. Being the cheapest does not guarantee your business will prosper. In fact, being the cheapest is often detrimental to your business growth. A low price can lead to bad cashflow issue, which will harm your business greatly. If you are able to provide good quality lawn care service to your clients, they are likely to reward you fairly as well.
As long as you are able to provide great value to your clients, your lawn care business is likely to flourish and provide you with lucrative returns for years to come.