yardworksinc
04-21-2008, 01:32 AM
Good morning everyone! I have spent a large portion of the last 48 rainy hours digging through this goldmine. My wife an I decided it was finally time to get the business started. We talked about doing it before because I enjoy the work and Im good at it. I am also great with people which will give me an edge over the competition. Not to say other companies do not offer the same personal service but I know not all companies can find a way to connect with their customers on a personal level.
Business began mid April.
We borrowed my mothers Toro 22" self propelled, mulcing/bagging/spitting out the side mower, a shovel, 2 rakes and a few clear lawn bags in exchange for taking care of her lawn which I do anyways! We had a 100' extension cord and a 15'(ish) electric weedwacker. I will be using my Van for now. A 95 ford Aerostar with the middle seat removed to make room for the mover.
I just purchased a sears craftsman 16" electric hedge trimmer for $5. It has some years and use on it but it is sharp and running strong. I also found a seller on craigslist that was offering a 15" gas powered weedwacker. $35 It is single line using a 40:1 fuel:oil mixture. It is LIKE NEW. Pictures soon! He purchased it in a LOT of demos and is unloading the extra equipment. I must have responded to his post about 15 minutesafter he put it up there.
We have an extra phone line. My wife looked at the phone dialing pad and made several different variations of words and suggested we change the number to one of them. I called each number and the were all taken. I knew of another exchange that My cellular company used and came up with 757-4EZ-CARE as an available number. When I called the number it indicated it was not in service. I jumped on the chance to call the phone company and request the specific number. They informed me it is not a practice to provide a requested number but the rep looked and said she had NEVER seen anyone call where the number was actually available. Thats why I did my homework!
Monday night we copied a black and white flyer 500 times an cut it in half to make 1000 at .05 each. I later found that Kinkos will offer them at .02 each. I'm glad I didn't make 10,000 copies!
Tuesday morning I began putting the flyers on the doors to those in my neighborhood of townhouses. After 30 minutes I made aloop back to my residence an went inside to grab a drink. I heard a strange vibration an realized the company phone was ringing.
Ok, so it was the firt call ever and it wsa from out of the area so I said.".... Hello?" Within moments I realized it was a potential client. I offered a bid over the phone as I was familiar with the yard sizes of the townhomes. $10.00. I knew it was low but I wanted to get my first client and get the yard and him advertising for me. I told him I could cut it the same day but it would take me few hours to complete a job in another section of town then come back with equipment and *I actually needed to go get all the equipment from My moms place and pickup a coil of weedwhacker string. I knew the one I had was going to run out soon. I had planned to knock out my moms lawn but I timed it wrong. I made sure I could return to his location and get him cut at the time I told him I would be there.
So I hit walmart for the string at 8 bucks and didnt wince. Once I got to my van the phone rings again. Hot dog another one! I was in business mode and answered in a professional warm manner. Another bid over the phone accepted. I started thinking. hmm. I should look at these jobs a bit more closely before I throw out a number. Well, one more yard to make the business look good! 20.00 I offered and he took it happily.
Back to job one
oops!!! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif *I charged 10.00 for a poorly maintained ( LONG GRASS) and hard to access backyard. I Gave him full service; Cut, edge, cleanup and bag the clippings. He questioned me on the price and I knew it was low but I wanted to make this yard and client advertise for me. Before I was finished with the job he indicated he needed to leave and handed me payment for the next 5 weeks and stated he would return in June to pay me again. Hotdog. Ok theres 10 bucks. It's 10 the hard way but I'm going to make this yard sell my services. *
I moved from his lawn to the next, giving a courtesy call to job 2 to inform him I was en route. He was tickled pink and told me to cut his yard for the rest of the year bi-weekly. I will be suggesting that we change it to weekly so his yard looks good. I had not even done the job yet and he signed up for the duration. Hot dog!! *http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif *or dancing banana whatever!
When I was cleaning up job 3 I was approached by the neighbor who asked for a price to cleanup the weed in her back yard. She said "hurry so I can pay you as I need to go to work" It is a small yard and I offered 10 to just go in and wack everything then bag it up. She looked at me funny and gave me 15.
