How to Start a Lawn Care Business With NO MONEY

When exploring how to start a lawn care business with no money, it’s important to know the essential steps to ensure long-term success.

Exploring how to start a lawn care business with no money can serve as a fun challenge.

However, it’s important to know where to get started as well as how much it will cost.

Even though money can help you to grow faster, it’s not the only way to start a lawn care business.

In fact, quick excess cash can also kill a business. 

In this article, you'll get all the insider tips and tools you need to discover how to start a lawn care business with no money by:

• Taking small steps that reap great rewards
• Pricing your services for maximum profitability
• Choosing the right name to represent your brand
• Protecting your business with the right bonding and insurance
• Selecting the right standardized fleets for your trucks and equipment
• Leveraging the best, proven marketing strategies to increase conversions
• Automating everyday operations to scale faster and maximize resources

Take SMALL Steps With BIG Rewards

Although you may have dreams of growing quickly, it’s important to start at the right pace.

Despite the common misconception, starting at the right pace doesn’t typically mean a massive investment of cash.

After all, there is a lot of learning that happens in those early days.

Use those startup days as a way to:

• Determine your types of service offerings
• Discover the neighborhoods you want to take over
• Implement a robust plan for consistent, long-term growth

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need luxury, top-of-the-line equipment to get started.

Set aside some money to buy an affordable lawn mower to get started. 

Start out solo with a simple 2-3 lawn care services you can get really great at, and then work from there.

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Name Your Business

What’s in a name? It’s the first thing every customer sees about you. Every dollar you spend on lawn care marketing will include your business name. It’s something you’re going to think about every day for the life of your business.

While knowing how to name your lawn care business is incredibly important, don’t overthink it.

Your business name should be simple. And so, if a client has to think about your clever pun to determine that you perform lawn maintenance service, your name is too complicated.

Names DO NOT need to be:

• Cute
• Overly Detailed
• [Your Name]'s Lawn Service

You want to pick 2-3 words that you will own in your market. These should be words related to your service. When you have some words in mind, check to see if a domain name with those words and your city is available (e.g. “ClassyMowingDallas.com”).

One of the first steps in how to start a lawn care business with no money is picking a name.

Remember, your business name is how your leads and clients will discover your business. Since you’ll need to register your business name as well as create a website, it’s important to choose a business name that’s not already in use.

While knowing how to name your business is incredibly important, don’t overthink it.

Take a look at a few basic things to keep in mind:

• Check to see if the domain name is available
  • E.g. [www.lawncarebusinessname.com]
• Keep it a simple 2-3 words that are easily memorable
• Select a name that best utilizes SEO practices for your website

Check to see if the business name is already registered in your state

Protect Your Business for Future Success

Operating a legitimate business means taking some extra steps to ensure long-term success:

• Register BEFORE rendering services
  • E.g. Meet with a trusted CPA (i.e. Certified Public Accountant) to ensure you get properly registered
• Get your business properly bonded and insured
  • E.g. commercial liability insurance, workers’ compensation, etc.

Secure an EIN (i.e. employee identification number, for U.S.) or SIN (i.e. social insurance number, for Canada) BEFORE hiring anyone

Standardize Your Fleets

While you might not be thinking of standardizing fleets just yet, it’s important to choose vehicles and equipment with nearby dealers in mind.

In turn, standardizing your fleets of vehicles and equipment allows you to:

• Quickly train employees on standard equipment
• Easily get vehicles and equipment serviced by local dealers
• Keep basic parts in stock in the shop for all fleets of equipment and vehicles

Remember, a great brand is useless to your business if you can’t quickly get it serviced 15 minutes from your shop or storage unit.

By choosing a brand your local dealer readily services, you can reduce the chances of getting behind on jobs that result in lost profits due to long service wait times.

Do you KNOW if your jobs are PROFITABLE?

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Price Your Services for Maximum Profit

When exploring how to start a lawn care business with no money, it’s crucial to know how to set your prices for maximum profit.

Remember, in order to scale in the future and begin hiring employees, you’ll need a comfortable profit margin

Take a look at a few basic things to keep in mind when setting your prices:

• Track your time on each job
• Raise prices on clients not meeting profit goals
• Test new prices on your least profitable clients first (before rolling it out to more profitable ones)

By the way, did you know that you can easily track time spent on jobs by using Service Autopilot while on-the-go?

Plus, Service Autopilot also allows you to:

• Access same-day, automated payments
• Generate rapid estimates from anywhere
• Instantly create perfectly optimized routes
• Use the reports center to find and fix profit holes
• And so MUCH MORE!

Grow Your Lawn Care Business... Faster 
(and with Less Stress)​

Instant invoicing

Better scheduling

Manage your clients and employees all in one system

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Start Marketing to Win Your First Clients

As you’re discovering how to start a lawn care business with no money, it’s important to leave room for marketing expenses in your budget.

By far, marketing is one of the best ways to quickly win clients, take over entire neighborhoods, and beat the local competition.

Take a look at a few simple ways you can start marketing your business:

• Manage at least 1-2 social media platforms
• Take advantage of 9-arounds with flyers and door hangers

Implement a client referral program to replicate your best clients

Get 7 of our best performing flyers (tested over 8+ years), put into print-ready templates.

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Put Your Everyday Business Operations on Autopilot

You DESERVE the best lawn care software that’s going to work as hard as you do for your business.

You need software with:

• Two-Way QuickBooks sync
• Accessible client accounts from anywhere
• Track employees and job progress on-the-go
• Flexible scheduling to easily schedule recurring jobs
• Automatically price jobs based on your best numbers

AND so much MORE!

With Service Autopilot, you can automate your everyday tasks with this all-in-one software solution—simultaneously saving you time and money.

No more...

• Sticky notes
• Wasted time
• Spreadsheets
• Late payments
• Forgotten estimate follow-ups

Now, THAT is the power of Service Autopilot.

Automations is the  #1 way to follow up  with clients. If you’re not using it, your business might still be successful - but it won’t grow. 

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In Service Autopilot, our automations send emails and texts to:​

Every lead after an estimate is completed

Clients after their property has been serviced​

Remind leads and clients to send you customer feedback​

Update outdated or declined payment information​

Inform them when a service can’t be completed due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. weather)​

Remind them of maintenance tips (i.e. putting a cover on the outdoor faucet before the winter)​

Start Automations Tour

Get Started: How to Start a Lawn Care Business With No Money

Now, you know how to start a lawn care business with no money by doing things like:

• Pricing your services for optimal profitability
• Taking advantage of proven marketing strategies
• Choosing the best lawn care software to streamline daily operations

Use the pro tips in this article, to start growing your own successful lawn care business today!

Related: Inside Secrets to Success with Jonathan Pototschnik

Originally published Feb 15, 2018 7:00 AM, updated October 2, 2023 1:09 PM