Starting a Weed Control Business in 9 Simple Steps
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Starting a weed control or lawn fertilization business allows you to offer specialized services that set you apart from general lawn care providers. As an entrepreneur, you’ll also be able to make your own work schedule, set prices to generate a healthy profit, and work with your ideal clients.
In this article, you’ll learn how to start a weed control business from the ground up. Plus, you’ll get expert business and lawn care tips from our network of service professionals.
How to start a fertilization and weed control business:
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Secure financing
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Make a business plan
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Get registration, licensing, and business insurance
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Get specific fertilizer and pesticide licenses
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Create a weed control and fertilizing services list
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Buy commercial weed control equipment
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Price your weed control services
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Advertise your weed control business
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Hire employees and grow your business
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Should you acquire or franchise a weed control business?
1. Secure financing
When you’re building your weed control or fertilization business, you need money and a solid plan or strategy.
If you don’t have enough money on hand, you may be able to get funding from sources like:
- Your bank or lending institution, which can provide a business (commercial) loan or personal loan to meet your capital needs
- Investor support (including from your professional network, family, or acquaintances)
- A lawn care grant that secures the funding you need to get up and running
How much does it cost to start a weed control business?
Here’s what a typical startup investment might look like in the first year:
- Equipment ($1,470–5,370)
- Business license and registration ($75–400)
- Business insurance ($600)
- Lawn care business software ($400+)
When starting a lawn fertilization business, expect to spend a few thousand dollars for the first year of operations. This is when your initial influx of cash (from a bank or another source) comes in handy.
Your startup total could be lower if you already have essential equipment, like a truck, trailer, and sprayer.
2. Make a business plan
Before you’re able to secure funding from banks and investors, you’ll need to show them you have a solid strategy for your business in place.
Your weed control business plan should include:
- A description of your business (e.g., ownership, business structure, business strategy)
- What services you plan to provide (and how much you’ll charge for them)
- Local market research, including major competitors
- A strategy for marketing your business and getting lawn care customers
- The year’s incoming and outgoing costs (e.g., budget, loans, sales forecast)
READ MORE: How to write a lawn care business plan
3. Get registration, licensing, and business insurance
To legally start your weed control and fertilizer business legally you’ll need to complete the necessary paperwork and get the right licensing.
Here are a few of the legal steps to consider when you’re starting a weed control business.
Choose a business structure
Start the business registration process by choosing a business structure, based on the following options:
- Sole proprietor: As a sole proprietor (U.S., CA) or sole trader (UK, AU), you have complete control over your business. This is the most common option for business owners working alone.
- Partnership: Starting a weed control business with two or more partners? Register your business as a partnership (U.S., CA, UK), or as a joint venture or co-operative (AU).
- Incorporated: If you’re worried about liability, incorporate your business as a limited liability company or LLC (U.S.), corporation (CA), limited company or limited partnership (UK), or company (AU). This protects your personal assets if you run into legal issues.
Pro Tip: You can learn more about your country’s business structures and registration process by googling “COUNTRY + business registration.”
Register your business and get a business license
Once you’ve chosen a unique and memorable business name, head to your local registry to officially register your business with your regional government.
The business registration process can vary by country, based on where you operate:
- United States: Protect your brand by trademarking your business name and registering your domain name.
- Canada: If your business name is different from your personal name, register the trade name and trademark it.
- United Kingdom: Check name availability, do a trademark search, and register the name and business.
- Australia: Register through the Business Registration Service, ASIC, or a private service provider, if your business name is different from your personal name.
Once you’re registered your name, apply for a business license in order to legally operate in your area. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce or the Small Business Administration (SBA) to see what kind of license you need.
You may also need an employer identification number (U.S.) or business number (CA) if your business is a partnership or has employees. This is a unique ID that’s used for reporting taxes.
Pro Tip: Get a business bank account to keep your personal and professional finances apart. Tracking income and expenses separately will make bookkeeping and taxes much easier.
Buy weed control business insurance
You can choose from several types of insurance to protect your weed control business from loss and liability, including:
- General liability insurance – Broad insurance policy that covers a business in case of various lawsuits
- Commercial property insurance – Protects business property against damage or loss
- Business income insurance – Replaces any lost income due to a pause in operations
- Commercial auto insurance – Covers vehicles used for business-related tasks
- Professional liability insurance – Protects a business in case of claims for negligence
- Employment practices liability insurance – Protects against claims related to employment issues, discrimination, or wrongful termination
- Commercial umbrella insurance – Extra liability coverage that fills in gaps in coverage left by other policies
If you hire employees in the future, you can also add workers’ compensation to your coverage. It’s always best to speak with an insurance provider to find and purchase a policy that best protects your business.
4. Get specific fertilizer and pesticide licenses
Some commercial fertilizers and pesticides are restricted substances. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires you to have a state license before you can buy and use these potentially harmful chemicals.
If your locality requires you to have previous experience working with fertilizers and pesticides, explore working with another licensed weed control company before starting your own.
Getting a chemical license may also involve writing an exam or taking a pesticide safety education program, depending on the restrictions from your state Department of Agriculture.
These programs teach you to:
- Maintain material safety data sheets (MSDS)
- Follow directions on chemical packaging and labels
- Reduce exposure and wear personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Safely handle, transport, and dispose chemical products
- Respond to spills and chemical injuries
5. Create a weed control and fertilizing services list
Decide which services to offer, like weed control, lawn fertilization, or both. Many weed control businesses also focus on specific lawn sizes—for example, 5,000–15,000 square feet.
