late start this past season, need help on adding customer next season.

[Von Bobbeh]

Find areas of town that are middle-high class and plaster them with flyers. Ignore middle and low class areas. Advertise being personable and secure with no wild crews just rushing the job. "you take your good time making their lawn perfect" people with money eat that kind of sh!t up. Make that flyer PRETTY, gloss finish full color professional style with your portrait. yes I know those are about $.50 a pop, but IT IS WORTH IT. They will pay you money relative to the respect and trust they have for you, not the size of your company. The last person you want to work for is someone who wants it cheap, because in the end they will want it so cheap, they wont pay you.

[aboveparlawnservices]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Von Bobbeh Find areas of town that are middle-high class and plaster them with flyers. Ignore middle and low class areas. Advertise being personable and secure with no wild crews just rushing the job. "you take your good time making their lawn perfect" people with money eat that kind of sh!t up. Make that flyer PRETTY, gloss finish full color professional style with your portrait. yes I know those are about $.50 a pop, but IT IS WORTH IT. They will pay you money relative to the respect and trust they have for you, not the size of your company. The last person you want to work for is someone who wants it cheap, because in the end they will want it so cheap, they wont pay you. Nailed it!

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Tricountylawn

This post will help no one, Best thing I ever did was forget what my competition is charging and started pricing MY services and knowing MY cost.

Your right and wrong. Your right because you need to know your cost. It doesnt matter if so and so does it for $40 because it might cost you $30 to do it.

Your wrong because if your using the right equipment your cost per lawn is only a few bucks. In a way the more customers you have the lower cost per yard. I have a few yards that I charge a min $30 for and I do them in 5 minutes. Sure I could lower my price I'm making over $300 a hour but why? When everyone is that is legit is going to charge $25-$40.

[bruces]

Originally Posted by Tricountylawn

This post will help no one, Best thing I ever did was forget what my competition is charging and started pricing MY services and knowing MY cost.

your right and sorta wrong .Knowing your costs is the only way to properly bid ,but its also good to know what your competition is charging because its possible your leaving some cash on the table .If everyone else is $600.00 ,and your calculations have you around $400.00 ,wouldnt it be nice to know you can tack on a few extra bucks and still get the job if price becomes a concern with your customer .

[Tricountylawn]

Suppose I assumed we all know our market bears. That said, I see prices for 15 to 50.00 for a small yard. I don't need to know what the 30 other company's are charging to know that Im not dropping that gate for less than 35.00.

And beyond that I am more expensive then a good amount of people I bid against so I suppose in some instances if I leave some money on the table I can still sleep at night (as I post this at 3am). haha.

[LawnBoy0311]

Originally Posted by Tricountylawn

This post will help no one, Best thing I ever did was forget what my competition is charging and started pricing MY services and knowing MY cost.

This is very true. But its always good to know what others are charging. This way you can compare to make sure your in line with what you should be.


For example: Because it's your first year, you wanted to look real bad ***. So you went out and bought everything top of the line. You also think that running all of your equipment with Mega Super Premium gas will make it last 10 years longer. You have your house payments and bills to make, and also your shop bills. You price out your costs and find out how much you have to charge as well as profit margins. You quote $65 on a lawn that your competition is charging for $45. Try convincing the customer why paying $20 extra a week with your service is a better deal. Or on the flip side....your friend is getting out of the business and gives you his equipment. It's not the best, but it gets the job done. You already have a truck to pull the trailer and your wife is still working her 100K a year job and can pay all the bills. You really have no overhead. You quote a customer $45 on a lawn while your competition is charging $65. Your walking away from extra profit every week!!


Know YOUR costs, but also know what they charge.

[nice2weedu]

Originally Posted by Steve

For what type of reasons if the work was turned down, would you keep their information and keep in contact with them and for which type of reasons wouldn't you?

Do you want a list? Or just the top ten? LOL. No really. Sometimes while working a job, a neighbor will ask for an estimate for work to be done. Then, before you can blink an eye, the neighbor is telling YOU, how much he will pay. And it's always so low that your actually paying them. But, I will give them a price for lawn service and I usually will get that. If I don't get either, Then I will send them a Holiday Card ( so they don't forget me). On the flip side of that. I have had to drop customers that were too far off the beating path, it didn't make financial sense to keep them on. I would find them a lawn service company closer to their area, However, by keeping the customers information, I was able to continue the lanscaping work for the same customer.

[Steve]

Make that flyer PRETTY, gloss finish full color professional style with your portrait. yes I know those are about $.50 a pop, but IT IS WORTH IT.

This is an above average way to go and it looks good. Do you suggest any special way to distribute the flyers that is above average too? Or will just sticking them in a door work fine?

Or just the top ten?

Is there a top ten? I bet you have had a lot of interesting experiences with all this.