Need help

[Visionaryman]

Greeting to all,

I'm Mike and I just happened to find this wonderful forum today. I have many questions to ask and I hope to learn from all the experts in here. I'm a Marine Vets just took off my uniform and joined the civilian world about 5 months now. I started my Lawn care business on June 1st. I'm planning to running this company all year round but I don't have all answers to my questions so any help will be greatly appreciated. Up until now i have 30 customers and have retained %50 as repeat business. My first 2 questions are:
1. What can I do at this moment forward in next 60 days to increase business beside what I already have running?
2. What are some effective ways I can do to get through the winter without forcing myself to find another job to supplement my income?

I just lunched my September promotion via Facebook and flyers so let's see how that will turn out. At the same time I'm working on my October promotion.

**The problem I am having is...well I have many but the most important one for me is estimation. I'm not here to fly by night and try to under bid the local guys to buy out their business. I want to do it in a competitiveness. I'm very detail guy to perfection and so far my customers have no complains but compliments. Much more to say but I'm going to stop here.

Thank you all for reading and suggestions...
Semper Fi
Mike

www.visionaryservicesllc.com

[slackjack]

I don't have any advise, just starting out myself.

I just wont to say Thanks for your service to me and my country.

[Sprinkler Buddy]

Semper Fi,

I have found that getting a few signs made and rotating them on the accounts you have with your customers permission works well. Make them easy to read from a distance, don't try to put too much info. on them, makes them hard to read while driving by. That will get you more potential customers because they can see your work first hand. They may even know your customer and start getting word of mouth advertising which is the best and the cheapest.

Good luck in your new venture brother, Yutt!! I remember those days. In this economy surprised you didn't re-up. Sounds like your off to a good start despite the times.

[Visionaryman]

Thanks both for your replies.

@sprinkler buddy - my last duty was recruiter then decided to EAS so i can finish my college. I never allowed myself to make my decision to re-up because of finance. I was time to take the uniform off and become an entrepreneur.

thanks for the idea about the signs, my customers have been telling me to put my signs on their yards but i haven't find a place to make sign cheap and I don't have my logo yet.

[Steve]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to our forum!

As a recruiter for the military I would think it would require heavy marketing and sales skills. I bet most all of what you learned doing that can be applied to your new lawn care business.

What kinds of things did you do to attract new recruits? How can you take that and use it to attract new lawn care customers?

As far as estimating properties, have you experimented with the lawn care business calculators (http://www.gopherforum.com/showthread.php?p=43299#post43299) on the forum?