If you’re a lawn care company owner trying to attract new customers, it never hurts to find out what they’re actually looking for when they make their hiring decision. Are they after affordability? Reputation? A wide range of services? Or all of the above?

Before you make significant changes to your business model to expand your client list, take a moment to review the following information. You might be surprised at what customers prefer when hiring someone to mow their lawns.

Reputation

Many people’s properties are their pride and joy, and they won’t just let anyone come in and start altering their landscape. Often, Kiwis will research the many well-known names in the lawn care industry to see who comes highly recommended.

They might start by typing ‘lawn mowing service’ into a search engine and seeing which names pop up. Generally, some of the best and most well-known companies feature on the first page of the search results, such as Crewcut.

Once they have a few different names written down, they might then explore their websites and social media platforms to find out more about them. When you work for a franchise, you generally get to benefit from an excellent reputation, potentially improving your chances of being the person someone in need of lawn mowing services will call.

Services

While many people simply want someone to help them take care of their lawns, others are looking for an all-inclusive property care service. They might need assistance with hedge and tree pruning, water blasting, lawn edging, and even gardening.

They might not want all of these services right away, but you may improve your chances of being a provider people call upon if you can offer a wide range of service options they can utilise in the future.

Competitive Pricing

According to some sources, the cost of living grew by 5.2% in a single year from 2021 to 2022. Many families are tightening their belts and sacrificing luxuries to afford the basics.

Lawn care is still a necessity for many, but it’s not surprising that homeowners are shopping around to find companies offering the most competitive rates. Lawn care service providers may like to strike a balance between quality and value for money.

Lawn care service costs in New Zealand can vary from one company and provider to the next. Customers might pay in the vicinity of $25 to $50 for a small lawn and upwards of $50 for large lawns. Travel costs might also be extra.

If you’re unsure how much to charge or how much you should charge, do your homework. Find out the service costs of similar businesses in your area, and don’t be afraid to negotiate.

A Job Well Done

You expect a professional finish when you’re paying an expert to perform a task using professional equipment. Sometimes, customers don’t concern themselves with cost or reputation, as long as the finished result looks better than what they could have done themselves.

Treat every yard as if it were your own, and go the extra mile to make sure any job you complete is performed to the highest standard. If you’re unsure what your client’s expectations are, ask them.

Some are more than happy for you to mulch clippings into the lawn, while others prefer for you to take them away. Some property owners also request regular edging and leaf blowing to leave a picture-perfect finish each time.

Convenience

Hiring someone to mow your lawns shouldn’t be more inconvenient than cutting them yourself. The more complicated the process is, the less likely a potential client might be to hire a particular business.

Think about the many different ways you could make the lives of your clients much easier, above and beyond ensuring they don’t have to mow their own lawns. For example, you might schedule their lawn mowing for the same time each week or month, so they can prepare for your visit. You might also offer convenient payment options like online banking.

Contactability

Your customers’ needs won’t always be the same. Some weeks, they might like their lawns mowed and edged, and other weeks, they might decide that the gardens need to be tidied and the trees trimmed. If you’re easy to contact, customers might prefer you over less-contactable lawn care service providers.

While having at least one contact method is preferable, you might see the value in multiple. A cellphone number with an answering machine service can ensure you never miss an important message, and email makes you accessible for those non-urgent inquiries.

Some lawn care service providers even use social media to make them even more reachable than several other lawn mowing companies.

Give the Customers What They Want

You’re likely already in hot demand as the provider of a convenient service that saves homeowners a great deal of hassle and stress. However, by considering these points above, you might be surprised at how many new customers you can welcome onboard.

It’s okay to admit that you didn’t look at every square inch of a property during an inspection or open home. It’s easy to miss those finer details when you’re sharing an open home event with several other people.

However, even the most seasoned purchasers might admit that they never paid much attention to the lawn before placing an offer. Even though any structures on a property for sale can take up most of your attention, it can be worth noting the following points regarding the lawns and landscape.

The Boundary Line

Where does your lawn end and your neighbour’s begin? That is sometimes the million-dollar question. When you decide to make an offer and start checking LIM reports and council files, take note of the boundary information.

Not only can you learn where you’re able to stop weeding the gardens, but you might also save yourself a considerable headache at a later date, should you decide to upgrade or install fencing.

Drainage

Drainage requirements in NZ can be complicated, but most builders are aware of the importance of making sure heavy rain doesn’t flow inside someone’s brand new living room.

However, with property alterations over time, drainage direction can change, and you may not gain insight into how well a lawn drains and where it drains on your first – or even second – visit.

Before signing on the dotted line, drive through the neighbourhood during heavy rainfall to see what the average yard looks like. You might even catch a glimpse of your dream home and see exactly what happens during less-than-ideal weather conditions.

Fortunately, lawn drainage issues don’t have to be a deal-breaker. There are many different ways to combat landscape flooding, such as a French drain to control excess water, a rain garden, or a swale.

