Learning how to edge with your weed eater is an important skill to master. It will give your customers a far more professional cut.

Important!

Make sure you know how to properly and safely use your weed eater before trying to edge with it. For more information, check out my article on weed eater safety.

How to Edge with a Weed Eater

1. Start the unit.

2. Flip your weed eater over (180 degrees) so the guard is facing up. Make sure the trimmer string is at a 90 degree angle to the edge of the grass.

3. Carefully and methodically run your weed eater along the edge of the grass. Lots of grass and dirt will probably fly up. That's normal, although you have to be sure that your aren't scalping the edge of the grass or making cuts into the side of it-- just make sure it looks pretty. If you are edging on the grass that separates a sidewalk from a road, remember to cut both sides of the grass.

4. Edging can be hard on the trimmer. If the grass is especially unruly, you may have to pull the string out several times before you are finished edging. However, don't let this discourage you-- after edging once, maintaining the edge is simple and doesn't take much effort.

5. I can't emphasize enough that you should be VERY CAREFUL while edging. When you edge, you are setting out to make your customers' lawn look nicer. However, if you screw up and run the weed eater all over, making ugly cuts and scalping grass all over their yard, it makes the lawn look very UN professional.

6. Afterward, there will be lots of dirt and grass lying on the sidewalk. You will need to clean this up. A few methods for cleanup that I would suggest are:

• Using a blower is the easiest option. It also creates the most visually appealing effect. However, if you don't need one for the yard or don't want to bring it on the job, there are a couple of other options as well.
• Running your lawn mower over the sidewalk works relatively well, and it isn't too hard, either. However, there will be a few scraps left on the sidewalk, so it's not as nice as using a blower.
• I have never tried this method, but according to Nick Tart's book about running a teen lawn business, you can use your weed eater as a mini blower. This method apparently works with small debris, so I'm pretty sure you can use it for after-edging cleanup.

Edging your customers' lawns gives a more professional feel to their yards, as well as making them just plain look nicer, overall.

Feel free to charge extra for edging. It is another service that you can add to your portfolio. Your customers' lawns could really benefit from edging.

To conclude, you don't need an expensive "edger" to give your customers' lawns a clean look. Your weed eater will work just fine.

Labels: services, Spring/Summer

The other day, my dad, mom and I were sitting at our dining room table eating breakfast. My dad was telling my mom about how there were a lot of new maple saplings sprouting up in our yard, and that he was going to have to take them out.

While listening to this conversation, I saw an opportunity: offer to plant those trees in my customer's yards.

I talked to my dad about it, and he said it would be fine if I did that. I already knew how to replant a tree, seeing as we had replanted a few last year. (More on how to replant a tree later in the post.)

I wrote an email pitching the offer to my clients. It looked like the following:

Hi, this is Ben. I have a few maple trees that have sprouted up in my yard, and was wondering if you would like J and I to plant one of them in your yard.

These are just young saplings, and might not survive. If they don't live, we would give you a full refund.

Just wondering if you wanted another tree or two in your yard. (:

- Ben

I sent it individually, and personalized each message. Notice how I offered a full refund if the saplings did not survive. It is important to give your customers security if they are paying you to do a job.

Out of the four clients my buddy and I mow, I sent the offer to two. Of the two I didn't pitch the offer to, one doesn't communicate by email, and the other is temporarily renting their house.

Both my offers were rejected-- neither of the two customers needed more trees in their yard.

Although my plan didn't work out as hoped, I have learned a couple of things from it:

Don't be afraid to offer

Just because your customer rejects the offer you make doesn't mean that you will lose their business or the customer-service provider relationship you have developed with them.

Be on the lookout for opportunities to further your business

Just learning a small tidbit, like the fact that you have extra saplings in your yard, could help you to provide another service to your customers and to help your business make more money. Always be looking for new ways to help your customers with their lawns: this will turn into cash for your business.

