For a lawn care business, the primary marketing costs will likely be in advertising online, publishing local ads in papers or mailers, and making your website visible through good SEO, which might mean running a lawn care blog. Marketing can include advertising, word of mouth, flyers or mailers, online business listings, and even events to promote your business. Marketing your business will assure that business continues to come in. You might need to post an ad on a job board or in a local paper, to start. Hiring Costs You might see high turnover with a lawn care business, so don’t forget to include hiring costs as you expand with employees.Costs vary significantly by number of employees and level of benefits. Healthcare Do you have any employees on full salary such as an office manager? Factor in healthcare or other benefits package costs for those employees.According to Zippia, the average lawn care worker salary is $28,108 per year, or $13.51 per hour, in the United States. Salaries Employees of lawn care businesses often are paid by the hour, so you’ll need to track the time it takes to do each job and multiply jobs by the number of people you have to do the work.Employees should bring in extra revenue to the business that more than covers their overhead, but you could still be surprised by the costs associated with hiring. If you’re starting a lawn care business that will have employees off the bat, you’ll need to set aside revenue for salaries, and possibly healthcare and hiring costs. tl dr – you have a big expense, can’t pay for it all at once, how do you account for it over the coming years or months? Hiring Costs You’ll want to consider how to “amortize” these expenses. As you expand, you can invest in more tools.
Start with a minimum budget for tools and fertilizers that should be covered by the revenue for each early job. This will vary depending on which services you offer. Lawn care Tools & Products Remember you may need extra tools for lawn care such as gardening equipment, chemicals, gloves, fertilizers, rakes and shovels, and so on.Don’t forget to factor in maintenance costs. Trucks and trailers can run about $30,000-$50,000 for each set. Truck and Trailer If this is your personal vehicle, set up your taxes to deduct mileage and associated costs.Lawn Mowers Rider mowers average about $15,000 apiece, but you can find used equipment or rent your equipment until you’re ready to buy.If you start a lawncare business, you might want to rent or buy a few mowers and one or two employees, or work up to that from starting yourself.
Lawncare businesses often start out with just one rider mower and a truck and trailer to transport the mower to work sites. Insurance costs vary by the state in which you operate and the size of your business. Look into your local requirements, but you will at least need basic liability insurance to protect your business, workers comp for any employees, and law liability insurance to cover any mistakes you make in paying employee salaries, for example. Insurance If you set up a lawn care business, you won’t likely need licensing unless you want to apply pesticides.Low end of this service will run you about $1,000 per year. Tax Prep Your taxes might get complicated, so it’s best to hire an accountant or a service that gives you bookkeeping and tax prep support.You can also hire a business lawyer to pay by the hour or have on retainer, or hire a service that gives you legal support when you need it for about $600 per year. Legal Support Unless you want to process all your business paperwork yourself, you’ll want to pay a few hundred dollars per year for a registered agent service.Some bank accounts also have extra setup fees. Business Bank Account This shouldn’t cost you anything, right? But most bank accounts can’t be opened without a small amount of upfront capital deposited into the account.You can register with your state for an EIN yourself, but it’s also a service some companies roll into helping you form a business, so be sure to research your options and weigh costs against peace of mind knowing you filed all the right paperwork. EIN This is your employer identification number, which acts like a social security number to identify your business for tax purposes.You’ll need to register or pay for help with setting up the following: If you want to set up a lawn care business, there are a few expenses up front to set up the business.
A lawn care business is one of the easiest work-from-home jobs you can get, but many people want to know: what does it cost to start a lawn care business? Here are some common expenses that go into a lawn care business along with a lawn care business expenses spreadsheet to get you started.