Cut That Grass and Make That Cash

How to Start and Grow a Successful Lawn Care and Landscaping Business

Paul Jamison

• Publisher: Paul Jamison
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780578840079
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Are you ready for success? Learn how to rake in the profits with your lawn care and landscaping business.

The entertaining story of how Paul Jamison went from launching his landscaping business out of the trunk of a rusty 1997 Honda Accord to now serving high profile, celebrity customers such as professional sports athletes and coaches is inspiring. Paul will have you on the edge of your seat as he humorously shares his journey of what he learned in the school of experience and on the job training.

As host of the Green Industry Podcast, Paul Jamison has i nterviewed more than 150 lawn care and landscape professionals that are crushing it. This book is full of insights Paul has implemented from these flourishing small business owners as well as what he has learned building and improving his business. Cut That Grass And Make That Cash offers:

• Time-tested advice on how to increase your profits!
• How to recognize and avoid the mistakes that many new lawn care and landscape professionals consistently make!
• Best practices for long-term success and achieving your goals!

This is a must-read for anybody interested in starting and growing a lawn care and landscaping business. Do you want to be profitable and a cut above the competition? Then pick up your copy today!

 

 

1. I Had An Idea!

 

 

In 2011 I was nearly clueless in life. I was a recent college graduate. I was deeply in debt with my student loans, credit cards, and I had a very low paying job. Statistically, I was living well below the poverty level. Thankfully, a friend of mine had turned me on to a fellow named Dave Ramsey. He had given me a CD (compact disc) series from Dave Ramsey called Financial Peace University. As I listened to the teachings and took notes along the way I realized I had a huge issue. My income was less than my expenses and I had dug a huge pit of debt but I only had a small shovel (income) to fill it in. The solution was obvious, get to work. I needed to earn more money, and fast.

To make matters worse, I had recently made a commitment that was very unwise. My buddy had just struck a deal with Randy Jackson from American Idol and was headed out west to pursue his music career. He asked me if I could stay at his home for a year and take care of the mortgage and utilities for twelve months. He said I could have roommates that could help pay the bills. At the time I was searching for a place to stay so I said yes. The problem was initially I could not find any roommates. So I was stuck with a $928 house payment each month, plus utilities. I begin to get paralyzed with fear and anxiety about money. How was I going to pay for all the bills I had? I was eagerly exploring several options of places to potentially work. And so one evening, I decided to truly take it to the Lord in prayer. I went on a “prayer walk” around the neighborhood. Perhaps my neighbors thought I was crazy, why was this guy talking to himself and walking? But, I was desperate, I needed money, I needed a miracle, I needed a breakthrough, I began to pour out my heart to God. I truly was casting my cares and anxieties upon Him asking for wisdom and a plan of what to do to be able to pay these bills. As I was walking, I arrived at a cul de sac and noticed something that caught my attention because it did not make any sense.

What was so strange and puzzling to me is there was a house “For Sale” but it looked like the grass had not been cut all year. It was like a forest. Overgrown grass, weeds up to my knees. I thought to myself what kind of Real Estate agent is this? Would it not make sense to have curb appeal? Make the place look nice? Who would roll up on this house and want to buy it when it looked abandoned? Out of curiosity, I called the number on the For Sale sign. A lady immediately answered. I introduced myself and told her my concern about this property. Not only was it an eyesore for our neighborhood but why would they let it get this overgrown if their goal is to sell it? The real estate agent explained to me that the gentleman who had maintained their listings for the last 20+ years was in the hospital and the timetable of his recovery kept getting expanded. Long story short, it was supposed to be attended to and they were giving time to their lawn guy to get it taken care of. But, because of his health situation, it had not been taken care of. What happened next changed my life forever.

Sometimes God delays his answers for our prayers, but sometimes there’s a sudden answer. My motive in calling the real estate agent about this overgrown property is because it seemed unusual and I was just curious what the story was. But something wild happened. The real estate agent for whatever reason assumed I was a Lawn Care Professional. And so she asked me what my rate was to mow the grass and get the property up to par. As she asked me that question I felt like time literally froze and I was perhaps in a cartoon and the light bulb went off. The idea struck me, I can use the mower in my friend’s garage, cut the grass, and make some cash? My emotions literally dramatically changed from fear and oppression to excitement and joy. Here I was literally on a prayer walk crying out to God for some provision and now a lady is offering to pay me to mow some grass.

