New from Iowa

[QCLAWN]

Been doing snow plowing for 6 years and one of my customers asked if I would mow this summer. It was a commercial property and I looked it over and asked a lot of questions to the manager and he gave me a general idea of time to do property. So I went in a dropped my bid off and BAMMM, the manager said let's do it and signed the contract. Now this was not for one property it was for two commercial properties. Just like that I am 25K in the black and no mowers so off to the Toro store and haggled into two zero turns, one grandstand mower 48" deck and a last year model brand new 400 series, both come with warrenties.

Put an Ad in the paper on monday the 23rd and had a customer signed up for lawn care. just got my second call saturday and will meet with him monday to get a signed contract. One week of ads and two customers hope it keeps up, as the season gets warmer I will start getting more calls I pray.

I am working on door hangers as of tonight and hope to get them printed this week. Logo is done and we are off to mow some lawns this season.

This all started on a question and ended with a signed deal in the first two weeks of Feb, after a snow fall.

We will offer spring and fall cleanup and gutter cleaning as well.
I am pushing for 40 residentials this year and 80 next year. I am more aggressive than most guys around here doing it so I believe it is in my favor.

I liked the idea of posting hangers on the cloverleaf method of houses which I will be doing.

Wish me luck and I hope to get some help from some season veterans out here.

QC Lawncare

[Steve]

Welcome to our forum! WOW what a great story!

Been doing snow plowing for 6 years and one of my customers asked if I would mow this summer. It was a commercial property and I looked it over and asked a lot of questions to the manager and he gave me a general idea of time to do property. So I went in a dropped my bid off and BAMMM, the manager said let's do it and signed the contract.

A lot of our readers have a tough time getting into commercial property maintenance. Can you give us an idea of a break down of how many sq ft of lawn you had to mow on it and how many feet of grass to trim? What price range would you suggest others bid on such a property?

[QCLAWN]

If you are first trying to get into commercial property you really need to know someone. That would be good to get a job quickly. They tend to dislike their last lawnguy. If they like your snowplowing then it works out.

The first question I asked was how long did it take them to mow the property?

The answer was two days, I looked at this person and said how many people did you have working on it they said 4 but they were hired help (meaning Lazy)

This property should take 4 hrs to trim it all. so we will have two people doing that while the other two run the mowers. When that is done two will push mow certan small areas where ZTR can't reach.

The other two will blow off drives and sidewalks.

I set my price at 25 per hour. I went off their answer of two days so 24 hours was placed in bid.

Hope this helps.

QCLAWN

[picframer]

Just curious, is that 25 an hour per person or 25 an hour times 24? I only ask as that works out to be about $9.37 hour billed gross, four employees, two days.

[QCLAWN]

nope 25 per hour per man. basically 100.00 per hour

[Steve]

The first question I asked was how long did it take them to mow the property?

The answer was two days, I looked at this person and said how many people did you have working on it they said 4 but they were hired help (meaning Lazy)

That is really interesting! Have you found most commercial facilities will tell you how long the previous company took to do the job and how many people they had on the job?

[QCLAWN]

Steve,

Most people around here are honest and will tell you the price and man hours. They want job done right.

Ask the right questions in a nonthreating way and you will get most your answers. if they refuse to disclose then move onto another question, but always ask the question they didn't answer in another way and after they feel they feel comfortable with you.

I have not had anyone say no to any questions.

QCLawn