Starting next season

Great you are thinking\planning now for next year.

ADVERTISING:
Flyers/Doorhangers is a good way to start AND keep your target area tightly focused. Look at Vista Print (or something similar) for professional looking door hangers. VP will also help with design for a small fee. Expect about a 1% call ratio: you hang 100 door hangers, you get 1 phone call (not necessarily the job).

Get yourself on a local facebook community page. It is free and again targets local clients. You don't need to create your own page, most will allow maybe 1 business post per week (check what your community allows).

Get on Google for Business. It is free, provides you a free pre-canned website where you can upload photos/post/etc and allows people who are actually looking to come to you VS flyers => you going to them. Again: limit your target area to a specific zip code, town, etc.

TIMING:
Doorhangers I would put up 4 to 6 weeks in advance of mowing season start. Most folks wait until the last minute to find someone.

Facebook I would put up 4 to 6 weeks in advance of mowing season start.

I would get a free Google for Business site stood up by Jan 1, 2024. Don't wait until the last minute.

Don't quit you day job (landscaping). Don't attempt to 'steal' customers from your landscaper if he also does mowing. Talk to current employer before end of this season to see if you can work part time in 2024 while you start out. I've seen many on here claim it takes about 3 years until you have a good feel for a new business. I find that advice to be SPOT ON.

FIGURE OUT YOUR TARGET SIZE LAWN:
Get 3 to 5 estimates from non low-ball competitors for YOUR TARGET SIZE LAWN. This will indicate what the actual going rate it. If you don't own a lawn to get estimate on, use parents or a friend that is willing to get the estimates.

BUY MOWER(S) BASED ON TARGET SIZE LAWN:
If you're targeting 1/4 acre lawns start small with something like a 32" or 36". If you're targeting 1/2 acre lawns consider a 48" or 52" walk behind or stander...

FIGURE OUT A TARGET AREA (town, zip code, neighborhoods, etc):
Try to limit yourself from driving all over the place to get from one job to the next. Gas, oil, maintenance costs $$$ in time and money. If you drive 30 minutes from 1 job to the next, you either need to charge more OR eat that cost yourself.

SET A MINIMUM PRICE AND STAND FIRM.

I run the mow route for current company. 3 out of the 4 mow days i run solo. We're at 65 or so accounts. I would say we bill around 4k a week (i dont know the actual number)10 of those are commercial sized accounts( I want to get to these kind of numbers for myself) Mon. Tues. Wed. Are 13 hr routes Thursday our together day is about 10hrs. I would never ever steal customers that has already been discussed. That's not the kind of person I am. I will almost definataly be working part time for him next season or 2 or 3 as my bussiness grows. I will need to start with smaller ztrs to fit my current trailer. Thinking a 48 or 52 ztr maybe a 36 stander or walkbehind. I have a 30 timemaster already. My idea is to start mostly residential (there is alot of $ within 30min of me). Then as my business and trailer and my money grows get into a 60" or 72" and start looking at commercial. By year 3 I want to get into the aeration/overseed game. By yr5 I want to be in the organic fert side of it as well. My goal is to be grossing over 100k by yr 5 solo. Just during mow season. Is this reasonable?

You're near Indianapolis, so a 7-8 month mow season? What are you going to do for income those other months?

I'm on year 3 of a "never supposed to get this big" solo part-time OP. I invoice around $1000 a week, mowing only. (With a day job.) A couple thoughts...



* Residential customers suck. Not all of them, but by comparison...

* Small commercial accounts are where it's at, for me. They're far less picky, more dependable for repeat business, and there's little hassle over invoicing or payment. For a moonlighter like me, these accounts work out well, because I come and mow after business hours, so there's no disruption to their business, and it makes it easy for me to come do the work.

* Mowing 60-80 yards solo, is going to be exhausting. Unless you're talking about the ideal scenario of 5 cookie cutter lots in a row, at a time. It takes time for those to "grow" from 1-5 houses at a stop.

* I do some sub-contract mowing for a friend. This might be an avenue if you're super critical to your current employer. Maybe save this conversation for later. If you leave, and he doesn't have a "mow guy", then talk to him about doing the mowing for him. Expect him to keep 20% of whatever he's charging the customers. This would allow you to supplement your customer base with his, and help you both out. Go in with an understanding that the situation is flexible. He's free to add/remove accounts, as are you. Agree on terms, and do good work so that it's a mutual win-win.

* Website - Be very careful when you do your domain search. I don't know what kind of domain lookup registry there is, but I lost my preferrerd domain name by not being ready to commit... I searced, found that it was available, procrastinated, and it was gone when I came back later. Someone snatched it, and it's offered for sale for ransom basically... SO - When you do your domain search, have your credit card with you, and BUY IT RIGHT THEN. You can actually buy the domain name for a few bucks, and don't have to "publish" the website, so it doesn't cost much to buy it & hold it. But don't mess up like I did.

Also, .US domains (any .country I believe) registy info is public, meaning the name, phone number, etc. registered to that address becomes publically visible. The Indian tech people will WEAR YOUR PHONE OUT! trying to get you to buy garbage. SO, if you get a .US domain extension, use a burner phone number when you register it. Nothing is more frustrating than wanting customers to call for quotes, and it's actually the Indian tech spammers bugging you...