Startup Costs - Electric Lawn Care

Hey Everyone! Solarpunk Steve here and today I wanted to share with you what it cost me to start my fully electric lawn care business.

$12,368.24

While the specific dollar amount is important, so too is learning how to estimate properly for your business and make sure you don't blow your money on the wrong thing!

If you want to learn a little bit more about how I estimated for my all-electric lawn care business and how you might be able to get up to $1300 towards starting any business, keep reading. It might just be worth $100 per minute!

I made a rough estimate in a small notebook while sitting in a coffee shop long before I ever started my business, and mind you; I had no experience in the lawn care business or with starting a business, period. My estimate? $12,250. Only $118.24 wrong compared to what I actually spent. Not bad considering it was my first business endeavor. However, the problem wasn't necessarily the dollar amount (Only about ~1% over budget, not bad I'd say) but what I spent my money on, and a couple other mistakes. So hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. Let's get into it.

The below numbers are pulled from my scratch paper coffee shop estimate:

Tesla charges $1,300 to install a tow hitch after the car has left the factory, $1,000 if you order it when configuring your car. I already owned the Model Y while working at my previous job and I knew I could install one myself so I planned on buying a 'DIY' Eco Hitch from Torklift Central and other accessories (hitch ball, receiver, etc.) to wire it up and install it on my car. 

There were a few options for electric lawn care equipment, but ultimately I decided EGO to be a great entry and planned my estimate around their equipment. Looking up the retail prices I put some numbers into my estimate you see above. However I should have included at least the sales tax for the equipment (~7% here in Florida, varies by county). To be clear, I knew there would be sales tax but I should have included this in my estimate because when you're spending thousands of dollars, even just a couple of percent makes a big difference.

I planned on borrowing a trailer from a family member (they weren't really using it anyway. Thanks, Josh!) so I didn't estimate any espenses there which turned out to be a costly miscalculation.

I thought the LLC might cost around ~$100. For recurring costs I knew I might need a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM). There's many options, but the one I was looking at was Jobber (ultimately went with Markate) and estimated about $40/month. I also thought electricity or 'fuel' for my tow vehicle (Tesla Model Y) and equipment might be around $50/month, same for business insurance, and then $20/month each for mower blade sharpening and miscellaneous costs.

Equipment Costs

You'll see the equipment was quite a bit more expensive than I estimated once you included sales tax. To be clear I knew there would be sales tax, but I should have at least included it in my estimate or added "padding" to anything I was estimating to be sure I wouldn't be surprised when there were things I forgot I needed or some tool/peice of equipment I might need in conjunction with the main item. 

I would have felt a lot more prepared had I done that when it came to the EGO 42in Mower. It only came with 4 of the 6 possible batteries, and while you can run it with as little as 2 batteries, after trying it out I realized very quickly I would need the extra two 10ah batteries to fill out it's max capacity. At ~$500 each that was a pretty large surprise $1000 I needed to spend on top of an already expensive mower.

Trailer

That borrowed trailer? Turns out wasn't so 'free'. I ended up needing to replace the axle, add brakes, a ramp, and I painted it myself plus a few other little things. That totalled up to just over $1300. Ouch. Still better than paying over ~$5000 for a brand new similar enclosed trailer.

It wasn't essential, but I decided I wanted to wrap the trailer with my logo, phone number, website etc. That was nearly $700 to get the two sides and rear doors done.

Tesla Tow Hitch

The 'DIY' Tesla tow hitch came out nearly spot on regarding price, $618 vs $600 estimated, that was including hitch, ball, 7-way plug and other accessories. But that took a lot of time to install myself (and figure out how to wire it into the existing tesla wiring harness).

Business Registration Costs

I registered my business with the state of Florida which was $125 for the LLC, but I ended up getting a certified copy and certificate of status, things I didn't really need but wanted anyway. On top, I got a Fictitious business name or 'Doing Business As' (DBA) name. In total I spent $120 more than I had estimated on those business costs.

Website Costs

$12 for a domain is not so bad, but the hosting service is pretty expensive to have a website. I went with Squarespace to get me started and that was about $276/year. I included it in my startup costs and not recurring just because it's easier to think about it that way since you're going to have to spend that money upfront.

Uniform

I found a semi-local shop that could make some UPF 50 long-sleeve shirts for me with my logo on them. I also got some boots, hat, and pants. All to make me look like I know what I'm doing. That was around $230.

I honestly didn't know what to expect when it came to recurring costs. There's the obvious business liability insurance, electricity for the equipment and tow vehicle, sharpening mower blades, but what else considering there's no oil filters, air filters, gas, belts, or normal gas engine maintenance items? I'm still learning as I go.