Nick Tart told me recently that Emil Motycka has 40 lawns this summer. (Stay tuned! Emil has agreed to answer a set of interview questions from me, so there should be a post about this coming up in the near future.) Now, if I had 40 lawns, I bet I would have gotten a much better return on my offer than 0%. But you know what? This experience just motivates me to want to grow my business even more. Maybe one day, the same offer will boost my earnings quite a bit.

The post isn't over yet. Although I have told you my own story about offering to plant trees in my customer's yard, I haven't actually told you how to do it. Well, here we are:

How to Replant a Sapling

Important tools:

Shovel
Wheel barrow

Steps

1. Dig a wide hole around the roots of the sapling. Do not break or cut the roots.

2. Place the sapling with the dirt in the roots into a wheelbarrow. Put dirt around the roots in the wheelbarrow.

3. Slog your way to the place where you will plant the tree with your wheel barrow and the shovel.

4. Dig a hole half again or two times larger than the roots.

5. Place the tree in the hole. Make sure you fill in the area around the roots with nutrient-rich topsoil, because then the tree will have a greater likelihood of surviving.

6. The tree has been planted. Congratulate yourself on a job well done. Advise your customer to water the sapling often.

Conclusion

If you have a few extra saplings sprouting up in your yard, it can't hurt to offer to plant them in the yards of your customers. Offering won't hurt your relationship, and it presents a chance of furthering your business.

Labels: business, services, Spring/Summer

When going out to mow a customer's lawn, you must be sure to bring several things, which I will outline in this post.

Water

Photo by Kevin N. Murphy

Water is a very important commodity when mowing your customer's lawn. Drinking it will prevent you from getting dehydrated or having heatstroke when exposed to the hot sun. Also, a gulp of water can really help your stamina when mowing. When I mow, I wear a CamelBak, represented in the picture. All I have to do is grab the tube with my mouth and relieve my thirst. Plus, I don't need to carry around a water bottle, which could get tedious. I suggest getting a CamelBak. If not, however, a normal water bottle should work fine.

Your tools

Your mower is a nobrainer. However, you should make sure it is tuned up and running well. Also, be sure you have more than enough gas to finish the job.

Most lawns need weed eating. Make sure your weed eater is in good condition and working well. Also, bring some extra weed eating string in case you run out.

What to wear

Safety is key when mowing a lawn. (See my posts on mowing and weed eater safety.) Eye protection can be good for mowing, and is crucial for weed eating. Ear protection is preferred. When weed eating, make sure to wear long pants. If you wear shorts, I can almost guarantee your legs will get cut up. A baseball hat is really nice. If you have long hair, it will keep your sweaty hair out of your eyes. Regardless of hair length, the sun will not glare in your eyes so much. Lastly, sunblock will help prevent sunburn. If you are out mowing all day, sunblock is very useful.

Conclusion

Be prepared and use common sense when going to mow a lawn. Bring water and make sure your tools are working well. Also, make sure your body is protected. If you do these things, you should be fine. Go mow the lawn!

Labels: services, Spring/Summer

In August 2008, I wrote a post about the pros and cons of using a reel mower. However, in that post I did not delve very deeply into offering reel mowing as a service to your customers.

Offering a reel mowing service is a great idea for you to expand your business for several reasons, including increasing your client base as well as making more money. This will overall help your business to take steps towards being the best it can be.

This year, a woman called my friend and I about mowing her lawn with a reel mower. We took her on, and now we make $40 pop, which is really only an hour of (kind of strenuous) work. ($40 an hour! Good, huh?) So, with a reel mower, you can get more cash for the work you put in.

Also, a reel mower service may attract more customers to your client base. These kinds of customers include those who may be more environmentally-conscious-- gas mowers are very polluting. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, gas mowers account for 5% of U.S. air pollution (source). Also, you may attract customers who don't like the sound of a loud gas mower. The hum of a reel mower cutting the grass is far more pleasing to the ear than the roar of a gasoline-propelled engine.

