How to Grow Your Lawn Care Business

While gaining new customers and generating revenue is essential to growing a business, it shouldn’t stop there. The most successful landscaping and lawn care business owners develop a solid strategy to improve operations, enhance customer service, and measure business performance.

Whether starting your own lawn mowing business or running a successful lawn care business, it’s never too late to begin. A business growth plan serves as a blueprint to drive your business forward and bolster long-term growth.

This guide shares tried-and-true strategies to enhance your marketing, customer service, and overall business performance.

Understand Your Target Market and Niche

Targeting the right customer saves time and increases the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

To define your target market, research landscaping and lawn care industry customer demographics and data from your customers. You likely already have this information if you’ve created a lawn care service business plan. Once you know your target market, you can identify potential customers' needs, preferences, and pain points. 

Know your niche or the specialized market for your company’s services. To do this, identify your company’s strengths and unique services that set your company apart from the competition.

It’s a good idea to research other lawn care companies in your area to see their services, customer demographics, and strengths and weaknesses.

Steps to take: 

1. Research your customers: Determine if most of your customers are homeowners or commercial businesses. If homeowners consider demographics such as age, location, income, and home value.

2. Define your niche: Identify what sets your company apart and how you can market your services to a specialized audience. For instance, your company may be an expert in a particular area or offer extra services others don’t offer.

3. Apply your research: Use your newfound knowledge in targeted marketing campaigns to enhance effectiveness and increase conversions.

Build a Strong Brand Identity

It’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day tasks and neglect marketing, but strategizing grows more green for your business. According to Forbes, presenting your brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%.

Your brand identity is how you portray your landscaping or lawn mowing business to potential customers. It includes visual elements and content, including company logo, colors, tagline, and messaging.

A brand identity helps potential customers quickly recognize your company, whether they see your website, business card, truck wrap, or advertisement. Since your brand identity sets your company apart from your competition, it should include unique elements.

Consistently presenting your brand and messaging establishes credibility and trust and makes it more likely for customers to call you when they need lawn care or landscaping services.

Steps to take: 

1. Create your mission statement: Define your company’s values and goals. Your brand identity should align with your mission statement.

2. Identify your place in the market: Research the competition and how your company differs from other lawn service companies.

3. Keep your brand consistent: Your company’s look and messaging should remain consistent, no matter which platform you use. Consider developing a brand style guide to ensure brand consistency.

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

You know good customer service is essential. But just how important? According to Microsoft, a whopping 90% of people use customer service as a factor in deciding whether to do business with a company.

Lawn care and landscaping businesses should prioritize customer service by showing up on time, delivering quality work, and enhancing customer communication.

To streamline customer management, comprehensive software like FieldRoutes^® lawn care enables you to communicate easily with your customers. Using FieldRoutes’ cloud-based platform, you can automate customer appointment reminders or follow-ups with personalized emails, SMS texts, and voicemail messages.

Provide your customers with conveniences other lawn care operations may not offer, such as approving contracts in the field and online payment options. Going above and beyond makes you more likely to retain your customer base and increase word-of-mouth referrals.

Steps to take: 

1. Train your team: Since they represent your company, everyone must deliver top-notch work and stellar customer service.

2. Implement field service management software: Work more efficiently and provide better customer service by keeping customer records in one place and increasing customer communication.

3. Remain responsive: In case of a mistake or a negative customer service experience, quickly perform damage control. Honesty and professionalism go a long way in maintaining good customer relationships.

Invest in Quality Equipment and Tools

Lawn care or mowing service businesses rely on quality equipment to do the job correctly.

While it might be tempting to save money by purchasing cheaper equipment, especially if you’re starting a new business with limited startup costs, skimping on equipment and tools isn’t the way to go.

High-quality equipment and tools typically perform better and require less repair. Buying new equipment gives you the advantage of warranties and cuts down on future repair and maintenance time and costs.

