| If you are looking at changing your career, or just want | | | | you cannot be sure the customers will stay with you |
| to supplement your income, then getting into the lawn | | | | or be poached by the former contractor. Or, |
| and garden care/service industry may just be "what | | | | 2. buy a lawn mowing franchise, for example, Jim's |
| the doctor ordered". There are different ways and | | | | Mowing, VIP, Marks Mowing etc. Jim's Mowing is a |
| approaches to entering the lawn and garden business. | | | | world-wide franchise system, whereas the others are |
| Broadly speaking, there are 2 main ways to get into | | | | Australian based only. In this case, the franchisor offers |
| the business which are: | | | | a guaranteed income (what is known as the Work |
| | | | Availability Guarantee) for up to around 13 weeks. In |
| 1. Starting with an existing client base | | | | short, this income guarantee is bank-rolled by the initial |
| 2. Starting without an existing client base | | | | franchise fee (that is, the money you initially paid to buy |
| If you do not have any customers, and want to | | | | the lawn mowing franchise) |
| purchase an existing customer list then this can be | | | | If you want to start your own business without a |
| done in 2 ways: | | | | customer list then for obvious reasons your income |
| | | | stream will be slow taking off. To counter this, you can |
| 1. buy an existing business from an independent | | | | pick up immediate income from garden makeovers |
| contractor. It is important to keep in mind that when | | | | and odd jobs whilst you build your own lawn mowing |
| you buy someone else's business you cannot be sure | | | | customer roster. |
| they have priced and quoted their jobs correctly, and | | | | |