Lawn care services are currently more in demand than ever. Many people across different communities are in need of help with cutting their grass, trimming the edges, debris removal, pest/weed control, and much more.
If you’re looking to start a lawn care business, there is a variety of information that you need to know about; this is also true for starting any small business. At the end of the day, starting a lawn care business that lasts and brings in profit requires time, skill, and the right strategies.
With that being said, the following steps are vital to anyone who wants to start a lawn care business.
Make Sure You Have a Solid Business Plan
When you’re starting a lawn care business, you need to know about startup fees. It’s also important to know about recurring fees and what you’re going to name your business; knowing where and how to find customers and how to advertise your business is critical as well. Some other important details to keep in mind involve the setting up of liability insurance and business registration.
Figuring out these details isn’t something that is going to happen overnight. Sometimes, it takes people months to put together a solid business plan and that’s alright. Once you have a solid business plan, starting your lawn care business will be much less stressful.
Establish the Proper Business Structure
When trying to start a lawn care business, you will likely want the structure of a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation. The greatest upsides to both of these business structures is their ability to shield your personal assets; in the event of a lawsuit against your business, this protection will come in handy.
After establishing the proper business structure for your lawn care services, you’ll need to apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) for tax registration purposes. The amount of taxes you’ll have to pay will vary; the location and earnings of your lawn care business are what will ultimately make the difference.
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Get Your Financial and Accounting Details in Order
Just like having a solid business plan and establishing the proper business structure, ensuring that financial and accounting details are in order is imperative. This means opening up business banking and credit card accounts; doing this sets a clear divide between your personal assets and your business assets.
Making sure that your accounting details are in order is critical for knowing how well (or poorly) your lawn care business is doing financially. Accounting especially comes in handy when it is time to pay taxes to the government. If you are uncertain about how to approach the accounting aspect of your lawn care business, you can always hire an accountant for assistance.
Be Sure to Get the Required Licenses and Permits
It is vital for any lawn care business to have the necessary licenses and permits to operate. The specific required licenses and permits can vary across local and state governments; with that in mind, most states mandate a lawn service license in order for lawn care businesses to operate.
If you need more information regarding the licenses and permits needed to legally operate your lawn care business, the Small Business Administration’s website can be of great service.
Obtaining the required licenses and permits will save you time and trouble; ultimately, it ensures that your lawn care business doesn’t get fined or closed down by the government.
Obtain the Right Insurance
Business insurance mandatory; furthermore, it will also shield your lawn care business from going bankrupt in the event of specific losses. More often than not, small businesses end up getting liability insurance. This form of insurance can come in many forms and has a pretty successful track record with small businesses.
Ideally, insurance is something you should account for when putting together the business plan for your lawn care services. Looking into obtaining Workers’ Compensation Insurance may be a good idea; this is especially true depending on your lawn care business and whether or not employees work for you.
Establish a Strong Business Brand
As the owner of a lawn care business, you will be naturally competing with other businesses in this field. Therefore, establishing a strong business brand is absolutely vital to the longevity, profitability, and success of your lawn care services.
Your business brand will let the world know what your lawn care company is all about; it will also inform the world why customers should work with you. Other important elements of a strong business brand involve the public perception of your lawn care services and your business’s ability to stand out from all the others.
Branding will also come in handy once you start to advertise your business. Putting together a logo for your lawn care business is also a vital part of branding and marketing; so is setting up business social media accounts on websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Use a Time Tracking App for Your Employees
As you start a lawn care business you’ll need to hire hourly workers for your business. You’ll need a system in place to gather their timesheets in order to pay your employees. Instead of relying on the honor system or asking your crew to text you their hours use a time tracking app for lawn care like ezClocker. ezClocker allows your employees to use their own phone to record hours.
They simply download the app and clock in when they arrive at a job site. You as the employer can view their hours, the location of where they clocked in/out from and email the timesheets to your bookkeeper when it’s time to run payroll.
Other great features you get from a time tracking app: overtime reports, labor job costing which allows you to calculate how many hours each job takes, and settings to stop employees from clocking in early to prevent overtime.
Put Together a Business Website
In the age of technology, having a website for your lawn care business is imperative. Your website should let people know all about your business, the specific lawn care services offered, prices, services agreement contracts, etc.
The website for your lawn care business should furthermore align with the brand you’ve already established. Another important thing to keep in mind when putting together a website is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is imperative for any business; it can make the difference between your website standing out from the others or simply getting lost in the sea of search engines.
If you would like to make sure that your lawn care business website is SEO-friendly, you can hire a freelance SEO specialist or copywriter. Furthermore. If you have concerns about the logistics of putting together a website, the GoDaddy-based Website Builder is immensely helpful and makes the process easy.
Having a website not only legitimizes your lawn care business, but it also means that more people will have access to learn about your services. Ideally, you will also want a professional email account that ties into your lawn care business website; this is yet another area where GoDaddy can be of great assistance.
In the end, starting a lawn care business requires a lot of planning and prior thought. However, if you’re willing to put in the work and do things properly, you can have an amazing lawn care business.
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