I started mowing lawns at 15 because I didn’t want to make $3/hr working at Dairy Queen or Sonic. I mowed yards through high school and was probably making more money than many of my teachers.

My dad is a successful artist and never worked for the man… so growing up I never thought I needed to work for someone else. Through mowing lawns I got the taste for being my own boss and making good money.

My freshman year of college I got out of the lawn care business… I was burned out.

Since that time I’ve founded and been part of multiple companies. Several in the service industry and several in the software industry. The businesses I’m part of now and have been part of in the past experience annual earnings ranging from the mid hundreds of thousands to well over 10 million per year.

Business is really good but I’ve made plenty of ‘learning’ mistakes along the way. Daily I learn something new.

I love marketing, applying technology to systems and building companies. I’d go broke before I went to work for someone else to build their company.

Today I own and oversee three companies. One is a lawn maintenance company that has over 3000 full service residential and commercial clients. Through another, Service Autopilot, I offer high end consulting advice on how to grow lawn care companies fast and how to turn them into real businesses that are fun to own and generally free of stress.

Service Autopilot is also the most comprehensive lawn care software solution in the lawn service industry. It’s the exact same solution that runs our service companies and made it possible to build them so quickly.

I live just north of Dallas TX.  I’m married with two boys.  When my schedule permits I prefer to spend my time auto-racing, snow boarding or mountain biking.

I also enjoy sharing what I’ve learned. Hence… LawnCareMillionaire.com. A completely FREE site for guys like you and me working to build lawn care companies.

Question
Does the fact that I am a female owning and operating as my own crew, does that discourage people when I advertise?

Answer:
No way. Don’t let this bother you. It’s an advantage!

I’m going to make the assumption that you currently provide residential lawn care service.

I can tell you with certainty that the female of the household is most often influencing the buying decision. Most women are either looking for the new lawn care service provider or they are telling their husband to get it done.

Just because the husband makes the call — that doesn’t mean the lady of the house wasn’t the one that made it (finally) happen. She probably did the research and told him who to call.

This isn’t how it always happens but the statistic is well over 50%.

So. This is your competitive advantage. If I were you I would promote the fact that your business is female owned. This is very rare in the lawn business (especially the part about working in the field while you build your business).

All of your door hangers, your website, and your marketing material must have your personality in it. Make yourself the celebrity of the business and play it up.

Use this advantage to set yourself apart. Moving forward I would even look for ways to hire women to help you build, run and do the work of the business.

Most lawn care companies all look exactly the same to the consumer. They all say the same thing. You have an opportunity to get attention and look different than all the rest.

Who knows… there may be a few guys out there that wrongly assume your quality won’t be that of a male owned business. Who cares?!? They aren’t the customer you want. All you have to do is connect with a small percentage of the marketplace, treat them well, give them great service and good quality and they will be very loyal to you.

And they will talk about you to their friends!

I promise… if you think this is a negative you have to stop telling yourself that. This is an advantage.

Question:
Where can I buy lawn mowers at wholesale prices?

Answer:
Even if we were buying 100 mowers at one time we would negotiate a deal with the vendors in our local market.

Every December we test the market to see if the price we are paying for equipment and supplies is still extremely competitive (we buy most of the equipment and supplies we anticipate needing for the upcoming year in December for tax reasons).
Over the years we have spent a lot of time looking around for the very best prices. The prices we can negotiate in the local market are generally as good as any we can find.

Note: If you want maximum negotiating power buy all of your lawn care equipment at once.

Even if we were able to slightly beat the local vendors we normally buy mowers, line trimmers, stick edges, trailers, truck beds, etc from by buying out of state or 100 miles away — we would continue to purchase from the local vendors we have relationships with.

I firmly believe that if we take care of our vendors and send them a lot of business they will take care of us in a hurry when we need very fast service. (Or need them to help us find a new employee.)
If not, we will find another local vendor next year when we make a very large equipment purchase.

We try to be very loyal to our vendors as long as they are good to us and remain very competitive on price.

Question:
How Can I Learn About Irrigation and Irrigation Systems?

Answer:
The fastest way to learn the irrigation business is to locate the vendors in your local area – the guys that sell the parts. They can tell you where to get licensed. They can teach you a lot. Many of them run workshops and classes. There is a lot to learn about pipe sizes, flow rates, pressure, heads and the different controllers… they can advise you all of this and guide you on how to best learn it.

Remember… they want to sell you parts. Go visit them in person. Don’t just call them up and ask questions. Go see them. You will get more attention and respect from them in person than you will over the phone.

The state will require you to get licensed. So they provide books and manuals to prepare. This too will teach you a lot. My experience has been that you must also attend classes prior to taking your irrigators test. You will learn a lot in these classes.

Also, Google search irrigation magazines. Subscribe to every magazine you can find on the subject and start reading them. For example, look at www.igin.com.

There is also information that can be learned on forums such as www.lawnsite.com. Remember, forum advice isn’t always accurate but it can be very helpful.

Amazon probably has books on the subject. Search on something like… irrigation installation.

To learn about licensing in your state search on something like… irrigation license ‘yourstate’.

The vendors that sell the parts will be your very best initial source… they will be able to lead you to all of your other sources. If you don’t already have a business, consider working under someone for a short while and learning. Hands on training is the best way to learn the irrigation business.

1) Figure out your business name.

2) Register your business name with GoDaddy.com.

3) If you can afford it – register your business as an S Corp or LLC from day one. Budget $300 to $400 if you use a service like LegalZoom.com.

4) The same is true for your trademark. If funds are tight I would at least file the LLC or S Corp and hold on the Trademark.

5) If you register a different LLC or S Corp entity name than the name you plan to call your business you must file a DBA (use LegalZoom.com).

6) If you can’t afford to form an LLC or S Corp register for an assumed name certificate at the county courthouse. You can use your social security number. As soon as you can afford it… file to become an LLC or S Corp.

7) Setup your business bank accounts from day one. They are nearly free. This is very important. First file as an S Corp or LLC or Sole Proprietor or Partnership (Assumed Name Certificate at the courthouse) and then visit the bank and setup your business bank accounts.

If offered, take the credit card the bank offers with your business account but do not use it. File it away only to be used for emergencies. Debt (too many high monthly payments) runs more small business owners out of business than you would expect).

9) If you are starting your business with a partner consider a Buy Sell Agreement.

10) File for a sales tax permit. (you can generally do this online in your local city)

11) Look for a great inexpensive software tool that has the potential to run all facets of your business as you grow. Obviously we recommend Service Autopilot (http://www.LawnServiceSoftware.com). Regardless of which solution you ultimately chose this is critical.

12) If you are just getting started and you are not using Service Autopilot consider buying QuickBooks day one and getting your business off to the right start financially. By the way, at http://www.lawnservicesoftware.com/ you can get free software that when you’re small will allow you to delay the purchase of QuickBooks – it will do everything you need for now.

13) Create a simple file folder structure in a small two drawer file cabinet and keep all of your paperwork and files organized. If you wait until the end of the year to record your financial records in QuickBooks and organize your bank statements and paperwork you will be miserable come tax time. This is one of the easiest ways to minimize costly tax mistakes.

14) At year end clear all of your file folders from the file cabinet and put them in a box. Start all of your file folders fresh for the new tax year. Label the box. This will help keep all of your important paper work organized by tax year.Once again, if you are not using Service Autopilot consider setting up QuickBooks so you can use their built in credit card charging functionality. Service Autopilot automates the process for you but if you are not a Service Autopilot user QuickBooks has a fairly easy to use manual process. Accepting and charging your clients credit cards is a great way to speed up your businesses cash flow and get paid fast and on time.