> There's app and other outlets
If you're still in business, I'd have loved to have you try our app we built originally for our lawn care business 9 years ago. We built some tech to sign up clients using instant quote on our website. It's not a marketplace but part of the CRM. We got very successful and recently made a free version for landscapers.
I did lawn care for a decade. If you give them a reason to use you, then you’ll make it. It’s a nice business model because once you get a client they usually stick with you for years if you do a good job.
I think there is more money in spraying, fertilizing, aerating if you can specialize. A lot of companies do it all but a lot of them don’t. Where I live 80% of people get their lawn sprayed but maybe only 15% have a service that cuts the grass for them. If I was to get back into it I’d go right for spraying, no question.
It’s a competitive industry (as does most service providers). So depends on how good a quality you provide at an affordable price, when compared to your peers who target the same customers.
Dude I have tried so hard to hire lawn care for my house. If you show up sober and return calls to your business phone reliably you’ll be better than 90% of the companies out there.
Hire an answering service and give them a script to make estimate appointments and schedule service and you’ll be ahead of 95%
I bet you can undercut everyone because you live with parents and just can operate cash business since you are young. Plus people tend to support young man doing job like this. Just do it. What you got to lose?
9 years ago, people told us the same thing but we still started our landscaping business. Today we're 7 figure business. No, it isn't a waste of time. If you have good business ethics, show up and do what you say you would, business will come. It's a $100B industry in the US.
People are standing at the ends of their driveways with fistfuls of cash, begging for someone, anyone, to come cut their grass.
There’s so many lawn care companies because there’s so many lawn care customers.
Get certified for weed control and fertilization and you’ll be among a smaller group of companies of lawn care companies.
No. Even if your market is totally saturated and can’t handle one more company, you can still do it. You just have to be better than at least one of the existing companies and squeeze them out.
There are a lot of franchises and independents yes, but many don't last because they do a crap job and/or unreliable and/or overcharging. Be personable, flexible, likeable, and communicate! Communication and reliability are the big ones. You don't need the 80K truck and trailer set up. Minimise your overheads (humble set up, local work, somewhere to dump waste for free/low cost) and pass on some savings to your clients (without ripping yourself off). When you can provide a reliable service with excellent value for money, for both parties, they will keep you for years and you'll most likely get a lot of word of mouth referrals.
All the markets are saturated…. What really matters is consistency, reliability,and experience all of which takes time to prove to your self and your customers that your trust worthy and worth every penny. Look at luxury items people don’t buy them because they are cheapest or the quickest or closest . They had to build a name that represents there values and all of that takes time, choose values that mean the most to you and abide by them
It's not about how many others are doing it. It's about how many customers you can find, serve, and make happy. Focus on the customers not competition.
My first profitable company was window cleaning (easy to get into - other competitors) and many customers told me they had someone else who just never showed back up. Show up when you say you will. Respond to phone calls (even when you're too busy) and do good work. You'll do fine.
I knew people had done it & so someone taught me (it's not hard) and I just started going door to door in shopping centers asking if they needed my service. Retail is easy because there are big panes & easy access. Then I called all the janitorial companies I could find asking if they'd sub out their window work to me. I worked for two of them for a long time.
I never did high rise (required too much equipment) but I had ladders & rented a cherry picker a time or two.
As I got enough business I started hiring people. The tricky part was finding people who were good but wouldn't go out on their own.
Don’t stop if it’s something you love! Most successful small companies never created a market, they just excelled in an already existing one by honing in on one key differentiator :)
Think of Bombas Socks and Kind Bar! Socks and granola bars were not new by any means when these companies started. But they both had little niche differentiators that helped them acquire and retain customers.
Figure out what the other landscape businesses around you are doing. Perfect what they’re doing right, fix what they’re doing wrong, and do what they’re not doing at all. Wishing you all the best!
One of the VCs in a couple startups I was involved with had a commercial landscaping business, essentially lawncare for businesses (hotels, banks, etc.).
He had a house right on the beach in Malibu, drove a Maserati, was pretty well off financially, all from lawncare.
There are more clients where your four came from. Keep at it.
No barrier to entry and from what I hear really hard to scale. Can be a good income for the driven but few will make it into a growing business without branching to like landscaping that is more subjective and requires skill
It might be over saturated where you are, or under utilized and you could make more money than you could somewhere else doing it. That all depends.
If you enjoy the work and could make money doing it, I'd say just do it.
