Hiring your first lawn care employee — the 30-day plan that doesn't end in a walkout

# Hiring your first lawn care employee Every lawn care owner hits the same wall at ~$150-200K solo revenue: you can't mow more lawns without help, but you can't afford to train someone AND run the route yourself. Here's the 30-day plan that gets you through it. ## Week 1 — Prep before they start - Post the job on Indeed, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist. Pay $18-22/hour to start. Anything under $16 gets the wrong people. - Write down every daily task. Every one. "Load mower, fill trimmer line, check trailer tires, inspect blades, review route in app." This becomes their onboarding doc. - Buy a second commercial mower + trimmer. Duplicate your kit. If they share your gear, one broken belt takes down the whole crew. ## Week 2 — Onboarding - **Day 1-3**: They shadow you. Watch every mow. No solo work. - **Day 4-5**: You watch them mow. Correct in real time. - Load them into Service Pro Suite as a Technician. They get the mobile app and see their day on their phone. No paper route sheets. - Cover payroll (Gusto, $40/mo), workers' comp (~$1200/year for lawn care), and drug-free workplace paperwork. ## Week 3 — Solo runs on the easy accounts Assign them the 8-10 accounts closest together, no gates, no dogs, no HOA drama. Track completion time in the app. They should be within 15% of your times by end of week 3. ## Week 4 — Full route Hand them a full 20-lawn day. You take the harder stuff — big properties, HOAs, install jobs. Now you're a **2-crew shop**. ## The traps to avoid - **Don't hire your buddy** unless you're comfortable firing your buddy - **Don't skip workers' comp** — one back injury bankrupts you - **Don't pay under the table** — one 1099 audit and you owe back-taxes + penalties on every payroll you ever ran - **Don't hire on a handshake** — I-9, W-4, offer letter with 90-day probation clause. It protects both of you. ## The economics Bad hire: -3 months of your time + $8-12K in wasted wages + a customer you lost = ~$30K real cost. Good hire: 2x your revenue capacity within 6 weeks + your Sundays back. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.