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Book
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The Green, Green Grass Of Home
When you think back to the long, lazy summers of your youth, chances
are your recollections are full of achingly nostalgic memories
like an oversized tire swing under a big shady tree. Tall frosty
glasses of lemonade wreathed in pearls of moisture. Crickets and
tree frogs throatily singing their sweet night song. And the
high-pitched whine of lawn mowers carrying on the warm summer
breeze.
If you’re like a lot of people, you were trudging along behind
one of those mowers back then, pushing with all your might and
sweating profusely, just so you could make a few bucks to buy some
baseball cards or a really cool bike. You may have occasionally
mowed down a few pansies or zebra-striped a lawn, but you sure
were proud when the homeowner came to the door, surveyed your
handiwork, and forked over the agreed-upon fee.
Mowing lawns or landscaping residential or commercial
properties for a living will give you that same sense of
pride—while earning you some pretty serious cash.
The Green Scene
There are many advantages to running a homebased lawn care or
landscaping service. You’re master of your own destiny, and you
can devote as much or as little time to the business as you want.
You have a short commute to work if you’re based in your own
community. You can work at your own pace and at virtually any time
during regular daylight hours. You also can enjoy the fresh air,
get a good cardiovascular workout, and bulk up your muscles.
The price of all this freedom and body contouring is relatively
low—so low, in fact, that many new lawn service owners and
landscapers use their personal credit cards or small personal
loans to fund their new businesses. Once you invest in the tools
and toys you need to manicure lawns or install landscaping
professionally, you’re generally set for years. You don’t need
much in the way of office equipment, either, and you can set your
office up in a corner of the den or a spare bedroom rather than
laying out extra cash for a commercial space.
Reality Check
This all sounds pretty appealing, doesn’t it? But of course,
every Garden of Eden has a serpent, and lawn care and landscaping
businesses have quite a few of their own coiled up and waiting to
strike. To begin, you have to be a lot more adept at mowing,
trimming and pruning than the average person. That means you’ll
have to invest some time in learning gardening basics and
techniques. You’ll have to be a disciplined self-starter who can
ignore the call of a glorious spring day and diligently service
your clients rather than heading for the lake or golf course. You
have to be physically fit and able to handle the rigors of the
job, which can include lifting heavy equipment off and onto
trailers, and wielding bulky handheld implements for hours at a
time. You’ll be handling potentially dangerous machinery and
hazardous chemicals. And you’ll have to be a very savvy business
manager who can administer cash flow, invent advertising and
marketing campaigns, and implement a survival plan that will take
you through the lean winter months.
But even with such obstacles, it is possible to prosper in this
industry. In the chapters ahead, we’ll show you how to lay the
groundwork to start a thriving lawn care service or landscaping
business. We’ll cover day-to-day responsibilities and the various
tasks integral to running this type of business. We’ll also touch
on the myriad issues a new business owner will face, such as tax,
insurance and financing matters. But perhaps best of all, we’ll
share advice and words of wisdom from successful lawn care and
landscaping business owners who have made their personal dreams of
prospering in a business they love come true.
And by the way, what we won’t do in this book is teach you how
to mow or fertilize or design landscapes. Frankly, that type of
teaching is best left to the pros. Rather, we’ll give you all the
insight you need to set up your business in a way that will give
you the best chance for success.
Industry Snapshot
But before we get into the nitty-gritty basics of running a
professional lawn care or landscaping business, let’s take a look
at the green industry as a whole and the opportunities it presents
for aspiring entrepreneurs like you.
According to the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), an
international association serving lawn care professionals,
exterior maintenance contractors, installation/design/building
professionals, and interiorscapers, there are an estimated 10,000
individual lawn care service providers and approximately 12,000
landscapers in the United States. These run the gamut from
independent operations to franchises and divisions of large
corporate chains. It’s believed that the number of businesses
could actually be significantly higher because there are so many
people doing lawn and landscape maintenance informally and on a
cash basis. What is known for sure, according to the Occupational
Outlook Handbook, 2006-2007 (U.S. Department of Labor), is that
almost 1 out of every 4 landscaping, groundskeeping, nursery,
greenhouse and lawn service workers is self-employed and provides
maintenance services directly to customers on a contract basis. Of
these, about 1 out of every 6 works part time.
The market they serve is huge. A 2005 survey by Irrigation and
Green Industry magazine concluded that the U.S. green industry,
which includes lawn and landscape maintenance, landscape
contractors, landscape architects, irrigation contractors, and
lawn and landscape product suppliers, generates $67 billion to $69
billion annually. Additionally, PLANET estimates that the
landscaping services sector alone generates 704,000 jobs and $35.6
million in value-added services annually.
Who’s driving this industry? The 77 million aging baby boomers,
many of whom are affluent homeowners. They recognize the value of
a well-kept lawn and beautifully designed and landscaped yard, but
they often don’t have the time or the inclination to do the
maintenance themselves.
