How to start a lawn care business, with the insurance steps in order

Most start-up guides open with mowers. Mowers are the easy part; you can buy one this week. The parts that stall a new business are the ones nobody lists first: what your state wants on paper, and the day an HOA manager asks for a certificate of insurance and you don't have one. This guide runs in the order that avoids that day.

Step 1: Decide what you'll sell

The services you list decide which licenses and policies you need, so settle them before you buy anything.

Mowing, edging and cleanups sit at the light end. Spraying weed control or fertilizer brings state licensing and a different policy, covered in the pesticide applicator guide. Installing patios, walls or irrigation puts you in the territory of the landscaping insurance page. Tree removal and plowing snow are separate trades with their own price lists. Insureon says lawn care companies offering chemical treatments and pesticide applications may see higher premiums than mowing-only businesses.

A mowing-only start is the cheapest place to begin. It is also easy to outgrow, so decide up front whether spraying or snow is coming.

Step 2: Register the business and get an EIN

The Small Business Administration's launch guide lists the order: choose a structure, choose a name, register, get federal and state tax ID numbers, apply for licenses and permits, open a business bank account, and get business insurance. Insurance comes last on that list. For a lawn business with a truck, treat it as a parallel track that starts at the same time as licensing.

A sole proprietorship is what you are by default if you do business and register nothing, and the SBA says its assets and liabilities aren't separate from your personal ones, so you can be held personally liable for the business's debts. And the IRS says an EIN is free straight from the IRS and says you never have to pay a fee for one. You generally need an EIN to hire employees.

Published costs for this step disagree. LawnStarter puts a business license, LLC or DBA at $50 to $100. Housecall Pro's budget for business registration and licensing is $250 to $650. Your state and county fees decide which is closer, so look up yours before you budget.

Step 3: Check the license question

No single rule covers the country, and the answer depends on the work. Louisiana's agriculture department says yard work (cutting lawns, edging and hand-weeding beds) is not regulated and needs no license there, while it does license plant installation, irrigation and arborist work. Nevada's contractors board lists mowing and edging among work that doesn't need a licensed contractor, and lists installing retaining walls, irrigation and sod among work that does.

Spraying brings a state license in many states, and many of those ask for proof of insurance before they issue it. The requirements page walks through the states we've confirmed, and the pesticide guide has the insurance minimums.

Step 4: Buy insurance in this order

The numbers below are medians of what Insureon's lawn care customers pay. Insureon says most of them have fewer than five employees and five years or less in business, which is close to a start-up.

Order	Policy	Median per month	Why it goes there
1	Commercial auto	$255	Personal auto usually excludes work use
2	General liability	$57	The certificate every customer asks for
3	Tools and equipment	$42	Property insurance skips gear that travels
4	Workers' comp	$123	Buy it with the first hire, or earlier where the state requires

Truck first

The Hartford says most personal auto policies do not cover property damage or bodily injury from an accident while you're driving your personal vehicle for work. Insureon says personal auto policies almost always exclude business use. New owners tend to skip this one because the pickup already has a policy and no customer has asked. The truck is also the biggest line in the table, and the one a single accident can turn into a lawsuit. Check whether the policy covers each trailer while it's hitched.

General liability second

This is the one customers ask about. Insureon says 94% of landscaping businesses buying through it choose $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, the limit Grit, a contractor broker, says most commercial landscape contracts require as a minimum. The general liability guide sets out what it pays and what it doesn't, and the certificate of insurance guide tells you what to send when a client asks.

Equipment third

Insureon says property insurance doesn't cover mobile property, so the mowers, blowers and trailer need a tools and equipment policy, and items worth more than $2,500 may need to be scheduled one by one.

Workers' comp with the first hire

Thresholds run from virtually all employers in New York to five or more employees in Missouri, where construction employers need coverage at one. Seasonal help can count; Virginia's commission says so. The workers' comp guide has the state examples.

Before you add a service

Tell your insurer before you spray, plow, install or take down a tree. Each one changes the application and the price.

Step 5: What it costs to start

Published estimates for a lawn care start-up don't agree, and the reasons are mostly about what the author assumed you already own.

Source	Startup estimate	What it assumes
Housecall Pro	$500 to $8,000 solo; $15,000 to $50,000 or more for commercial builds	Solo assumes you own basic tools and a vehicle; the page says its ranges reflect Lawn Love and LawnStarter
Lawn Love	$5,000 to $8,000	Excludes the truck; can be as low as $500
LawnStarter	$15,000 to over $50,000 from scratch	Cheaper if you already have a truck, garage or mower
Wexford Insurance	$2,000 to $10,000	Itemizes a used truck or trailer at $3,000 to $10,000, so its line items add to more than its total

Equipment prices from LawnStarter: a commercial walk-behind mower runs $1,000 to $5,000 new, a ride-on $6,000 to $10,000 or more, an open trailer around $1,000 and an enclosed one $3,000 to $10,000. It says a mower, trimmer, blower and trailer bundle can cost as little as $6,000, and that dealer financing exists.

The first three policies in the table add up to $354 a month at Insureon's medians, about $4,250 a year. Other sources differ. Wexford puts its core policies, including workers' comp and property, at $500 to $2,500 a year. LawnStarter says small lawn care businesses pay an average of $50 a month for insurance. Housecall Pro lists commercial auto at about $204 a month. Those can't all be right for the same truck. The difference is usually whether the quote includes the commercial auto policy, so ask every quote the same question: does this price include the truck and the trailer?

Set against Housecall Pro's solo range, Insureon's three core policies come to more than half of the $8,000 top end.

Step 6: Get set up for the first HOA

Ask for a certificate as soon as the policies are bound, before your first commercial bid. The certificate of insurance guide explains additional insured requests, which change the policy itself. Price the first commercial bid with the insurance section of the contract in hand, and check the cost page to see whether your quote sits inside the published ranges.