Lawn care as a job or side hustle?

Do any of you run lawn care as a job or side hustle? 
 

I ask because I live in the greeny green south, and grass season is 9-10 months out of the year.  I cut my grass the first week of December and will probably have to cut before the end of this month. Homes near me are on 1/4-1/5 acre lots. The few folks I know paying for lawn care are paying $35-50 a cut. There are weeks when we cut grass 2-3 times a week. Even if I picked up 4-5 yards in my neighborhood or around me, that be some extra car coin. As far as current equipment I have a 48" zero turn, two weed eaters, and a crappy blower that I would replace. I also have an extra body in my almost teenage son looking to earn money this summer to buy a 4wheeler.
 

I'm curious if anyone on here is cutting grass full time or as a side hustle? And if so thoughts, tips, tricks for getting started and keeping it going.  For example, if as a business do you have customers sign a contract? Do you charge a fee per cut or per week? 
 

Thanks

My father-in-law worked at General Motor's Fisher Body and would get off work at 2:30pm.  He picked up a few homes in Hinsdale, Illinois doing lawn service after work then on Saturday's as the days got shorter.  

He made it work and brought the clippings back behind his shed as he lives rural.  He had a bunch of plastic cans to bring his waste home.  

As a side hustle you can make some money.  But, make sure you do the math.   Machine maintenance, consumables (oil/gas/blades.etc) can add up.  If you do a little bit by word-of-mouth you can slide along.  Get too big and a lot of areas want licenses, insurance, etc.  Think in terms of $50/hour to really clear $30.

If you add leaf raking, roof blowing, etc, there is more money, but more hassle.

Most guys I know that are doing it by themselves have two zero-turns, a trim mower, weed eaters, blowers, etc on an open trailer.  They try to do 6 to 8 a day.   They have to have back-up equipment to make sure they can stay on schedule.

The folks making real money have multiple crews.  But, then it becomes a real business...

I can think of a lot of easier ways to make 40 extra bucks a day.  If you are truly cutting grass 2-3 times a week for 10 months a year, forget ever taking a vacation.  

I have some experience with the other end of the transaction, namely the forking over of money for these services. Our current gardening guy used to be a landscaper and now only does this kind of work on the side. The big advantage of working with him is that he sees the bigger picture around maintaining our yard and offers additional services that I wouldn't expect from a "lawn guy". That makes a big difference in our case.

The big issue is likely going to be the equipment, as you pretty much have to go from consumer grade mowers to at least entry level pro stuff unless you're OK with additional expensive wear & tear. Our gardening guy uses my lawn tractor and that's working out OK, but I don't think that's going to be an OK approach for what you have in mind.

octavious said:

There are weeks when we cut grass 2-3 times a week. 

2-3 times a week?? What kind of magic grass is that??

In the summer here we cut it weekly and that's annoying. Couldn't imagine doing it 3 times a week. 

I used to make bank as a teen with a push mower and a can of gas. I'd hook the mower behind my bike and cut the entire neighborhood it seems. I usually cut grass 3-4 days a week for $10 to $75 a lawn depending on if there was weeding involved. 

I was also super glad to turn 15 and get a driver's license and a real job. 

There are a pile of lawn care companies around. It seems like it would be a pretty cutthroat business. 

No contract other than the verbal "it's $x per cut, I cut it when it needs it"

Charge per cut, not per week. 

No clue why people want to look at the negative and tell you why it won't work. Plenty of people making it work. Why not you too?

In reply to Toyman! :

From 1973-1976 the going rate was $4 a lawn.  I cut plenty of lawns as a kid in junior high.  

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I would hook my mower behind my bike and go cut in the rich neighborhoods. My dad paid $4. He had a hard time getting on the schedule sometimes. This was the late 70s early 80s. I guess I was about 10-11 when I started mowing for money. 

In reply to Steve_Jones :

I have no doubt it can make money. But I'm guessing the margins are pretty slim with so many players in the game. 

You can definitely make money doing it.  My roommate after college did it, small push mower. He charged $30 for small yards and only would do small yards; however, his other side gig was at Farm and Fleet so he had access to a shop and reduced prices on parts. 
 

What I'm not sure of, is if the juice is worth the squeeze, but that is for each individual to figure out. 
 

As a side note, my father in law said the best job he ever had was cutting the grass at a small town cemetery. 

I had a former co-worker who cut grass and plowed snow on the side.  He did quite well with both, though I don't know details. All of his equipment was top quality commercial stuff, and he kept on top of maintenance.

I cut my church's lawn (for free) for a few years. If I was going to cut grass for money, I'd cut, trim, blow off the hard surfaces, and absolutely nothing else. I'd also have back-up equipment and important spare parts like belts, blades and shear keys.

In reply to Slippery :

If I had to cut grass more than once a week, it would become pavement.

Only way I see this working is if you can find two or three LARGE lots that need to be kept manicured and the jobs paid cash. Knew of one person who did the local cemetery and two industrial plants with a lot of grass and it was enough to keep him in sock-drawer cash during his retirement.

His numbers are in his post. People are paying $35-$50 per cut, and they're small lots. If you can do 3 in 2 hours, that's $50-$75 an hour. Do 6 a week and it's $840- $1200 a month in extra cash for 4 hours a week. I must be missing something as I see it working fine. 