What happened next was bittersweet. After a long pause, the real estate agent asked me again, “Just let me know the price and when you can get it done, and we will cut you a check. It should arrive in 2-3 business days.” My long pause was because I was thinking, what in the world do I charge? I remember in high school I would cut my neighbor Frank’s yard for $20. This property, however, looked like a forest. I figured I would probably have to mow it three times just to get the height of the turf to a reasonable height. In fear that she was going to hang up on me for my delayed response, I blurted out, $60 dollars. She said deal. She also told me if this gentleman was not able to get back to work immediately that she would have other properties for me to maintain as well. She gave me her email address and told me upon completion of the maintenance to email her and she would get the check in the mail. I would later learn what “check in the mail” really meant but will save that for a later chapter about billing best practices.

2. They Don’t Call Us Rookies For Nothing

It truly took me near a decade to really understand that the dollars are in the data. That “knowing your numbers” or “being intimate” with your numbers is certainly vital to building a lasting successful business. Unfortunately, I completed countless jobs at a net loss. Eventually, I hit rock bottom and learned my lesson. I learned to truly calculate the finest details and to price jobs in a way to ensure they are profitable. But, that did not happen until more recently. And it certainly was not the norm in year one.

Right out of the gate my first job was in the red. I charged the customer $60, but I actually spent $200 to get the job done. Financially it was a - $140 loss and that’s not counting the three days it took me to complete the job. Let me explain.

A few minutes after chatting with the real estate agent, the sun set. I was fired up. I would have started cutting the grass then, but since it was too dark my plan was to get started first thing in the morning. Now, at the time what I had to work with and out of, was my friend’s Murray 21-inch non-self-propelled mower he got from Walmart and the 1997 Honda Accord I was renting from my other friend.

I woke up early that next morning. I could smell that $60. I needed that $60. Rent was quickly approaching. The amount of $928 and I need to scrape together every penny I could, as fast as I could, not to mention all the other bills that were beginning to pile up. I was quickly learning that life in the “real world” was a lot more challenging than my college days at Ohio University.

My plan was to get the grass cut in a couple of hours, email the real estate agent the invoice and hopefully have my $60 check-in two days and also secure those “other” properties that she mentioned needing to be taken care of. So I folded up the raggedy Walmart lawn mower and put it into the trunk of the 1997 Accord and I was off to my first property.

Upon arrival, I realized perhaps the grass/weeds were too wet. But, nevertheless, I was full of ambition. I unloaded the non-self-propelled push mower, cranked it up, and quickly realized I had a big problem. The grass, well let’s be honest, the weeds were so tall and the mower was so weak that the mower kept cutting off. I was determined to try to make it work, but after trying for about an hour and barely making any progress I realized this mower was not going to get the job done. An array of thoughts began to plague me. Do I call the lady back and tell her I am unable to do the job? Should I go rent a mower from Home Depot? Then, I remembered my buddy Dave owned a landscaping company. I knew he had recently purchased a nursery, but perhaps he still had some lawn equipment from his previous business. And so I gave him a call to tell him about my situation and see if he could be of any assistance.

Thankfully, Dave still had the equipment from his landscaping company. He told me he had professional power equipment such as a string trimmer, or as we called it in Georgia a “weed eater” and he also had a commercial blade edger, and a 36 and 48-inch commercial mower. Being the generous guy he is, Dave told me that I could borrow any piece of equipment I needed to get the job done. This was very kind of Dave, but then I realized my next issue. How would I tow the 36 or 48-inch commercial mower, all I had was the 97 Accord I was renting from my friend. I could sense Dave was really busy because it was the spring and his nursery customers needed his attention. He told me the equipment was available but it was on me to figure out how to transport it.

