Mowing Grass and Improving Profitability

The company that I was with at that time had just laid sod two weeks before, and the landscape crew was asked to mow the sod in preparation for the Vietnam War Memorial's opening. Each crew member was given a 24" push mower, and we were each instructed to mow the turf with military precision in perfectly straight lines across the sodded area. After making the second pass with the mower, the foreman came up to me and chided me for the slight curvature in my lines, and I was told to move more slowly and deliberately in my mowing pattern. When I looked across at my fellow crew members, they were all plodding like turtles with their feet encased in concrete, mowing in perfectly straight lines. Despite emulating their pace and technique in my next pass with the mower, I was abruptly reassigned to trash pick-up, and just like that, my mowing career ended.

When I look back at mowing the Vietnam War Memorial site, I think about the core inefficiency of our mowing efforts and how the company probably lost money that day. A 24-inch mower operated by a worker at 22 feet per minute will take 23 minutes to cut 1,000 square feet of turf. If we outfit the same worker with a 36-inch mower and keep the operating speed the same, the worker will be able to cut 1,000 square feet in 16 minutes, and if we equip the same worker with a 72-inch mower and keep the operating speed the same, the worker will be able to cut 1,000 square feet of turf in 8 minutes. The key point is that the larger the mower's "effective width of the cut," the greater the efficiency gain.

Due to an injury and other health issues, I have had to utilize a lawn service to cut my grass for the past several years. When I called around to get mowing estimates, I was surprised to find that many firms quoted me a price without ever looking at my property. Other companies drove up the driveway, walked up to the door, and handed me a business card with the price estimate on the back. None of these folks walked the property or even talked to my wife and me about our expectations. The last company we called came in, walked the property, and spoke with my wife and me before offering a price. Their knowledge and professionalism greatly exceeded that of their competitors, so they were hired. When their 2-person crew arrived later that spring, they brought with them a 60-inch zero-turn mower, a string trimmer, and a gas-powered blower. They whipped through the yard in a matter of minutes and left my property professionally manicured and ready for company.

There are thousands of lawn maintenance companies that operate in Pennsylvania, but how many are actually profitable? In my official capacity as an Extension educator, I have asked many lawn maintenance firms whether they knew their daily overhead rate or how much it cost them to "give a free estimate" when trolling for new business. In most cases, I have been met with blank stares or told that their business partner handles that "stuff." If a lawn maintenance firm wishes to be profitable, it must first understand its operating costs and then improve operational efficiency, which will make it more competitive in the marketplace.

In closing, one landscape maintenance business owner told me that he was confronted by a customer who complained about the rising costs of mowing their lawn. The business owner told the property owner, quite frankly, that the reason their mowing costs were escalating was that the size of the opening in the fence limited what equipment could be brought in to do the job. The property owner then brought in their fencing contractor and had them put in a wider gate. Once the wider gate was installed, the lawn maintenance firm was able to deploy larger equipment, ultimately reducing the consumer's mowing fee. Efficiency, pricing, and profitability go hand in hand in any business. When driving to your next job site, think about how you can improve efficiency or reduce operating costs.