How to Grow a Grass Cutting Business

I'm Bill Elzey with Showplace Lawns. How to grow a grass cutting business. Well, I've been fortunate. I've had my business for seventeen years, and I like to think that we're doing something right or we wouldn't have been around this long. But, how to do it... the best way is to be honest. Just flat tell the people what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, why you're going to do it. Give them a fair price, and then do everything you said you were going to do. Do it on time. Do it on schedule. Be friendly with the people. Realize that it's their property, not yours. And it's their needs that your trying to meet, not yours. Work with them. A lot of our business today and in the past as well has started with us just simply mowing somebody's yard. We do a mowing job. They like the way we did it and sometimes as much as a year, two years, three years later they will come back to us and ask us for something else and we would do that and prove to them that we could do that as well as the mowing. And they'd ask us to do something else. And a lot of our good accounts over the years have grown from just us mowing their yard at the very beginning. So, the best way to do this is to make sure that you have some very good quality equipment. It's going to be an investment at the very beginning. But you need to get commercial grade equipment that's going to stand up to everything that you're doing and will keep you going long past cheaper versions when they break down. You'll need a truck a trailer. That makes it a lot easier right there to haul your equipment, to start being able to haul some compost and soil and so forth. Start with a lawn mower. Start with an edger with a blade. Be sure that you edge these peoples curbs, sidewalks and driveways. Don't use a weed eater. Don't use a trimmer. Use a blade edger and you can get what's called a stick edger which is like a weed eater but it's got a blade on the end of it. That will put you ahead early because you're going to get a nice straight cut like that. A nice weed eater, a blower, and please learn and practice your blowing techniques of blowing and incorporating back into the yard where it's all nice and clean. Practice does make perfect and practice is going to send you more people your direction. Just don't get in a hurry. Take your time on the property because you're trying to make those people happy. Having them happy is going to provide for you down the road. These are just some simple things to do, to keep in mind, and do. Don't be afraid to learn new things. Keep an eye out on what's going on in the industry. And do your job. Realize this... that you will never know it all. You will make mistakes. But you can learn from your mistakes and you'll be better for it in the long run. These are the best ways to approach growing your grass cutting business.