Ok so I'm obviously underbidding right? Yeah, I know! I id not get her number so I left her a note on the back of a flyer the next day to make sure she was satisfied with the services and called the other customers to make sure they were happy. So far so good though I have not heard back from customer 3.
I put out a few flyers the next day to cover the rest of the neighborhood and went on to my personal errands. No more calls but I did get a 2.1% response on the flyers.
The following ay I went out to my moms finally and canvased theareawith flyers for a few hours then did her lawn. Halfway through I recieved an estimate request. Decent sized lawn withtons of pine needles in the backyard that needed to be removed. No grass in the back. Gutters were overflowing with needles and debris. The front did not need any serious cleanup at all. Just a cut and edge so I quoted 120 for the initial cleanup. She has a husbandwho works out of town. He was to be home for the weekend and she would letme know their decision.
Friday I canvas another area with113 flyers. These are bigger lawns and nicer houses. A client dries up to my van, just as my wife pulls off because I needed to get a coat hanger to get the keys off my seat that I locked in.. OOPS! He had not seen the flyer yet but knew I washanding outflyers and asked what I offered. He was interested since he would be heading out of town for 2 months. I followed him to his place and did an estimate. I decided I would try for 25 an hour. I estimated the lawn to take about 2 hours. The edging was kept so there would be virtually nothing to do there. Ok so 50 bucks. He asked for a senior discount. I gave him 10% so there we are at $45 for the job. Now I know the price I am shooting for is low. I am working with a self propelled mower and plan to get a rider soon so I want to look at these jobs as though I am using a rider and charging 45 an hour. That may still be low but I want to get feel them out as I go. From reading the forums it is low. I dont have a vehicle payment to deal with right now though!
We clicked real nicely. I built rapport immediately and he indicated if he likes my work he will refer 2 neighbors that need the work done. Then we discuss hedges. He wants his red tipped bushes trimmed. Ok, NO CLUE how long that will take so I just spouted out 20 bucks. Then he adds more bushes. He says he wants ALOT taken off them and know they will ook bad to start but they grow like wildfire. There are 3 bushes next to a shed at about 8 feet that he wants down to about 4.5. For some reason it did not occur to me to change the estimate. I will be calling him tomorrow to do so. I'm not sure it would be wise but I know I will be working at least 2 hours to get them done. I figure ill ask for 40.. still knowing that is low but also knowing he will be refering me to some neighbors. This guy has an immaculate lawn an he is choosing me over his Commercial mowing neighbor. He needs it cut on wed or thurday not Sunday when the other guy is done with al his commercial work. He wants people to drive by the weekend and see a fresh cut lawn not a forest.
He is a bit particluar about how to cut the front yard. Certain height about 4.5-5 inches. Also diagonal one week and perpendicular to the house the next week. He also is not ok with a riding lawn mower in the front but the back is ok. He is getting a bargain and I am getting an already immaculate lawn to advertise with.
It will be cut this week after the rain passes on wed or thursday. I know ill be spending extra time making it look just right and I think with him it will be worth it. He ued to work in the industry as well. I think I will pick his brain a bit while I work with him.
Friday night another call comes in. It's out by my moms in the same area as the 120 bid. I take a look at it the next morning and offer 50 for the initial cleanup and 35 a week. There is nothing special to do to his lawn. He says he would expect to pay more for the backyard the way it is and have it just left to rot but I assured him already that I bag up the waste. Now I am really getting a feel for it. I dont have my bid high enough but I am getting there! Once I get a rider I wont take but 30-45 minutes to knock it out. I took a tip from a friend that ran a copany before and suggested using week killer on the perimeter and against the back of the house. It cuts my labor and doesnt have to be done often. They accepted.
I called the customer that I quoted 120 to follow up on my way to the next job saturday morning. No answer so I left a message.
WEll this one took longer than expected. I did not notice the lawn had RUN OVER the front curb due to drainage. I had to dig it out witha hoe. It will be easy to maintain but took about 3 hours to get the whole job done. I did have to mow one strip then move just half a strip on the back yard. Took a while due to the length of grass. I might be spending 1-1.5 hours on it in the future.
Lessons learned. No blind estimates! EVER! My first two jobs were mostly cleanup. The weeds/grass were too long to make it look good but I think it will get corrected in the next 1-2 mowings.
