New Old Guy

Hi all first time on! Just moved from big market area to a rural setting. Have been in the industry for almost thirty years(I'm 47). I have always worked for someone else . Staarting from scratch this spring in unfamiliar territory. 10 miles to small town 30 miles to more saturated area. I'm planning on making this work and useing my 13 acres as a way to make money(landscape stock etc.) I have an old F150 with 300 gallon spray tank, 12 foot trailer , 52"hydro walk behind,32" belt drive, weed eaters,blower, nice olathe power seeder, etc. I have no cust.yet and don't want to spin my wheels the wrong direction . I have a little money left to start a marketing campaign but I have to have income by april 1st (first mowing date here)I have always worked part-time and used word of mouth to spread my business but this is a whole different situation ANY ADVICE !!!

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome to our forum! You must have a bunch of experience working those years with other companies. When you worked with them, did you ever do any marketing for them or what kinds of services did you work on?

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Originally Posted by Steve

Welcome to our forum!

You must have a bunch of experience working those years with other companies.

When you worked with them, did you ever do any marketing for them or what kinds of services did you work on?

3 years ran mowing crew
10 yrs. spray tech.
3 yrs landscape supervisor
10 years grounds maintenance for yum brands international

I did run a phone solicitation room for chemlawn once about 25 yrs ago but things were alot different then! I'm very good at talking to people one on one and I would consider my close rate on good leads to be very high. I'm getting ready to start the design process on my first 5000 fliers but I'm interested in doing research through your site that may make this venture more lucrative.
I am going to order your software because billing and paperwork has always been one of my hang-ups I've actually still got money owed to me from last falls seeding work that I haven't collected yet due to me dragging a** on billing! Thanks for your help

[Steve]

I did run a phone solicitation room for chemlawn once about 25 yrs ago but things were alot different then!

Oh this is fascinating! What did you think of this experience and it as a marketing tool?

How do you figure things have changed since then?

[arthur712]

Welcome to the forum!!

In the early 80's the lawn maintenance landscape as a business was booming! First of all you would be hard pressed to find any homeowner in just about any economic class that didn't dream of having there lawn sprayed with toxic chemicals . Weeds of any kind were definately out ! As far as mowing goes the ultimate status symbol was to have a Gas guzzling king cab duelly pull up in front of your house and have 5 uniformed & shaven workers get out and do a precision mowing job AND leave those stripes!
As far as marketing goes through the early 80s we ran a phone solicitation room with over 20 young enthusiastic people calling blue book pages off of an automated system . feb. ,Mar. and April our crew could close as many as 100 new customers per night. A good closer with a lot of knowledge could close 10 to 15 a day. These were spray customers at 20 to 25 dollars per app. for 5 apps per year. And this was just a start because then we would start selling those extra services! NOT like that anymore !!!
What to do now ! I have to change my thinking ! Old Dog

[Steve]

Well as you look at it now from your perspective, what has changed?

Do people want green lawns? Do they want stripes? Are they concerned with what kind of vehicle that pulls up front?

What about the marketing methods?

Why was tele-marketing so popular then by the larger companies? What has changed and what has replaced it in your view?