Gas prices in the Twin Cities can be up to $4.20 a gallon these days, and it’s happening as Minnesota is revving up for summer. But the long-awaited warmth comes alongside a cold, hard truth.

“We spend about $75,000 to $100,000 a year on fuel: lawn mowers, trucks, weed whips, blowers,” said Steve Mura, owner of Barrett Landscaping. “We have 20-something vehicles, six skid loaders, tons of small equipment, so fuel is a big part of our math.”

Same goes for the industry as a whole. About 40% of revenue goes to fuel, according to Financial Models Lab.

“Obviously we know there’s gonna be some ups and downs on everything, but when you get a 20% hit on fuel, that gets pretty tricky,” Mura said. “Everyone loses, the customer loses, we end up losing, our employees end up losing.”

So he’s had to enact a fuel surcharge, something he says he does not want to do.

“No, and we know what our customers are already going through, there’s pressure everywhere on every one,” he said. “I also know I have to take care of my people and my business.”

Barrett Landscaping has seen an especially rough year, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement auditing the business and tariffs on machine parts. But Mura says there are certain cuts he’s fighting to avoid.

“We have never said the business has shrunk and we have to lay people off, and that’s never happened and I never want that to happen,” he said.

Mura says he’s regularly talking to other small business owners, and his biggest fear is people will pull back on services like lawncare and snow removal.