How to start a lawn care business in the UK

You can start cutting lawns for money with a decent mower, a strimmer, a car or van that takes them, public liability insurance and a registration with HMRC. No qualification is needed for mowing and hedge cutting. The rest of this page is the order I would do things in, with the gov.uk links for the parts that are law.

Sole trader or limited company

Most people start as a sole trader. You register for Self Assessment, keep records of what comes in and goes out, and pay Income Tax and National Insurance on the profit. There is nothing to set up beyond that, and you can trade under a business name as long as it isn't someone else's.

A limited company is a separate legal thing from you. It costs £100 to register online with Companies House, it files its own accounts every year, and you pay yourself out of it. The company's debts are the company's rather than yours, and at higher profits it can work out cheaper in tax, but the paperwork and the accountant's bill are bigger.

Starting as a sole trader and moving to a limited company later is common and straightforward. Talk to an accountant when your profit is high enough that the choice matters; gov.uk has a plain comparison of the business structures.

HMRC and tax

As a sole trader:

• Tell HMRC by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you started trading.
• File your Self Assessment return and pay the tax by 31 January.
• Keep your records for at least 5 years after that 31 January deadline (gov.uk record keeping).
• Register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in a rolling 12 months (VAT thresholds). Most one-person rounds stay well under it.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is arriving in stages. If your qualifying income is over £50,000 you should have been using it since April 2026; over £30,000 it starts in April 2027, and over £20,000 in April 2028. It means keeping digital records and sending HMRC quarterly updates through compatible software. Check whether it applies to you.

Keep receipts for everything: mowers, fuel, insurance, van costs, phone, protective gear. They all come off your profit before tax.

Insurance

Public liability insurance is the one you need from the first job. It pays out if a stone flies out of the strimmer and breaks a patio door, or someone trips over your cable. It isn't a legal requirement, but many customers ask for it and every commercial customer will. Policies commonly offer £1 million, £2 million or £5 million of cover; check what a commercial customer wants before you quote for them.

Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement as soon as you employ someone, even part-time, and it must cover at least £5 million (gov.uk).

Your van or car needs business use on its policy; social, domestic and commuting cover doesn't include carrying tools to customers' houses. Tool insurance for theft from the van is worth pricing too, because a stolen mower can mean days without work.

Green waste and weedkiller

If you take grass cuttings, hedge trimmings or other green waste away in your vehicle, you need to be registered as a waste carrier. In England you register with the Environment Agency on gov.uk; the questions put you in the lower tier (free) or the upper tier (a fee, renewed every 3 years). Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own regulators. You also need somewhere to take the waste: a council tip that takes trade waste, a green waste site, or a composter.

If you want to spray weeds or treat moss with professional products, you need a certificate of competence to apply them. PA1 and PA6 are the usual ones; the HSE pesticides pages explain the rules. Until you have them, stick to mowing, edging, hedges and tidy-ups.

Kit to start with

Buy what the first customers need and nothing more:

• a petrol rotary or roller mower with a 46-53cm cut
• a strimmer or brush cutter
• a leaf blower
• a hedge trimmer
• hand tools: a rake, a half-moon edger, shears and bags
• protective gear: ear defenders, glasses and safety boots
• fuel cans, oil, spare line and blades

Prices move with the season and the brand, so get them from a local dealer rather than a list. A dealer can also tell you which machines are worth buying ex-demo.

A domestic mower will get you through the first few weeks, but it isn't built for eight lawns a day, five days a week. Commercial machines from Honda, Stihl, Husqvarna and similar last much longer and can be repaired. Ex-demo and serviced second-hand machines from a local dealer are worth looking at, and the dealer will know what they're selling you. Private sales are cheaper but you're buying someone else's neglect.

Hearing protection is not optional: a petrol strimmer is loud enough to damage your hearing over a working day. The HSE's noise pages explain the limits.

Pricing

Price by the time the job takes, not by the size of the lawn alone. A small lawn behind a locked side gate, with the mower carried through the house, takes longer than a big open front lawn. Include travel between jobs, fuel, the tip run and your insurance in the hourly rate you aim for:

Then look at what other local businesses charge, which you can find on their websites and Facebook pages. There's more on this in how to price your lawn care services and on lawn mowing prices in the UK. Starting well below local prices fills the round quickly with customers who will leave when you put prices up, so start near the going rate.

First customers

Set up a Google Business Profile first. It is free, it puts you on the map when people search "lawn mowing near me", and it is where your reviews will live. Set it up as a service-area business if you work from home, so your address stays hidden.

Then:

• Put leaflets through doors in a few streets close to home. A tight area means less driving between jobs.
• Post in local Facebook groups and on Nextdoor, and answer the "can anyone recommend a gardener?" posts quickly.
• Put your name and number on the van. A magnetic sign is fine to start with.
• Tell friends, family and neighbours. Your first few customers usually come from people who already know you.
• Ask every new customer for a Google review after the first cut, and put a leaflet through the neighbours' doors while you're there.

There is more on this, including when to ask for reviews and how to leaflet, in how to grow a lawn care business.

Keeping track of it all

Within a few weeks you'll have a list of customers, each with an address, a gate code, a dog to watch out for and a day they expect you. A notebook works for ten. After that, missed visits and forgotten invoices cost you more than software does.

TradeSender keeps each customer with their properties, access notes and gate codes in one customer record, alongside their quotes, visits and invoices, on the web and in the iPhone app. The Free plan covers one person and 30 visits a month; when you move to regular rounds, repeating visits are on Pro at £19 a month (see pricing). If you're setting up as a general gardener rather than a lawn specialist, see TradeSender for gardening businesses.

Taking someone on

When you're turning work away every week, a part-time helper on your busiest days is usually the first step. Before they start:

• Register as an employer with HMRC and run payroll.
• Get employers' liability insurance.
• Pay at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage for their age.
• Show them how to use each machine safely, and give them the protective gear.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need qualifications to start a lawn care business?

Not for mowing, edging, hedge cutting or tidy-ups. You need PA1 and PA6 (or equivalent) certificates to apply professional weedkillers and moss treatments. Horticulture or lawn care courses help if you want to offer lawn treatments and renovation.

When is the best time of year to start?

February or early March, so you're set up before the grass starts growing. You can start any time, but a business started in October has a quiet winter ahead of it.

What do lawn care businesses do in winter?

Grass slows right down from November to February. Most businesses fill the gap with leaf clearance, hedge cutting, garden tidy-ups, fencing or gutter cleaning, and use the quiet weeks to service machinery. Spreading a seasonal contract over twelve monthly payments also evens out the income.

Should I offer contracts or pay as you go?

Pay as you go is easier to sell to a new customer. Once they've had a few cuts, offer a regular slot, weekly or fortnightly, with a fixed price for the season. Regular customers let you plan a round instead of reacting to phone calls.