The Australian Property Maintenance Business Playbook

Want to start a property maintenance or home services business but have no idea where to begin?

In June 2025, I was made redundant from my $70,000-a-year job. I used my redundancy money to buy a ute, grabbed the equipment I already had sitting in my garage and started mowing lawns.

12 months later, the business had generated over $300,000 in sales.

I had no previous experience running a property maintenance business, no huge startup budget and no secret formula. I learnt through actually doing it — quoting jobs, finding customers, making mistakes, reinvesting money and figuring out what worked.

The Property Maintenance Business Playbook is the guide I wish I had when I started.

Inside, I break down the practical steps involved in starting and growing an Australian property maintenance or home services business, including:

• How to actually get started — ABN, GST, insurance and the boring legal stuff
• How I'd start with $1,000, $5,000 or $15,000
• Choosing your business name, branding and uniforms
• How to price your work and stop underquoting
• How to estimate mowing, gardening, clean-ups and other services
• Getting your first customers without spending thousands on marketing
• Google, Facebook, flyers, referrals and local marketing
• Turning one-off customers into recurring revenue
• Scheduling, reminders and creating a professional customer experience
• Upselling additional services to existing customers
• Expanding beyond lawn mowing into property maintenance and higher-value services
• Working with residential clients, real estate, strata, NDIS, aged care and commercial customers
• The mistakes I made — and what I’d do differently starting again
• A practical 30-day action plan to get your business moving
• Client message templates you can copy, customise and use yourself

This isn’t a textbook written by someone who’s never done the work.

It’s based on what I actually did during my first year building a property maintenance business from the ground up in Australia. I'm just a regular guy in his 20's.

No overnight-success promises. No “get rich quick” rubbish.

Building a successful service business takes hard work, long days and consistency. But if you’re prepared to put the work in, this guide will give you a clear starting point - and hopefully help you avoid a lot of the expensive mistakes I made along the way. Don't buy this if you aren't serious about starting your own business.

If I had to start again tomorrow with a ute, a few tools and zero customers, this is the playbook I’d follow.