I do small landscaping work for hire on Taskrabbit and Facebook and mostly use my trusty self propelled Toro Recycler 22" for mowing lawns. Some of the customers have larger easily accessible lawns and it became tedious to use my push mower and I was thinking about bringing my Cub Cadet LTX1050 there, but worried about the image of it especially considering I am a bigger guy. Will it look funny / unprofessional to my customers? I know I should get a zero turn, but they are expensive, my operation is small and I already own the tractor.
by EastClevelandBest
38 Comments
Sheesh. Use whatever tools get the job done efficiently. I sure wouldn’t be push mowing, if I already have a mower capable of getting it done in half the time and a quarter of the effort.
Dress neatly, act professionally, be on time, and the vast majority of customers will never even notice what equipment you have.
Smile and wave boys, smile and wave. All the while basking in the efficiency of a useful tool.
Dude if a client gives you grief about professionalism for working in a safe and efficient manner they can find another landscaper dw about it
You’re overthinking it.
Use what you got and get out of your head.
Most people don’t care what tools you use and fuck those who do. The problem with this mower is it won’t be able to handle commercial use. If it lasts more then one season I would be shocked. look into getting a commercial walk behind. Most common sizes are 32” (for going through gates and backyards and such) and 48” they are expensive (especially now) but if you can come with a down payment you can finance the rest
If I paid to have someone mow my lawn, I’d expect my lawn to be mowed and look nice. I wouldn’t give a shit what they used or how they looked using it.
That being said, I’m also far from Karens and they may feel differently. But they will probably complain no matter what.
In the past several years dozens and dozens of guys toting around mowers for side hustle cash have popped up in my small town. You’d blend right in here. Rock on man.
Brutal headline there bud….
No one cares so long as the end result looks professional.
Just start doing it, and if you actually see a negative impact to your business (unlikely) change back.
Using the riding. No one is gonna give a shit, and if they do thats not a customer you want to keep anyways.
I’m missing something, why is a Cub Cadet unprofessional?
If they don’t like your equipment, they can go buy their own and do the work themselves. I had a snobby customer tell me to “stop buying $40,000 trucks”. My reply was, “tell the manufacturers to stop charging $40,000 for trucks”.
Dude the only looks you should care about is the look of th lawn after you cut and your bank account after your deposits.
I bet if you wear a European cut speedo…no one will even notice the lawnmower
If it is a speed thing….I often see used commercial walk behinds that are 33″-40″. Often under $1k. They definitely look more professional and will be much faster than a 22″ walk behind. But yeah, I think you are over thinking it. What you have will work and I think people will care more about results than anything else.
Just use what you got for now my dude. I’d be using it as much as possible personally (I work professionally in landscape/excavation
No one gives a shit but free exercise is free exercise
Run what you brung!!!
I did lawns on the side for a few years. I had a push mower in the trunk of my car (sedan) because that’s what I had. I doubt I could have looked less professional. However, the lawns looked good and I got paid. As dodgy as I looked, I got a few lawns from people seeing me cut their neighbors lawn. Most of the time the folks weren’t home (before remote work was a thing) so I doubt anyone cared.
Give me a solid price and you can use scissors for all I care.
Half the time those big fast mowers tear apart lawns on the turns by not slowing down . This is fine
Youre overthinking it, BUT a company wrap on the white part could go bananas
Are you a landscaper or do you just mow, trim, and blow? There’s a big difference between the two. If you call yourself a landscaper then the expectation is higher. If you’re clear that your services are to just mow then who cares. It’s all about expectations.
Your results will speak over any misgivings (that may not exist in the first place) over the equipment used to achieve them.
I think it’s funny when lawn crews pull out the biggest zero-turn unit just to mow a 15sq foot area.
Looks fine. If you add flame decals, it will ‘look’ faster. If you put Dale Jr’s number on the side, I’d lol
It’s the job you do, not the brand of tools. Leave with a good cut on their lawn and they won’t even look out the window the second time you show up.
I’ve seen finish carpenters do amazing work with the first jigsaw ever made. Pretty sure it was powered by whale oil or some shit but it worked exactly how it needed to. No one said a word because the trim was perfect.
Paint it like a lady bug and really lean into it for marketing purposes.
Hood matches the wheels I think it looks unique.
You could ride that around in a goofy costume with a tutu and look more professional than some that show up in the neighborhood I live in. One got half done with a mow and walked over to my house asking for gas to finish the job. Trailers where the mower is buried under the scrap pile. Here’s the deal though, I don’t care, neither does anyone else. I would have gladly gave the guy some gas had I not just poured all I had left into my own mower. End result is all that matters.
“Oh my God, that landscaper who cuts grass frequently is using a tool designed to cut grass more efficiently! How unprofessional and lazy.”
-Nobody ever
What an odd thing to be upset about.
Paint some flames on the hood. You’ll be fine.
The appropriate tool for the job is the one you should use. When I see a landscaper pull out a push mower for a football field, I’ll assume they have either *very* limited tools or get paid by the hour…
I don’t think 99% of clients are going to think twice about your equipment, especially if you get the job done and act professional. Even if they are paying attention to your equipment I don’t think anyone would have a problem with this mower. Don’t overthink it.
I’d see if they make a striping kit for it to provide more wow factor with the end result.
There are four(!) lawn care groups that do work in my neighborhood. Two of them have fancy-shmancy ZTR mowers, and two have tractors. If you didn’t see what they were using that day, you wouldn’t know which yard had what mower. If that Cub Cadet would help you get the job done in an efficient way, use it. If some snobby porch-potato wants to judge you for it, they can do their own lawn. Hell, I have an 80X160 lot and I wish I had a rider of ANY kind. Push-mowing this thing in a Kansas summer at my age is…yuck.
Literally no one cares. Especially residential, and if they do care they’re not hiring the person off task rabbit.