How much money can you make mowing lawns?

I've done 7 years in the industry with a big franchise, mowing lawns, gardening, weeding, pruning, cutting trees, gutter cleaning, irrigation, landscaping and lots of other odd jobs for customers.

Over the years I've worked on and off with employees as I built my business up and then sold off sections, only to build it up again and take on more employees.

In those 7 years I had many, many holidays, rain days, fun days and Mondays off.

It's really hard to put a number on "How much can I make mowing"

Like most things, the more you put in, the more you get out.

I'll explain how much I was making from the start and then through to now.

2013: I started in June, wintertime. I had about 30 customers with lots of one-off jobs. I was aiming for about $60 p/h or a $ a minute, sometimes falling short so it probably averaged closer to $50. I would always quote and never give out an hourly rate. I thought it was great! $60p/h for mowing lawns! It was a lot more than I was getting as a qualified carpenter!

So, I was turning over around $1350 a week, which worked out to be around $700 take home per week not including holidays (not so great after all)

It took me a couple of years to figure this out properly. I took on an employee and after a year I realised he was taking home more than me!

So around 2 years after I started, I sat down with a business advisor.

2015: We worked out how much the business was costing me to run, how many hours I was actually working (around 27 hours per week) and what I was getting at the end of it all. It wasn't great.

We discovered I had a few simple problems within my business and got them sorted out ASAP. 

We also decided that now I had gained experience, I had invested in the right equipment and I knew a bit more about my business that it was time to raise my prices.

I immediately raised my sights to $80 p/h, lifting all my current customers to fall in line with this target and amazingly they all happily accepted the price rise!

Over the next two years I became more efficient, quoted higher and more importantly started taking more holidays.

Working around the same number of hours I started taking home around $1000 (not turnover) per week, in my pocket, including holidays and after tax.

Then I put on an employee, paid them $25ph and charged them out at $60p/h.

Now I was making a lot more than they were!

2017-2020: Everything was running smoothly.

I had made my business more efficient and I had figured out all the tricks and traps to running it. 

I was now charging more; it was costing me less and I was doing it quicker.

I was very busy, so I implemented another price rise, this time jumping up to a target of $100 p/h.

Even at this price I had very little resistance and when I did get knocked back it was ok because there were always more jobs around the next bend.

I don't like to say this because people don't believe me, but it took a long time and a lot of hard work to get here, but

Over the last 2 years I was able to take home $1200 (not turnover) per week, in my pocket, but I worked on average only around 20 hours per week and I had over 30 weeks of paid holidays travelling. 

So, it really depends on what kind of work life balance you want.

At the end of the 7th year I was charging that much plus 2 employees.

So how much can you make mowing lawns? 

It depends how you set yourself up at the start. 

It depends what you are willing to put into it and if you are willing to stick by your decisions.

You need to understand how your business will operate and how you will manage it.

You need to know cash flow is important, some weeks I made $300 and one week I made $8k by myself.

How many days per week do you want to work? 3 or 7? 

If you set your business up the right way from the start and understand what you are doing you can get to the point where you can easily make $400 - $600 per day by yourself or with an employee $500 - $1000 per day. But it will take time.

There are many variables in this business, and it all depends how you do it personally. 

You could build an empire, or you can take it easy and earn enough to get by and take some holidays.

But be warned, if you think you can just get an ABN, take your mower and brush cutter and start making thousands, you are wrong!

It takes a lot of planning, investing money and time and it's a steep learning curve to climb.

I believe any of those guys charging $30/40 or even $50 ph are most likely working for minimum wage and do not realise the money they make will not cover all their expenses or repairs and new equipment, let alone holidays or super.

If you need some help setting up your business, then check out our website where we have online training to help out new guys set up their business the right way.

If you want to be 2 steps ahead of the competition, then check out our online training courses and members club.