Steve_Jones said:

His numbers are in his post. People are paying $35-$50 per cut, and they're small lots. If you can do 3 in 2 hours, that's $50-$75 an hour. Do 6 a week and it's $840- $1200 a month in extra cash for 4 hours a week. I must be missing something as I see it working fine. 

One big potential hiccup is fitting in those lots around bad weather and caring for your own place multiple times per week. Most areas that need to mow more than once per week get lots of rain. It's not too difficult to work around that and fit everybody in if it's your primary gig, but trying to do it in evenings after work/school or weekends (plus caring for your own place) can lead to log jams in the schedule.

I think the key is the cheap child labor. An efficient team would be critical to getting jobs done quickly. Potentially trusting the kid to work on his own when not in school.

Years ago I knew a guy who owned a lawn care company. He had multiple employees and did well enough that he road raced a GT-1 Corvette!

Yeah. That's why I ask these questions. It's interesting for sure. When I started thinking about it I was using my yard and neighborhood as a gauge. I have an entry level commercial zero turn, my yard is 1/2 an acre on a corner lot, with cutting, weedeating, and blowing off pavement, I can be done in an hour.  At $50 a cut, even one or two yards would be some extra coin a week. Living in the south, especially during spring with rain, sun and warm temps,, the grass grows super fast and you have to cut every 3-4 days. But that's also why I ended up with my mower because I don't want to pay someone else $50 every time my yard needs cut. 
 

We have full on lawn care crews, mom and pop teams, and their gear varies from dual trailer with multiple mowers, usually a zero turn and walk behind, to the one couple that puts everything in the bed of their truck. My lawn care skills, are cutting my own grass forever, and when I was in college I cut grass at a golf course. We'd go in early, cut the greens first, cut the fairways and then the rough. We'd be off by 2 and play 18 for free before heading home. It was great.  My son started helping me last year, and while he is young, I was thinking it would be a good time to show him hard work can get you paid, but it also hard work. . 
 

I think there would be enough work, but was curious if anyone was/is doing it. 

And commercial cutting seems to be where the cash flow is. I know one company holds the contracts for two big but not huge churches in the area. The landscaping contracts are in the $30k range a piece., but I don't know what setups or how big their crews are, but I do know that also includes mulching etc. 

There sure are a lot of naysayers here!

I think it is an awesome idea. It can be whatever scale you choose to make it. 
 

I had a business plan together at one point with a slightly different vision....

My Dad lived in a residential development in the Myrtle Beach area with a large percentage of retirees. Postage stamp sized lots. There was one husband and wife team that did almost all the houses in the neighborhood. They could walk to most of their jobs.  I tried to buy his company. 
 

My reason was I interested was that I saw unlimited opportunity for expansion. 
 

He was at his max. He couldn't personally mow any more. But I noticed something very significant about his business. All his customers did his selling for him. They were every (ranging from 60's- 90's) and they loved him. They talked him up all the time.  He was always available to help, and chat with them. I realized that among retirees, there is money to burn, and an ever decreasing willingness to do some of the manual labor small maintenance jobs. 

Young retirees do their own work.  Then they decide to hire someone to mow the grass.  Then they pay a little more to trim the hedges.  After a few years they don't want to climb a ladder anymore, so gutter cleaning is hired.  Consider pressure washing, landscaping, flower bed, window washing.  All services that can be upsold.  With my construction background I would also have added light repairs and construction jobs.

I wanted to use the lawn mowing business as a marketing tool for all the other potential services. You see your customers every week, do something extra for them each time, and talk with them a little to earn their trust.  As they advance in age, they will always ask for a bit more.

When the workload gets to be too much, you hire people to do it.  All minimally skilled jobs.  But I would train all my employees to understand their job was a SALES job, not lawn mowing.  Then pay them a generous commission for additional jobs sold.

Any time you want more work, just add another neighborhood.

In reply to SV reX :

Nah, according to people here, it won't work. There are also a lot of people doing it, so you can't make any money (even though they must be). 

'This thread is 45% people saying it won't work, 45% people giving examples of how they or someone they know are doing it (but still won't work) and 10% saying if it works for others, it can work for you. 
 

The 10% took the stairs :)

It's great, if you can make the numbers work. 

If you can get a crew together, and be CONSISTENT, you'll be your own boss. We have an 11k sq ft corner lot, with a driveway and sidewalk to the other street..............IE a TON of edging/weedeating work. 

We pay the new guys $50 per showing, we paid $40 per showing for the other guy but they didn't show up on time. June in Oklahoma, you can't go 2+ weeks with out mowing. 

With a lot this big with an 1800sq ft house, it still takes two guys with commercial grade equipment about 45 minutes to cut/edge/bag/blow our yard. 

So that works out to less than $25/hr per person, ignoring the truck/trailer/maintenance/etc. 

When I am approached about side jobs, I rarely take them because I want my OT rate. Most places aren't willing to pay that. 

z31maniac said:

So that works out to less than $25/hr per person, ignoring the truck/trailer/maintenance/etc. 

Is $25 an hour now considered a bad wage?

Steve_Jones said:

z31maniac said:

So that works out to less than $25/hr per person, ignoring the truck/trailer/maintenance/etc. 

Is $25 an hour now considered a bad wage?

I like that you conveniently ignored, all the infrastructure it takes, like I mentioned. So the truck, trailer, equipment, fuel, maintenance, some how don't exist?

When you account for all that, taxes, etc. No I, don't think $25/hr + expeneses is a good wage.