Should You Hire a Coach for Your Lawn Care Business?

People ask me all the time whether they should hire a lawn care business coach. It’s a fair question, because there’s a lot of money to waste and a lot of noise out there. I run Anthony’s Lawn Care & Landscaping out of Bloomington, Indiana, along with three other businesses, and I’ll be honest with you up front: I would not be where I am without the coaches and mentors I’ve paid for over the years. But I also don’t think everybody reading this needs to write a check to a coach today. So let me walk you through how I actually think about it.

What a good coach or mentor actually does

The biggest thing a coach buys you is time. Every mistake I’ve made in this business, somebody else already made ten years before me. A good coach has lived it, and they hand you the answer before you waste a season learning it the hard way. That’s the whole game. You’re not paying for information that’s already free on YouTube. You’re paying to skip the part where you bleed money figuring out what works.

Here’s what I’ve found a real coach does for you:

• They shortcut the learning curve. Pricing, hiring, routing, equipment, when to add a second crew. They’ve already solved it and can save you a year of trial and error.
• They see your blind spots. You can’t read the label from inside the bottle. An outside set of eyes catches the thing you’re too close to see, and it’s usually the thing holding you back.
• They hold you accountable. Most of us know what we should do. We just don’t do it. A coach you respect makes you actually follow through, because you don’t want to show up to the next call with excuses.

That accountability piece is underrated. When you’re the owner, nobody is checking your homework. A coach fills that gap.

The real ROI of not learning everything the hard way

People look at the price of a coach and stop right there. The number that actually matters is the cost of not having one. If a coach helps you raise your prices correctly, fix the way you hire, or stop a leak in your scheduling, that one change can pay for them many times over and keep paying you every season after.

The hard way is expensive. A bad hire costs you thousands. A pricing mistake you carry for a year costs you more. A missed opportunity because you didn’t know it existed is the most expensive of all, and you never even see the bill. When I weigh a coach’s fee against the cost of figuring it all out alone, it usually isn’t close.

A coach who’s done it versus a “guru” who hasn’t

This is where most people get burned, so pay attention. There is a massive difference between someone who has actually built a business and a “guru” whose only business is selling coaching. The second group can talk a beautiful game. They have the slides and the testimonials and the big promises. But they’ve never had to make payroll on a slow week or fire a crew member who was stealing.

I want to learn from people who have done the thing, not people who have only taught the thing. The scars matter. When someone has lived through the same problems you’re facing, their advice is grounded in reality instead of theory. That’s the filter I run everyone through.

How to vet a coach and avoid getting scammed

Before you give anybody a dollar, do this homework:

1. Ask exactly what they’ve built. Not what they teach. What have they personally grown, and how big? If they get vague or pivot to talking about their “system,” that tells you something.
2. Talk to their actual clients. A real coach will happily connect you with people they’ve helped. Then ask those clients plainly: did it work, and would you do it again? References that won’t get on a call are a red flag.
3. Make sure they’ve solved your problem. Someone great at running a marketing agency may know nothing about staffing landscape crews across multiple cities. Fit matters more than fame.
4. Watch the promises. Anybody guaranteeing you’ll get rich quick is selling a dream, not a plan. Real growth is boring and consistent.

If you want to see what doing the work looks like in practice, you’re welcome to look at how we run things over at Anthony’s Lawn Care & Landscaping. I’m a believer in proof over promises.

When you’re ready for a coach, and when you’re not

Here’s the honest part, and not everybody in this space will tell you this. You don’t always need to pay for a coach yet.

If you’re brand new and you’ve got two clients and a used mower, your money is better spent getting your reps in and learning the basics. Free resources will carry you a long way at that stage. There’s no shame in waiting.

You’re ready for a coach when you’ve got a real business with real revenue and you’ve hit a ceiling you can’t see past on your own. When the problem isn’t “how do I get my first customer” but “how do I go from one crew to three without it falling apart,” that’s when good coaching pays for itself fastest. You’re also ready when you’re coachable, meaning you’ll actually do the work and take the hard feedback. If you just want someone to agree with you, save your money.

How my own mentors changed my trajectory

I invest heavily in coaches and mentors, and I credit them directly for how fast we’ve grown. I’m an Indiana University grad and I did executive education at Wharton in 2022, but some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned came from people who took me under their wing.

My mentor Perry Marshall shaped how I think about marketing, and he once described me as “having more fun than any entrepreneur I know,” which I take as a real compliment because I do love this work. Dr. George Pratt, a performance psychologist, helped me with the mindset side, which matters more than people admit when you’re carrying a business on your back. Dennis Yu taught me a tremendous amount about digital marketing. And I’ve learned from Jay Abraham and Dan Kennedy, two of the sharpest business minds out there.

None of those relationships were free, and every one of them was worth it. The right mentor at the right moment doesn’t just teach you a tactic. They change the ceiling on what you believe is possible, and then you go build it.

So, should you hire a coach?

If you’re early, focus on getting reps and use the free stuff. If you’ve built something real and you’ve hit a wall, the right lawn care business coach, someone who has actually done it, can be the best money you spend. Just vet them hard, talk to their clients, and make sure they’ve solved your specific problem.

These days I coach service-business owners myself, because the mentorship I got changed my life and I want to pass it on. If you’re wrestling with this decision and want to talk it through, I offer a free first session, no pressure and no pitch. You can learn more about how I coach owners here, and if it’s a fit, come grab that first call. Worst case, you walk away with a clearer head about your business. That’s a pretty good deal either way.