First year working for myself

[5star]

This will be my first year working as my own boss. I've previously worked for a friend for 2 and a half years and pretty know the basics. I have pretty much all the tools and equipment needed. I spent $1500 to buy a brand new HRC217 Commercial Honda Lawnmower at the Honda store, bought a used power rake machine for $500, bought a used echo blower for $150, and went to Home Depot and purchased an Echo SRM-230. I also purchased flyers and business cards online and they turned up great.


Can someone give me advice in when I should start dropping off flyers and handing out business cards? The weather here is getting warmer by the day, roughly around 12 celcius and rising, it's been raining alot and will continue to rain for another week.

I was thinking of offering power raking to my clients as well. Anyone have any suggestions on what moss control + fertilizer I should use after I power rake? Any products I should stay away from?


by the way, the new HRC217 commercial Honda lawnmower is awesome, dual blade for extra suction. Money well spent!


any advice will be helpful and appreciated, Thanks in advance

[Steve]

Welcome to our forum.

To answer your when to start your spring advertising (http://lawnchat.com/?p=2160), try these two links.

http://lawnchat.com/?p=2160

http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?t=13646

How did you promote the previous business you worked with? What kind of marketing methods did they utilize that you feel you could use now too?

[5star]

Thanks for the links.

My previous employer has been in the lawn maintenance business for 25 years, I've only worked with him for roughly a few years, during those years I haven't seen or heard of him doing any marketing. He's got roughly around 80-100 regular clients. I've asked him and he just told me that it's all pretty much referrals. Some clients have been around for more then 15 years as I was told.

[Steve]

Isn't it interesting to see how being in business for a bunch of years can create such amazing word of mouth? So much that it can keep you busy without spending a dime on marketing? It's a great goal to achieve!

With all those year of experience, do you feel you have been able to pick up a lot of great business lessons from him?

Are there maybe a top 5 list of things you think he does right and a top 5 list of things he does wrong and you feel you will be able to do better?