Signs of Pests

Lawn pests like grass grubs can be frustrating, especially when you desire a bowling green-like lawn, but you’ve got a patchy, inconsistent mess instead. Just as you can’t control when lawn pests will take up residence on your property, neither can most other property owners.

Take a wander around the yard during an inspection or open home and see if you notice any yellow and dying grass patches. While dogs can cause such patches, grass grubs can also be the culprits.

Grass grubs and other lawn pests are generally not a severe issue. You may just need to pay a visit to your local garden centre for grass grub killer products to give them their marching orders once and for all.

Grass Variety

Grass is grass. Or, is it? We are fairly fortunate here in Aotearoa New Zealand, to have a variety of different grass types at our disposal. Some thrive in some parts of the country better than others, and some are more desirable than others. What does your dream home have?

In Auckland, you’re more likely to come across tall fescue than most other grass types. Tall fescue is a hard-wearing, dark green grass that’s coarse and bunches together. It also doesn’t easily flatten and is robust for those family games of backyard cricket.

However, fine fescue might also be a grass type you come across, along with couch grass, Kikuyu grass, ryegrass, and mixed blend. Each grass variety has its pros and cons, and if you don’t like what you have, you can always grow your own lawn from scratch.

The Soil Type

We have over a dozen different soil types in New Zealand, including brown soil, pumice soil, ancient soil, and even artificial Anthropic soil. When you inspect a property you intend to buy, you likely won’t know which type you’re looking at.

However, some soils are undoubtedly more fertile than others. Some homeowners won’t object to you taking soil tests if you’re an avid gardener, but you can also pay attention to what’s currently growing to get an idea of soil fertility.

Once you move in, you can perform more thorough soil tests, learn about the best soil for planting, and make any improvements as you see fit.

Lawn Slope

Many homeowners have sloped sections and have no trouble with landscaping and mowing. However, considering the slope can be worthwhile if you’ve never had to mow lawns on a hill before.

Mowing on a slope can require a far different set of skills than cutting on flat land, and extra safety precautions can sometimes be necessary. A sloped lawn is not a deal-breaker, but if you don’t have mowing confidence, you may see the value in hiring a lawn care company to assist.

Learn Your Lawn

When you’re in the process of buying a new home, or you already have, there’s no harm in learning your lawn. Test the soil, check the drainage, and look for signs of pests. The more you know, the easier you may find it to achieve that bowling green lawn you always wanted.

If you have been thinking about starting your own lawn care business, there can be many decisions to make. You’ve got to think about the equipment you’re going to buy, the services you’ll offer, and the hours you’ll work.

However, there’s one more thing to think about, and that’s whether you’ll get involved in residential or commercial lawn mowing. What’s the difference? Well, there can be many, such as these below.

The Types of Mowers You Use

In both residential and commercial lawn mowing, the use of a commercial-grade lawn mower can be crucial. The average homeowner mower isn’t generally made to handle multiple lawns per day for an extended period.

However, as commercial lawns can sometimes be much larger than the average Kiwi property, you may also need to consider whether adding a ride-on mower to your arsenal is worth your while. They can be helpful for use on large, small, sloped, and flat lawns.

You may still need a push mower for both commercial and residential properties, but having your pick of either option may help you be more productive with your time.

The Petrol Requirements

As most Kiwis know, petrol isn’t cheap right now, and most business owners are likely trying to save as much of it as possible. When you get involved in lawn care and use petrol-powered equipment, you may quickly become aware of how much it costs to service each customer’s lawn.

The differences between residential and commercial lawn mowing can be pretty significant in this respect. When the commercial lawns are much larger, they require more mowing time, which means you’re ultimately burning more fuel.

The Services Required

Many business owners want their work premises to look welcoming and attractive for all customers that walk through their doors. The last thing they want is trees to look scraggly, lawns growing out of control, and leaf litter covering all entrances.

As a result, you may find that you can provide a much more extensive range of services for time-poor business owners. Not only do they want you to tackle their lawns, but they can sometimes want hedges to be trimmed, trees to be pruned, gardens to be tended to, and paths to be water blasted.

These same services can be offered to homeowners, but many like to handle one or two tasks themselves for a sense of satisfaction rather than handing everything over to a lawn care company.

The Property Size

While not always the case, commercial grounds can be a lot larger than the average residential property in NZ. With more lawn area to mow, you may spend more time at a commercial property than you would a residential one with a much smaller patch of grass to cut.

It’s worth keeping this in mind when you decide whether to offer residential or commercial lawn mowing services. You could tend to fewer but larger sections in a day or more but smaller sections.

The Income

When commercial properties are larger and more services are required, you can charge more for your time and resources. As a result, you may expect to receive more income as a commercial lawn mowing operator.

However, it’s important to know that how companies pay other businesses can differ from how a residential homeowner might pay a business. Homeowners can be more likely to pay a bill when it comes in and within the month, whereas you may be waiting much longer when being paid by a company, depending on their payment structure.