Offering a reel mowing service could put you ahead of local commercial lawn care services. I doubt most of them offer reel mowing, so the before-mentioned customers will either have to perform the job themselves, or hire you.

Lastly, reel mowers can be just plain easier to deal with. There is little maintenance involved compared to a gas one. Also, you can mow in the morning, which could increase your productivity.

If you do a reel mowing service, I can guarantee that you will be rewarded handsomely for your effort. It can increase your productivity, make you more money, and lengthen your customer list. These are exactly the kinds of things we are looking for in our teen lawn mowing businesses, right? Good luck filling the full potential of your teen lawn business.

Labels: services, Spring/Summer

So you are trimming along with your weed eater, trying to get the lawn to look just right. Lah-dee-dah-dee-dah-dee-dah-dee *SQUISH*.

Gross. That is a situation you never want to get into. Don't worry. Although I can't guaruntee it will never happen, these tips and advice will put you on the track of not stepping in man's best friend's leftovers.

1) Ask your customer for help

If your client has a dog that goes bang-chapow in their backyard, it couldn't hurt to ask them if they wouldn't mind picking up the poop before you plan to come perform a job. If your customer complies with this request, then you should be fine, and can mow away with little fear.

2) Offer picking up as a paid service before you mow

This could definitely be an opportunity for you to make some extra cash along with your mowing, and gets the dog poop out of the way. We are all in it for the money, and if there is a chance to earn a bit of extra green, I would take the opportunity.

3)Pay attention

If neither of the above avenues work, or even if the owners say they will pick up after their dog, you should still pay close attention to what you are doing, if your goal is to have clean shoes. My experience is that if you just push the mower over the sham-whow, then it either leaves it lay (meaning just watch out where you put your feet after the mower has passed over the doo-doo); or chops it up and sprays it-- hey, works for me. If you are, say, raking... bring an extra pair of work gloves... ugh that's disgusting. Just... push the jay-shozie along with your rake with the leaves.

4)Just pick it up on your own time

Really, it depends on how much you care. Personally, I would use some kind of combination of the first three ideas. However, if you really hate dog poop that much... pick it up yourself.

Well, that basically covers the problem of dog poop. Have fun taking care of those dog-owning clients' lawns!

Labels: Fall, services, Spring/Summer

This is a guest post by Josh, my lawn business partner.

Snow shoveling is one of the highest paying and yet most physically intensive jobs your lawn care business can get. Although it can be tricky to advertise for snow shoveling, the rewards are plentiful!

So you want to add snow shoveling to your lawn care arsenal? Shoveling can sound lucrative and inviting; most adults over 40 feel their backs screaming every time a snow storm comes and would be happy to let a nimble young teen do it for them; but it’s not that easy. In order for snow shoveling to be economically viable for your business, there has to be at least two snow storms of more than three inches a year. People aren’t going to be looking for someone to shovel their driveways or sidewalks if there isn’t any snow, a simple but painful truth. Secondly, you need to ask yourself if you will be willing to spend your day shoveling snow as opposed to doing something more fun. You are only going to be able to shovel snow when there is a snow day (a.k.a. miss school because of snow), assuming that you are a teen, so you need to think about how you feel when you realize that school has been canceled when you are lying in your bed at six o’clock that morning. Personally, I look at a snow day as a time to sleep in until noon and then do a little sledding, maybe get some pizza, but not necessarily shovel snow. This was a hard thing for me to overcome when I took the plunge into snow shoveling, so you probably need to decide whether or not you will have the willpower to spend your snow day shoveling, before you start advertising. If you decide that you will want to shovel snow on your snow day, congratulations!

