More Time On Jobsites

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Steve closed his thread but I wanted to say it is 100% clear to me that we need to stay on jobsites as long as possible and I have two very recent examples. Customer contacts me, wants some brush cleared and a small driveway put in for his camper, meet with the client, simple $1,200 job....we talk and walk around, oh look four large trees in the back leaning, I think yto myself there is another $800, so I ask, do those trees concern you that are about to fal and hopefully not on someone, he said yes, he tried to cut, then called a company but they wanted 1,500 and he thought it was too much, I said we would do it for $800 as our gear can go right into the area and chip the branches on the spot, time savings of probably two days, we get the job. So as I am grading the small driveway, neighbour said how much to regrade my driveway, I say $200.00 to grade and roll, long story short we picked up 8 jobs all on this street, don't have to move the gear at all. The job I mentioned where the delivery guy did damage, the initial job saw us on site over two weeks with a lot of gear, we picked up 5 more excavation jobs, another starting today, when it's all said and done it is almost $100,000 in work and we will never get it done this year. The private gated community is another example and I posted images, that got people talking, we now have total property care for four of these communities off the same street and another 9 from people right on the main road that are not from a community. There is far more profit staying put, transportation has always been an issue for me this summer but not anymore, there is enough work in this area to keep a good sized crew busy 6 days a week, I made arrangements with a homeowner to keep gear in his garage as he doesn't use it, in turn I will offer him free spraying, my cost is next to nothing and the security there is top drawer. Point being, people see you once or twice at a site they just notice you, when they see you there for a period of time they take notice and wonder what is going on, it pays and pays well, try to get jobs where you can really shine at what you de and stay there as long as the client has projects and money

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[Steve]

How to get lawn care customers - Vol 2

Andy, We have seen many different business viewpoints on here in the past. Some feel comfortable with point out issues on a property and offering to resolve them while others feel they don't want to be pushy and try to upsell any additional services. Some feel it is better to just do the job you have been asked to do, do it and leave. Do you feel this is something you had gone through in the past? Is there a process here of growing where at first you are not comfortable pointing out issues, but as you get more comfortable and confident in what you do, it comes easier? What advice do you have for the business owners who sit there and read this thinking it's too pushy to be suggesting these upsells?

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Originally Posted by Steve

Andy,

We have seen many different business viewpoints on here in the past. Some feel comfortable with point out issues on a property and offering to resolve them while others feel they don't want to be pushy and try to upsell any additional services. Some feel it is better to just do the job you have been asked to do, do it and leave.

Do you feel this is something you had gone through in the past? Is there a process here of growing where at first you are not comfortable pointing out issues, but as you get more comfortable and confident in what you do, it comes easier?

What advice do you have for the business owners who sit there and read this thinking it's too pushy to be suggesting these upsells?

A few ways to look at this, I do not hard ball sell, I can't stand anyone doing it to me and I won't do it to others.

I would bet 99% of the time the homeowner doesn't even realize we offer the service for something other than why they called me, I hear this all the time, Oh you do that??? I bid and almost always get it, to me I am offering a solution to a problem, not trying to sell and get my hands deeper in the project.

My sales approach is very....hard to explain, buddy like, I befriend the homeowner quick which makes them comfortable, suggest we do things in stages, most times they want it all, some agree do this then in xx weeks come back and do this next part, works every friggin time for me.

My opinion, if you are in this business to make money, then do it, look outside the box of simply mowing and trimming, there is a pile of cash to be made and a lot of people will be happy including you, I have been in business since mid April, I had to tweak this business and did, it cost a lot of capital to get where I am however nearly everything I have bought is now paid for and that is over 300,000, meeting the customers needs, set their expectations then exceed it. If a person is afraid to sell or approach a customer with an additional offering and they want to make money, take a course to get you there.

I have never been afraid to upsell, why would we be? All the homeowner can do is say thanks but no thanks, educate them on what it is you can do if they say no, good lord it's not the end of the world, even if they say maybe later as cash is tight, fine, at least they know and they will not forget, raise you bar a little higher and make the jump, you can do it.

Andy

[Steve]

I bet offering to do the job in stages allows you to build a rapport with the customer. They don't feel like they are committed to a high value contract if they are not liking the results.

They can basically call an end to the project at any time and maybe that control over the job, even if they don't exercise it, empowers them and makes them want you to fulfill their dreams of a perfect landscape.

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Originally Posted by Steve

I bet offering to do the job in stages allows you to build a rapport with the customer. They don't feel like they are committed to a high value contract if they are not liking the results.

They can basically call an end to the project at any time and maybe that control over the job, even if they don't exercise it, empowers them and makes them want you to fulfill their dreams of a perfect landscape.

I have two thoughts, first if it's a good sized project, doing it all at once is not good for anyone, if it's done in stages the client can change their mind along the way and add or take away things, it's good for us as I don't like a crew on a site more than a week, it's too much resources, there are always excaptions.

Also is finances, if I give you a quote to do what you just listed of say $20,000, you will have sticker shock, if I say Look Steve, how about we break this up into four projects and lets both see how things go, first part will cost you $5,000 and here is what it will include, when we are done lets talk about stage 2.

It works.....at least for us.

[Steve]

That makes sense.

I don't like a crew on a site more than a week

What is your view on why you don't like to have a crew on site for more than a week? Any thoughts as to why that time frame?

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Originally Posted by Steve

That makes sense.


What is your view on why you don't like to have a crew on site for more than a week? Any thoughts as to why that time frame?

It's a long time to be at one location, in my head for some reason I like to move after a week but we will not leave any site until the job is finished and the customer smiling....It's hard to schedule work when you have jobs that go on and on, we had maybe 8 this year where we were there two weeks or more, staff also tend to get bored with the same site so I will switch some of them out after four days leaving at least 2 on the site at all times that have been there at least two days, by then they know everything that is going on, sometimes however the client takes to a crew and doesn't want me to do this so I don't, that has happened at least three times.

I have four university staff that stay in contact with three clients we did big projects for, one is in a high position with government and wants them to come to work for the government (Taxation) as part of their University work terms they must do. One owns an engineering company, we have two students that are taking engineering and I forget what the other client does, she and her husband are super people.

[Steve]

Do you think this is another part of your business niche? That you shoot for jobs that you can judge to be week long?

It's quite fascinating. There are an unlimited amount of niches that exist out there. Some might feel, the larger the job, the better because I will be making more money, but there is a down side to it as you explained.

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Originally Posted by Steve

Do you think this is another part of your business niche? That you shoot for jobs that you can judge to be week long?

It's quite fascinating. There are an unlimited amount of niches that exist out there. Some might feel, the larger the job, the better because I will be making more money, but there is a down side to it as you explained.

I think it might be more of a comfort zone I like to work in, perhaps if I find the right people that will change next year, I hope to double in size and I am pretty sure that will happen, if so then we will take on more of the longer jobs.

Being our first year it was just too hard to juggle and I had far more on my plate than I could eat most of the year, things are winding down and I am having a lot of fun as everything is very managable.

It's been a stellar year for me and I look forward to having fun in 2010, will build on mistakes and profit on what has gone well as I will repeat it just on a bigger scale.

[Steve]

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It's been a stellar year for me and I look forward to having fun in 2010, will build on mistakes

When you reflect back on the year and think of the mistakes, what stands out in your mind? Do you have advice for all of us on the issues you had to deal with that were problems that you were able to overcome?

It seems the first year of business is the biggest killer and the issues you ran into could be issues others run into but can't figure out how to get around them.