“Year after year, lawn and landscape maintenance continues to
be the top service hired by homeowners,” says Tom Delaney,
PLANET’s director of government affairs. “Homeowners benefit from
the economic and environmental benefits of turf, and save time by
hiring a lawn and landscape service. When you factor in that a
well-maintained property can add anywhere from 5 to 15 percent to
a home’s value, you quickly realize that hiring a service is a
sound investment.”
Of course, baby boomers aren’t the only ones whose fingers do
the walking online or through the phone book to find a reputable
lawn or landscape professional. Other potential customers include:
Landscaping:
Homeowners who don’t have the vision, skill or tools to design
their own landscaping
New homeowners who wish to update the existing landscaping
Homeowners who plan to put their home on the market and want
to improve its curb appeal with fresh or updated landscaping
Builders of both residential and commercial properties who
don’t already have their own landscaper on staff
Lawn maintenance:
Homeowners who are frequently out of town on business
Retirees who don’t care to do their own maintenance any longer
“Snowbirds” with winter homes in warmer climates
Golf course managers who may need help with maintenance
Rental property or condominium association managers who are
personnel-impaired
Facilities managers for botanical gardens, historic buildings,
municipalities and other government entities, universities,
cemeteries and other public places with green spaces
OK, we have to admit that some of these commercial contracts
may already be spoken for. Or these organizations may already have
a long-time, qualified person on staff, thank you very much. But
let’s face it: You never know when an opportunity may arise,
either because a potential client is not happy with the service he
or she has been receiving, or because someone retires or leaves an
organization.
That’s where you come in. Later in this book, we’ll discuss the
various ways you can market your services so you’re in the right
place at the right time when an opportunity pops up. Then, by
offering the right mix of services, you’ll be able to clip off a
neat little piece of this business yourself.
Exactly how much can you earn? The sky’s truly the limit. The
lawn care and landscaping business owners we interviewed for this
book earned anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 in their first year,
and as much as $160,000 to $250,000 once they were in business a
few years. They offer services ranging from basic mowing and
trimming to landscape design, installation and maintenance, and
chemical application
Lawn & Landscape magazine’s 2005 State of the Industry Report
offers additional insight into how much a lawn and landscaping
company owner can earn. In a survey of Lawn & Landscape readers
who own companies of all sizes, the average salary of the
owner/president whose company revenues were less than $200,000
during 2005 was $31,273. Owners/presidents in companies with
revenues above $200,000 earned $68,859 on average.
Types Of Green Industry Service Businesses
There are numerous ways to get into the lawn and landscaping
industry. The basic types of lawn and landscaping businesses
include:
Lawn mowing/maintenance
Sod installation/hydroseeding
Weeding or fertilizer and/or pest control application
Landscape care/maintenance services
Landscape design/contracting services
Landscape architecture services
We’ll discuss all these types of businesses and the services
they typically offer, as well as a few others, in the respective
lawn and landscaping chapters. In the meantime, it’s important to
note that while many entrepreneurs choose to specialize in a
particular type of service, it’s also not unusual for a business
owner to offer a selection of complementary services. For example,
landscape maintenance companies also may offer irrigation services
(lawn sprinklers, fountains, etc.), in addition to trimming,
mulching and other common landscaping services. Or lawn service
business owners may choose to offer snow removal services during
the winter as a way to generate an income year-round.
Other Opportunities To Get Green
Although we are assuming
for the purposes of this book that you are planning to start your
own lawn and/or landscaping business from the ground up, it’s
worth mentioning that there are a number of green industry
franchises that can help you establish your own business. There
are turnkey operations for lawn and landscaping, irrigation, deck
construction, concrete installation, and many other green
industry-related businesses, all of which can require a fairly
substantial capital investment. We’ve listed contact information
for some of them under “Franchise Opportunities” in the Appendix
in case you’d like to check them out.
Meet The Entrepreneurs
A number of lawn care and landscaping business owners
graciously agreed to be interviewed for this book to give you a
true insider’s view of the industry:
Nathan Bowers is the owner of Premier Lawn Services Inc. in
Sykesville, Maryland. Although he founded the business in 1990, he
has been involved in grounds maintenance services since he was 14,
when “dad handed me the Craftsman hand mower and said, ‘Why don’t
you go make a few bucks mowing the neighbor’s lawn?’” Bowers says.
He attended college for a few years before deciding to make lawn
care his full-time job.
Michael Collins and Karen Deighton are owners of Celtic Lawn &
Landscape LLC, which was established in Livonia, Michigan, in
2005. This mother-and-son-in-law duo brings different skills to
the cutting table, so to speak—Collins is the lawn/landscape/snow
meister, while Deighton handles the administrative side. He earned
a degree in business administration in workforce management from
the University of Michigan-Dearborn and most recently was a human
resources generalist, although he did lawn and landscape work
while in college. Deighton received a bachelor’s degree in
mathematics from Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan, and
works full time as a controller for a construction company.
