This is a guide on how to start a grass cutting business in South Africa. Every residential area needs lawn care now and then, this makes business quite lucrative, even though it’s not fancy.
Requirements
This type of business doesn’t have a lot of requirements, it can get started by pretty much anyone, including teenagers. These are some of the things that you need to be able to start a grass cutting business in South Africa.
1. Lawn Mower
You can get a lawn mower from around R2 000 in shops like Game. A good lawn mower should be able to last you 3 to 5 years.
2. Brush Cutter
You can get a brush cutter for another R2 000 at shops like Makro, you will need a brush cutter to cut grass that the lawn mower has difficulties with.
The above are the most essential requirements for starting a grass cutting business in South Africa. Here are some other things that make your life easier.
3. Vehicle
A vehicle will make it easy for you to transport all your equipment from point A to point B. Transporting lawn mowers using a taxi is just not ideal, a little bakkie should work just fine.
4. Business phone
No, not a landline, a phone that is separate, by which your clients can contact you. Buying a smartphone for this purpose should cost less than R500. Always have this phone on you and always answer your calls. It’s easier to do that because you won’t be using it as much as your regular phone, which will save you some battery.
5. Insurance
You should try to get insurance for your business right after registering it, registering it will cost R175 from the CIPC. The liability insurance will protect you in case anything goes wrong. There are not many things that could go wrong but a stone could fly and break the window while you are cutting the grass.
Branding a grass cutting business
Branding is pretty much important for any business, this one is no different, you should try making a logo. After that you should stick your business logo to your bakkie or van; it helps out with the marketing.
Branding goes hand in hand with marketing, you should make sure that you build a website, nothing extravagant, but something to establish trust with your clients. You can get a website from as little as R1 200 from Promta Web Services. The website will be used to store all your contact details and credentials, it will also make it easier for you to charge higher prices. Invest in printing T-shirts and Caps with your business logo, it helps out a lot.
How to get clients?
Here comes the hard part, getting clients is always hard for new businesses. This usually determines whether your business will succeed or not, you need the clients. The best way to get clients for a grass cutting business is by narrowing down your geolocation and focusing on promoting and serving that area. If you are in Vanderbijlpark then it’s best to just focus on Vanderbijlpark and leave out Vereeniging and other areas like Three Rivers and Sasolburg.
You will pocket extra cash by focusing on one area as you will be saving on transportation costs. Traveling far can really cut into your profits. Focusing on one area makes it easier for your business to gain traction faster by word of mouth.
Print flyers and put them at the gate of every house in your chosen community, be prepared to print thousands of flyers. Don’t make the mistake of putting them inside the mail box, just put them in the gate, this is a very effective marketing strategy. Give some of your new customers a free cap or t-shirt. It will make it easier to spread awareness about your business and you will be go-to grass cutter in no time. Always do excellent work, that’s also part of marketing.
Digital marketing
You don’t really need digital marketing for this, just setup a website and you will be fine. You don’t need to setup Facebook pages and run digital ads. You can invest more into digital marketing if you are planning to make this business a franchise.
How much can you make?
The amount of money you charge should depend on the size of the yard you will be working with. Your main goal should be doing at least three yards in a day. This is completely possible if you spend less than 2 hours on each. Ideally, you should charge R300 at the very least, for only grass cutting, charge more if your clients want you to do landscaping and gardening. You can be able to make around R27 000 in a month and very little goes towards operating expenses, which is mainly fuel and your lunch money.
Don’t be afraid to charge clients. Learn to let go of the bad clients as you grow your pool of clients.
Bidding for tenders
You can bid for tenders to cut grass at schools and other government facilities. You can receive a tender upwards of R30 000 just from cutting grass at schools. You may charge more than R5 000 if you are cutting the school field once off without any tender.
Conclusion
This was a practical guide on how to start a grass cutting business in South Africa. Do you have any thoughts or questions? Comment below
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Ncumisa Maswazi
21 Jan 2021Thank you so much. This information did not just help me with my business idea but also helped me with my business management assignment.
Thank you
Kwanele Zungu
12 Apr 2021Great read!! Are there any associations or bodies that a grass cutting company should be in, things like SACAP for architects?
sibabalwe
12 Apr 2021Due to the nature of the business; I don’t think so and I don’t know of any. Thank you so much for your positive feedback 🙂
Pumeza Vulindlu
14 Apr 2021This helped me a lot!!!! I’m in a journey of opening business for grass cutting.
John
22 Jul 2021I want to open for me grass cutting maintence
Mandisa
3 Oct 2021Hi thanks for such intresting information im really into grass cutting and opening a business but i dont have funds how do i go about that plz help
Nkosi
12 Feb 2022Thank you so much for the information, am planning to open my own grass cutting company