If you are looking at changing your career, or just want to supplement your income, then getting into the lawn and garden care/service industry may just be “what the doctor ordered”. There are different ways and approaches to entering the lawn and garden business.
Broadly speaking, there are 2 main ways to get into the business which are:
- Starting with an existing client base
- Starting without an existing client base
If you do not have any customers, and want to purchase an existing customer list then this can be done in 2 ways:
- buy an existing business from an independent contractor. It is important to keep in mind that when you buy someone else’s business you cannot be sure they have priced and quoted their jobs correctly, and you cannot be sure the customers will stay with you or be poached by the former contractor. Or,
- buy a lawn mowing franchise, for example, Jim’s Mowing, VIP, Marks Mowing etc. Jim’s Mowing is a world-wide franchise system, whereas the others are Australian based only. In this case, the franchisor offers a guaranteed income (what is known as the Work Availability Guarantee) for up to around 13 weeks. In short, this income guarantee is bank-rolled by the initial franchise fee (that is, the money you initially paid to buy the lawn mowing franchise)
If you want to start your own business without a customer list then for obvious reasons your income stream will be slow taking off. To counter this, you can pick up immediate income from garden makeovers and odd jobs whilst you build your own lawn mowing customer roster.
