First Official Day of Conducting Business as Saber LawnCare

Originally Posted by Steve What advice would you have for others just getting started when it comes to being so successful at upsells like this? How should they go about doing it? I'm just being myself. They really sold themselves. After each quote i offered my business cards and explained the services on the card and they asked about each. I didn't really do anything but explain my services. So really, just be polite, smile, be friendly and explain other services you perform. Maybe i'll have better advice after a few more upsells.

Lawn care business tips

Today's leaf cleanup. Had somewhat of an emergency during this job and had to leave for a bit.

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Last edited by JeffK26; 12-07-2011 at 07:20 PM.

[Steve]

That's a great clean up job! How long did you estimate it would take you and then how long did it actually take?

Were there any surprises on the job?

It's been two years since i did lawn care with another company, and i never did the estimating, i just did the job so estimating leaf cleanup was pretty tricky for me...

This one hit me hard. I was low on my estimate..

The previous jobs i estimated accurately and after the job I ended up making 60 an hour minus expenses. This last job above, I ended up making 30 an hour minus expenses. It was an optical illusion when i bid it compared to when i cleaned it up....It was like the blower was blowing out leaves...by the time i got them in a pile i was thinking "how can there be this many leaves?" This was a Twilight Zone lawn...

I talked to my ex boss about this and he laughed and told me it happens...he's done the same....he has 25 years experience and once in awhile a lawn slaps him in the face with more leaves than he thought and a longer amount of time...his advice was...do it, whistle while you work and smile because you never know who is watching.

Experience doesn't mean you're always going to do things right, it only teaches you how to react when you are wrong.

[Steve]

Do you find there is a better way to bid these jobs that you are picking up as you go? Do you have to rake a little first to see how many leaves there are? Or maybe another method?

I may rake up a 5 ft square area to get an idea of volume and see how that goes.

What i have been doing is walking the property and kicking random areas to see how deep it is....

[Steve]

For those looking at these jobs and trying to come up with a bid for a yard comparable to these, how long did these previous jobs take to remove the leaves?