Lawn care providers are overwhelmingly optimistic about pulling in more green — as in money — in 2017.
In LawnStarter’s annual survey of lawn care business owners, 91 percent of lawn care providers in the U.S. say they expect revenue to rise this year compared with last year. Six percent of the providers we surveyed indicate their revenue will be the same this year as last year, while 3 percent anticipate lower revenue in 2017.
In line with their revenue expectations, 52 percent of lawn care providers list getting more customers as their biggest business concern this year, followed by hiring qualified people (22 percent) and maintaining cash flow (15 percent). The remaining lawn care providers either have other concerns or no concerns at all.
To help reach their revenue projections, 62 percent of the providers surveyed say they plan to hire more full-time and part-time workers this year, with 38 percent indicating they don’t plan to expand their workforces in 2017.
“The optimism expressed by lawn care providers in the LawnStarter survey corresponds with a growing demand for lawn care and landscaping services in the U.S.,” says Ryan Farley, co-founder and chief operating officer of LawnStarter. “More homes being built means more of a need for mowing, fertilization, weed control and other services offered by lawn care providers.”
A survey commissioned in 2015 by the National Association of Landscape Professionals found that 88 percent of Americans think having a yard is important, and 90 percent of those with a yard think it’s important that it be well-maintained. Along those lines, 67 percent of Americans say professional landscapers can help them maintain a nicer yard.
In the U.S., lawn care and landscaping represent a $78 billion-a-year industry, according to market research company IBISWorld.
LawnStarter conducted the email survey Feb. 27-March 5, 2017, via SurveyMonkey. We sent the survey invitation to 5,630 lawn care providers — both inside and outside the LawnStarter network — in our database. Among those, 1,059 responded. We based our survey results on the 626 lawn care providers in the U.S. who answered all 10 questions.
Interested in becoming a lawn care provider with LawnStarter? Visit www.lawnstarter.com/why-join.