Snow shoveling, as mentioned above, is (in my experience), one of the most profitable lawn care venues next to mulching. For an average sized driveway and sidewalk, about 600 to 1200 square feet, you can expect to make anywhere from 60 to 100 dollars. The trouble with shoveling snow, however, is finding people who want your services. Just going door to door with a shovel will probably get you a couple costumers, but it’s by no means a sure thing. Neighbors and family friends are probably your best bet, since they will be more generous in accepting your service. Old people will usually be very happy to have a youngster shovel their driveway, but they often have very different ideas about how much money they should give you. Always arrange the price before you begin working, so that you won’t be surprised when you are given five dollars for an hour of snow shoveling from your neighborhood WWII vet.

The other tricky part to shoveling snow is advertising; it’s not as easy as the advertising you do for lawn mowing. Advertising in advance for snow shoveling isn’t the best way to get costumers in my experience, as many people will write down your number and put it in a nice little drawer-- and when it finally does snow, they will forget all about you. Depending on how big the driveways are in your neighborhood, you could expect to shovel five or six houses in one day, which could bring in a couple hundred dollars! You need to make sure you have a good snow shovel, or snow blower which makes the job ten times easier but costs a pretty penny, and optional salt. Make sure to ask the costumer if they want salt thrown all over their driveway as many people will strongly object to the labor saving chemical. Most importantly, dress warmly and don’t overwork yourself, even if you don’t feel particularly tired or sore, you will be in the morning!

Have fun making money shoveling snow!

Labels: services, Winter

Posted by: Ben

While looking around Life and Lawns, I found an article by Allyn Paul entitled:"Mowing Tips: Plain and Simple Advice You Must Follow". I found the advice to be extremely helpful, and I am sure you will too. Here is the gist of it:

• Scalping is BAD! It will cause your customer's grass to have icky brown spots. Scalping is when one cuts more than 1/3 of the grass blade in one go. To prevent scalping, set your blade at the second highest setting and mow regularly, about once a week. If the grass becomes too tall, then your mower won't have a setting high enough to cut less than 1/3 of a blade of grass.
• Another reason to mow regularly is that when grass is allowed to grow too tall and is cut, the discharged blades clump together and can cause thatch buildup. (This is bad.)
• Keep your blade sharp. A dull blade will rip the grass as opposed to slicing it, causing the grass to have an ugly, ripped, whitish-brown portion on top.
• Only allow the grass to spit out the side of your mower if your mower mulches and has a minimum of 5 HP. If not, you should bag your clippings. I recommend discharging because it is good for the grass and recycles nutrients back into the soil.
• Change mowing directions each time you mow. If you don't, the grass will lie on its side, and this is bad.

Although this article is geared toward homeowners, I think teen lawn mowing business owners can really take something from it. The quality of the lawn reflects of the quality of the work done on it, and that is how people will evaluate you and your business. Use these tips to make your teen lawn service the best it can be.

Labels: services, Spring/Summer

Note: This post does not apply if snow does not fall in your area.

The weather is frigid. The grass is far beyond its first frost, and why would you mow a lawn if the grass isn't growing? All the leaves have left the trees, and the only house that doesn't have raked leaves is the haunted one down the street. You know, the one that little Jimmy went into a few years ago, and no one heard of him again? But enough of my prattling. The point is, you won't be making money mowing, and you won't be making money raking leaves. You might be broke. So how are you going to make money? Snow shoveling.

Snow shoveling is probably one of the most lucrative businesses you can take advantage of. People REALLY hate shoveling snow, more so than raking leaves or mowing lawns. So, you can make a good profit off of just a few walks and/or driveways.

So school has been canceled, and you sit and drink hot chocolate in your pajamas or go sledding as it continually snows. When the snow stops, call your buddy. You know, the one that's twice as big as you and not very smart. Get your snow shovels and go door to door, asking people if you can shovel their driveways and walks for a fee. Be willing to negotiate. Unlucky enough to not own a snow shovel? Well, you can obtain one at Sears or Home Depot, or you can just go to the local hardware store. They will probably be around $20 or so, but will almost certainly be worth the investment.

After you have done a superb job shoveling someone's walk and/or driveway, tell this potential customer that your lawn service will provide [insert the services you provide] in the spring and summer. Remember to always be extremely respectful and polite.

