Exploring Grants for Starting a Lawn Care Business: Everything You Need to Know
The lawn care industry continues to grow, with a revenue of $105 billion in 2021. That’s great news for you as you start your lawn care business, but you may still need to find a grant or financing to help make your dream a reality.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to start a solo lawn care business. We’ll also cover where to go to get grants for starting a lawn care business. Small business grants offer the financial backing to buy the initial equipment you need for your lawn care business. A grant can also allow you to focus on building a quality-focused business instead of chasing down every unqualified lead that pops up.
Understanding Lawn Care and Landscaping Grants
Lawn care and landscaping grants offer a financial boost to lawn care businesses looking to start, expand, or innovate. Unlike loans, these grants don’t require repayment, making them an attractive option for business funding. Available through various federal, state, and local programs, landscaping grants can support eco-friendly practices, technological advancements, and community improvement projects. To tap into this resource, lawn care entrepreneurs must navigate the landscape of grant opportunities, understand eligibility criteria, and prepare compelling applications that highlight their business’s potential impact and alignment with grant objectives.
How to Get Grants for Your Landscaping Business
Securing grants for your landscaping business involves a strategic approach, beginning with comprehensive research to identify relevant grant opportunities. Explore grants specifically tailored to landscaping businesses, focusing on environmental sustainability, local community development, or small business support. Utilize government portals, industry-specific websites, and local business development centers to find opportunities that align with your business goals and values.
Once you’ve identified potential grants, focus on understanding their eligibility criteria and application requirements. Prepare a compelling application by highlighting your business’s contribution to the industry, your commitment to sustainability, and the positive impact on your community. Ensure your application is complete, accurate, and submitted before the deadline. Consider seeking advice from successful grant applicants or consulting with a grant writing professional to enhance your application’s effectiveness.
What can Lawn Care and Landscaping Grants be Used for?
Grant funds can significantly propel the growth and operational capabilities of your lawn care business. These funds can be strategically allocated to various areas, such as enhancing your service offerings through the acquisition of advanced landscaping equipment, expanding your business footprint by opening new locations, boosting your workforce with additional hires, and investing in marketing efforts to reach a broader audience. Each grant may have its own specific conditions on fund usage, emphasizing the importance of aligning your spending with the grant’s objectives to maximize impact and compliance. Here’s how you can strategically allocate these funds:
- Equipment Purchase: Invest in state-of-the-art landscaping equipment to enhance service quality and efficiency.
- Business Expansion: Open new locations to serve more customers and enter new markets.
- Workforce Development: Hire additional staff to manage increased demand and improve customer service.
- Marketing and Promotion: Boost your brand visibility through targeted marketing campaigns.
Types of Grants Available for Lawn Care Businesses
Several types of grants are accessible to lawn care businesses, each catering to different aspects of business growth and development:
Environmental Grants
Environmental grants focus on promoting sustainable practices within the lawn care industry. They support businesses that integrate eco-friendly approaches, such as using organic fertilizers, implementing water conservation techniques, and employing electric-powered equipment. These grants aim to reduce the environmental footprint of lawn care operations and encourage the adoption of green technologies.
Grants resources:
New Immigrant Grants
These grants are designed to support entrepreneurs who have recently immigrated. They aim to foster diversity and inclusion within the business community by providing financial assistance to start or grow a lawn care business. New immigrant grants can help cover startup costs, equipment purchases, and marketing efforts to establish a foothold in the local market.
Grants resources:
Women-Owned Business Grants
Specifically aimed at supporting female entrepreneurs, these grants promote gender diversity in the business world. They provide financial resources for women to start or expand their lawn care businesses, helping to level the playing field in industries traditionally dominated by men.
Grants resources:
Job Creation Grants
Job creation grants reward businesses that contribute to local employment opportunities. For lawn care businesses, this might mean expanding services and hiring more staff. These grants not only support the business’s growth but also positively impact the local economy by creating jobs.
Business Improvement Grants
Intended for businesses looking to upgrade their operations, business improvement grants can be used for purchasing new equipment, improving services, or renovating business premises. These grants aim to enhance the efficiency, competitiveness, and overall performance of lawn care businesses.
Small Business Grants
Small business grants are designed to support the growth and sustainability of small enterprises, including lawn care businesses. They can provide the financial boost needed to overcome challenges, seize growth opportunities, and achieve long-term success in a competitive market.
Grants resources:
Youth Entrepreneurship Grants
These grants encourage young entrepreneurs to enter the business world, offering financial assistance to start or expand innovative ventures. For young individuals passionate about lawn care and landscaping, youth entrepreneurship grants can provide the necessary funds to bring their business ideas to life.
How to Start a Solo Lawn Care Business
When you’re considering how to start a solo lawn care company, you should first look at the companies that are already offering lawn care services in your area. Even if you still proceed with your business plan, you should get a general sense of the companies that are offering residential and commercial lawn care in your area.
Do Your Research. Beyond determining who your competitors are, you should start researching whether you’ll need a business license, what the local laws and regulations are, and what you need to know if you will be offering pest control services. You may not be required to get insurance for your business, but you should still buy general liability insurance to protect yourself and your business investment.
List Your Equipment. As you ramp up your business, you should make a list of the new equipment you’ll need for your business. Some of the key equipment can include at least a basic push mower and hand tools. A more comprehensive list should include a commercial-grade lawnmower, leaf blower, truck, and trailer, as well as goggles and other safety gear. Consider all the business expenses you’ll need to purchase so you can plan ahead and budget.
