1 Super Simple Way to Buy Lawn Care Equipment Without Debt

May 26, 2022

Summary

  • How to start buying lawn care equipment for the first time

  • A method to purchase lawn care equipment without debt

  • My own experience starting my lawn care company
     

    A quick Google or YouTube search asking “How To Start A Lawn Care Business” will invariably give wildly varying advice and information from every aspect of the business. There are as many opinions as options on business structures, pricing methods, marketing strategies, software purchases, etc. However, there is one facet of the lawn care industry where most seem united: you will need to finance your equipment purchases.

    Highly regarded leaders in this industry will argue that a minimum of 15 to 25 thousand dollars will be your initial equipment investment. Still, I have been in the lawn care industry since 2015 and have never financed a single trimmer, mower, truck or any other kind of equipment.

    Step-By-Step: Buying your Lawn Care Equipment from Scratch Without Debt

    The barrier to entry in the lawn care industry is remarkably low. If you want to save your money, you can easily purchase for under $600 a brand new push mower, trimmer, blower, assorted gas cans, trim lines, etc. That was not where I found myself in 2015, I needed to make extra money right away, and I did not have the $600 to spend, so I went the used route.

    My first mower was a 20-in Murray 3.5hp mower I found on Craigslist for $40. I then signed up for a local internet company offering a $300 gift card for new customers. I used that money to foolishly buy a Ryobi 40v trimmer and an 18v blower. I asked around and got an old free gas can to fuel up the mower, and my setup was complete. The initial cash investment was $40, but I made around $400 that first month.

    The Ryobi blower and trimmer purchases were absolute disasters that I regret to this day. So with the earnings from that April, I went to Home Depot and bought myself an ECHO SRM-225 string trimmer for around $200. Also, I permanently borrowed my grandfather’s Toro blower in exchange for mowing his lawn for free. As that second month wore on, I went back to Craigslist and found a self-propelled 21-in mower for $100.

    I now could breathe easy knowing I had backups of everything. The money was starting to flow towards the end of that second month, so I made one more mower purchase: a 30-in Toro Timemaster with a “blown head gasket” for $250. I then turned around and sold the Murray for $50. By the end of that second month, my total revenue was over $1500, and my total equipment investment was around $600.

    In the third month, I bought even more equipment. I found an old used trailer for $200 and a 33-in Troybilt walk-behind for $350. Shortly after those purchases, I sold the 21-in self-propelled mower for $125. I was happy with that setup and stuck with it for the remainder of the lawn season, making $1000-$1500 per month working one day a week.

    Although, as the season went down, I knew I needed a commercial mower to take things to the next level. I kept my eye on Craigslist, and sure enough, I found a 20-year-old Toro Proline 36-in walk behind mower for only $375! I bought it and immediately put the Timemaster and Troy Bilt on Craigslist. I do regret selling the Timemaster, but I sold the two mowers for a combined $1000!

    Return of Investment of my Lawn Care Equipment

    This is the process I have used with all equipment purchases I have made since that first year. Buy what you can afford and sell it once you have bought something better. The big takeaway in my mind is to look at what that $40 initial investment turned into:

  • 20-in Murray bought for $40, sold for $50

  • 21 self-propelled mower bought for $100, sold for $125

  • Toro Timemaster bought for $250, sold for $550

  • Troybilt bought for $350, sold for $450

  • Toro Proline bought for $375, and I still have it

  • Over the course of that first season, through a reinvestment process in the company, I spent $1,105 on mowers and sold all but the Proline for $1,175. So what started as a $40 mower purchase ended as a commercial-grade Toro Proline and $70. By the end of that first season, my mower purchases had actually been a net positive in income and had turned a 21-in Murray into a 36-in Toro Proline.

    I used the Toro as my primary mower for over 3,000 lawns mowed over 3.5 years, and when I felt the time was right, I purchased a brand new commercial mower with the cash I had saved.

    So many people will tell you that debt is necessary to grow your business, but I am telling you it is not. I used this process to purchase everything in my business, including the two trailers I have owned, the truck I drive every day, and even the landscape bed I put on the back (well, I actually bartered for that). The point is debt is a choice in the lawn care industry, not a requirement.

    In 2016 after a year of working part-time, I went full-time in this business and have not looked back (sidenote: use this formula for quoting lawn mowing job). Every year has been bigger than the year before, and I owe a lot of that to the freedom and flexibility that comes when you do not owe anyone anything.

Randy Dulin