Shoveling snow is a great way to make some winter cash as well as obtain potential customers. Move the snow and make some dough! (Clever, eh?)

Labels: services, Winter

Well, the fall season is here! If you haven't already started advertising the leaf removal part of your service, now is definitely a great time! Some tips for leaf removal:

1. I HIGHLY suggest you DO NOT use one of those dinky electric leaf blowers. They can't blow larger piles of leaves. If you use them to supplement rakes, then fine. But seriously, rakes work a WHOLE TON better. 'Nuff said.


2. I don't own one of those large gas-powered backpack leaf blowers which work really well and I see all the pros use. Wish I did. However, if you DO own one of them, you can probably have the baseline of your prices be leaf blowing, but you will charge more to rake the leaves. You know, planet-friendly sort of thing. However, I doubt many teen lawn services are in possesion of one of these very useful commodities: if you do, then kudos to you.

3. When charging customers, do not say any prices to start with. To begin, offer a free estimate. Then, check out their yard. Remember take into account things like if they want leaves raked off of bushes and the volume of leaves that potentially fill up. Also, remember that bagging can take a while. Then, figure out how long it will take you to do it. Then multiply how much you want to make an hour by the number of hours you figure you will spend raking the lawn each time. Once you have figured this out and rationalized whether or not the customer will go for the price (remember: too high, you might lose a customer; too low, you aren't making minimum wage), you can give your customer the free estimate, which must be a multiple of 5.

4. Having a couple of rakes for different kinds of jobs can be helpful. For example, a big one with wide plastic prongs can be good for raking the wider expanse of the yard (fig. 1). A smaller one with thing metal needles can be good for getting corners and stuff (fig. 2).

Well, here are some of my tips for the fall season. If you have any you would like to share, please express them in the comments!

Labels: Fall, services

A lawn service should have many services it can offer so it can serve as wide a customer base as possible and, of course, attract more jobs. (Which means more money... which is why we are running a business, no?) This post will explain which services you should offer for your teen lawn service.

Mowing

Mowing is a nobrainer. This will probably take up most of the jobs you will do. Although you can't charge as much for it as other kinds of jobs, you have to mow a person's lawn about every week, so it will add up. When mowing, remember to pay attention, go in straight lines, and have one of your wheels a little bit into the grass you've already cut so that everything will get cut and you will have a more professional, cleaner look. Remember to offer bagging.

Weed eating

This is also an important service you should offer. If you don't know what a weed eater is, I won't give you a knucklehead, just see the definition here. Huh. So it is technically called a "grass trimmer." Whatever. It will always be a weed eater in my heart. Anyway... Many times, there are some places the mower just won't get to, and that is where the weed eater comes in. You can definitely charge extra for this service. Also, you can use a weed eater to edge. For more information on how to edge with a weed eater, go here.

Leaf Raking / Blowing

This task is harder work, but don't worry-- you can charge more for it than mowing. If you have one of those powerful gas ones, use that. However, if all you have is one of those dinky electric ones, just rake the leaves. You will be able to rake them so much faster because the electric blower can't blow big piles of leaves. I suppose you may want to experiment with a hybrid approach, but don't rely on an electric leaf blower-- from personal experience, they are a pain in the ass. If wherever you live they have those nice trucks that come and suck all the leaves up and this is what your customer wants, then just leave the leaves (leave the leaves lol) on the side of the road. But, you may have to bag. If you do, great! Charge more!

Mulching

Although this service isn't completely necessary, you can charge a lot for it. Where I live, there is a big free pile of mulch. I ask my customers to get their mulch delivered from there, and then they will tell my partner and I where to spread it. This is pretty easy for us, but it may not be so easy for you if you don't have a big free mulch pile like where I live. Just remember, you can get a lot of money from this service.

Conclusion

Those are all the services that my company offers and that I think are necessary for you to offer, too. Feel free to share more ideas in the comments.

Labels: services