Insurance

General liability insurance for my solo-operator lawn care business costs me just under $45/month. The Model Y is still a relatively new vehicle with higher insurance costs due to the high repairability costs if involved in an accident (thanks, Elon) but being one of the safest vehicles on the road I wish it was a bit less than ~$130/month (no accidents, tickets, or other on my record) but alas.

'Fuel'

These electricity costs are based on the national average cost of electricity: ~$0.16/kWh. So ~$15/month for the equipment, and ~$50/month for the Tesla to tow my trailer in and out of town nearly every day. Of course these will vary based on your location and how much you use during your normal week, but these are more of a "startup" level of use, not a fully booked lawn care business running non-stop every day.

Space For You

I leave plenty of blank spaces in the sheet so you can add costs you might be considering for your business. For instance I didn't include what I'm paying for cost of living, but these are important considerations given you will need to support your monthly spend while your business ramps up. 

Maybe you only want to think about business costs, but when was the last time you looked at all your personal recurring costs? Streaming services, subscriptions, etc. It's worth it to look into what you're spending on things you might not need and cancel them or suspend them. You're about to start a business, you need to keep your spend at a bare minimum and survive on savings until your business can start covering the cost of your monthly expenses, business and personal. 

Padding

If you don't know the exact dollar amount of what your recurring costs might be, that's ok too. You can adjust the "padding" in this seciton to add a healthy percent overestimation. I recommend at least 20% when estimating anything. That might sound like a lot, but it's likely you're not thinking of every expense that you will have to spend on something to get started and having more left over after starting your business isn't a bad thing.

Not What I Expected

After spending significantly more on all my equipment than I anticipated, I was better off just getting started with what I had since I didn't need all the extra capacity of solar/inverter/storage battery initially anyway.  Only after building up to filling each day of my week with clients did I decide to invest in the extra capacity. Which I'll cover on a separate occasion as it deserves its own space.

Good News

One thing that lessened the sting of spending all this money was getting some of that "back" through a bank, or more specifically a credit card and checking account cash back deal.  I shopped around when I was looking at starting my business and managed to find some deals offered through Chase Bank. If I spent $6,000 in the first three months (mower was almost $6k anyway, so that was easy) they would give me a cash bonus of $750, and their checking account offered $300 back if I made a few qualified purchases in the first three months and kept something like a $2,000 balance for a period of time as well.

But that was $1,050 I got back, just for spending money I was going to spend anyway.  There's even a credit card that offeres $1,000 back but I believe that one costs somewhere around $200 per year, so totally up to you as to what you need and what fits your situation. I believe the checking account offer is higher now too, at $400 back.

So that could be up to $1400 back! Not bad. I'm not sponsored by chase or anything, it's just what I chose to go with when starting my business, but you might want to find a local credit union that suits your needs better.

However if you would like, here's a referal link:

That means my startup costs were under budget by roughly $900! Sounds great, if only that included the solar and battery costs as well haha. Lessons learned, things cost more than you think.

• State Laws and Incentives Map for Alternative Fuels (US Department of Energy): https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/state

• Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (IRS.gov): https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/commercial-clean-vehicle-credit

• Federal Solar Tax Credits for Businesses (energy.gov): https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/federal-solar-tax-credits-businesses

• Mean Green Electric Mowers list of incentives: https://meangreenproducts.com/industry-incentives/

The above links are great resources for checking out if there are incentives in your area for purchasing electric lawn equipment and mowers. Quite a few incentives and credits are available in California and some other states, but talk with your tax professional about your situation and location. There might even be some local city grants!

An overarching incentive provided by the US Government is a $7,500 tax credit towards commercial electric or alternative fuel vehicles under 14,000lbs GVWR and $40,000 for vehicles over 14,000lbs GVWR and as far as I understand (I'm not a tax professional, don't take my word for it.) an electric mower falls into that less than 14,000lb category as long as it has more than 7kWh of energy storage, which unfortunately my EGO Zero turn, does not qualify for.

30% Solar/Battery Credit

If you are attaching solar and/or batteries to your house or business, there's a 30% tax credit from the IRS as well for that. Now my trailer is a bit of a grey area since it's mobile and I didn't claim any tax credit for it (unfortunately) but talk with your tax professional to figure all that out.

If there's something I forgot or missed you think is really important, let me know! 

All My Equipment

If you're interested in seeing everything I use in my business currently, including all my landscaping equipment, you can check out my video I made on it below. Or see my post on it here.

Your Situaiton

You might find you don't need to go out and spend ~$6,000 or more on an electric lawn mower. Maybe you have small properties you're targeting and want to get started with just a push mower. That's up to you to make that decision on what you think is important for your area and business.

Helpful

I hope this was helpful to you and please make sure to follow along on YouTube @SolarpunkSteve!