• Running a lawn care business requires dedication and planning.red and yellow cowheelbarrow in a green filed image by Ramon Pantalon from Fotolia.com
  
  When you own a service company, such as a lawn care business, you find yourself competing with other companies of various sizes and abilities. The best thing for your company is to follow some effective lawn care business tips and try to keep yourself ahead of the competition.
  
  

Expand with a Plan

• As a business owner, you want to work toward expanding your lawn care business. However, expansion without a plan can lead to problems. If you take on more work than you can handle with the crew you have, you create dissatisfied clients who may not return and will not refer you to others. When you agree to perform services with which you are unfamiliar, you create opportunities for mistakes that could cost you future business. You also may have to pay for damages caused by trying to perform an unfamiliar task. Develop a plan for your expansion, and follow that plan. Take lawn-care courses to learn how to provide the services you need to offer customers. If you expect your lawn care business to expand, add to your staff. Add part-time help to start, and expand to full-time people as your business continues to grow. A lawn care business grows by word of mouth and referrals. If you do a good job, you will find your phone ringing with new job offers frequently. As you start to notice a trend towards success, be sure to sit down and plan your expansion path to maximize your success.
  
  

Year-Round Services

• If you live in an area where there is a change of seasons, then you need to learn how to generate revenue in the winter months in order for your company to survive. Some of the winter services you can offer include snow shoveling, ice removal from gutters and roofs, snow plowing, laying salt on client's driveways and sidewalks and snow removal from roofs during heavy snowfall months. Discuss your winter business plans with your insurance agent to make certain that your liability and other insurances cover you for that kind of work.
  
  

Blade Maintenance

• When you own a lawn care business, your lawn mowers are major pieces of equipment. To do a quality job, and to make lawn mowing easier on you, it is necessary to keep your lawn mower blades sharp. You could spend money to have a professional sharpen your blades every week, but that would be financially impractical. According to environmental information resource Mother Earth News, the best solution to keeping your blades sharp is to buy a standard bench grinder and sharpen your blades at the end of every workday.