The lawn care industry is pretty easy to break into with minimal investment being required compared to other businesses. However set up costs can quickly add up when you include equipment and transportation costs, not to mention initial marketing and branding costs.

Here are some ideas for starting a lawn service business on an extremely tight budget.

Save on Equipment Costs

Why not try to borrow some equipment from friends, family or neighbors. Many people have expensive equipment lying around that they would be happy to see put to use. You could offer to mow their lawns for free and do some other work on their property in return for the use of their equipment for two weeks.

You could even offer to only mow the lawns of property owners who are able to provide you with equipment. You would have to offer a very competitive price of course. Using this method you could even ride a bike or take public transport to get to lawn jobs until you were able to save up enough cash for your own vehicle.

Save on Transport Costs

Try to get some lawn jobs that are within walking distance. One of the largest start-up costs in the lawn care business is transportation, the costs associated with purchasing and running a suitable vehicle. If you make your neighbors an offer that they can't refuse in terms of price and do a reasonably good job then you can walk between lawn jobs in the neighboring streets around your home before you save up enough to buy a truck.

Save on Marketing Costs

Starting a lawn care business on the cheap means that you would have to try to maximize some of the free methods that are available. The key here would be to utilize word of mouth business through your existing customers and to get out in your local area chatting and networking with people.

Other low cost advertising methods include home made flyers, printed on a home PC that could be distributed door to door by hand or posted on a community notice board.

With a little bit of creativity and determination almost any able bodied individual can create their own small lawn care business on a shoestring. Once experience is gained and money for further expansion is saved, then the sky really is the limit.