Guides
Lawn care startup: four variables that set a crew's day
Lawn care startup capacity worked from four crew-day variables: usable hours, on-site time, drive time and stops, and what each added service does to them.
What to take away
- A crew day has a ceiling, and four named variables set itH, T, D and S.
- Write H, T and D from real stops before you quote anyone. Capacity comes before revenue.
- When on-site time is fixed by property size, drive time is the lever, and you pull it by how tightly you sell.
- Every new service changes the day, so recompute S when the menu grows.
- Application work adds a regulator to the maths, not only more minutes.
Four variables set what a crew can finish
A crew finishes as many stops as its usable hours allow after on-site time and drive time are taken out. Four named variables describe that, and each can be measured in the first week of work. Measuring them is what separates a route plan from a hope.
Model the crew day
- H
- Usable field hours · Clock from leaving the yard to the last stop
- T
- Average on-site time per stop · Stopwatch, park to gate close, logged by property type
- D
- Average drive time between stops · Odometer and clock at each arrival and departure
- S
- Stops per day · H divided by the sum of T and D
S is roughly H divided by the sum of T and D. Field hours are what remain after loading and fueling, so H is always shorter than the working day. Log each visit from week one and the three numbers fill themselves in. Starting a lawn care route covers the setup order that comes first.
Crew day variables
- Husable field hours per day
- Taverage on-site time per stop
- Daverage drive time between stops
- Sstops completed per day
A stopwatch and an odometer are enough for the measuring. A GPS fleet tool such as Verizon Connect records the same arrival and departure times without a notebook, which helps once more than one truck is on the road.
Drive time is the variable you control
When T is fixed by property size, D is the only lever left, and D comes from how tightly you sold. Two stops on a street beat two stops eight miles apart, because the far pair spends part of the day on the road instead of on the lawn.
Draw a drive-time polygon in Google Maps or Google Earth Pro and sell inside it first. Note lot sizes, gate access and slope inside the line. Anything outside it is an exception, and an exception should be priced as one rather than accepted because the phone rang.
The same discipline applies to T. Two properties called the same size can differ by a third in on-site time, so quoting by eye hides the gap. Log T by property type and quote from the log. The quoting record shows what to write down.
What each added service does to the day
Each new service brings its own on-site time, so S has to be recomputed whenever the menu changes. The order below keeps the first season simple, and tiered service packages shows how to sell the later stages once the route can carry them.
| Stage | Work added | What to do in the model |
|---|---|---|
| One | Mowing, edging and blowing on a fixed day pattern | Set H, T and D; keep one backup for the item most likely to fail |
| Two | Cleanups, mulch and shoulder-month work on the same crew and truck | Log T separately for these visits instead of averaging them in |
| Three | Work needing separate certification or storage, such as applications | Check the rules first; the question is permission, not minutes |
| Four | A second crew | Plan supervision as well as capacity |
Fix a weekday for each part of the territory before you have customers. Retrofitting days onto a live customer list is unpleasant, and a route that shifts days each month loses the density it was built on.
Rain, repairs and the makeup day
A route that finishes only when nothing goes wrong has no capacity left. The makeup day is there to absorb rain weeks, so count the weeks you finished late rather than assuming the pattern holds. Four checks from the first season tell you whether the model is honest.
- The route finishes inside the allotted days in an ordinary week, with nothing borrowed from the makeup day.
- The makeup day absorbs the rain weeks, and you have counted the late ones.
- The shoulder period holds when cut frequency changes in spring and fall.
- Customers renew at the season boundary, the only retention number that matters in year one.
Downtime belongs in the same model. A broken mower is not only a repair cost: it is lost stops that still have to happen. A skipped week costs too, since it turns the next visit into a longer cut at the same price.
Applications change the question, not only the minutes
Mowing, edging and cleanup are lightly regulated in most places. Applying a pesticide, herbicide or fertilizer for money puts you under a different regime, set state by state, so the model needs a rule check before it needs a time estimate.
Federal law, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces through its pesticide programme, requires that anyone who applies or supervises restricted use pesticides be certified as a private or commercial applicator. The programmes that certify people are run by states, so your state department of agriculture is the office to ask, in these words.
Confirm the rules
- Does this work need a commercial applicator license or certification, and in which category?
- Do I hold it, or does the person doing the spraying?
- What supervision is required for an uncertified employee?
- What records must I keep, and for how long?
- What changes if I apply only fertilizer or general-use products?
Questions for state regulators
- Does work require commercial applicator license?
- Is business license needed on top?
- What supervision is allowed?
- What records must be kept and how long?
- What changes for fertilizer-only or general-use?
Write the answers down with a date and a name. Until you hold them, keep application work out of S entirely.
When the numbers say a second person pays
A second person changes the model in one place only: supervision. Before you plan around one, read the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS wage estimates for your state and metropolitan area. They are published for states and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, so the figure matches your territory.
Then check the route itself. A second crew pays when the route is tight enough that a second person nearly doubles output, and when you can supervise it from your own stops. Expansion planning takes that decision further.
