Also would it be find to advertise while not registered to see if I could get some clients first.

Might be better off walking your neighborhood and knocking on doors. Push your mower around the streets - this is visual and targerted to your area. It will also save you money on flyers and advertising. If you still live near your folks - have then ask their friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

Is this something your going to be doing every summer? If so you might want to consider opening and starting an LLC in your name, then start building business credit this will help obtain funding for equipment and for items you can use around your home. Look into 'strongbusinesscredit'you can google it that will help get you in the right direction. Hopefully that helps you move in a postive direction to establish some business credit in the future......

Tom...   Stick to the flyers.  Also, we hire high school kids at about $7/hour to simply drive around the neighborhoods and throw plastic ziploc bags with rocks and our fliers into the driveways.  We get pretty good results here.  Two words of advice... 1) have them 'stuff' the packages too 2) hire only responsible kids - you don't want some homeowner calling you saying that one of your guys threw a rock threw his car window!!!   It's a great, tough business though.

As long as you're doing business under your name you should be fine. You don't need anything specific to advertise in regards to lawn maintainence. I would make sure to keep track of how much you make so you can properly claim state and federal taxes at the end of the year; don't want uncle sam crawling up your butt in the future!

You can determine if you will need to file taxes as a self-employed business owner here: IRS rules on self-employment taxes

You can always make a web page too to help! Take pictures of past homes you have mowed, showcasing your skills, then add the webpage to your flyers for the door, that way your contact details are there, paper may got lost, but if they bookmark you, you are golden. Also, look into landscaping, or working for a land scaping company, pays well, and you learn other skills that allow you to get paid allot more.

Technically, you should get a city permit since it will be a business. However, I will leave that at your discretion. I agree with the previous poster and think that you might want to think twice about advertising. That gets pretty expensive. Just talk you your folks' friends and family. Hit up other members in your community, smile, and you'll get there in no time! Good luck!

Being in this business myself when I was 18, I learned a few very helpful tips. Definitely check what people are currently paying in the area for similar lawn care. Take this into account when making fliers and show a picture of your work with a caption in huge letters pertaining to how much more economical hiring you is than a crew or company. This helped me get more people to actually listen to me when I went door to door after I had sent the fliers out. Work hard at first and your investments will pay off, not only for the next few years, but you could sell your business or client list when you go to college or do whatever you want.