So you want to grow a lawn mowing business Fast?
Great! You want to grow a lawn mowing business and be your own boss, set your own hours, and make some extra cash.
But there’s one thing you should know before you take the plunge: it’s going to be hard. Really hard. Why?
Because you’re going to be doing it all by yourself.
When you’re first starting out, you won’t have any employees or partners to help you with the day-to-day running of the business.
That means everything—from finding customers and marketing your business to actually mowing the lawns—is going to be up to you. And trust us, it’s not as easy as it looks.
The usual method.
When I started mowing lawns, I made it up as I went along.
All l wanted to do was grow a lawn mowing business
Whenever I did something new, I hardly ever got it right.
Eventually, I would work out the best way forward and continue my journey.
Whenever I needed help or advice, I would reach out to local lawn-mowing contractors.
Most of them did not want the competition, so they would not help.
One of the significant advantages of a franchise is that the contractors work together.
However, I think that might be a tad expensive at a hundred dollars plus per week.
What growing fast actually looks like.
Fast growth in lawn mowing is not 50 new lawns in a month. It is a steady stream of new customers, week after week.
I tell new businesses to aim for 2 new customers a week. That is about 100 lawns a year.
Most people close about half the quotes they give. So 2 new customers a week means you need about 4 leads a week.
In our Facebook group, the average member picks up about one new client a week once they get active. That is a good real-world benchmark.
Every regular customer is worth about 21 cuts a year. At a $35 minimum for a regular mow, that is at least $735 a year from one customer. Add 50 of them in a year and you can see how quickly it builds.
Where the new customers come from.
You do not need every marketing channel. You need a few that work, and you need to keep them running.
Google Business Profile. Mine brings in 2 to 3 leads a week, all year round, once it is set up properly and ranking.
Google Ads. $150 a month can bring in 1 or 2 new customers a week. Facebook Ads have never worked as well for me locally.
Door knocking. 50 doors usually lands 1 customer. I used to count the NOs and get excited as I got close to 50.
Referrals. I get 1 or 2 a month without asking. I don’t give new customer discounts. They attract the wrong type of customer.
If you are growing hard, spend up to 10% of your turnover on marketing. For steady growth, 5% or less is plenty.
Grow the right lawns, not just more lawns.
I made this mistake for years. I thought bigger was better. I bought ride-ons, hired staff and ended up with 5 vehicles on the road.
Then I did the maths. I needed over 1,000 lawns to step away and match my income, and I was not even halfway there.
So I kept the best 100 lawns and let the rest go. Turnover dropped by half. My week dropped to under 20 hours. My take-home pay stayed about the same.
Now I run three vans, no trailers, and mostly small lawns. Small lawns mow fast, so the hourly rate is better, and push mowers break down less than big machines.
One person can handle about 100 regular customers before the days get too long. When you get there, you have two choices before you hire. Raise the price on your bottom 20% of lawns, or sell them to another operator. In August 2026 I sold 30 lawns from my round to another Hamilton lawn business for $7,200.
That is growth too. A tighter, better paid round beats a big, messy one every time.
The lawnmowing101 method.
I like the idea of the training, manuals, and community, and this got me thinking. Why not do something similar for small independent lawn-mowing businesses around New Zealand?
A written road map that helps you grow your lawn mowing business and turn it into a highly profitable lifestyle business.
And why not start the pricing at “free” and charge a fraction of what the franchises do for courses, training and live Q&A calls?
I love the lawn mowing industry and have been growing and selling lawn mowing businesses since 1992. I am now getting close to retirement, and this is my way of keeping in touch with an industry I love and giving back.
My wife and I currently run a lawn mowing business with over 150 lawns that we run less than 20 hours a week. That gives me time to work on lawnmowing101, which aims to help anyone build a lawnmowing business and get it right the first time with some guidance.
You will learn everything I know and a lot of growth hacks that I have learned through trial and error. I have NEVER shared this information with anyone before. It was my secret weapon.
Today the whole community is free, training included.
You will learn
how to put your business on autopilot,
Work from a van making big money on small lawns
how to increase your turnover every year without working harder.
The site has been going since 2018 and it has tons of free information on building your business, and you know what they say about early birds.
Learn how to grow a lawn mowing business the fast way.
Did I mention that its free?
See you on the inside.
Stuart
34 years mowing lawns. Built it up to five vans and 450 contracts, then cut back to a 20-hour week on the best lawns. My story.
Want more lawns?
I build lawn care websites first, free. You see it live before you pay a cent.