RING! Ok so halfway through the cleanup for 50 I get a call from my estimate. Husband wants to meet and discuss. I told him what he would be getting. And I kept looking at the high roof thinking. Darn, I need to rent a ladder or walk the roof. It's a 7/12 so it wont be too bad. I'll rig up a hoe to clean it from the roof so I can keep my balance and just go up on the backside from the deck.
He accepted my proposal and we went on to discuss future work. 40 a week to cut. He has some plants to remoe from a flower bed later and wants to get some flowers in it. HEhano clue what to put int here but he will be using a BLUE yes thats right BLUE mulch. It's dyed. He will be doing that part himself but wants me to plan the flowers. HELP!!
Also, on my prior meeting with the wife, I noticed the kids and pointed out that once I remove the pine needles shewill jsut be working with dirt. She can seed or I can seed but it will bea mudbath for a bit. Turns out the have a birthday party they want to have in the backyard june 15th. The want me to seed it. I told them I need to price the seed first and figure out labor. I will be over seeding the front as well. He said he does not want deep green grass. Well, here in Va he is goign to need a sun and shade blend to get it to grow under the 6 pine trees. I start the work April 28th. Cutting will be a breeze since the back has nothing until the seed comes in. I need to forma quote fast since they want to grow grass in full in 6 weeks. Hopefully this can happen.
I think I underbid the gutters and maybe the cleanup. Right now I am just trying to get some revenue. I dont have a full schedule so jobs that take a while arent going to keep me from meetingmy obligations. This is a trial for me to get my pricing where it needs to be.
I think it has come around good so far. My response to flyers hs dropped to 1.8 % but gotten 4 weekly customers and 1 bi-weekly. I have put out just 357 flyers so far.
Ok wow. I know that was a bit long winded but I love to share my experiences. This forum has been incredible! We will be getting the gopher software within a month. Quickbooks will be the first program though. My wife is familiar with it. I see that you can import A/R to quickbooksfrom gppher so I sold her on thegopher software. I want to use it since it is designed for this!
Looking forward to a great year, sharing my experiences as I grow, and reading everyones tips and other experiences. I will upload our flyer and equipment pictures soon.
Aaron and Nicole
Business began mid April.
We borrowed my mothers Toro 22" self propelled, mulcing/bagging/spitting out the side mower, a shovel, 2 rakes and a few clear lawn bags in exchange for taking care of her lawn which I do anyways! We had a 100' extension cord and a 15'(ish) electric weedwacker. I will be using my Van for now. A 95 ford Aerostar with the middle seat removed to make room for the mover.
I just purchased a sears craftsman 16" electric hedge trimmer for $5. It has some years and use on it but it is sharp and running strong. I also found a seller on craigslist that was offering a 15" gas powered weedwacker. $35 It is single line using a 40:1 fuel:oil mixture. It is LIKE NEW. Pictures soon! He purchased it in a LOT of demos and is unloading the extra equipment. I must have responded to his post about 15 minutesafter he put it up there.
We have an extra phone line. My wife looked at the phone dialing pad and made several different variations of words and suggested we change the number to one of them. I called each number and the were all taken. I knew of another exchange that My cellular company used and came up with 757-4EZ-CARE as an available number. When I called the number it indicated it was not in service. I jumped on the chance to call the phone company and request the specific number. They informed me it is not a practice to provide a requested number but the rep looked and said she had NEVER seen anyone call where the number was actually available. Thats why I did my homework!
Monday night we copied a black and white flyer 500 times an cut it in half to make 1000 at .05 each. I later found that Kinkos will offer them at .02 each. I'm glad I didn't make 10,000 copies!
Tuesday morning I began putting the flyers on the doors to those in my neighborhood of townhouses. After 30 minutes I made aloop back to my residence an went inside to grab a drink. I heard a strange vibration an realized the company phone was ringing.