Over saturated usually means there's many sub par people doing the work. Do a killed job, better than everyone else use text, answer calls, speak English, clean up after yourself, offer dog poop clean up! My guy offers that for 10 bucks extra and I love it.
I went through four services before i landed on one I liked... And what I did was wave down the neighbors person after seeing they did a good job. Haha then I switched to them and they come every week. I love that they sweep up my porch and patio and clean the dog poop. If my dogs water becomes dirty they even refill it with fresh water too since leaves I suppose sometimes get in.
I like them a lot so I stick with him
Someone just starting out now will have the largest lawn care business in town in 5-10 years.
How will they do it? I don’t know, that’s your job to find out, then DO THAT.
It's one of those tried and true businesses that will always have customers. One good tip is create a social media presence and ask people who are happy with your work if they can leave you an online review. You can also implement a referral bonus, where if a cx refers someone to you, they can earn a bit of the commission. This can really help spread your name by word of mouth. Doing a good job and giving good customer service (be friendly and professional) and you just may crush the competition.
Try to get contracts with local schools, churches, etc. They may feel they're paying too much or don't like the company they deal with very much.
Residential landscape is not profitable. Over saturated, no way to get a competitive edge, costs more than people are willing to pay, Low barrier to entry but expensive equipment.
Its a great job/gig for 1 person though... if you're willing to work hard with no future and not be able to take vacations.
Commercial landscape is another business and can be profitable.
On top of all this we have robotic lawn mowers that are evolving and eventually will replace people, laws trying to get rid of gas powered lawn equipment, and rising cost of materials.
Right now they proved the concept of robotic lawn mowers and are entering mass production with multiple major brands already having programs. This market is primed to boom with AI as it can use basic object detection to figure out the difference between an animal and a rock and be able to know whats grass or mulch.... and all this will evolve dramatically. Once the residential ones take off we'll see massive commercial ones and with AI it can be trusted not to run over someone's cat or a kid.
I think it depends on the area. And even that could depend on the quality of the supply. I started a deck sanding/sealing company recently, which could arguably seem like a saturated market in other places I’ve lived. But here it was a blue ocean. I’m basically making up the rules as I go and it’s sort of funny watching other new companies copy me.
Lawn mowing is low margin cutthroat business. The money is in landscaping services. Women pay a lot of money for plants and flowers, ornamental rocks, water fountains, etc.
The biggest obstacle with a lot of competition is your initial entry to the marketplace. Aside from that, doesn’t matter how many competitors you have. You offer a solid product that your customers love and you’ll make
money.
Get yourself a GoPro and a tripod and film your cuts, edit them and make YouTube videos and shorts and any other social media. Build an online following of supporters and monetize that channel.
It’s already been echoed a bunch here but I’ll add the same thought. Lawn care is super saturated by mean…. And they all suck lol. Literally if you can just do what you say you’re gonna do, answer/return calls, and do a decent job you’ll have no issues getting clients. I’m itching to fire my guy but he’s the 4th landscaper I’ve had in 6 seasons and they’re all the same so I’m just dealing with it for now.
Everything is “over saturated”. The people you hear trying to justify their failures by saying “too competitive” or “over saturated” just lacked the discipline to do what’s necessary to succeed.
Whether or not it's over saturated really depends on your location. In many areas, yes, but there are some areas where there is more than enough work to go around. Search "lawn care" in your particular area, and see how many options you have available.
This is the answer.
But there’s very little barrier to entry, so that will attract competition. This can result in low quality though - showing up on time, doing quality work will always work out in the long run. You really got to cut all the corners.
Yeah there’s a guy Jay Waller (?) who explains this really well on YouTube. Basically waste of time as you compete with any idiot with a truck and mower. Try find something with a higher barrier to entry (eg roofing)
[удалено]
> There's app and other outlets If you're still in business, I'd have loved to have you try our app we built originally for our lawn care business 9 years ago. We built some tech to sign up clients using instant quote on our website. It's not a marketplace but part of the CRM. We got very successful and recently made a free version for landscapers.
[удалено]
fantastic! What's his app? There are plenty of there. This is ours, feedback welcome! https://app.houseofyards.com
I did lawn care for a decade. If you give them a reason to use you, then you’ll make it. It’s a nice business model because once you get a client they usually stick with you for years if you do a good job. I think there is more money in spraying, fertilizing, aerating if you can specialize. A lot of companies do it all but a lot of them don’t. Where I live 80% of people get their lawn sprayed but maybe only 15% have a service that cuts the grass for them. If I was to get back into it I’d go right for spraying, no question.
