by MJ Miller

Created on: February 21, 2011

One of the easiest businesses to start, especially for someone who likes working outdoors, is a residential lawn service business. In years past, many a young man has started his first business pushing his lawnmower around the neighborhood and offering his services and I’m sure it still goes on today.

Speaking from experience, I know you can start a small, part time lawn service business more or less on a shoestring. Some years back, I needed extra money to make ends meet so I started my one man business with an old pickup truck, a push mower, trimmer, edger and blower. I already owned the equipment since I took care of my own lawn so I didn’t need to invest money to buy it. This is a business one person can do alone and that’s what I did.

I started out with a relative’s lawn, which lead to a friend’s lawn, then his neighbor and I ended up with enough customers to pay the bills. I picked up all the customers I needed just through word of mouth. I worked the lawn service during the day and my full time job on the afternoon shift. I never intended it to be a full time business but I could have turned it into that if I had wanted to.

You can start the same way if you need to or if you just want to pick up some extra money. If you don’t have a pickup truck, a small utility trailer will do, but later on a good truck and enclosed trailer is the way to go. If this business is going to be your livelihood, you’ll want to project a professional image as soon as you can afford to.

If it’s going to be your main business, you’ll want to check into getting a business license and register your “doing business as” business name so you can collect payments in the form of checks made out to the business. So let’s get started.

First and foremost, when you are starting a service business such as this, you should be committed to good customer service. You want a good reputation and the time to work on that is right from the beginning. That means you strive to always do the best job you can, don’t promise what you can’t deliver and give the customer a good value for their money.

One way to project a professional image is to have your own business cards, quote sheets, service flyers, etc. with your business name and contact information on them. You can have them printed at a local print shop or office supply or you can print them up yourself on your home computer. Also, have a magnetic sign made for the

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>