Ok, so it was the firt call ever and it wsa from out of the area so I said.".... Hello?" Within moments I realized it was a potential client. I offered a bid over the phone as I was familiar with the yard sizes of the townhomes. $10.00. I knew it was low but I wanted to get my first client and get the yard and him advertising for me. I told him I could cut it the same day but it would take me few hours to complete a job in another section of town then come back with equipment and *I actually needed to go get all the equipment from My moms place and pickup a coil of weedwhacker string. I knew the one I had was going to run out soon. I had planned to knock out my moms lawn but I timed it wrong. I made sure I could return to his location and get him cut at the time I told him I would be there.
So I hit walmart for the string at 8 bucks and didnt wince. Once I got to my van the phone rings again. Hot dog another one! I was in business mode and answered in a professional warm manner. Another bid over the phone accepted. I started thinking. hmm. I should look at these jobs a bit more closely before I throw out a number. Well, one more yard to make the business look good! 20.00 I offered and he took it happily.
Back to job one
oops!!! http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif *I charged 10.00 for a poorly maintained ( LONG GRASS) and hard to access backyard. I Gave him full service; Cut, edge, cleanup and bag the clippings. He questioned me on the price and I knew it was low but I wanted to make this yard and client advertise for me. Before I was finished with the job he indicated he needed to leave and handed me payment for the next 5 weeks and stated he would return in June to pay me again. Hotdog. Ok theres 10 bucks. It's 10 the hard way but I'm going to make this yard sell my services. *
I moved from his lawn to the next, giving a courtesy call to job 2 to inform him I was en route. He was tickled pink and told me to cut his yard for the rest of the year bi-weekly. I will be suggesting that we change it to weekly so his yard looks good. I had not even done the job yet and he signed up for the duration. Hot dog!! *http://www.gophergraphics.com/forum/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif *or dancing banana whatever!
When I was cleaning up job 3 I was approached by the neighbor who asked for a price to cleanup the weed in her back yard. She said "hurry so I can pay you as I need to go to work" It is a small yard and I offered 10 to just go in and wack everything then bag it up. She looked at me funny and gave me 15.
Ok so I'm obviously underbidding right? Yeah, I know! I id not get her number so I left her a note on the back of a flyer the next day to make sure she was satisfied with the services and called the other customers to make sure they were happy. So far so good though I have not heard back from customer 3.
I put out a few flyers the next day to cover the rest of the neighborhood and went on to my personal errands. No more calls but I did get a 2.1% response on the flyers.
The following ay I went out to my moms finally and canvased theareawith flyers for a few hours then did her lawn. Halfway through I recieved an estimate request. Decent sized lawn withtons of pine needles in the backyard that needed to be removed. No grass in the back. Gutters were overflowing with needles and debris. The front did not need any serious cleanup at all. Just a cut and edge so I quoted 120 for the initial cleanup. She has a husbandwho works out of town. He was to be home for the weekend and she would letme know their decision.
Friday I canvas another area with113 flyers. These are bigger lawns and nicer houses. A client dries up to my van, just as my wife pulls off because I needed to get a coat hanger to get the keys off my seat that I locked in.. OOPS! He had not seen the flyer yet but knew I washanding outflyers and asked what I offered. He was interested since he would be heading out of town for 2 months. I followed him to his place and did an estimate. I decided I would try for 25 an hour. I estimated the lawn to take about 2 hours. The edging was kept so there would be virtually nothing to do there. Ok so 50 bucks. He asked for a senior discount. I gave him 10% so there we are at $45 for the job. Now I know the price I am shooting for is low. I am working with a self propelled mower and plan to get a rider soon so I want to look at these jobs as though I am using a rider and charging 45 an hour. That may still be low but I want to get feel them out as I go. From reading the forums it is low. I dont have a vehicle payment to deal with right now though!
We clicked real nicely. I built rapport immediately and he indicated if he likes my work he will refer 2 neighbors that need the work done. Then we discuss hedges. He wants his red tipped bushes trimmed. Ok, NO CLUE how long that will take so I just spouted out 20 bucks. Then he adds more bushes. He says he wants ALOT taken off them and know they will ook bad to start but they grow like wildfire. There are 3 bushes next to a shed at about 8 feet that he wants down to about 4.5. For some reason it did not occur to me to change the estimate. I will be calling him tomorrow to do so. I'm not sure it would be wise but I know I will be working at least 2 hours to get them done. I figure ill ask for 40.. still knowing that is low but also knowing he will be refering me to some neighbors. This guy has an immaculate lawn an he is choosing me over his Commercial mowing neighbor. He needs it cut on wed or thurday not Sunday when the other guy is done with al his commercial work. He wants people to drive by the weekend and see a fresh cut lawn not a forest.
