When you're just starting off, you want to say yes to everything. And honestly, if you've got the gear, you're confident doing the work, and it helps pay the bills? Then go ahead. Take the job. I did the same. In the early days, I was doing a bit of everything. Mowing, hedging, pressure washing, the odd bit of garden cleanup. If someone asked, I said yes. But as time went on, I started to see the cracks. Some jobs were a pain. Some didn’t pay that well. Some required gear I barely used, just...
4 days ago • 1 min read
When I first started my lawn mowing business, I thought I was being smart with my money. I found a cheap van for sale. It looked good, and I was imagining how much better it would look with a bit of sign writing. It ran fine during the test drive — and it would be perfect for mowing, I thought. So I bought it. About a month later, the engine blew up. Completely stuffed. No warranty. No recourse. Because it was a private sale. I was gutted. It felt like a kick in the guts, especially that...
5 days ago • 1 min read
I was talking to someone a few years ago. He thought he’d found an easy way into the lawn care business. A guy was selling a “client list” supposedly a full book of paying customers, ready to go. No equipment. No truck. No business name. Just names on paper, for a price that seemed too good to be true. He bought it. Started calling the customers. First one? Didn’t know who he was.Second? Didn’t even have a lawn. After 15 calls, he gave up. The list was fake. The money was gone. And so was the...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Ever notice how lawn care guys just... vanish? One week, they're mowing. The next week, they can't make it, or they go dark Happens all the time. Most contractors just shrug and move on. But what if I told you there's a goldmine hidden in these disappearances? Here’s an idea I’ve shared with other contractors—and I’ve seen it work really well on occasion. When you do a quote and find out it’s because their lawn guy has recently gone missing… 👉 Find out how long ago they went...
7 days ago • 1 min read
There’s this moment every lawn care operator dreads: You pull the starter cord, and nothing happens. You try again. Still nothing. And suddenly, you're sweating—but it’s not from the sun, It’s from the pressure of being on-site with a mower that won’t start. This happened to me more than once in the middle of a busy day. I used to pack everything up and rush to the local mower shop. I did that for years. And then I started to notice something… The first thing the shop did was change the spark...
8 days ago • 1 min read
I always thought the answer to growth was always mowing more and building my business larger. I would aim for a lawn every 40 minutes, around 12–14 lawns a day. I would stack my days higher, keep pushing, squeeze it all in. But when I hit 100 lawns on the books, it started hitting roadblocks. Rain delays set me back days. Some lawns were underpaying. And the travel time? A nightmare. I was all over the place. I was “busy”… but my income had hit the wall. That’s when I decided that things had...
9 days ago • 1 min read
When you're just starting out, it’s easy to think you need lots of customers to make a full-time income. More lawns. More jobs. More driving. More hours. But there’s another way… And it starts with getting more from the customers you already have. Here’s the thing: Most homeowners don’t want to juggle three different service providers. If someone’s already mowing the lawn, why not offer to tidy the garden, trim the hedges, or spray the weeds? You’re already there. You’ve already earned their...
10 days ago • 1 min read
A while back, I sold my lawn care business and took a break for a year. It had been a great run, and for the first time in years, I became the customer instead of the contractor. We hired a guy to mow our lawn. He seemed eager, polite, and even asked me for advice when he found out I used to be in the game. I told him something I’d learned the hard way: “When a quote comes in, think like a tow truck driver. Get there fast. Quote it. If they say yes, mow it immediately. Then book the next mow....
11 days ago • 1 min read
I've been chased, barked at, and even bitten once. All part of the job when you're in lawn care. The thing people don't tell you when you start mowing lawns professionally? You're not just dealing with grass. You're dealing with dogs. Big ones. Yappy ones. Escape artists. Stealth poopers. At first, it was a hassle. You show up to work, and suddenly you're playing defense against a Rottweiler who thinks your weed whacker is a threat to national security. Then one day, I had an idea. Dog...
16 days ago • 1 min read