DIY Lawn Care Delivered To Your Door

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in landscaping but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Steve Horbatuik, co-founder of MyLawn.Care, a seasonal lawn maintenance subscription program located in Surrey, BC, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

MyLawn.Care is a seasonal lawn maintenance subscription program. While customers DO have the ability to purchase products individually and customize their experience, the program - whether that be on a subscription or an annual purchase basis, is tailored to the specific climate zone in which they live and delivered throughout the year at the time it should be applied. These are called Lawn Care Packs.

We develop, source, and fully test the products within the maintenance program to create the best combination and provide lasting results. We provide the tools to measure just your grass area so that when the deliveries arrive, the products can be applied with nothing leftover. This helps by avoiding unnecessary waste, storage and ensuring everything is always fresh and at peak performance.

Our customers are primarily homeowners with small to mid-size properties that enjoy the outdoors and the pride of coming home to a maintained property. It seems that our lives are always getting busier, and our customers are very happy that they do not have to worry about what to do or when to do it and can just enjoy putting in a small amount of time throughout the year to ensure a well-kept lawn.

We also have many well-versed customers that find us because they have always had to shop around to find quality tailored products and are quite happy in their searches to find it all packed up for them already and dropped right at their door. In fact, we have had a number of people that didn’t even think this was a real thing and called to check first!

Tell us about yourself

How did we get started. Well…

I had left a company that I had worked at for many years due to the massive time and life commitment required, and I desired a bit more freedom. Having been in sales and marketing for most of my life, I picked up a sales job selling merchant payment processing machines while I considered what I wanted to do next.

I had worked in the lawn care industry off and on for a very long time. I was consistently hearing from customers that they would take care of things themselves if it weren’t so confusing at the store or that they had tried several different lawn care providers and could not seem to get the results they desired. In the past, I had quite often explained the process of what I was doing and what products I was using so that they could do it themselves in the future if they desired.

I kept receiving these food delivery coupons and fliers in the mail that had all the things you needed to create and cook meals without deciding what to buy or knowing what specific flavors paired with others. It required very little knowledge to create these meals and came just in time to make supper. This made me wonder why there wasn’t something like that for lawn maintenance. One of my best friends had just finished school for IT and was in between jobs. I rang him up and asked him if he wanted to partner up in a new business, and here we are!

I am motivated each day by the pictures and emails people send me, the smiles and questions when I deliver packages, and the fact that customers feel comfortable sending off a quick email whenever they come across a new problem that they wish some advice on.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I believe that my biggest accomplishment as a business owner is just that. Becoming a business owner. I have tried a few times, with varying degrees of success - primarily because I was not ready. I decided that I would work in a number of different fields, learn as much as possible, and try to be the best that I could be until I decided what I wanted to do.

I learned that I love the outdoors and cannot stand being in an office all day. I need human interaction, and I love meeting new people. I need a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment to thrive. I have a lot of mentors to thank for getting me to this point in my life, and I hope that I can make this business stand the test of time through great products and customer interactions.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

I would say the absolute hardest thing that comes with being a business owner for myself would be when to hire employees. I tend to way overestimate what I am capable of doing in one day, and yet I consistently do it over and over again. This caused me to barely have time to eat and sleep, and when I thought about hiring somebody, I felt that I did not have time to train them, so I was better off just plugging along until I had a moment.

It took a few customers and friends to get it through my head that that moment was not going to come. Once I hired some staff, I realized that it was the best thing I had ever done, and I thank them every day. I now know that I need to put people in place before I get overwhelmed and not after the fact, and it will enable the business to thrive.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Until you DO start a business, treat every job like the best learning experience that you could have ever found. You never know what skills may come in handy or what may spark an idea.
When you start a business, planning is very important, but do not get stuck in that phase. It is very easy to “fiddle” trying to get things just right and never get there.
Be ready for a large time commitment if you want your business to work. It will most likely take more time than you could ever expect for several years before you can back off and breathe a little.

I feel like there are a lot more entrepreneurs each year, and I think that is awesome. We need more homegrown businesses, and we need to support each other. I wish everybody success in whatever they do with their life!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://mylawn.care/
Instagram: @mylawninsta
Facebook: @greatlawnsstarthere
Twitter: @MylawnC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mylawn-care/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.