Steve Mager has been the owner of The Cutting Crew in Mendota
Heights, Minnesota, since 1998. He offers chemical services in
addition to lawn maintenance for commercial and residential
accounts. He holds a bachelor’s degree in education from St. Cloud
State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and previously was a
property maintenance supervisor for a company that managed 30
residential group homes for the mentally disabled.
Lowell Pitser is the owner of Lowell’s Lawn Service in
Stanwood, Washington. He previously worked as a land surveyor and
literally fell into lawn maintenance as a career—he sustained a
bad fall on the job that hurt his back, so on the advice of his
doctor, he sought new employment. Because he couldn’t even push
his hand mower anymore, he borrowed a riding lawn mower one day to
cut his own lawn, and within the hour was approached by a couple
of neighbors who asked if he could do their lawns, too. “Every
time I’d mow, someone else would ask if I could do his lawn, too,
and I realized there could be a lot of money in this field,” he
says. And he was right—he had 35 customers the first year and
eventually added an employee to help with the business.
Mike Rosenbleeth is the Niceville, Florida, owner of Grass
Roots Lawn & Landscape Inc. After retiring twice, once from a
20-year career in the U.S. Air Force, where he earned the rank of
captain, and then from a 10-year second career with a defense
contractor, Rosenbleeth started his green business in 2002 because
he wanted to do something as different as possible from his
previous jobs. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in aerospace
engineering from Texas A&M University, he holds a master’s degree
in aeronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of
Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Albert Towns Jr., a graduate of Michigan State University with
a bachelor’s degree in turfgrass management, has owned Albert’s
Lawn Service, a part-time green business in Detroit, since 1994.
He has been a full-time employee of Ford Motor Co. for 30 years
and is a group assembly leader in the paint department. During his
busy season, he services 70 clients.
Although they all come from diverse backgrounds, what these
entrepreneurs have in common is their dedication to and success in
the industry. It’s possible for you to achieve this kind of
success, too. So turn the page and let’s get started.
Stat Fact
Satellite studies by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California
estimate that lawns cover about 128,000 square kilometers (about
50,000 square miles) of the United States and are the largest
irrigated crop in the country. Lawns are not a natural indigenous
crop: Without irrigation or fertilization, the only places they’d
grow are a few areas in the northeast and the Great Plains.
Sidebar: Do You Have The Right Stuff?
Ask yourself these questions to see if you have what it takes
to become a successful lawn service or landscaping business owner:
Are you motivated enough to work without a bear of a boss
breathing down your neck?
Can you resist driving your sit-down mower over to the park
for some R&R on beautiful summer days?
Do you have the stamina to slather on sunblock regularly and
spend a lot of time wrestling with flowering trees in gigantic
pots under the blazing sun?
Can you train your computer mouse to click on “Landscape
Illustrator 2005” when it really wants to go play in “Final
Fantasy XI: The Vana’diel Collection”?
Can you tell the difference between turf and Astroturf in a
blindfolded test?
Can you develop a viable sideline business to support any
unbreakable habits you may have (e.g., paying the mortgage, buying
groceries, etc.) during the winter?
Do you know what the keys numbered 0 to 9 on an adding machine
are for?
Can you keep your 4-year-old from answering your business
telephone line with, “Hi, can you come over and play?” during
working hours?
Are you willing to wear a personalized company T-shirt in
colors that blend tastefully with your landscaping equipment?
Are you willing to work long hours in the hope of earning big
bucks?
Total your “yes” answers. Scoring:
8-10 = Congratulations! You are truly the Blade Master.
4-7 = The force is with you. Work hard and prosper.
1-3 = It’s a good thing you bought this book.
0 = Maybe you should try a career in floral design or culinary
arts instead.
Stat Fact
A recent study by the National Gardening Association indicates
that the average amount spent by consumers on lawn and garden
activities in 2004 was $449.
Fun Fact
According to the Gallup Organization, the top things consumers
look for when choosing landscape and lawn care professionals
include: good references and reputation, satisfaction guarantees,
free estimates, longevity, local ownership and operation, and
insurance and bonding.
Smart Tip
Using native plants in landscaping schemes whenever possible is
the surest way to avoid maintenance problems and ensure they’ll
flourish. Because they’re adapted to the locale, native plants
also usually need less care, watering and fertilizing.
Smart Tip
Do your part to be environmentally friendly by recycling both
used nursery containers (which are usually made of
non biodegradable plastic materials) and the old potting soil they
contain. Nurseries are usually more than happy to take the empty
containers off your hands and will reuse them for new products.
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