MMYardService
10-03-2010, 03:43 PM
1) Area too large – The area size may seem like a easy way to get more customers, but all your doing is creating more travel time from house to house or job to job. It will also make it much more difficult to get to new customers quickly. (See more details below on new customers)
2) Purchase right equipment the first time – There are few things that you will purchase that you will not repurchase if you get the wrong things. Cheep lawnmowers will just rattle apart, keep in mind that even when you’re small doing 30-40 yards a week, you will use your lawn mower more in one week then the average home owner does all year. Get equipment that is stronger and you will only have to make the purchase one. This does not only apply to the mowers but also all your tools, you’re going to be using them day in and day out and with any luck for hours and hours every day.
3) Limit or Focus on Type of Work – Pick what you are good at and stick to it, I added a lot of things when I first started that I was not very good at or did not have much or any experience this will cost you a lot in bad estimates, wrong tools, bad customer service, and even a lot of extra product cost replacing or redoing things that you did not realize you needed when you started.
4) Payments on Credit Cards or Prepaid – Getting paid is the biggest problem that I created, I thought that it would be easier to just bill my customers on a monthly bases, well for the ones that pay that works awesome. I am just this week changing this to Credit Card on file for day of service billing, customer must prepay or there must be payment on site when job it started. I have 11K is accounts receivable, and yes the contract for a $30 mow is nice to have when they are $120 behind is payment, but the $80 is legal paper work it just not worth it.
5) New Customers One Day Service – The best way to get new customers is to the new job TODAY. When someone calls and tells me that they would like to start service, I make time in the next few hours to go start the process. Get them cut the first time, and stop them from calling anyone else. As soon as you say “Yes, I can come over and do that work now” they stop calling anyone else, they are not your customer and only you can lose them with bad service.
2) Purchase right equipment the first time – There are few things that you will purchase that you will not repurchase if you get the wrong things. Cheep lawnmowers will just rattle apart, keep in mind that even when you’re small doing 30-40 yards a week, you will use your lawn mower more in one week then the average home owner does all year. Get equipment that is stronger and you will only have to make the purchase one. This does not only apply to the mowers but also all your tools, you’re going to be using them day in and day out and with any luck for hours and hours every day.
3) Limit or Focus on Type of Work – Pick what you are good at and stick to it, I added a lot of things when I first started that I was not very good at or did not have much or any experience this will cost you a lot in bad estimates, wrong tools, bad customer service, and even a lot of extra product cost replacing or redoing things that you did not realize you needed when you started.
4) Payments on Credit Cards or Prepaid – Getting paid is the biggest problem that I created, I thought that it would be easier to just bill my customers on a monthly bases, well for the ones that pay that works awesome. I am just this week changing this to Credit Card on file for day of service billing, customer must prepay or there must be payment on site when job it started. I have 11K is accounts receivable, and yes the contract for a $30 mow is nice to have when they are $120 behind is payment, but the $80 is legal paper work it just not worth it.
5) New Customers One Day Service – The best way to get new customers is to the new job TODAY. When someone calls and tells me that they would like to start service, I make time in the next few hours to go start the process. Get them cut the first time, and stop them from calling anyone else. As soon as you say “Yes, I can come over and do that work now” they stop calling anyone else, they are not your customer and only you can lose them with bad service.