Gardening And Mowing Business

[inverse_bloom 0]

I've been thinking alot about this lately - how hard would it be to set up mowing business? 

Locally for me, its an already filled niche. Approximately a 10 kilometer radius around where i live there are 38 businesses listed in the yellow pages that perform the services described above. About 4 or 5 of those businesses have adverts which contain logo's and colored graphics. Of those 4 or 5 businesses 3 are major franchise businesses. 

After checking about the top competitor franchise, locally known as "Jim's Mowing", they are a fully developed franchise spreading both nationally and some countries internationally. They also have spread into other area's such as "Jim's Antenna's" etc, etc. An article i found here - https://www.jimsmowing.net/afr-success-systems.html describes Jims Mowing as one of the best franchises to get into below $50,000 au dollars (in australia that is).

From this and other information i've gathered Jims Mowing knocks back would be franchisee's who dont seem to cut the mustard. This despite the fact demand for their services currently outstripes supply. 

It seems that many within the biz don't necessarily start with a huge range of gear, just the basics. Often many will invest around $25,000 au into buying an existing business with some attributable clientelle, the rest is business setup and equipment which they are paying for. Although those clientelle aren't guaranteed as they are not under contract usually. 

So it makes me wonder, im not in a hurry and i have all the skills to create corporate branding and also business knowledge to make wise decisions. Basically i would have a look into "Jim's Mowing" processes and business model (as much as possible) and aim to match it, therefore competing well again'st the other smaller biznuses. I'd slowly build up clientelle in my spare time on weekends to start off. 

Not sure, obviously they are just my thoughts. 

Edited October 29, 2009 by inverse_bloom (see edit history)

[Plenoptic 0]

If you are able to invest the time and some money into it i think you probably would be successful. You will only really be competing against more man power as they have so many jobs they are able to higher other employees. If you could find someone to work with for pretty cheap to start out I would recommend it. If you already have the equipment you will probably have less expenses than them also and can afford to charge for a lesser value or if not, you could just offer more to your package that beats Jim's Mowing. A big thing though is I recommend you try and keep good customer relations. If you take the extra time to talk to your customers some and become friendly you may gain an advantage over Jim's even if you cost a little more because you have better relations with your customers. Being so many people out there that need their lawns mowed there is a lot of business out there for you. May not start big now as it is winter but as spring comes around people will start looking for services again. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[inverse_bloom 0]

Actually summer's just starting here (southern hemisphere) . Absolutely agree with you on the customer relations point, i'd always greet with a smile and lightly jest with them. I think that makes enormous differences how customers percieve you, it can make a big difference if you contrast that with somone who is in a rush and is "totally business" with the client. I'd consider keeping the the services at standard price but do an extra service which wasn't asked for. For instance if a customer wanted a mow and whipper snip (line trimming?), i'd for instance weed to add something extra to the service. I'd make a point of it. I do have a friend that kind of interested to go into a potential partnership. The problem is at this point i cant tell if he is cut out for it. For instance my idea to start would be to invest at least half any revenue as equity back into the business to purchase more tools and funds towards advertising. But he will come from the perspective that its a job and will prefer to keep it as simple as that. So i dont know about that, he's my friend but at this point i dont trust that he has the motivation to do what it takes. The other thing is he has about 60-70% of the equipment, though i believe he'd loan use of equipment, no problems. I'm not totally sure about it at this point.

[michelle2010 0]

Many people think that starting a lawn mowing business is easy and that as long as you are prepared to put in some hard work you can at least make a decent living.A lawn care venture is without a doubt one of the easiest small businesses to set up but many small businessmen find themselves unprepared or not suited to the kind of work that a lawn care business involves or are unable to earn much more minimum wage for their efforts.Have you got what it takes to start up a lawn care company and run it profitably?