Money-Making Side Hustles for Landscapers in Winter

Slow grass growth doesn’t have to mean slow cash flow. If you run a lawn care or mowing business, winter can be a prime time to offer simple services your customers already want. This guide pulls together practical, real-world ideas from St. and Chip at Main Street Mower, who work with thousands of contractors in Central Florida. You’ll see three paths to profit, the grit work you can do right away, smart ways to use your truck and trailer, and equipment plays you can buy or rent. Use them to fill your schedule, keep your crew busy, and build new revenue streams. This winter could be your most profitable time.

Every idea below works only if people know you offer it. Keep it basic and cheap, then repeat what works.

• Flyers: Make a simple flyer with your service, a clear price or “Call for quote,” and your phone number. Hand them to your existing customers first. Then post them at local spots, like restaurant corkboards or coffee shops. Many Dunkin’ locations allow postings. You will get calls.
• Facebook Marketplace: Post a photo of the service, share an average price range, and say “Call for quotes.” Keep it local. Add a small budget to boost the post if you want wider reach.
• Yard signs: Order bulk yard signs online, 100 for about $150. Include only your main offer and phone number. Place them at busy intersections and near target neighborhoods.

Start with your current customer list, they already trust you.

A simple flyer plan you can run this week:

1. Design a one-page flyer with one clear offer and your phone number.
2. Print 50 to 100 copies.
3. Hand to current customers, then post 20 around town near neighborhoods you serve.

Mulch jobs are everywhere, and most homeowners don’t want to touch them. One pallet holds 70 bags of 2 cubic feet each, about 5 yards. At $3 per bag, your material cost is $210. The going rate is about $100 per yard, so a 5-yard job bills at $500. That’s about $290 profit on materials alone. If you can buy bulk and bring your cost near $150, your profit climbs to about $350.

Most jobs like this take about two hours with a helper and a clean workflow. Customers pay for convenience. Instead of a sore weekend, they get a fresh, clean yard.

Easy add-ons:

• Light bed edging
• Quick weeding
• Blowing off hard surfaces

Offer to hang a customer’s existing lights or custom fit new lines. Many pros buy 1,000-foot reels, measure the roof line, and cut to fit. You can find parts and how-to videos online.

Pricing is simple, about $5 per foot. A typical home has 200 feet or more, so a standard install can bring in $1,000 or more. Charge extra to take them down and store in labeled totes so you get the call next year. Builds recurring clients with very little extra effort.

Raised beds are popular and practical. The average homeowner might spend around $800 to get one built. If you already have a truck and trailer and can buy bulk material, your cost can come in closer to $600. Market a finished, planted bed for about $1,200. That’s often a $600 profit for a single install.

Smart fill tips:

• Fill the bottom with logs, fill dirt, or hay to save on compost.
• Keep the last 8 to 10 inches for quality compost.
• Offer an annual top-off plan, or a premium option filled to the brim with compost.

Photos of a finished bed with vegetables or herbs help sell the job.

People with fire pits want dry, split wood delivered. A full short-bed truck to the top sells around $100. Befriend a local tree service and you may source logs for free. Split, stack, and deliver. It’s not for everyone, but if you can source wood, it adds steady winter income.

Pool maintenance: If you already visit the property, adding pool service can bring in an extra $150 to $200 per month per pool. With some training and a simple weekly route, you can bundle lawn and pool service for more stickiness.

Screen room panel repair: In pool-heavy areas, blown-out screens are common. The going rate is about $100 per panel, and the material cost is low. A roll of screen, spline, and the roller tool can run about $100 and cover many repairs. It’s fast work, and homes often need five or more panels replaced.

Benefits:

• Low material costs
• Quick jobs
• Targets neighborhoods that already need you

Pest control can be a strong profit center if you get licensed. With a license, you can offer treatments using products like bifenthrin for ants, termites, cockroaches, and spiders. Many providers charge about $150 per visit for basic interior and exterior treatments.  Get licensed first, it pays off and keeps you compliant.

Junk removal works in any market because everyone has stuff to toss. Start with a pickup and an open trailer. Target your customers and their neighbors with flyers and Marketplace posts. Offer estimates, haul it, and dump it. You might find you like it enough to keep it year-round.

Everybody needs junk gone at some point. It’s simpler to sell than a lawn service, and winter is a great time to build this side of your business.

With a truck, a trailer, a dolly, and some furniture blankets, you can book small moving jobs. An enclosed trailer is ideal, but open trailers work for local moves if items are wrapped and strapped well. Post on Marketplace and your local groups, then book jobs between other work.

A dump trailer is a moneymaker in several ways.

• Daily rental: Post it for rent at $150 to $250 per day. Drop it at the customer’s driveway. They load it during their remodel or cleanout. You pick it up, dump it, and charge the dump fee plus the daily rate.
• Material delivery: Fill it with compost, rock, sand, or gravel. A common play is 4 yards of compost bought for $100 to $150, then delivered for about $350. That’s about $200 profit per load. One owner sold 10 loads running only a few miles to the supplier.
• Your own hauling: Use it for your junk removal jobs to speed up turnarounds.

You can rent a small unit, but buying a pro setup speeds everything up. A solid workhorse is a 13 HP Honda engine with a 4,000 PSI pump at 4 GPM. Pair it with a surface cleaner. The surface cleaner is like mowing a driveway, it keeps water contained and cleans in even passes.

• Cost: About $1,500 for the unit and $500 for the surface cleaner, roughly $2,000 total.
• Speed: A pro unit can clean a standard driveway in 30 minutes, and a house plus driveway in about an hour. A small homeowner unit might take several hours for the same work.
• Pricing: Many charge $150 to $300 for a 1,000 square foot driveway, and around $500 for a house package.

With 100 lawn customers, you already have 100 prospects. Ten driveway jobs often cover your setup cost. It’s four times faster than small units, which means more jobs per day.

Great add-ons:

• House wash package
• Patio and pool deck cleaning
• Fence cleaning

You don’t have to own every tool to make money. Rent, book work, then decide if buying makes sense.

• Stump grinder: Rent for about $350 a day. Charge $100 to $150 per stump. You probably know which customers have stumps because you bump them with the mower. Do 20 stumps in a weekend and you’ll clear thousands.
• Sod cutter: Rent for about $100 a day. It slices old turf cleanly so removal is quick. That makes sod installs faster and more profitable.
• Dingo, mini skid steer: These fit on a standard landscape trailer and do minimal yard damage. Add a grapple to pop out bushes or move logs. Try weekend rentals to test demand for land clearing or installs. If rentals stack up, finance a unit and keep the work in-house.
• Bucket truck or lift: For tree trimming, book a block of jobs for one weekend. Trim dozens of trees in two days with a single rental and a good crew.

A simple rental plan that works:

1. Call or text customers who need the service.
2. Book the work for one weekend.
3. Pick up the rental and knock out jobs back to back.
4. Return the rental and tally the profits.

If you want recurring, high-margin visits, a pest control license can unlock $150 service calls. You can fold this into your service menu once you are certified.

Want tools, machines, or parts to power these ideas? See the latest gear at the Main Street Mower online store:  Shop online from our extensive online product inventory.

Winter can be your chance to grow. You saw simple, proven ways to earn with muscle, with your truck and trailer, and with smart equipment. Start by marketing to your current customers, then add one service at a time and track what works.

Choose one idea today, make a flyer, and post a Marketplace ad. Book your first two jobs, then build from there. Thanks for reading, and tell us which idea you’re trying first.

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