Lawn Care Empire Resources

These are the BEST resources that I personally recommend. Please understand that I only recommend products to you that I have personally used and that I know will benefit your business.

My Most Recommended Tools

Ultimate Guide To Starting A Lawn Care Empire: This eBook provides you with all of the know how to legally start your own lawn care company, find your first customers, get insured, and how to build your brand efficiently and effectively and much more.

Vistaprint: Whenever I need professional marketing materials created I always trust Vistaprint for the job. Their web-based software is intuitive and fully customizable to cater to your lawn care company branding needs.

HostGator: I have trusted HostGator with all of my websites for the past 2 years.

Surefire Hearing Protection: My number one regret is that I did not wear proper hearing protection as a teenager. I now suffer from mild tinnitus (constant background ringing) and I am only 30 years old. I do NOT want you to make the same mistake I did so please invest in high quality hearing protection. I use the Surefire EP4 hearing protection and I love it. You will not regret the investment.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=surefire%20hearing%20protection&linkCode=ur2&sprefix=surefire%20hearing%20%2Caps%2C209&tag=tcg0e-20&url=search-alias%3Daps&linkId=MJM5KC23UHAOLWTG

Essential Lawn Care Equipment

If you are looking for convenience, then I recommend using either Lowes or Home Depot. Their prices are relatively affordable, and I found that their customer service and return process to be decent. I highly recommend you shop online for their lawn care equipment, because they often don’t keep the majority of the equipment in-store and you will need to purchase online.

You can often save 10% or find interest free financing options which are great for those of you just starting out and don’t have the capital to purchase equipment.

Lowes -
Home Depot -

If you prefer to use Amazon.com, I have compiled a beginners start up kit to make things easy for you. Feel free to pick and choose the items you need.

Suggested starter lawn care equipment wishlist

Trailer Hitches

Use Amazon.com to find the best hitch for your vehicle, whether you have a car or a truck you can easily identify the best hitch for you.

Don't Forget To Protect Yourself

Industrial Strength Sunscreen: http://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Strength-Sunscreen-ISSC-GAL-30-Refined-Fragrance/dp/B008EEJN9I/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1415676766&sr=8-8&keywords=bulk+sunscreen

Polarized Sunglasses: http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=polarized%20sunglasses&linkCode=ur2&sprefix=polarized%2Caps%2C237&tag=tcg0e-20&url=search-alias%3Daps&linkId=XZGY5RIIFYGBCZTV

Sun Hats: http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=sun%20hat&linkCode=ur2&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asun%20hat&tag=tcg0e-20&url=search-alias%3Daps&linkId=HSBGOHZFY3N3A6IH

Water Jugs

5 Gallon http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=water%20cooler%20seat%20top&linkCode=ur2&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Awater%20cooler%20seat%20top&tag=tcg0e-20&url=search-alias%3Daps&linkId=YLLZFRHOTC2GKXHT

Whatever David and Andrea bought us.

MARKETING

Lawn Care Logo Development

I personally used 99designs.com to create the logo’s for my eBook and couldn’t be happier. You submit a project and graphic artists from around the world will create your project and you get to pick the best one. Awesome company.

www.99designs.com

If you prefer to make your own logo then I recommend using iStock images to find the best lawn care photo for your logo that you can legally use for commercial purposes.

www.istockphoto.com/

Branding And Apparel

Vistaprint is the only company that I trust to print my t-shirts, hats, car/truck magnets, and lawn care yard signs. They are hands down the best in the business and always have great coupon codes to save you even more.

Website Development

Website Domains & Wordpress Hosting

HostGator: I use HostGator for this website and the majority of my other sites. I use them because I have found that they provide the best customer service and most reliable website hosting options. As of today, I have never had a major issue with them and can’t recommend them enough for your Lawn Care Company Website. Watch my video on how to set up a lawn care wordpress company website in under 4 minutes here.

Social Media

The tools that I use to help me automate my social media. They offer both free and paid subscriptions depending on how big your lawn care company is.

Buffer

Hootesuite

Email Newsletter

Adding a newsletter to your website is a great way to connect further with your customers. It allows you direct access to their inboxes and allow you to notify them when you are having special promotions and much more.

I trust two email services and have used them both with much success. They both offer both free and paid options.

Aweber

Mailchimp

Accounting Software

Quickbooks is what I use to do my own taxes. It is the simplest tax accounting software currently available to small businesses and the best part is that you don’t need to be an accountant to use the software. Believe me, when tax season rolls around both you and your accountant will be glad that you picked QuickBooks.

Insurance

If you are looking for general contractor insurance then Progressive is the company that I recommend. They make it simple to get quotes for getting you and your employees insured. You do not want to be without Progressive if an accident occurs. Make sure you are covered.

http://www.progressive.com/business/contractors-insurance/

Licensing

Go to http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/obtain-business-licenses-

To find all of your state’s requirements to starting a lawn care business. You will be considered a Contractor in most states.

Document Management

Maintaining your checklists and customer data can be a manual and time consuming process. There are tools currently available that allow you to maintain all of your important data in the cloud.

Dropbox - A great way to automatically upload photos (or any other documents) from your phone to the cloud. Makes it easy to pull photos for posting to social media.
Google Drive - use as a free microsoft office alternative for spreadsheets and word documents
Free Google Drive Templates - access to great templates that include inventory listings, balance sheets and much more

https://drive.google.com/templates#

Mobile Payment Systems

Some customers may prefer to pay with credit card. There are two primary options available for lawn care companies to use.

Intuit GoPayment
Square