Key lawn care equipment includes:

• Truck and trailer

• Lawnmowers, both zero-turn and push mowers

• String trimmers

• Edgers

• Hedge trimmers

• Leaf blowers

• Spreaders

• Aerators

• Snow removal equipment

• Hand tools

• Safety equipment, such as ear and eye protection

If you’re starting your own lawn care business, it’s also essential to research what business insurance you need. For instance, you’ll need commercial vehicle insurance and equipment insurance, as general liability insurance typically only covers expenses related to customer property or injury damages.

Steps to take: 

1. Research equipment: Decide what type of equipment and tools your business needs, research prices, and read top equipment brand reviews.

2. Secure financing: Explore financing options, such as loans or equipment dealer lease options, to make the best decision for your company.

3. Invest in digital tools: Lawn care software helps you work more efficiently and simplifies daily tasks such as estimating, invoicing, and communicating with customers.

Hire and Train Skilled Staff

In the landscaping and lawn care industry, it’s no secret finding employees during labor shortages may be the most challenging part of business operations.

You’ll need to hire employees for full-time or part-time positions to grow your business. Before posting your job openings, first take the time to develop job descriptions. Not only does this help you make better hiring decisions, but it also clearly communicates job responsibilities and expectations to potential employees.

Pay competitive wages and offer hiring bonuses or other incentives to attract job candidates. Consider posting on national and landscaping job boards. Use your local network to find potential employees and utilize your current employees by offering hiring referral incentives.

Depending on the position, consider training hires with fewer years of experience but display a strong work ethic, attention to detail, and problem-solving abilities.

Once you’ve found employees, don’t stop there. Encourage continuing education and provide opportunities to attend workshops or industry conferences.

Landscaping education and certifications provide credibility for your business and show customers you’re dedicated to providing expert service.

Steps to take: 

1. Develop job descriptions: Identify the skills and responsibilities needed for each position. This provides a clear avenue of communication with potential hires and provides accountability for performance after hiring.

2. Post job openings: Use your local network to post jobs on national and landscaping job boards. Always be on the lookout for a potential hire because a great team is the foundation for business growth.

3. Provide training: Train your employees on company processes and customer service expectations. Offer education opportunities for professional development.

Implement Effective Marketing Strategies

Landscaping and lawn care business owners who develop a marketing plan and measure performance get better results with their marketing dollars.

To plan your marketing strategy, identify your audience and set your marketing goals by defined business metrics. The most effective marketing uses a comprehensive approach and includes several marketing channels.

Lawn care marketing strategies may include:

• An optimized, mobile-friendly website

• Improved online presence through search engine optimization (SEO) and business listings

• Online, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, such as Google Ads

• Email marketing, using templates to simplify campaign creation

• Consistent posting on social media platforms

• Direct mail marketing, such as geographically targeted postcards or door hangers

Instead of manually tracking marketing results, lawn care marketing software, such as ServiceTitan Marketing Pro, simplifies your marketing. When you can measure results, you’re in a better position to achieve your marketing goals.

Steps to take: 

1. Create a marketing plan: Develop this yourself or enlist the help of marketing professionals.

2. Market your business: Use several digital marketing channels based on your audience and messaging.

3. Measure marketing performance: Marketing software helps service businesses automate and track marketing campaigns with real-time results. See what works and what doesn’t so you can modify your campaigns accordingly.

Secure positive online reviews and testimonials

Now more than ever, businesses need positive customer reviews. If you want proof, consider that 87% of consumers won’t even consider a company with an average rating below three stars, according to a recent BrightLocal consumer review survey. 

To rake in reviews, ask customers to leave a review. Top reviews show potential clients they can trust your company to deliver quality service.

Steps to take: 

1. Ask customers for reviews: If you use a preferred review site, send customers a link.

2. Monitor reviews: People notice how your company responds to reviews. Respond appropriately to positive and, more importantly, negative reviews.

3. Showcase positive reviews: Post customer reviews on your website. Consider publishing customer photos with the reviews or creating video testimonials.

Offer Attractive Service Packages

Lawn care service packages can help your company make money and grow by offering standard services with no hassles.