Financing Options for Starting a Lawn Care Business
As you start to plan out what you’ll need for your first lawn care clients, you should also start looking at the top ways to get lawn care business grants for starting your family lawn care business. Here are a few financing options you can try:
A Bank Loan
The first place you’ll likely start is with a bank loan. If you have a good account history at your bank and a solid credit history, you can set up a meeting with a loan officer to discuss options for your lawn care business. They will likely need to consider your current assets, which you can use as collateral.
Funding From Investors or Partners
You may have a group of friends or family members who are willing to invest in your new business. Their funding might be part of the solution to get you off the ground with the equipment and initial startup costs. Make sure that you are on the same page with your investors about day-to-day operations and shares in your business.
Small Business Loans and Grants
Depending on your financial situation, you may be eligible for a small business loan or grant. It’s not a sure thing, and you’ll likely be faced with a cumbersome application process and many potential applicants for a few loans and grants. Still, it’s worth applying for funding, particularly with the special assistance plans currently available.
For the loans and lawn care business grants that you apply for, read all the terms and conditions. Make sure you’re fully aware of the eligibility requirements. Since these loan and grant options are often a long shot, always move on with other financing options.
Credit Card Funding
As you’re just launching your small business, the easiest option is often to apply for a few credit cards and then float the initial startup costs on those. When you’re starting out, your income may not be consistent, and it becomes increasingly difficult to pay down credit card debt.
With so many other factors involved in financing a new business, in most instances, it’s best to avoid using your credit card as the quick-and-easy, go-to solution for your startup. You might find that you’re quickly drowning in debt. With the range of other financing program options available to you for your landscaping business, you’ll hopefully be able to find a combination of solutions that will allow you to start your business without getting into a mountain of debt.
What About Lawn Care Software?
One of the best ways to access the top, most essential tools you’ll need for starting your business is a Green Industry CRM. It’s an investment in your time and resources, but it’s also a fast and easy way to manage workflow, billing, equipment, and every other important part of your lawnmowing business.
As part of our Service Assistant, we offer a range of technical solutions to support your business needs as well as those of your employees. Here are just a few of the key features:
Measurement Assistant
With this estimation software solution, you can quickly and easily deliver quotes to your customers. You can measure the property from anywhere, no matter what the weather. With that level of accuracy, you’re better able to field questions about your services while delivering timely estimates.
Routing Assistant
With this mapping tool, you’re able to schedule your employees to deliver lawn care for your clients in a way that makes the most sense for your logistical route and workflow. That saves you time and money on gas and transit time, so you can offer the most efficient experience for your customers and your employees.
Mobile Live
With this business software solution, you can easily track and see what’s going on at each job site in real time. So, you can ensure that your entire team is working smarter, not harder. You can also instantly redistribute your employees if you need more hands-on help on a job site to finish the job while delivering the best, fastest, and most reliable service and support to your customers.
Customer Assistant Website
We offer the comprehensive service and support you need for your lawn mowing business. A big part of that is our Customer Assistant, a website that allows your customers to easily pay or prepay to access your lawn care and landscaping services. You have enough other logistical factors to consider as you run your business. You shouldn’t have to worry about chasing down payments. That’s why we offer 24/7 service to support your needs.
Automated Marketing Assistant
This marketing software solution supports strategic planning, demographics, and distribution as part of this automated all-in-one system. You can track and better manage your customer’s life cycle while gaining a better understanding of the factors that are contributing to the growth opportunities and success of your lawn mowing and landscaping business.
Next Step: Schedule Your Free Lawn Care Software Demo
At RealGreen, we offer the services and support you need to effectively launch and run your lawn care business. With our innovative software solutions and valued services, we are the reliable experts you need to take your business to the next level. We’ve been in business for nearly 40 years, and our goal has remained the same: to provide you with the quality solutions you need to manage and grow your business.
Call 1-888-345-2154 to see the results for yourself with a free demo!
FAQs
Do I need an LLC for a lawn care business?
You may not need an LLC if there is no risk associated with your business, but a lawn care business involves the risk of property damage and personal injury. These two factors mean that you should consider forming your business as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for the tax benefits, personal asset protection, and increased credibility that an LLC can afford.
Is starting a lawn care business worth it?
A lawn care business offers a range of benefits. It’s the type of business that will always be in demand, and you also don’t need a ton of equipment to get started. Lawn care is one of those jobs that you can easily learn about by doing the work and educating yourself via landscaping books.
With hard work, a lawn care business can offer an opportunity to work for yourself, earn a decent living, and enjoy what you do as you spend all day outside. With a reputation for reliability, it’s a business opportunity that you can easily scale up with additional workers and equipment to serve a large customer base.
What is needed to start a lawn care business?
You need a lawnmower and a few hand tools: clippers, a hoe, a saw, a shovel, and a string trimmer. As you expand your business, you can buy the power tools that will allow you to accomplish those gardening and yardwork tasks more efficiently.
Shayla started at WorkWave in the marketing department in August 2022. As Senior Product Marketing Manager for RealGreen by WorkWave, Shayla spends her days researching the lawn and landscape industry, strategizing go-to-market efforts, and building relationships with customers to better serve and communicate.