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Replies
Hi Matt, I'm thinking of doing the same I have a van I use for a garden maintenance round I do currently so that would be the biggest expense if you don't already have one. I'm going to carry out a few trial lawn care programmes on some maintenance customers this year to see the results before looking for more custom I think.
I'm using savings to get started as buying spreaders / knapsacks isn't a massive outlay and I will buy fertiliser and herbicide along the way as I build a customer base. with regards to larger machinery like aerators and scarifiers I think I will look to rent until I had a big enough customer base to justify buying them.
Qualifications such as PA1 and PA6 is will be needed for lawncare if you don't have them already.
You may find my discussion on lawn care treatment programmes helpful. been getting a lot of good info from others on there and its pointing me in the right direction for working out a good program.
Aaron
Do you have any experience or knowledge of lawns and gardens, if not get busy reading.
Get a copy of Paul Powers book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Power/e/B0034PBA2U
an essential tool to help you begin
What is your experience & background?
Only joking.
I used some savings and then bought as I went along.
Rent stuff for one offs as if your not careful you will end up with a garage full of stuff that does not get used very often( like I did).
Good luck with it!
Hi Matt,
The key question is how are you going to get your customers; there is no golden bullet easy solution. All either take a lot of your time or cost you money.
If you want to grow quickly, it'll cost. Do you have money to invest in marketing - if so , great, there are lots of choices. If not, it's probably a lot of walking around by yourself leafleting / knocking on doors.
So realistically, what's your budget? At this point you may want to start a thread in the BOG as thats more private.