First, you’ll want to calculate your expenses before you figure out how much to charge for lawn mowing and other services. This includes knowing your labor costs, overhead, taxes, and other business expenses.

Create tiered service packages for residential or commercial clients to accommodate a variety of budgets and client needs. Highlight the unique selling points and provide transparent pricing to your customers.

Service packages could include:

• Spring cleanup

• Lawn mowing and edging

• Bed maintenance

• Fertilization

• Weed control

• Mulching

• Aeration and overseeding

• Pruning

• Fall cleanup

Consider offering seasonal promotions or limited-time offers to attract new customers and increase cash flow.

Steps to take: 

1. Calculate costs: Know your expenses and include a profit margin on your services.

2. Create service packages: Bundle services for lawn care maintenance to meet various clients’ needs. Promote the unique services your company provides.

3. Offer promotions: To increase interest, offer seasonal or limited-time offers or a coupon for new customers.

Emphasize Sustainable Practices

Incorporating sustainable practices in your lawn care services shows your company cares about protecting the environment and attracts environmentally conscious customers.

Some lawn care professionals provide sustainable landscaping and lawn care by using electric or battery-powered equipment, implementing solar panels, limiting chemical usage, and providing organic land care services, which encompasses soil care and water management.

If you seek to offer eco-friendly landscaping solutions, consider taking courses and obtaining certifications to show customers your company understands and practices sustainable landscaping.

Steps to take: 

1. Research sustainability: Discover sustainable landscaping practices offered by other landscaping companies, especially in your area.

2. Incorporate sustainable practices: Modify your services to become more eco-friendly or add sustainable landscaping practices. Let customers know by advertising your company’s commitment to sustainability.

3. Acquire certifications: Obtain training and certifications in sustainable landscaping practices.

Optimize Efficiency and Operations

To effectively scale a business, operational efficiency remains key. Working more efficiently in the office and the field eliminates wasted time (and money). Implementing lawn care software like FieldRoutes Operations Suite improves efficiency by simplifying:

• Scheduling and dispatching

• Optimized routing

• Sales

• Customer communication

• Invoicing and payments

• Marketing

• Reporting

Lawn care software automates and streamlines tasks so you can get more done in less time. For instance, use a mobile app so customers can immediately approve lawn care service contracts, and you can get started on the job right away. Email invoices to customers and give them convenient online payment options for faster payments.

Improve your business processes and increase efficiency to accelerate the growth of your business.

Steps to take: 

1. Examine your operations: Identify areas needing improvement and ways to improve efficiency.

2. Implement field service management software: Streamline day-to-day tasks like scheduling, routing, and billing.

3. Train your team: Ensure everyone follows proper processes and protocols.

Monitor and Analyze Business Performance

Monitor business performance to see whether it meets your expectations and goals.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) help lawn care business owners evaluate employee performance, marketing performance, and overall business performance. The type of KPIs depends on your business and particular goals.

Basic KPIs include:

• Sales revenue

• Gross margin

• Monthly profit and loss

• Customer retention rate

No matter the KPIs you choose to measure, set realistic goals based on industry benchmarks and your company’s historical data.

Measuring KPIs manually takes time and can be prone to error. Lawn care reporting software automates reporting and provides real-time data, empowering business owners to make better decisions to improve and grow their business.

Steps to take: 

1. Identify KPIs: Choose the KPIs that make the most sense for your lawn care business.

2. Set realistic goals: Set monthly and annual business goals.

3. Automate reporting: Consistently monitor KPIs to keep your business on track.

Grow Your Business With FieldRoutes

It takes a lot of work to grow a landscaping and lawn care business, but taking the time to develop business growth strategies pays off.

You can reap results far beyond your initial plans when you increase operational efficiency, invest in the right people and equipment, and focus on the right marketing strategies.

FieldRoutes’ cloud-based lawn care software performs the hard work for you by delivering time-saving solutions to increase efficiency and performance. Comprehensive software connects every aspect of your business so you can improve operations, boost revenue, and focus on growth.

Ready to take your business to the next level? Schedule a free demo today.