How To Start A Lawn Care Business In Florida

One of my first businesses when I was younger was mowing lawns for extra money during the summer. I can still remember the joy of saving that cash for months and usually spending it on video games.

Back then, I thought it was just a side hustle and not a serious business. Boy was I wrong.

Fast forward a few decades and my brother in law’s lawn care business in Florida grew to over $300,000 per year and my best friend’s lawn service generates nearly $200,000 each year.

So in this post, I am going to reveal the 7 steps for how to start a lawn care business in Florida that I learned from both of their journeys as well as how they became so successful.

Step 1: Educate Yourself And Get Some Experience If You Have None

Don’t skip this step. You can sink your new lawn care business quickly if you don’t know what you are doing. It’s not just about cutting grass. There’s much more to it than that when you are claiming to be a professional service provider.?

There are tons of YouTube videos about lawn care business tips. I highly recommend spending some time watching them but be sure to watch videos from experts in your state as lawns differ depending on where you are located.?

The best experience you can get is by working for an established lawn service for a few months. If you don’t want to do that, you can provide your lawn care services for free in exchange for the experience.?

Your business’s Google reviews will make or break you so don’t risk getting poor ratings based on your lack of experience.?

I’ve embedded a great starter video below for lawn care businesses in Florida.

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Step 2: Make Sure Your Business Name Is Available & Register It Immediately?

The state of Florida along with most if not all other states, requires you to check the availability of the business name you wish to use and register it.?

You must also apply for and obtain a federal tax identification number with the IRS.?

Both of these tasks can be confusing and time consuming but fortunately, there is a service that will take care of both of these tasks for you absolutely free. You only pay the registration fee for Florida that is the same charge the state requires even if you file it yourself.?

You also get a free business email address with the service, making it a no-brainer as one of your first startup steps. I have included a link to that free service below.

?Step 3: Check With Your State, County & City For Licensing Requirements

I believe the state does not require a special license for lawn service businesses in Florida unless they are applying pesticides or herbicides. However, that should be confirmed with the state before starting.?

Individual counties and cities have their own licensing guidelines. Some require them and some do not so be sure to check with the ones you will be located in and doing business in.?

Step 4: Purchase Proper Commercial Lawn Care Equipment?

Skip the trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s. Their lawn equipment is for residential use and won’t stand up to the harsh conditions of daily commercial use.?

If you have no other options, low cost residential lawn care equipment can get you started until you can afford to upgrade to commercial equipment.?

You want to find a good, local commercial lawn service equipment dealer near you, which shouldn’t be hard to find.?

Visit their location in person to see how personable they are and especially what their customer service policies are. You want someone who will grow with your business, recommend the proper equipment and especially a dealer that will stand by their equipment with a good warranty and repair services.?

Check their Google reviews as your first step in your due diligence process. It can easily cost up to $10,000-$20,000 to get everything you need so if you don’t have that much capital for your startup costs, there are many ways to get financing for your equipment.?

Just Google business or personal loans and look for the lowest interest rate.?

I recommend the Capital One Spark card for business for your monthly business expenses, but not for long term financing of equipment.?

?You get 2% back on all purchases which for my business, equated to over $5,000 in cash back last year. You don’t want to carry a balance but if you pay off your charges each month, there is no interest.?

You can apply here for the Spark Business card.?

Or if your business isn’t established yet, you can get the Capital One Venture card for individuals and use that until your business qualifies for the Spark card. The Venture card only pays 1% but it is still free money. You can apply for the Venture card here.

Step 5: Get Business Insurance

?Most of the big money is in lawn care is with commercial accounts. My brother in law’s lawn service focused exclusively on commercial accounts, which is how he grew it to over $300k per year.

However, they won’t even consider you for a commercial job unless you have insurance.?

Even if you only service residential clients, you want insurance before you get started. There are so many things that can go wrong like a vehicle accident, damaging a customer’s home, vehicle, property, etc.?

Do not even consider starting a lawn care business in Florida without proper insurance.

Step 6: Build A Website?

This is an absolute must because without a website, you will get little to no free traffic from Google. This is critical because it is basically free customers.?

Websites used to be complicated and expensive but not anymore. You can learn how to build one yourself with free YouTube videos but if you don’t have experience building websites, it will be very time consuming and probably won’t look very polished.?

To be honest, it isn't worth your time, which could take a week or two.

You can get a lawn care website built easily for less than $100 by using the information I provided below. You just need website hosting first, which only costs $3 per month.?

If you want to go this route, just use this link to get discounted hosting. Just choose the basic plan at $3 per month, then use this link to get a professional website built for less than $100 that would cost you thousands of dollars if you hired a web design company.

Step 7: Start Getting Lawn Care Customers?

This topic should be an entire post in itself as there are so many ways to get customers. I’m going to give you a few examples below but I am considering putting together a free training that goes more in depth on how service businesses like lawn care, can get a steady stream of commercial and residential customers.?

If that is something you would be interested in, drop a comment below and if I get enough interest in it, I will put one together and reply.?

For now, as I mentioned above, the #1 way to get customers is free traffic from Google. After you get your website built, be sure to set up and claim your Google Business Profile.?

With every customer you service, always ask them to leave you a Google review so you can build a solid profile of 5 star reviews. That will make a big difference with your conversion rate of website visitors to customers.?

Local Facebook groups as well as local sites like Nextdoor are also a great way to get business. People are always asking for recommendations in those groups and many of them allow you to advertise your business for free on certain days of the week.?

I know one local business owner that says he gets all of his business from Google, Nextdoor and referrals, nothing else.

Final Thoughts?

Although commercial lawn care jobs can be extremely lucrative, they are not easy to obtain without connections to the decision makers. However, they will come as you get your business known throughout your community as well as making an effort to reach out and obtain them.?

However, do not focus exclusively on them in the beginning. It is very easy to get residential customers and although you will make much less, if you focus on getting residential customers in one specific area, you can knock them out quickly.?

My best friend’s lawn care business in Florida is mostly residential clients and he does well over six figures per year, so there is money to be made on both sides.?

The pros to a lawn care business in Florida are that you don’t need a college education and it is fairly simple to get started, not to mention that there is no shortage of customers that need your services.?

And the grass slows down its growing during the winter months, which means you get some time off during that season.?

The cons are that from about May-August, it is extremely hot outside, which is where you will be working. You can avoid the most brutal parts of the summer days by working early in the morning and later in the afternoon or evening to offset some of the heat, but it will still be hot.?

But the rewards can be huge, earning more than many college educated professionals. I wish you the best in your journey.

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Frequently Asked Questions?

Do you need a license to have a lawn care business in Florida?

You should always check with the state but it seems at this time that the state does not require a license unless you are applying herbicides or pesticides. Many counties and cities do require a license so you should always check with all 3 before starting.

?How much does a lawn service make in Florida?

I’ve seen some smaller part time lawn services in Florida make $24,000-$36,000, medium size full time ones that earn $100,000 or more and larger ones that make $300,000 to over a million dollars in annual sales.?

How profitable is a lawn mowing business?

That depends on your operating expenses. If you are going it alone with no employees and just one mower, your profit margin will be much higher. If you have several employees and a lot of equipment that is being financed, your margins will be lower but you can usually make it up with more volume. It’s not hard to grow to over six figures with a lawn mowing business.?

How can I start a lawn care business in Florida with no money?

Your biggest expense will be your equipment, hands down. If you finance that equipment, you will need little to no money down. However, it is not possible to start any business without some sort of investment, even if it is just a few hundred dollars.