If you could start...

[Steve]

fourseasonlawns said "buy the biggest and best of everything. Anything from your weed-eater, edger and blower, to your truck and trailer. the only thing biggest doesn't apply to, is your mower. but you better buy the best. spend the money now, or spend it later in labor or repairs/replacement."

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[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Glan said "Not a thing On the personal side..........I would do things different."

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[Steve]

daren_r said "Invest in the right equipment the first time around. I have spent more money buying and selling mowers and trailers than I wanted too."

[Steve]

rgm said "man i would have started with the right equip for 1 thing"

[Steve]

allseasonturf said "Went into a different trade. This business is just flooded hands in the work, every where you look a truck with a trailer full a mowing equipment. Now I know folks will say theres plenty of work to go around, but is there really ?"

[Steve]

jazzbo said "I started so long ago there was no other equipment push mower nd a pair of hand shears to trim the grass. But I would have invested more in finding and keeping key employees"

[Steve]

Richard Martin said "I would have (and still can if the mood strikes me) hired a crew to take care of my "every day" lawns and hired a helper to work with me on my #1 jobs. I have over the years turned away so much work it's not funny just because I didn't want to service a particular yard for whatever reason. I could have hired people to do this work and put the money in my pocket."

[Steve]

AltaLawnCare said "There might be plenty of work to do, but because of "Supply and Demand" the most common work is priced on rock bottom. Mow onlys are a dead loss in my area, add that to too many LCOs (and "wanna bes") and low household income and you have a great formula for failure.

What Richard Martin said above is where I'm at...some realistic priced work is FINALLY coming around to me. More and more landscaping, lawn applications, and renovations.

I could write a book on what I'd do differently!

1, Have a good estimating system that covers my true costs well, and know what the market will bear.
2, Have a good estimating system that covers my true costs well, and know what the market will bear. Yes its that important!
3, Start out with lower overhead.
4, Take on residential mow onlys that are grouped together only.
5, Instead of chasing dead-end work, be patient and let the better work come to me.
6, Market premium services...not mow only.
7, Get licensed to spray earlier.
8, Delegate more work earlier.
9, Get a job with a landscape company before starting up..and see how hard the work really is.
10, Keep business debt to a minimum."

[Steve]

Bill Parrish of Fine Lines Lawn "The main thing I would change is to have started earlier. I was 42 when I started this."

[Steve]

BCSteel said "The number one thing is I would have kept my first employee and not turned down any half decent work. Grow, grow, grow.

Second, I would have cracked the whip and dumped my girlfriend. Build my business and grow, grow, grow.

Third, I would have invested time/money in school, for business planning, marketing, etc. either before or during my initial stages of growth.

Fourth, not paid way to #### much for the business that I bought out, even if it did get me into the work that I wanted to do.

This is depressing, thats it for now."