Start a Lawn Care Service – How to Write a Business Plan

admin August 19th, 2009

Before you start a lawn care business you have to set out a business plan so that you can map out a path to success, set goals and measure your progress along the way. If you need funding, or are looking for business partners then a good business plan will also help you convince them to support you.

At the very least a lawn care business plan gives you a place to compile and summarize all the research and information that you gather about lawn care and the industry in your local area.

This article sets out ten sections that you should break your business plan down into and highlights what each section could include.

1) Executive Summary – A rough outline or introduction about your intentions.

2) Objectives – What do you hope to achieve financially, or otherwise in the short, medium and long term with your business?

3) Ownership – If you have partners or investors you should mention how ownership is divided between the respective interests.

4) Company mission – The values or ideals that will reflect the way you run your business.

5) Start-up requirements – What do you need to get started in terms of equipment and investment.

6) Analysis of the local market – Summarise your market research. What niche markets within lawn care and landscaping will you target? What is your target demographic? Who are your competitors? How will you distinguish your company in the marketplace?

7) Marketing Strategy – How will you bring in clients? Outline your advertising strategy, budget and sales strategy.

Management – Outline the management structure of the new business.

9) Staff – Set out a plan for when employees will be hired and try to get estimates on how much overall staffing costs will be.

10) Financial forecasting – Set out a spreadsheet with anticipated cash flows for the first three years of your lawn business. By estimating monthly revenue and costs you can then estimate what kind of profit you could make based on the estimates. You can plug in conservative and optimistic figures to get an idea of how your profits will look if things don’t go as well as planned, or go better than planned.

Setting out a business plan for your lawn care startup is important. Without a solid plan to take you forward to success it is not easy to achieve a high level of success in the lawn care industry.

For more information on how to start a lawn business visit http://www.startalawnmowingbusiness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Sutherland

Author: Steve Sutherland