The light at the end of the tunnel that I saw when I first chatted with the Real Estate agent about this mowing opportunity is now growing dim. Perhaps I will never see the $60 check. There was no way I could call my friend to tell him I could not pay the $928 rent. There had to be a way I could legally make money and stay afloat. But, this idea of a lawn business was starting to seem like it was not going to work out. The reality was sinking in. The non-self-propelled Walmart mower couldn’t get the job done and I didn’t have an economical way to tow the 36 or 48-inch mower over to the property. Even if I did, I had not experienced operating one of those commercial mowers. My only experience was my dad’s 21-inch push mower I used in high school and my friend’s Walmart mower that I used a couple of times to mow his small weed-infested yard. The thought of trying to operate one of those 36 or 48-inch commercial mowers seemed intimidating and dangerous. Then, I had a thought. I knew I had a friend with a truck and some lawn experience. Maybe he could help?

I gave him a call and told him my situation about trying to earn some money to pay rent. Then, I explained about my friend offering to loan me his commercial mowers to get the job done, but I did not know how to operate them and did not have any way to tow them. I explained that if I could get this property cleaned up in a timely way then the real estate agent would likely connect me to several other properties. Being the compassionate fellow he is, he said he could help me out this one time. He explained his schedule was pretty full but he had the afternoon free and could swing by pick up the mower, and mow the property for me real quick, but I would need to take it from there with doing all string trimmer work. And because I was in a desperate situation he said he would do it for only $30. He wanted to make sure some of the $60 check went to me to help with rent.

And so my friend picked up the 36-inch commercial mower headed over to the property. Apparently, I did not accurately convey the forest that he was arriving upon. My friend who has cut grass before said that was about the worst he had seen a property before. And so he raised the deck to the highest setting and went over it twice. He was tight on time, and just doing me a favor so that’s all he could offer to help. I gave him $30 cash and expressed my thankfulness for his willingness to help. But, the property still needed a lot of attention. There was a big area in the back he did not feel comfortable mowing because there were rocks mingled in and I did not have any insurance and so he did not want to fling a rock through the house so suggested I weed eat the backyard. And the front yard was still full of clumps. Nevertheless, I was making some progress and a step closer to getting that $60 check and perhaps some more properties.

There was also another interesting development that happened that day. Earlier in the day before my buddy double cut the property for me, I had an interesting conversation at the gym. During a break during my workout, I was having small talk with some of the staff. One of the personal trainers, a lady named Jamie asked what I did for my career. Maybe I was a little presumptuous in my answer but I replied that I was starting a lawn care company. Her eyes widened a bit and she explained that she had a side hustle doing landscaping and her college-aged son had a bunch of commercial lawn equipment and that he did several properties when he was not in class. She mentioned if I ever needed any help to reach out to her son.

I don’t want to beat the dead horse, but I want to make sure to communicate -- I was desperate. The fear I had of having to call my friend to notify I was short of the rent payment was a terrifying thought. And so I humbled myself and called Jamie’s son immediately after I left the gym. His name is Tyler and he answered and I told him about my situation and he explained to me a little about his equipment set up and customers. We struck a deal, he said we could work together, split the revenue for the day 50/50, we could use his equipment if I would help line up some customers. I said deal. Now, this was on a Monday, and his day off from classes was Thursday. And so I had two days to line up some customers.

In a future chapter,...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1. I Had An Idea!
• 2. They Don’t Call Us Rookies For Nothing
• 3. Eye Opening First Summer In Business
• 4. A Safe, Lasting Solution
• 5. All You Need Is Route Density
• 6. A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity
• 7. A Little Bit of Adversity
• 8. Motivated To Achieve
• 9. An Exciting Change of Pace
• 10. A Step In The Right Direction
• 11. My Mentors Fresh Perspective
• 12. Maybe It Is Time To Say No
• 13. A Healthful Way To Time Management
• 14. An Exciting New Way To Effectively Complete Billing
• 15. Now Is The Time For Higher Profit Margins
• 16. For Professional Looking Turf
• 17. It Pays To Know Great Subcontractors
• 18. Straight Talk About Relational Intelligence
• 19. Choosing the Right Company Name
• 20. Now The Real Truth About Marketing
• 21. A Dream Realized
• 22. My Grandpa’s Tools For Business Success
• 23. No Limits
• 24. Putting God First
• 25. Pursuing Substantial Profit Margins
• 26. Separate Yourself From The Ordinary
• Acknowledgements