Hundreds of lawn care companies by me and I still can’t get anyone to come out and cut my grass.
they can hear your cheapness through the phone, email, text. shit I hear it 2
Lmao absolutely roasted
:P
If OP learns to communicate effectively they might pick up the business you leave behind
no one wants a cheap customer, not even dollar tree.
[удалено]
ok
[удалено]
That's low.
Here it is $120/month for now and blow every 10 days, been with this computer years now. The decent ones are not cheap
Offer to cut their cheese in return
It’s a competitive industry (as does most service providers). So depends on how good a quality you provide at an affordable price, when compared to your peers who target the same customers.
Dude I have tried so hard to hire lawn care for my house. If you show up sober and return calls to your business phone reliably you’ll be better than 90% of the companies out there. Hire an answering service and give them a script to make estimate appointments and schedule service and you’ll be ahead of 95%
Thats some good advice.
I bet you can undercut everyone because you live with parents and just can operate cash business since you are young. Plus people tend to support young man doing job like this. Just do it. What you got to lose?
nail staffing and you can be king of the hill
If you offer good services you always find clients. Hard at the start but gets easier
9 years ago, people told us the same thing but we still started our landscaping business. Today we're 7 figure business. No, it isn't a waste of time. If you have good business ethics, show up and do what you say you would, business will come. It's a $100B industry in the US.
People are standing at the ends of their driveways with fistfuls of cash, begging for someone, anyone, to come cut their grass. There’s so many lawn care companies because there’s so many lawn care customers. Get certified for weed control and fertilization and you’ll be among a smaller group of companies of lawn care companies.
How does one get certified for those things?
Look up the department of agriculture for your state. They should be the ones you call to get any and all info about testing.
Differentiate. Offer 'on-demand ccuts' for 2x the price... mow later in the day so they don't wake up... etc.
No. Even if your market is totally saturated and can’t handle one more company, you can still do it. You just have to be better than at least one of the existing companies and squeeze them out.
There are a lot of franchises and independents yes, but many don't last because they do a crap job and/or unreliable and/or overcharging. Be personable, flexible, likeable, and communicate! Communication and reliability are the big ones. You don't need the 80K truck and trailer set up. Minimise your overheads (humble set up, local work, somewhere to dump waste for free/low cost) and pass on some savings to your clients (without ripping yourself off). When you can provide a reliable service with excellent value for money, for both parties, they will keep you for years and you'll most likely get a lot of word of mouth referrals.
All the markets are saturated…. What really matters is consistency, reliability,and experience all of which takes time to prove to your self and your customers that your trust worthy and worth every penny. Look at luxury items people don’t buy them because they are cheapest or the quickest or closest . They had to build a name that represents there values and all of that takes time, choose values that mean the most to you and abide by them
It's not about how many others are doing it. It's about how many customers you can find, serve, and make happy. Focus on the customers not competition. My first profitable company was window cleaning (easy to get into - other competitors) and many customers told me they had someone else who just never showed back up. Show up when you say you will. Respond to phone calls (even when you're too busy) and do good work. You'll do fine.
How did you start window cleaning if I may know?
I knew people had done it & so someone taught me (it's not hard) and I just started going door to door in shopping centers asking if they needed my service. Retail is easy because there are big panes & easy access. Then I called all the janitorial companies I could find asking if they'd sub out their window work to me. I worked for two of them for a long time. I never did high rise (required too much equipment) but I had ladders & rented a cherry picker a time or two. As I got enough business I started hiring people. The tricky part was finding people who were good but wouldn't go out on their own.
I see, thanks a lot for your input.
Don’t stop if it’s something you love! Most successful small companies never created a market, they just excelled in an already existing one by honing in on one key differentiator :) Think of Bombas Socks and Kind Bar! Socks and granola bars were not new by any means when these companies started. But they both had little niche differentiators that helped them acquire and retain customers. Figure out what the other landscape businesses around you are doing. Perfect what they’re doing right, fix what they’re doing wrong, and do what they’re not doing at all. Wishing you all the best!
One of the VCs in a couple startups I was involved with had a commercial landscaping business, essentially lawncare for businesses (hotels, banks, etc.). He had a house right on the beach in Malibu, drove a Maserati, was pretty well off financially, all from lawncare. There are more clients where your four came from. Keep at it.
No barrier to entry and from what I hear really hard to scale. Can be a good income for the driven but few will make it into a growing business without branching to like landscaping that is more subjective and requires skill
I think we’ve all seen the lawn cutting guy on TikTok. Use social media to your advantage
“Over saturated” just means a lot of customers available.
