Determining Your Lawn Care Companies Service Area Radius - {How far should you drive to mow a lawn?}

How to Establish the Ideal Service Area for Your Lawn Care Business?
Look, effectively running the operations of your lawn care company is an essential part of running a successful business. 

As your lawn care company grows, you need to plan your route as effectively as you can. 

And you must establish your service area properly. 

But how far should you be willing to drive to mow your client's lawn?

Well, we turned to other lawn care pros and asked them how far they are willing to drive. 

Below you will find what we learned after polling 180 lawn care professionals.

Here is what they had to say…

Establishing Your Service Area

There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to measuring your service area for your lawn care services. 

And to effectively plan your lawn care route you will need to establish your service area wisely. 

Pro Tip! When you first begin your lawn care company, you may want to consider starting with a larger service area. But be prepared to cut any clients that may fall outside your service area as your company expands. 

Distance from Business Location (Recommended)

The most common method lawn care pros use to establish a lawn care route is the distance from their business location. 

Over 94% of the lawn care pros we surveyed use this strategy to determine the range of their service area. 

This method is as simple as determining how far you are willing to drive from your business location. 

With GreenPal, you can automatically set the radius of your lawn mowing service area. Best of all you can change it anytime, no questions asked!

Distance from Business Location

The second strategy, which very few lawn care professionals employ, is to determine their service area by the distance from the last lawn cut. 

5.5% of the lawn care professionals we surveyed said that they determine their service area based on the distance from the last lawn they mowed. 

This is crazy, but these lawn care professionals are only willing to drive 2 miles in between lawns.

This is an advanced strategy that only veterans of the lawn care profession can employ effectively. 

While it would be nice to have all of your lawns close together, the nature of the lawn care business doesn’t typically allow for such a convenience. At least not to novice lawn care companies. 

Related Reading: Guide to Build Your Lawn Care Companies Operations

POLL RESULTS: What is the longest distance you will drive to mow a lawn?

So, how far would you be willing to drive from your business location to your lawn care clients?

Well, the answer was pretty straightforward. The most common answer we received from the lawn care pros was 20 miles. With 33% or 60 of the respondents stating that their service radius was 20 miles. 

On the other hand, 29 of the lawn care pros said their service area is only 5 miles! 

Must be nice! 

More than likely these few lucky lawn care professionals picked a great location to start their business. And more than likely they have been in the industry for quite some time to have a route density that thick. 

On the other end of the spectrum, 25 of the lawn care pros we surveyed will drive 25 or more miles from their business location to get to a client. 

Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Service Radius 

There are a few factors to consider when setting your lawn care radius. 

Below are the 3 biggest factors:

 1. Location 

One of the biggest factors that will affect the size of your service area is the location of your company. 

Here’s the deal, location can PERMANENTLY impact your service area. 

Think about it, if you locate your business in the sticks of Arkansas, you are likely going to have a much larger service area by default. 

On the other hand, if you locate your lawn care company right outside of Houston, Texas you won’t have to have such a large service area because of the density of your clients.

Simple enough right?

 2. Age of the Company 

While I have already mentioned this point, I will risk annoying you to reiterate this point one final time. 

Aside from location, the age of your business is the next biggest factor that will determine the size of your service area. 

I can hear you now, “Ya, ya, you said it before. When I first started my lawn care company, I may want to expand my service area.”

Very good! 

I'm glad you have been listening!

 3. Services Offered By Your Company 

Finally, your service area will also be determined by the services you offer. 

It’s true, there is no one size fits all option when it comes to the lawn care and landscaping industry. And the services your company offers will affect how far it makes sense to drive to get to a lawn care client. 

Do you want to only mow lawns, or do you want to ultimately pursue a career in hardscaping?

If your lawn care company is a means to start a landscaping company, you may be willing to drive greater distances to market your desired services. There are a lot of little factors that may create exceptions for the distance rule. 

For example, maybe one of your potential clients is in an upscale neighborhood that you want to tap into. Or maybe driving 30 miles is worth the drive if it can ultimately result in a tighter route density. 

Recap: Setting Your Lawn Care Companies Service Area 

Look, the straightforward answer is that most lawn care professionals say that the ideal service area is less than 20 miles. 

As discussed, there is a lot to consider when it comes to setting the service area radius for your lawn care company. But I promised I wouldn’t get back into that. 

At the end of the day, if you are looking to expand your lawn care company be sure to sign up as a vendor for GreenPal. 

It's free!

And be sure to check out our blog for lawn care professionals for more pro tips!