The Competition to Secure Work

Many lawn care businesses see commercial work as lucrative, and it’s easy to see why. You can make a name for yourself in the business world while receiving more money for your hard work.

As a result of these benefits, the competition to secure work can be fierce. You may need to work harder on your advertising and align yourself with a quality NZ lawn mowing company to make sure your business stands out from the crowd.

If you’re interested in taking on more commercial clients, you may also need to visit various businesses with lawn care needs and make your pitch to see if you can lengthen your client list.

The Attention to Detail

Of course, attention to detail is something most reputable lawn care service providers pride themselves on. You aren’t going to treat your residential clients any differently from your commercial ones.

However, there’s sometimes an expectation that your attention to detail at a place that customers visit might be that little bit extra intensive.

Start Your Residential or Commercial Lawn Mowing Business Today

There’s certainly a lot to consider before you start your new business in earnest, but this information may give you plenty to think about. You may then decide to go full steam ahead with residential clients, commercial clients, or a mixture of both.

When you start looking for information on how to winterise a lawn in New Zealand, you may quickly learn that we don’t experience the same weather extremes as other countries. Our winterising processes are often far less intensive than those required in some parts of the United States or the United Kingdom, for example.

This is good news for those who don’t have the time or desire for this task. However, that doesn’t mean you’re entirely off the hook. If you want your yard to bounce back come springtime, there are a few things you may need to add to your to-do list in winter and autumn, such as these below.

Mow When you Need To

Lawn mowing is rarely required in winter and autumn as the majority of our grasses experience significant growth in the warmer months of the year. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t need to haul your mower out of storage at least once over that six-month period.

During particularly mild days, lawns still grow and begin to look a little bit unkempt. If you notice that your grass looks untidy and feels spongy underfoot, you may need to mow it. Wait until a dry day before you complete this task, or hire a lawn mowing business on a contract to take care of it for you.

Give Your Mower Some TLC

With the sun shining over the summer months, your lawn mower likely saw a lot of action. It worked hard, and now’s the right time to perform some much-needed maintenance and prepare it for life in the tool shed for a few months.

Start by cleaning it from top to bottom while paying particular attention to underneath the deck. Check all filter seals and clean or replace the air filter.

While inspecting and maintaining the blades, don’t forget to disconnect the spark plug lead. File down any bumps or nicks and replace or sharpen your blade if it’s damaged or blunt.

When you know you’re not going to touch your mower for some time, remove the battery and store it somewhere cool and dry, such as a secure garage. Once you’ve disconnected the battery cable from the battery, clean the terminal with a wire brush and coat all terminals with a protector product.

If you still have fuel left in the mower tank, add a fuel stabilizer product to ensure it doesn’t gum up inside your mower. Alternatively, drain the tank. However, it’s often recommended that you store a mower with a full tank of fuel and stabiliser to stop moisture from creating rust that clogs your carburetor.

By winterising your lawn mower, you stand a better chance of being able to drag it out of the garage in spring and have it start with minimal effort.

Look After Your Lawn

Spring and summer lawn care tasks can be overwhelming, which is why many people hire lawn care teams to take care of them. They get to enjoy a neatly manicured lawn and tidy property, but without all the effort associated with weeding, feeding, edging, mowing, and more.

You might assume that autumn and winter allow you to take a bit of a break, especially as the grass isn’t growing, but our lawns still need nourishment when the mercury plummets. Your lawns may not be growing as quickly as they do in spring, but they require help by way of fertiliser and tonics to repair any damage that colder weather can cause.

Seaweed tonics and granulated fertilisers are more than suitable for winter and autumn placement, and you can also purchase cool-season formula fertiliser. If you’re unsure when and how to apply such products to help your lawn survive and thrive, consult your local garden store worker or lawn mowing expert.

However, looking after your lawn can go beyond fertilising. You may also need to water it as you do in summer and spring. While winter and autumn are undoubtedly the wettest and coldest months of the year, that’s not the case in all parts of the country.

If you live somewhere with dry winters, your lawn may be in desperate need of water without you realising it. See if the soil feels dry, then water for half as long as you would in summer. Allow plenty of time before night falls to reduce the risk of the lawn succumbing to fungal problems.

Keep Weeding

Spending time in your garden is undoubtedly less fun during autumn and winter than in spring and summer. However, it can be necessary to keep weeding year-round to prevent issues once spring arrives once more. 

Annual weed plants grow and produce seeds while it’s cold, and some lawn weed types like broadleaf use those seasons to grow, spread, and smother the grass. Herbicide may be necessary for large lawns, but you may be able to cut out such weeds on small to medium lawns.

Winterise Your Lawn Today

Autumn has well and truly arrived, which means we have to adjust how we care for our properties. Now might be the right time to get some of these winterising tasks underway or start looking for lawn care companies to take care of them for you.