He is a bit particluar about how to cut the front yard. Certain height about 4.5-5 inches. Also diagonal one week and perpendicular to the house the next week. He also is not ok with a riding lawn mower in the front but the back is ok. He is getting a bargain and I am getting an already immaculate lawn to advertise with.
It will be cut this week after the rain passes on wed or thursday. I know ill be spending extra time making it look just right and I think with him it will be worth it. He ued to work in the industry as well. I think I will pick his brain a bit while I work with him.
Friday night another call comes in. It's out by my moms in the same area as the 120 bid. I take a look at it the next morning and offer 50 for the initial cleanup and 35 a week. There is nothing special to do to his lawn. He says he would expect to pay more for the backyard the way it is and have it just left to rot but I assured him already that I bag up the waste. Now I am really getting a feel for it. I dont have my bid high enough but I am getting there! Once I get a rider I wont take but 30-45 minutes to knock it out. I took a tip from a friend that ran a copany before and suggested using week killer on the perimeter and against the back of the house. It cuts my labor and doesnt have to be done often. They accepted.
I called the customer that I quoted 120 to follow up on my way to the next job saturday morning. No answer so I left a message.
WEll this one took longer than expected. I did not notice the lawn had RUN OVER the front curb due to drainage. I had to dig it out witha hoe. It will be easy to maintain but took about 3 hours to get the whole job done. I did have to mow one strip then move just half a strip on the back yard. Took a while due to the length of grass. I might be spending 1-1.5 hours on it in the future.
Lessons learned. No blind estimates! EVER! My first two jobs were mostly cleanup. The weeds/grass were too long to make it look good but I think it will get corrected in the next 1-2 mowings.
RING! Ok so halfway through the cleanup for 50 I get a call from my estimate. Husband wants to meet and discuss. I told him what he would be getting. And I kept looking at the high roof thinking. Darn, I need to rent a ladder or walk the roof. It's a 7/12 so it wont be too bad. I'll rig up a hoe to clean it from the roof so I can keep my balance and just go up on the backside from the deck.
He accepted my proposal and we went on to discuss future work. 40 a week to cut. He has some plants to remoe from a flower bed later and wants to get some flowers in it. HEhano clue what to put int here but he will be using a BLUE yes thats right BLUE mulch. It's dyed. He will be doing that part himself but wants me to plan the flowers. HELP!!
Also, on my prior meeting with the wife, I noticed the kids and pointed out that once I remove the pine needles shewill jsut be working with dirt. She can seed or I can seed but it will bea mudbath for a bit. Turns out the have a birthday party they want to have in the backyard june 15th. The want me to seed it. I told them I need to price the seed first and figure out labor. I will be over seeding the front as well. He said he does not want deep green grass. Well, here in Va he is goign to need a sun and shade blend to get it to grow under the 6 pine trees. I start the work April 28th. Cutting will be a breeze since the back has nothing until the seed comes in. I need to forma quote fast since they want to grow grass in full in 6 weeks. Hopefully this can happen.
I think I underbid the gutters and maybe the cleanup. Right now I am just trying to get some revenue. I dont have a full schedule so jobs that take a while arent going to keep me from meetingmy obligations. This is a trial for me to get my pricing where it needs to be.
I think it has come around good so far. My response to flyers hs dropped to 1.8 % but gotten 4 weekly customers and 1 bi-weekly. I have put out just 357 flyers so far.
Ok wow. I know that was a bit long winded but I love to share my experiences. This forum has been incredible! We will be getting the gopher software within a month. Quickbooks will be the first program though. My wife is familiar with it. I see that you can import A/R to quickbooksfrom gppher so I sold her on thegopher software. I want to use it since it is designed for this!
Looking forward to a great year, sharing my experiences as I grow, and reading everyones tips and other experiences. I will upload our flyer and equipment pictures soon.
Aaron and Nicole