Below are some examples of services you can offer:
- Weed control: Keep weeds from taking over a yard by applying Roundup or similar weed control chemicals. You may only need to serve each client once per season, or for a few back-to-back visits each year.
- Lawn fertilization: Add natural or chemical fertilizer to your clients’ soil to encourage plant growth. You’ll likely do most of your fertilizing in spring, but you may have visits throughout the warm weather as well.
- Lawn aeration: The aeration process inserts small holes in the soil to loosen it up, allowing chemicals to absorb for maximum effect.
- Pest control: Pest control services can be a good fit for weed control and fertilizing businesses, especially if you plan to spray those pests. This service will help your clients keep ants and other pests away.
- Add-on hourly labor: Your time should be bundled into all your services, but you can always add more if you know a task will take longer or require extra hands.
Consider offering other types of lawn care and landscaping services, too. This is an easy way to stay busy and keep your lawn care schedule full, even during the slow season.
READ MORE: 10 winter landscaping services to keep a steady income all year
6. Buy commercial weed control equipment
For this type of business, expect to spend $1,470–5,370 (USD) buying this equipment for weed control and fertilizer application:
- Backpack sprayer: Ideal for spot-treating small areas with herbicides or pesticides
- Skid sprayer: Essential for covering large areas efficiently with liquid treatments
- Broadcast spreader: Distributes granular products evenly across lawns or fields
- Soil rod set: Used to sample soil conditions, critical for targeted treatments
- Lawn aerator: Improves soil health by allowing air, water, and nutrients to penetrate
- Safety glasses: Protects your eyes from chemicals, debris, and other hazards
- Full-face respirator: Shields your face and lungs from harmful chemicals and fumes
- Nitrile gloves: Offers chemical-resistant protection for your hands
- Close-toed shoes: Protects feet from accidental spills and sharp objects
- Long pants: Provides leg protection from chemical splashes and physical hazards
- Branded long-sleeved shirt: Represents your brand and adds extra protection
If you don’t already have a truck and trailer, expect to add up to $30,000 to that amount.
Pro Tip: Hold off on buying any fertilizer or weed control chemicals until you’ve landed your first client. You can bundle the cost of chemicals into those new job costs.
7. Price your weed control services
Fair service pricing attracts customers and keeps them coming back. These are some of the most common pricing strategies for weed control services:
- Square footage rate is common for many types of lawn care services—for example, $0.01–0.05 per sq. ft. This keeps you flexible and covers lots of different lawn sizes.
- Hourly rate is the amount you charge per hour, factoring in labor, overhead, and profit margin. It’s most profitable for extra-large yards, or when you don’t know how long the job will take.
- Flat rate pricing gives clients one predictable cost for the entire weed control job. It works best when you know exactly how much time the job will take to complete.
When you’re pricing lawn care services, make sure to factor in:
- Labor hours and hourly rate
- Material costs for pesticides or fertilizer
- Overhead costs (e.g., rent, utilities)
- Markup percentage
Pro Tip: Check competitor rates for weed control and fertilization services. You don’t have to be the cheapest business in your area, but this gives you an idea of what clients are willing to pay.
8. Advertise your weed control business
Your weed control and fertilization business is set up and ready to go. Now all you need is a client list—and you can start building it with well-planned marketing.
Try these weed control and lawn care marketing ideas:
- Marketing plan: Create a marketing plan describing your ideal clients, your budget, and where and how you want to advertise your services.
- Memorable and professional branding: Create a service brand with a unique, easy-to-recognize logo and colors. Order business cards, uniforms, and vehicle decals that match your brand.
- Door-to-door advertising: Go around the neighborhoods where you’d like to work, hand out your lawn care flyers, or leave door hanger ads behind.
- Online presence: Make it easy for potential clients to find you online by building a website and setting up profiles on social media, Google Business, and online directories.
9. Hire employees and grow your business
Unless you plan to run your business alone, you’ll eventually get busy enough that you need to hire more weed control technicians.
Follow this process to find and hire new employees:
- Write a lawn care job description that describes the role and responsibilities
- Share your job posting on social media and job search websites
- Prepare questions to ask a new employee before you hire them
- Shortlist and interview the best candidates
- Check references and ask for police background checks
- Offer the position to your top candidate
- Prepare to onboard and train your new hire
Should you acquire or franchise a weed control business?
If you’re looking to skip some of the start-up steps, you have two additional options: acquiring an existing weed control or lawn fertilization business or buying a franchise.
There are pros and cons to each one:
Pros | Cons | |
Acquiring an Existing Business | – Business is already up and running – Employees and clients come with it – No need to start from scratch when building a reputation | – Employees and clients may leave after purchase – The business may have a negative reputation in the community – Systems and processes might need an overhaul |
Franchising a New Business | – Access to a company’s systems, processes, and supplier network – Recognizable brand (often nationwide) – Robust training and support | – Franchise fee of $10,000–35,000 – Owners need $50,000–100,000 in liquid capital – Less control over branding and marketing |
As you can see, there are lots of options on the table when starting your business. With determination and a solid plan, you can get up to speed quickly.
Now that you know the steps to starting a lawn fertilizing business or weed control company, you’re ready to win new jobs and impress your future clients.
Originally published May 26, 2022. Last updated on September 6, 2024.
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