Should I buy a sod installation business or start one?

A sod installer is not a grower. The work is crews, trucks and schedules: laying turf for homeowners, landscapers and builders, usually when the weather allows. The question of buying or starting turns on how much of that machine you want ready on day one, and how well you can carry the quiet months.

The crew and the equipment

An existing business comes with people who know the work, and with trucks, trailers and tools. Ask who the crew leaders are, whether they plan to stay, and what condition the vehicles are in. A start-up hires and buys as it grows, which spreads the cost but means the early jobs are done with a thin team.

Contracts and relationships

Builder and landscaper accounts can be most of the work. Ask which are written agreements and which are habit, and whether they would carry on with a new owner. Also ask where the sod comes from. A good relationship with a grower matters when demand peaks, and that supplier may not feel the same loyalty to you.

Seasonal cash flow

Income is bunched into the warm months and thins out after. Buyers should look at how the business has coped through the slow stretch and what it needs to cover wages and loan payments then. A new business must plan for the same pattern with no history to lean on.

Questions to put to a seller

• How are jobs found, and how much comes from repeat customers?
• Which customers could leave when the owner does?
• What is the plan for the owner’s handover?
• Which vehicles and tools are owned, and which are financed?