Like working outdoors? Love nature? Then a lawn care or landscaping business is your chance to rake in plenty of green, while doing something you enjoy. Whether it's just picking up a few residential yards to make some extra money, or contracting with commercial office parks or apartments for the big bucks, you can quickly be on your way to earning the income you desire. Our guide will show you how.

It’s packed with practical, real-world instruction, tips and insider secrets for starting a lawn care or landscape service. We’ll help you choose which business is best for you, and walk you step-by-step through everything you need to know to start and run it successfully, including:

When you think back to the long, lazy summers of your youth, chances are your recollections are full of achingly nostalgic memories like an oversized tire swing under a big shady tree. Tall frosty glasses of lemonade wreathed in pearls of moisture. Crickets and tree frogs throatily singing their sweet night song. And the high-pitched whine of lawn mowers carrying on the warm summer breeze.

If you’re like a lot of people, you were trudging along behind one of those mowers back then, pushing with all your might and sweating profusely, just so you could make a few bucks to buy some baseball cards or a really cool bike. You may have occasionally mowed down a few pansies or zebra-striped a lawn, but you sure were proud when the homeowner came to the door, surveyed your handiwork, and forked over the agreed-upon fee.