How To Start and Run Lawn Care and Gardening

An A-to-Z manual on both the business side and the horticultural practice side of lawn care and gardening.  This 226 page guide is both for the person who is thinking about starting a lawn-care business, and it is for the person who is already in the business and wants to enhance their operation. And, it is for programs that want to help people learn about this business, or for an agency that wants to go into this business.

Part I is an overview of the industry and gives a candid description of the advantages and disadvantages of this business. It tells you how to get started. It describes the key components of the business such as estimating and bidding, collections, and building the assets of the business.  Part II goes into depth on business names, business organization and licenses. It has a big chapter on marketing to help you find those customers. It has chapters on book keeping for this type of business, and on employees, customer relations, scheduling, controlling costs, and safety. These are not generic ideas like you might find in a college textbook. These are practical suggestions derived from this specific industry, but you can certainly use this as the primary resource for training people on this subject.  In Part III, the author shifts to horticultural concerns. He moves from the business side to the professional practice side. He has chapters on soils, fertilizing, grass, installation of lawns and renovation, pest control, common ills of lawns and remedies, mowing, tree and plant pruning and maintenance, earth moving, and cleaning up.  Part IV goes into detail on estimating and bidding. It shows you how to do a site inspection, lists the cost factors, mark-ups, and gives the "job math" for estimating spaces. It describes factors involved in submitting the bid and scheduling jobs. A set of handy worksheets can be used as-is, or adapted for your purposes.

It isn't often you find a complete A-to-Z tool for starting and running a particular types of business, but Kevin Rossi has done it. This is a "must have" book for your resource shelf on how to develop and run different types of businesses. Whether you are running classes for experts, doing an overview for people who are thinking about this business -- or you just want to improve your own lawn and garden, this is a "MUST HAVE" book.

This book is published by Acton Publishing company. The Center for Community Futures is pleased to be marketing and selling this book.  This 8 1/2 x 11" book has illustrations by Lee Weisman. It has a nice green cover. It's a lawn -- with a person mowing a large dollar sign on it.

Price: $49.  Click here to order.