Small Company, How do you find the first "big" account?

[PlymouthRiverLandscaping]

Hello, I recently started a landscape company on the South Shore of MA. I bought 20 lawn mowing accounts off a friend who could not do it anymore. I am struggling on figuring out how to place bids on commercial properties. How do I get commercial accounts? Do I just walk in there? Place Phone calls? I have been subscribed to several landscape magazines and I know that finding a large account is crucial to success to a small business. I would greatly appreciate some tips or suggestions that may help me gain access to larger accounts. Thank you

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome to our forum. I bought 20 lawn mowing accounts off a friend who could not do it anymore. First off, it would be interesting to know why your friend decided to get out of the business and if the customer base he sold you had anything to do with that? I am struggling on figuring out how to place bids on commercial properties. How do I get commercial accounts? Do I just walk in there? Place Phone calls? I have a lot of articles on how to get commercial lawn care customers. I'd suggest going through and reading them because there is a ton of information on how to do this in there. I know that finding a large account is crucial to success to a small business. I don't know if that is the case actually. There are pros and cons to gaining commercial accounts. You might be better off early on, getting more higher paying residential accounts than commercial ones. They tend to pay quicker and potentially better per hour than the larger commercial clients. Does this help?

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[Dragger]

Originally Posted by PlymouthRiverLandscaping

Hello,

I know that finding a large account is crucial to success to a small business.

Thank you

Not Sure I would agree with that the problem with large accounts when your a small business is it hurts real bad in your bottom line if you loose it.

i commercial lot = $3000 a month
or
15 yards @200 =$3000 a month

if you loose the commercial job it hurts much more then if you loose 1 of your 15 yards

[strength]

for me big accounts are not as profitable as small accounts today i did 3 small clean ups made $350 after labor and fuel day before did one big clean up made $250 after expense's same gos for grass cutting i have 3 large lawns i cut 1 is 3.5 the other two 1.5 i make $220 after expense's in the same time i can cut 14 small lawns and make $375 after expense's but thats just me

[PlymouthRiverLandscaping]

thank you.

I have 35 accounts currently all residential. I would like to get into more commercial accounts so that I can get a couple big paychecks a year.

The link you posted was great steve!

[justin_time]

How I started commercial account is i started to look at school board tenders to do schools around (which it's funny because there's one across from where I live) and it all started from there.. I didn't start my contract with them until the 2 yr in business but I've been with that school board since and they have no problem hiring me for a long time. I suggest you go around and look in our area for local tenders and stuff like that. That's how i started. Now I have 6 local school to take care of, not bad for a 1 man crew + my regular customers

[Steve]

I suggest you go around and look in our area for local tenders and stuff like that.

Justin, for those just starting out, where do you suggest they look for that information? Should they walk into their local school or what's the best way to find this info out?