We have been in the lawn painting business since 2015 and the truth is that just like any business it can be profitable or not profitable depending on how you go about it. That’s why we wanted to write an article to teach you ins and outs of the business and how you can do it profitably.
What You Should Know Before Starting
While lawn painting is a great business overall, it has its downsides just like any other business. The main issue with it is that customers generally only call in the summer time. The other 9 months out of the year are usually very slow. That’s why we recommend doing yard painting as a side-business rather than as your only service because it is very difficult to make a full-time income from it in the off-season. Furthermore, lawn painting is only in demand in a few areas in the country due to droughts and weather patterns. The most popular states for lawn painting are: California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and other areas in the south. If you live in Washington for example, you should highly reconsider getting into this business because there probably won’t be that much demand for lawn painting there. The other smaller issue with grass painting is that customers don’t value it as much as sustainable landscaping or artificial turf since it is only a temporary fix. We have experienced lots of price objections even though it is still way cheaper than getting drought resistant landscaping or artificial turf installed. Perhaps if you’re planning on offering grass painting services it may be a good idea to offer drought tolerant landscaping or artificial turf installation services as an alternative for certain customers who may be looking for a permanent solution.
Step 1: Choose a Business Name
When choosing a business name we recommend choosing something simple that has keywords in it so that you can rank well on search engines and be recognized easily. Let’s say for example that you were in the Dallas area. A good idea for a company name might be “Dallas Lawn Painting Company”. You can play around with any number of variations of this, but overall having keywords along with your service area in your business name is going to help you a lot when it comes to generating leads from search engines like Google.
Step 2: Make a Website
Having a website is a must for any business because it can generate your business leads and make your business look more professional. If you don’t know how to do this, we recommend getting your hosting and domain with DreamHost or Namecheap and matching your business name with your domain name. So if your company name was “Dallas Lawn Painting Company” for example, your domain should be: “dallaslawnpaintingcompany.com”. Once you have purchased your domain and hosting, you can build your actual website by installing WordPress and using a template. This will probably be the best thing you can do to start getting leads right away.
Step 3: Claim Your Google Business Listing
Once your site is set up and optimized for search engines all you need to do is get a Google business listing so that people can find you in Google Maps. If you’re running your business out of your house, don’t worry because Google will allow you to hide your address online and only show your city.
Step 4: Figuring Out How Much You Should Charge for Lawn Painting
Once you have gotten your website and Google listing online, you should start receiving quote requests from potential customers relatively soon. We typically recommend charging anywhere from 40 cents to 60 cents per square foot for lawn painting. The best way to do this is by asking the customer to measure the lawn themselves or if they don’t want to, they can send a picture of the lawn to you and you can estimate its size and charge accordingly. In most cases, it should cost anywhere from $400-$800 to paint a typical lawn. Charging any more or less than that is generally not ideal. Keep in mind that additional fees will need to be added for extra travel time or if the lawn needs to be mowed and cleared before painting.
Step 5: Buy the Needed Lawn Painting Equipment
We recommend that you wait until you have closed your first job over the phone before committing to the grass painting business and buying equipment. Assuming you have done that though, read this article to learn what equipment you’d need.
Step 6: Getting More Leads and Retaining Customers
Once you have closed your first deal and performed the job well, it is time to begin scaling your business by finding new ways to generate leads and retaining customers. Those could include: improving your SEO, running ads online, contacting realtors to become their vendor for open houses, contacting home staging companies to become their vendor, going door to door, selling subscription plans, and more. The possibilities are endless but the truth is that your ability to get customers and retain them is largely going to determine how much money that you make in pretty much any business.
How Much Capital is Needed to Start a Lawn Painting Business?
The lawn painting business only requires about $600 of capital investment to start. This is a lot less than the cost required to start most businesses. A McDonalds franchise for example will generally cost over a million dollars to start.
Conclusion
While the business of grass painting has its cons, it also can be a great side-business to start because it doesn’t require much time, knowhow, or capital. All you really need to get started is a website, the knowledge from one or two articles or YouTube videos, and some equipment.