Starting a lawn care business

I am starting a lawn business as well. Where do you find good employees? Is there anywhere that you can buy lower priced mowers? How do you get into landscaping. I started a website to advertise Thelawnfather.com

You can't find good employees. The good ones leave you... And they should Craigslist and local classifieds

The Lawn Father said:

I am starting a lawn business as well. Where do you find good employees? Is there anywhere that you can buy lower priced mowers? How do you get into landscaping. I started a website to advertise Thelawnfather.com

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You can find employees or guys all day long that think they know the business only to find out at the end of the day they know nothing about the equipment there trying to run or anything about lawn care. Really good employees are hard too find. A good man on a trimmer, edger and using a blower and doing detail work can make or break a business.

Ric said:

You can find employees or guys all day long that think they know the business only to find out at the end of the day they know nothing about the equipment there trying to run or anything about lawn care. Really good employees are hard too find. A good man on a trimmer, edger and using a blower and doing detail work can make or break a business.

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Lets try something else. Suppose you hired a new guy. The guy knows nothing about lawn care except what he learned cutting the grass at home as a kid but he's a good worker. How do you teach him... what do you teach him?

Mike88se said:

Lets try something else. Suppose you hired a new guy. The guy knows nothing about lawn care except what he learned cutting the grass at home as a kid but he's a good worker. How do you teach him... what do you teach him?

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One case scenario is if the guy new nothing about lawn-care I probably wouldn't hire him even with a good work ethic and the reason is he doesn't want to be there because as you and I know someone who's swinging a trimmer or using an edger isn't making any money, they can't support a family on what they would be making and chances are there not going to be happy after they find out how much work it really is and there not going to stay long. The real money is having your own business.

Now if the individual is good, wants to work with me to know what equipment and mowers I use to do the job and demo the stuff and wants to work with me to learn how I approach the job in the field I don't have a problem with that. As far as teaching goes, that's something you really can't do, you can only offer opinions on how to do the job and what works for you, every business out there will do things differently. What your wanting to know I just did with an individual who wanted to start there own business. I worked with the guy for a month and a half, let him use the stander, ztr every piece of equipment we own, the guy is good and will do well. He went down to the dealer and spent 14K on a GS and all the equipment to do the job and he is on his own now and has a number of clients. The thing is you can't teach lawn-care, it's a passion and if you don't have that passion stay at home.

Mike88se said:

Lets try something else. Suppose you hired a new guy. The guy knows nothing about lawn care except what he learned cutting the grass at home as a kid but he's a good worker. How do you teach him... what do you teach him?

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I had a guy who worked with me for a while who when I hired him knew very little about lawn care and how to use equipment properly and efficiently, but had a great work ethic and would do anything I asked. To me this was great. I could teach him how I wanted things done and he didn't have any bad habits or muscle memory form his own experiences with the equipment. It only took about two weeks to where I didn't have to go behind him and check to see if he did everything correctly. He was also the the type of guy who didn't want to be a boss or had any ambition of starting his own lawn care service because he already had a full time job. He turned out to be the best helper I ever had.

You could find students. They are willing to work for some money and can learn.

My partner who helps me a few days a week is very good. He is the not the fastest, but he is really good at making nice straight lines and trimming too. He also knows about grass a bit and he likes the work. I am happy with that.

When he had to go back to school, I needed someone else to help me out for another month. I was desperate and asked the step brother if he could help me. I put him on the mower thinking he could be good at it, because trimming is a little harder (don't want to scalp the lawn). He was not good on the mower, because he never really used one. So, I put him on the trimmer and I had never, in my whole life, seen someone trim like that! He was incredible and I forgot that he lived on a 4 acre lot with 2 acres of grass and trees. He would help his dad trim around the trees. I parked him on that trimmer all night every week and my trimmer had one hell of a workout! So, you can find people that can learn to cut. Learning is something anyone can do in life. It just takes a little time.

Yeah I guess my real question was what can you teach. Not talking about care of equipment really or speed... more like technique. Almost anybody can do a decent job edging, trimming, cutting grass... but to do it right and make a lawn look great and keep it healthy and thriving for a good paying customer is different.

Mike88se said:

Yeah I guess my real question was what can you teach. Not talking about care of equipment really or speed... more like technique. Almost anybody can do a decent job edging, trimming, cutting grass... but to do it right and make a lawn look great and keep it healthy and thriving for a good paying customer is different.

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You're correct when you say anyone can do Lawn-care but not everyone can do it right. You're also correct in the fact that people can be train to do lawn-care but not many can make enough money to support a family when working for someone else and they don't last long. As far as technique goes everyone is going to be different. If you want to teach anything teach Efficiency, it is key. I think the real education has to come in knowing how to use the equipment efficiently. Knowing that, knowing where to start and know what direction to go with hand held equipment can save a lot of time and product/money for a business. You would be surprised at how many people I see use a trimmer backwards, it's unreal.

The biggest problem I see with most lawn company's and the people they have working for them is time wasted, retracing there steps and making a job that should have taken twenty minutes end up taking thirty to forty finish and all the time that's put on equipment running that's not necessary.

Ric said:

You're correct when you say anyone can do Lawn-care but not everyone can do it right. You're also correct in the fact that people can be train to do lawn-care but not many can make enough money to support a family when working for someone else and they don't last long. As far as technique goes everyone is going to be different. If you want to teach anything teach Efficiency, it is key. I think the real education has to come in knowing how to use the equipment efficiently. Knowing that, knowing where to start and know what direction to go with hand held equipment can save a lot of time and product/money for a business. You would be surprised at how many people I see use a trimmer backwards, it's unreal.

The biggest problem I see with most lawn company's and the people they have working for them is time wasted, retracing there steps and making a job that should have taken twenty minutes end up taking thirty to forty finish and all the time that's put on equipment running that's not necessary.

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I didn't know there was a way for trimming. Well, kinda, but I usually walk forward with it, but I also sometimes walk backwards with it.

Other thing with Lawn company's is that some buy stuff they just don't need and end up with big overhead. I buy what I need. I have one of everything as of now of commercial grade. This year I plan to get a secondary trimmer for back up and maybe a bigger mower or walk-behind. Some just go all out and buy two trimmers, blowers, edgers, mowers and they are alone or with one guy. I explain to my employee that once the person with the mower is done, this person packs up everything in my truck and starts passing the blower if I am not done trimming or mowing. Once this person is done, she waits for the other in the truck, ready to go for the next job. A minute saved here and another there can add up after a long day of work.