Lawn care scores 85, the lowest in the current database, and deliberately so: it is the most visible and most crowded trade here, every teenager's first business. What earns it a place is what Augusta proved, that the ceiling is systems, not grass. Pay-for-performance crews, franchise playbooks, and route density turn a commodity chore into a compounding operation.
The database Category
Lawn & landscape
Two documented owners at opposite ends of the same trade. Mike Andes founded Augusta Lawn Care in 2014 and franchised it into 200-plus locations with systemwide revenue above $50 million. Trevor Kokenge started Plan-It Vision with $300 and a $50 mower during the 2008 recession and stayed one deep operator in Seattle, now at $22,000 to $29,000 a month. Grass grows back weekly. Everything after that is a choice about scale.
The entries
Why it scores boring
Common questions
How much does a lawn care business make?
Augusta's first location ran toward $500,000 in year one and about $1 million annually within a few years. The franchise system now reports over $50 million across 200+ locations. A solo operator's first season is a small fraction of that, which is why the interesting question is the second year, not the first.
What is the cheapest way to start in lawn care?
The documented floor: about $9,000 in used equipment, a truck and a mower, no trailer, which is how early Augusta operators started. The formal franchise runs $49,999 to $139,999. Between the two lies the honest middle: used gear plus somebody else's operating system, borrowed from a book.
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