Preparing a Lawn Care Business Plan

Having at least some form of business plan for your lawn care startup is essential if you are to succeed. If you are applying for a business loan or looking for partners or investors then your plan must be comprehensive and prove that your ideas are feasible. At the very least a business plan is a way of getting all your thoughts and ideas down on paper and it provides a benchmark for you to assess your progress as your business grows.

In the following report we offer an outline of a business plan structure that you could use for a lawn mowing business. We then direct you to further online resources that you may find useful including a free lawn care business plan sample and a variety of templates that you can use for assistance.

For a lawn business planning template it is worth checking out the 'Central Nervous System' that Wayne Mullins sets out in his guide Lawn Company Secrets.

Layout

Every business advisor has different ideas about how a plan should be put together. Here are a list of sections that you might consider dividing your lawn care business plan into.

1) Executive Summary

Introduce the reader to your report by including a summary of what is included. You may also choose to have a separate table of contents to help readers find their way around.

Introduce yourself and any other people who are involved with the new venture and mention the involvement and interest that they would have if the proposal goes ahead. Provide information on your qualifications and experience and let the reader know why you want to start a lawn care business. It is also helpful to provide some background information on the industry both nationally and locally.

Describe your new business to people. Let them know the market that you want to serve, the services that you want to offer and how you want to fit into the local market in terms of offering something different from the competition. Where will your business be located?

2) Goals and Objectives

Set out your goals and a timeline for achieving them. Include growth targets that you want to hit at certain points within your first few years of operation. Targets could include gross revenue, number of accounts or total number of employees.

Write a brief statement about what you hope to achieve with your lawn maintenance company in general. Forgetting about profits for a minute, write about the kind of business that you would like to be, the standard of service that you want to provide or the place that you hope to occupy in your community. A mission statement is a way of summing up your companies purpose, philosophy and values in a few short paragraphs.

3) Startup Requirements

Make up a list of everything that you are going to need up to the point of opening for business. Include all of the startup costs involved with marketing and purchasing equipment as well as the costs associated with setting up a legal business structure.

A solid plan should also include information on accounting, taxation, insurance and legal matters such as licensing. Getting professional advice from experts is recommended in these areas.

Once you have an idea of your total startup costs you can then propose how you plan on funding your lawn care business. You may need funding to cover not only startup costs but also operating costs for the first six months while you are still building your customer base. If you are operating from home then operating cost will be low anyway.

4) Market Analysis

In this section you can include the results from your market research. Let the reader know what kind of people use lawn care services and how you have come to the conclusion that your area has a market of significant size.

Carefully analyzing what your competitors are offering is also a great way to understand your local market. Include a competitive analysis that provides details on all of your major competitors. Show that you understand their strengths and weaknesses and offer ideas on how you intend to compete with them for market share.

5) Marketing Plan

It's important to have a clear idea of how many new accounts you need to add each month to maintain a rate of growth that will achieve your goals. You then need to have a solid marketing methods to bring in these new clients regularly.

Your lawn business marketing plan should include information on brand development, pricing, advertising, other marketing strategies and sales.

Outline a customer service plan that will allow you to maintain and build your relationships with customers in order to keep them for the long term and increase the chances of having them refer new clients to you.

6) Management

Your lawn care business plan should also clearly set out how you plan on running your business operations on a daily basis, from handling customer enquiries and invoicing clients to hiring employees and how you will manage them.

7) Employees

One of the most important things to consider is the point at which you will take on your first employee. Working too hard mowing lawns can impact on your marketing efforts. If you find that you are spending more than 70% of your time mowing lawns then you should hire an employee rather than neglect other aspects of your business.

8) Financial Planning

Using information from your lawn care business market research you should anticipate monthly income. Remember to include a conservative estimate as well as a realistic estimate as your customer base may not grow as quickly as you hope. Then take monthly expenses into account to get a clear idea of what kind of profit you will be making on a monthly basis. These figures should be projected into the future and set out on a spreadsheet so you have clear ideas about the rate of growth that you require to meet your long-term goals.

Getting Inspiration for your Lawn Care Business Plan

Where to begin when it comes to writing a plan? Well, one of the easiest ways to start is to look at some sample lawn care business plans. Another way is to purchase a suitable template or software that guides you through the process of creating a plan step by step. 125aday.com are one good option for lawn care business plan software.