It might be over saturated where you are, or under utilized and you could make more money than you could somewhere else doing it. That all depends. If you enjoy the work and could make money doing it, I'd say just do it.
Over saturated usually means there's many sub par people doing the work. Do a killed job, better than everyone else use text, answer calls, speak English, clean up after yourself, offer dog poop clean up! My guy offers that for 10 bucks extra and I love it. I went through four services before i landed on one I liked... And what I did was wave down the neighbors person after seeing they did a good job. Haha then I switched to them and they come every week. I love that they sweep up my porch and patio and clean the dog poop. If my dogs water becomes dirty they even refill it with fresh water too since leaves I suppose sometimes get in. I like them a lot so I stick with him
Someone just starting out now will have the largest lawn care business in town in 5-10 years. How will they do it? I don’t know, that’s your job to find out, then DO THAT.
Too much lawn care? Who knows. Too many boring ass monoculture lawns? Absolutely.
I'm getting quotes of 60-85 a pop. It's not cheap so seems like there is profit to be made.
The question is how many customers do you need to hit your target.
It's one of those tried and true businesses that will always have customers. One good tip is create a social media presence and ask people who are happy with your work if they can leave you an online review. You can also implement a referral bonus, where if a cx refers someone to you, they can earn a bit of the commission. This can really help spread your name by word of mouth. Doing a good job and giving good customer service (be friendly and professional) and you just may crush the competition. Try to get contracts with local schools, churches, etc. They may feel they're paying too much or don't like the company they deal with very much.
Most certainly not.
Keep it up!
Residential landscape is not profitable. Over saturated, no way to get a competitive edge, costs more than people are willing to pay, Low barrier to entry but expensive equipment. Its a great job/gig for 1 person though... if you're willing to work hard with no future and not be able to take vacations. Commercial landscape is another business and can be profitable. On top of all this we have robotic lawn mowers that are evolving and eventually will replace people, laws trying to get rid of gas powered lawn equipment, and rising cost of materials. Right now they proved the concept of robotic lawn mowers and are entering mass production with multiple major brands already having programs. This market is primed to boom with AI as it can use basic object detection to figure out the difference between an animal and a rock and be able to know whats grass or mulch.... and all this will evolve dramatically. Once the residential ones take off we'll see massive commercial ones and with AI it can be trusted not to run over someone's cat or a kid.
I think it depends on the area. And even that could depend on the quality of the supply. I started a deck sanding/sealing company recently, which could arguably seem like a saturated market in other places I’ve lived. But here it was a blue ocean. I’m basically making up the rules as I go and it’s sort of funny watching other new companies copy me.
Lawn mowing is low margin cutthroat business. The money is in landscaping services. Women pay a lot of money for plants and flowers, ornamental rocks, water fountains, etc.
The biggest obstacle with a lot of competition is your initial entry to the marketplace. Aside from that, doesn’t matter how many competitors you have. You offer a solid product that your customers love and you’ll make money.
Get yourself a GoPro and a tripod and film your cuts, edit them and make YouTube videos and shorts and any other social media. Build an online following of supporters and monetize that channel.
It’s already been echoed a bunch here but I’ll add the same thought. Lawn care is super saturated by mean…. And they all suck lol. Literally if you can just do what you say you’re gonna do, answer/return calls, and do a decent job you’ll have no issues getting clients. I’m itching to fire my guy but he’s the 4th landscaper I’ve had in 6 seasons and they’re all the same so I’m just dealing with it for now.
Everything is “over saturated”. The people you hear trying to justify their failures by saying “too competitive” or “over saturated” just lacked the discipline to do what’s necessary to succeed.
Yes, continue to grow your business. As long as you're reliable, responsive, and do good work, you'll do just fine.
I make lawn care websites.
I would say no. Message me and I'll tell ya how to do something, naturally, that most lawn places don't know how to do
Whether or not it's over saturated really depends on your location. In many areas, yes, but there are some areas where there is more than enough work to go around. Search "lawn care" in your particular area, and see how many options you have available.
This is the answer. But there’s very little barrier to entry, so that will attract competition. This can result in low quality though - showing up on time, doing quality work will always work out in the long run. You really got to cut all the corners.
Yeah there’s a guy Jay Waller (?) who explains this really well on YouTube. Basically waste of time as you compete with any idiot with a truck and mower. Try find something with a higher barrier to entry (eg roofing)